11. Luke

When Luke walked into the Old Boot, everyone else was already there.

Tash and Mitch were sitting at the booth he had come to think of as theirs. Edo was behind the bar, serving, and Lucas and Donna had clearly just arrived as they were at the bar, stabbing at a menu to prove a point.

Edo waved at him, made that gesture with his hand that meant a drink was on its way, so Luke went straight to the booth.

Mitch nodded as he sat down.

Tash sighed, staring out the window, head leaning on her hand.

Mitch snickered, “Love has come. Hook, line and sunk her.”

“That was awful,” said Tash, barely even flicking her gaze over her shoulder at her best friend, “A poor attempt at humour.”

Mitch shrugged at her, “Humorous or not, it’s true.”
“Yeah,” she sighed again, “I guess it is.”

Luke had met Mitch and Tash in his second year at university, in the middle of a booze-soaked night out with the LGBT crowd. The society had been all about hooking up and dancing, of which Luke enjoyed the first half and the first half only, since he had managed to somehow (don’t ask how, because he still had no clue) score a boyfriend in the second semester of first year.

Luke had admittedly been slightly tipsy at the time, happily snogging the living daylights out of his then-boyfriend, when someone stupidly tall had stumbled out of the Union Bar, ridiculously hammered, blind drunk, and tripped over them into their laps.
He had apologised in a surprisingly sober-sounding voice, but had not moved.

Luke and the boyfriend had looked at each other for a little while, stunned, and had been about to push him off and move when this tiny familiar-looking girl had stumbled on the same step the guy had, cursing, wearing heels that seemed to be almost taller than her.

“Shit. Mitch? Mitch!”

The guy in their laps, Mitch apparently, had murmured, “Tash, I think I've reached nirvana,” but hadn't moved from on top of them.

She had walked over to them, astonishing them with her coordination on heels that high, and attempted to pull him up, then hit him when he wouldn’t cooperate.

“Gentlemen,” she had said, flashing them a smile that revealed just how sozzled she was herself, “Give a lady a hand, would you?”

She had then managed to persuade them to pick Mitch up (“I'm flying, Tash, I'm flying!”) and take him back to their student flat. She had also then – well, 'conned them' was a tad strong, really, but it was the right sentiment – collected their phone numbers. A few days later she had called, telling them Mitch was prepared to buy them both a drink in thanks for the safe passage home.
Luke and Tash had then figured out that they knew each other from the society LGBT meetings, where they had nodded at each other, but never spoken. They had all gotten along well and were still very good friends, even if the then-boyfriend was gone. He had graduated and moved to South America and they had broken up on fairly amicable terms, although they hadn’t kept in touch.

Tash looked up when Lucas and Donna sat down at the table.

Donna barely even glanced at her before demanding an explanation, “Ok, what happened?”

Mitch gave a dramatic sigh, “Tash is in lurve.”

Tash, it seemed, had still not grown out of hitting him when she felt it necessary.

When Luke got a call from Tash one weekday evening a couple of days before the holidays, he didn’t think anything of it.

“Mitch is being boring.” She explained.

“Yeah,” he said, “Sure, come round. We can go out for drinks or something.”

She showed up in full going out gear, short dress, hair done up, night-out makeup.

“Err, Tash?”

“Eva.” Was the reply.

“What about her?”

“She is my Sapphic love interest!” Tash exclaimed, a hand on either side of Luke's face, “You have to help me get a date. One date is all I need, then I can show her how amazing I am and how amazingly well we would work together and please Luke!”

Which is how Luke found himself in the Epiphany on a work night, despite an early meeting the next day.

It's very difficult to say no to Tash.

Which was his defence when Edo raised an eyebrow at him and led him into the back to explain himself. After all, Nick was in Italy.

“For Tash. Really?”

“She said Eva is perfect for her, but she didn't want to come on her own and Mitch had something else to do. Tash said he was being boring, so he’s probably working.”

“So here you are. Does Nick know?”

“Yeah, I texted him. He told me Eva didn’t know how to contact Tash.”

“Does Eva know Tash is here?”

“I don't think so, not yet, but Tash will eventually gather up the courage to order a drink off her.”

Edo laughed, “Ah, that’s my girl. All go until the gas runs out.”

“Does Eva like her?”

He shrugged, “Man, who knows what the hell goes through Eva’s mind? Nick or Bo might be able to tell you, but she won’t talk to me about it.”

Luke glanced at the door that lead back out to the club, “Do we need to warn her?”

“I think she'll be ok.”

Edo swaggered, because that seemed to be the default gait Edo had, back over to the door, “Come on, chaval, let us see what’s going on?”

Luke spent most of the night with Edo, watching carefully as Eva and Tash flirted with each other from opposite sides of the bar, both knowing how their friends’ last relationships had died. For the record, Tash’s last relationship? It died a fiery death, spitting fire and brimstone and curses and hate. Tash ended up on Mitch’s sofa for a week, mostly hiding from her ex as said bitch sold their flat, before he gave up trying to get more than sobs out of her and handed her a key, telling her the spare room was hers and the bills were due on the 2^nd of every month. She had never moved out. That was three years ago.

She wanted a girlfriend, Luke knew that. She threw herself headfirst into finding someone to love her, Luke believed she deserved somebody amazing, and had repeatedly failed to find someone suitable.

“Hey, Edo,” he asked, passing his empty glass over to the barman, “Is Tash going to get her heart broken?”

Edo shrugged, glancing over to where the girls were giggling at each other, “I don’t know. Eva doesn’t  throw herself in lightly, but when she does? She gives her all.”

“It could be an explosive breakup.”

Edo handed him a full glass. If Luke didn’t know any better, he would say Edo was trying to get him drunk.

“Or they could be forever.”

Luke stared, “Well, that kind of sappiness is new? What the hell have you been smoking?”

“I didn’t say I approved,” snarked Edo, “Just that is seems to be happening with alarming frequency these days.”

Luke took a sip of his drink, “If you mean me and Nick, then every 6 months is not frequent.”

“Nick and I,” Edo corrected absently, pouring out a double rum and lemonade, “And it’s more frequent than previously.”

“Next thing you know you’ll be part of a couple yourself.”

Edo snorted, “Ha! Never. Why would I take something like me away from the population at large? It would be the singles’ crowd greatest loss since Hugh Hefner got engaged.”

There was nothing Luke could say to that, really.