Nocturnal Activities - Page 2

‘You don’t usually stay for a drink,’ Cath said as she took a gulp of her beer and bent over to retrieve something from her bag. Cath, a tiny, plump woman, had a face that lit up like a beacon when she talked.

Jeremy never knew how to respond to comments like this. You don’t normally stay for a drink. It was the way she phrased it, sort of like a question, but not. Almost an indictment but without any inflection. The way Cath flapped her arms when saying things, which wobbled her whole body, he found sexy, but it also made him feel uncomfortable.

Whatever it meant, it made him keel. Maybe that’s what it was: something to get him cooking up.

All the after-work crew were there. Cath and Abigail sat side by side at the far end of the table.

None of the chefs ever stuck around. Jeremy never knew why.

At the other end were the three bar staff: Reahan, Campbell and Jessica. They always stayed back for drinks. Jeremy wondered about this too.

‘I like it when he comes for a drink,’ Abigail said. ‘I invited him.’

‘Of course you did,’ Cath laughed.

Abigail held her beer like she might sip at it but placed it back on the table and turned sharply to face her friend. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

It was as if Jeremy wasn’t even there.

‘That you love the dishies.’

‘So what if I do? They’ve got a hard job, and all our dishies are sooooo nice.’

According to Abigail, Jeremy exemplified ‘sweet’ or ‘adorable’. But she wasn’t attracted to him. She’d told him that, that night she visited his house.

He’d been cooking pasta when she’d knocked on his door—God only knew how she got his address. He invited her in. They laughed but he couldn’t remember about what. Maybe only he’d been laughing. He couldn’t remember that now either. He wished he could. He'd been enjoying himself, he was sure. That’s when she said it. ‘I don’t think you should get the wrong idea, because I’m not attracted to you.’

He hadn’t been thinking anything to do with that. ‘Okay,’ he replied.

Afterward he tried to act normal. It wasn’t that he’d gotten upset. That she’d said it in the first place. That she thought he’d been thinking it. The more he’d reflected on this and the longer she sat there like what she said wasn’t supremely awkward, the more he’d wanted to conjure some universe-sized cavity of putridity to insert himself headfirst.

Cath pulled Abigail in for a quiet conference. The bar staff laughed about something at the other end of the table.

Jeremy tried hard to stare ahead, even though he was within earshot of Cath and Abigail’s conversation. Eavesdropping would be tantamount to seeming interested, wouldn’t it? Should he get up and walk away?

Cath deepened her huddle with Abigal, their whisperings intensifying.

‘No!!!’ Abigail howled, like she’d just been asked the most hideous question in the world. Her face beamed bright red.

The two of them erupted into laughter.