The House Mate by Nina Manning

Author:Nina Manning [Manning, Nina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2020-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

I hit the send button before I could change my mind. It was the alcohol; I certainly wouldn’t have made a statement like that to someone I didn’t know without it. Somehow, with the swell of the alcohol inside me I felt I had the right to comment. Now I was as bad as the rest of them. I felt a wave of shame and regret wash over me as I placed my phone down. Calvin appeared next to me with another vodka and tonic and lime.

‘Thanks, you’ll have to let me get the next ones,’ I said.

‘Everything all right?’ He gestured to my phone.

I looked down at my mobile on the table and then quickly picked it up and shoved it in my handbag.

‘Oh, yes, yes, it’s fine, I was, I just had to do something.’

‘You’re not “needed”?’ he said and used his fingers as quotation marks.

I looked down at my bag and then at him. ‘Oh, you mean… Oh right, I get it, God no. I’m a terrible liar – if someone was on the other end pretending to have an emergency, I’m not sure I could keep a straight face.’

Calvin smiled, sat down and took a sip of his Guinness.

‘Besides, you should think a little more of yourself. That’s twice now you’ve presumed I’m doing a runner and we’re only on our second drink. Has that, you know, ever happened before?’

Calvin cleared his throat and looked down at his pint.

‘Once,’ he said coyly.

‘Oh no!’ I said, trying to suppress the laughter. ‘What happened?’

‘Exactly that, her phone rang just after she came back from the loo and she started this over the top dialogue, all “Oh my God, are you okay?” and then said she had to go as her friend had just had a car accident. I mean, it was a bit dramatic.’

‘So how did you know that she was lying?’

‘Apart from the amateur performance? Well, when I went outside for a fag – that was when I smoked; I gave up two years ago – I saw her, on the other side of the road, laughing into her phone and clearly in no rush to get to a phantom car crash.’

I stretched my mouth out. ‘My God, that’s terrible. Sorry. Your ego must have been severely damaged.’

‘That was the hardest part to recover from, I must admit. But still, life goes on and here I am. Having a drink with you – two drinks so far – and you haven’t tried to leg it.’

‘Not yet. But if you switch to drinking Cinzano and lemonade and try to drag me to a karaoke bar, I may make a swift exit.’

Calvin laughed. ‘No chance of that.’

We carried on drinking and laughing, and by about midnight I was well and truly hammered. Although I hadn’t realised it until I tried to stand, and Calvin had to reach his hand out to stop me from falling.

We made it outside and I leant against the wall to catch my breath.

‘Oh sorry, you must… think… me… such… a lie way…’

Calvin leaned against the wall next to me.

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