June, Reimagined (19)
June was impressed. Her own creativity amounted to changing her eyeshadow from Creamy Beige to Tough as Taupe.
“What makes stories interesting isn’t what you see on the surface,” Eva explained. “It’s all about what characters are desperate to hide. Then they have something to lose.”
“And here I thought people liked stories for the happy endings.”
“And filthy sex scenes,” Eva added.
David set a tray of fresh drinks on the table and took the seat next to Eva. Amelia sat next to June.
Eva took a fresh pint and sipped foam from the top. “June and I were just collecting characters.”
“Oh, I love this game,” David said. “Who’s next?”
Eva pointed to a young woman at the bar, probably in her early twenties, well put together, wearing slightly too much makeup for a Thursday night at the pub. Her drink of choice—a glass of white wine.
David offered his interpretation first. “She’s waiting for a blind date. They met in a Lord of the Rings chat room. Her handle: ‘Drinking Is a Nasty Hobbit of Mine.’ His: ‘Now That’s What I’m Tolkien About.’”
“You’ve been in a Lord of the Rings chat room, haven’t you?” Amelia said.
David shrugged. “In my early AOL days.”
Eva laughed. “What was your handle?”
“Pippin Ain’t Easy.”
After the laughing died down, Amelia offered her story. “Heiress to a billionaire whose sex tape with Robbie Williams leaked on the internet and landed her a starring role on a new reality dating TV show set in Scotland, called Kilt by Love. Working title, of course. But secretly she’s in love with her best friend, Dahlia, from boarding school.”
“Unrequited love,” David said. “Always a good option.”
Eva tapped her pen on the side of the table. “I think she’s an Amish girl in Rumspringa. This is the first time she’s ever worn makeup, and she’s not sure if she did it right. She wants to snog a boy for the first time tonight. Tomorrow she’ll wake up hungover, and miss the smell of hay and freshly baked bread, and the feel of her mom’s hands on her scalp as she braids her hair. And she’ll wonder what freedom really means.”
David threw a coaster at Eva. “Unfair advantage. You’re a writer.”
“Now I feel bad for the lass,” Amelia added. “Should we invite her to sit with us?”
“Nah. She’s clearly number fifty-four,” June said, thoroughly confusing everyone. “Angus told me yesterday he’s shagged fifty-three girls. She’s number fifty-four.”
David nearly choked on his beer. “Bloody brilliant,” he said. “And highly likely.”
“Now I don’t feel bad for her at all,” Amelia quipped.
Not two minutes later, Angus walked into the pub, followed closely by Lennox. Together they looked almost ridiculous, both oversize and tattooed, like two men pulled from paperback romance novels.
“I’ll be damned,” Amelia whispered as she stood. “I can’t believe you’re here, Brother. You haven’t been to the pub in—”
Lennox cut her off. “I know how long it’s been. You don’t have to remind me.” He shrugged out of his jacket, shaking rain from his hair, and his gaze briefly fell on June. “Nice to see you’re alive, Peanut.”
“I wish I could say the same to you.” June took a long gulp of her beer and angled herself away from Lennox. His clean scent of cedar and mint infiltrated her mind. She hated how well she was coming to know it, but his blasted blanket had been the warmest item she had in the chilly inn, and she had needed to wrap herself in it, her nose pressed to the fabric.
“Sorry we’re late,” Angus said, pulling a chair from a table, spinning it backward, and seating himself next to Amelia. “We had some important business to attend to.”
“Getting your eyebrows waxed again?” David said.
Angus grabbed the pint from David’s hand and drank half of it in one gulp. “I’m surprised to see you out. Don’t you usually masturbate to The X-Files on Thursdays?”
Lennox sat opposite June, wedged between Eva and Angus. When David offered Lennox a pint, he declined. “I’m driving.”
“Of course,” June said, under her breath, she thought, but in her inebriated state, it came out much louder.
Lennox leaned forward, his elbows on the table. “What’s that supposed to mean, Peanut?”
“I’m just not surprised,” June mumbled. “God forbid you have a drink and loosen up.”
“You think I need to loosen up?” he asked.
“Wouldn’t hurt. I promise you’ll feel so much better once you take the stick out of your ass.”
Eva and Amelia gasped.
“Really?” Lennox queried.
“Really,” June said. “You might actually be fun.”
“Fun like risking anaphylaxis, hypothermia, and alcohol poisoning all in one week?”
“Whatever.” June took a swig of her beer. “At least I’m not a control freak.”
“Would you mind speaking a little louder,” Lennox chided, “so I can hear you when you insult me?”
June was ablaze. “I just said that you’re a control freak. That’s all.”