Together Apart (5 page)

Ruth sent round an invite at work for drinks for my birthday next week. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I don’t celebrate it. I really do hate this time of year. God, I can’t deal with all of this right now.

6.

T
he door to Carl’s flat swung open to reveal Nick’s wide grin.

‘Go on: get that down your neck.’ He held out a shot glass, and Adam raised his eyebrows at the green liquid. It wasn’t the usual greeting he’d get when he called round at Carl’s, but sod it. If he was going to get messy, he might as well do it properly. He took the glass, necked his shot and shuddered.

‘Good lad.’ Nick laughed before grabbing Adam’s hand and pulling him into a man hug, slapping him on the back.

‘Good to see you, mate,’ Adam said, trying not to gag at the aftertaste of the absinthe. It was a foul drink, but an obvious favourite to get the night started. He’d picked up a bottle of Jägermeister on the way over – they could keep the green fairy for themselves. As Matt and Jenny got the same treatment behind him, he wandered into the kitchen, where Carl was busy cracking open a can of lager. Music pounded from the speakers, filling the air around them with deep, frenetic bass lines.

‘Alright, mate,’ Carl said, offering Adam a can.

Adam reached for the bottle of Jack Daniel’s. ‘I’m good, but I’m not on the beer tonight. I’m going to get messy.’

‘Did you bring the Jäger?’

‘Yep,’ Adam replied, putting the bottle down on the side. He nodded towards the group of guys in the living room. ‘Who are these lot?’

‘Nick’s mates. Some army, some not,’ Carl replied, looking over Adam’s shoulder. ‘Wakey, Tubs, Ryan, Jonesy and Dave. I don’t know the others – forgot their names. We’re just waiting on a couple more, I think.’

‘Pour me a JD, Ad,’ Jenny said as she joined them with Matt and Nick.

‘I thought this was meant to be a boys’ night,’ Nick said.

Adam nodded. ‘It is. Jen’s one of the boys – you know that.’

She never missed a night out, and in her loose vest, skin-tight jeans and high heels, she stood out in the testosterone-filled flat like a lighthouse in the dead of night.

Jenny gave a lopsided smile. ‘I’m a special case.’

‘Never hurts to have some eye candy, I suppose.’ Nick grinned.

‘Clearly being at war hasn’t knocked the chauvinist out of you yet.’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re about as smooth as a badger’s arse.’

Nick winked. ‘You know you love it.’

‘In your dreams, G.I. Joe.’ She shook her head, but the grin nearly leapt off her face. Despite the way they bickered, it was no secret to any of them that she’d harboured a crush on Nick since they were teenagers.

Matt handed Nick a can of lager. ‘So, how’ve you been?’

‘Not too bad, you know.’ Nick shrugged.

When Nick enlisted for service at eighteen, Adam had been filled with intrigue. He didn’t know anyone in the army, and having grown up watching films like
Apocalypse Now
and
Full Metal Jacket
, it had sounded adventurous. So much so that he even thought about joining himself, until Nick was sent to Kosovo. Adam had nothing but admiration and respect for Nick, but he quickly realised that he preferred the safety of being a soldier on his Xbox instead of the real thing. Nick had changed, and it seemed to get more and more pronounced every time he came home. Carl and Nick had always looked alike. There were three years between them, but they were roughly the same height, same build and had the same shade of almost black hair. These days, Nick sported a typical military short-back-and-sides haircut, and his arms were covered in tattoos, but it was the air he carried about him that set him apart. Adam didn’t like to think about what he must have seen.

‘So, what’s the plan? Where are we going?’ Adam asked, keen to get moving before everyone got too comfortable or drunk
to leave.

Nick looked at his watch. ‘We were waiting for Iain to get here, but that tosser’s always late. We might as well get cracking. Line up some shots, Carl.’

Carl put glasses on the side and poured out shots while Nick gathered his mates in the kitchen. It was bigger than average, but with twelve of them crammed in, it felt decidedly small.

Nick rubbed his hands together. ‘Right lads, on me. Take
a knee.’

Adam looked at Carl with a frown. ‘Take a what?’

‘Take a knee. It means gather round. Listen up,’ Carl explained and they all took their shots.

‘Christ knows where Iain is, so we’re going to head off,’ Nick said and wiped the back of his mouth with his hand. ‘I thought we’d head into Camden first, hit a few bars and see what’s going on before going into town.’

Adam shrugged. ‘Sounds good to me.’

‘Right, lads. Let’s finish up these drinks, grab your cock armour and move out,’ Nick said before draining his can of lager.

Adam turned to Carl. ‘Cock armour? Move out? What’s with all the bossiness and military lingo?’

‘That’s just Nick.’ Carl shrugged as they made their way out of the kitchen. ‘And he knows Jen loves it. Tosser.’

Adam laughed as they left the flat and set off towards the Tube station. Tonight was going to be a good one.

‘This is so going on Facebook.’ Jenny showed him the picture of Carl’s post-tequila-shot face.

‘You’re terrible.’ Adam laughed and shook his head. Jenny was lethal with a camera.

‘Ah, he’ll get over it.’ She grinned and put her phone away. ‘What about her? She’s been eyeing you up since we got here.’ She pointed to a blonde girl in a booth by the bar.

He glanced over at her before shaking his head. ‘Nah, she lo
oks shy.’

He’d had a year of shyness, and it was more than enough. He wasn’t used to shy girls, and he wasn’t even sure he liked it. He’d tried it with Sarah and mistaken her shyness to mean she was down to earth and straightforward. How wrong had he been? He definitely wasn’t about to make that mistake twice. Tonight, he wanted the complete opposite of shy.

‘You can’t just disregard girls for looking shy. Have you never heard the saying “A quiet lady on the street is a freak in the
bedroom
”? “Still waters run deep” and all that.’

‘You’re insane, do you know that?’

‘I’m just trying to get you back to the Adam we all know and love, that’s all. You’ve been acting like such a girl lately, with all your moping about, that your dick’s probably shrivelled up altogether.’

‘I’m sure saying something like that goes against wing-woman code. What about you, anyway? When are we going to lose you to a successful lawyer type? That’s what you city girls go for, isn’t it?’

There was no denying Jenny was a good catch. She had a great sense of humour, she was gorgeous and she was quickly working her way up the forensic accountancy ladder. He’d fancied her a bit when they’d first met, but she’d never shown anything more than
platonic
interest in him, which was just as well. Sparing their
friendship
the complications of having slept together was what made their connection so tight. It was the same with Matt and Carl too. If any of them had slept with Jenny, the dynamic simply wouldn’t be t
he same.

‘I’m not a typical city girl; you should know that by n
ow. Beside
s, smarmy lawyer types aren’t my style. You should know that too. You’re a crap friend sometimes.’

‘Only sometimes?’ Adam grinned. ‘What’s the deal with you and Nick? You’ve been stuck to each other like glue all night.’

‘I dunno.’ Jenny shrugged. ‘Nothing, I guess. I mean, he’s Carl’s brother. It’s just asking for trouble.’

‘Fair enough.’ He caught the barman’s eye and ordered two more shots of sambuca.

A smile slowly spread across Jenny’s face as the DJ mixed in the next song. ‘Wow, this song reminds me of—’

‘Kavos?’ Adam thought back to their first mates-only holiday and grinned. ‘I know.’

‘God, can you believe that was eleven years ago already?’

He remembered it like it was last week. Well, some of it, anyway. Their flight had landed at two in the morning, and they’d dumped their suitcases in the hotel before heading straight out. The freedom of being eighteen and on holiday without parents for t
he fir
st time was electric. They’d got completely hammered, and Matt ended up having to carry an obliterated Jenny back to the hotel. It was a crazy start to one of the best weeks of his life.

‘Remember the guy who worked in that bar? What was his name again?’ He paid for the shots and handed one to Jenny.

Jenny frowned. ‘Which guy?’

‘You know – the one with the moustache and the gapped teeth.’ They downed their shots, and he shook his head, grimacing. Why did he order sambuca? He didn’t even like it.

‘Ah.’ Jenny licked her thumb. ‘Christos.’

‘That’s right, Christos. He was a total legend. Those
cocktails
. . .’ He pictured the blend of eight different spirits that Christos had served them in tall glasses with mini cocktail umbrellas. That was the night Jenny had got sick.

‘Yeah.’ Jenny pulled a face. ‘
Those
cocktails. Ugh.’

‘I’m surprised you can even remember his name, you were
so pissed.’

‘How could I ever forget, with that moustache?’

‘It was an epic ’tache, though; I’ll give him that.’ He looked at Jenny smiling at him. ‘What?’

She shook her head. ‘Nothing. It’s just nice to see you smiling again, that’s all.’

‘Yeah, well. It’s been a good night, so far.’

And it had. Now, all he needed to do was pull, and it would be mission complete.

A trail of lilies etched along Tamsin’s spine moved as she danced. Adam had approached her at the bar, and compared to the other women in their short dresses and high heels, she’d looked understatedly sexy in a backless top and skinny jeans. Since then, he’d thought of little else than tracing his finger along the lilies curling their way down from the nape of her neck to the waistband of
her jeans.

She was a phenomenal dancer. She really seemed to feel the music, moving her body in a way that filled his head with images of what he hoped would be on the cards later. He put his hands on her hips, and she backed into him, reaching her arms over her head to weave her fingers through his hair as the bass reverberated in the humid air around them. With the dance classics the DJ was churning out and the sweaty bodies thrashing on the dance floor, he almost felt like he was back in Ibiza. He’d worked a season there after university and nearly every night was full of debauchery – booze, girls and drugs. It felt like yesterday.

As Tamsin swayed her hips, he kissed the side of her neck, slipped his hands under the soft material of her top and ran his hands up her sides, letting his thumbs brush the sides of her breasts. It was time to go.

He put his lips to her ear. ‘Where do you live?’

‘Croydon. You?’

‘Finchley.’

She turned around, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. ‘So, let’s go back to yours.’

He was about to nod until the image of Sarah popped up in his head. He blinked it away. ‘Can’t. My sister’s staying with me.’

Did he really just refer to Sarah as his sister? Christ, that was a bit low. But then, he didn’t really want to say he was living with his ex-girlfriend. Talk about complicated.

‘My place it is, then,’ Tamsin replied.