Chapter One
“Alright everybody, drink up, last orders, I need my beauty sleep”
“Oh Alexie, you know as well as I do, that not even in-, insom-, what’s that word again babe?” purred a girl with chin-length blond hair, and a very low-cut top.
“Insomnia?”
“Yeah, that’s the one! Not even insomnia could drive away your beauty” the girl in question reached over from the bar stool she was drunkenly occupying, and stoked his cheek. Fortunately for Alex Benton, said girl unbalanced and toppled off of said barstool, before she had the chance to stick her tongue down his throat.
“Somebody get her up,” said vaguely to whoever cared to listen, “how many times do I have to tell you Rosie, I don’t bend that way!”
“I can make you though, yeah! I can turn you, that’s what we’ll do! Go on give it a try…” as another barmen lifted her under the arms, and dragged her feet out the main doors, “What is the meaning of this, hey, put me down, PUT M-“ the sound was cut off as the beefy looking barman re-entered after setting her down on the pavement. Alex waited for the handful of remaining patrons to filter out, and shut the heavy oak doors behind them.
“Thank Merlin! I wish she’d just move on and get over it,” he groaned, while stacking up a tower of glasses, and heading off through to what was presumably the back room.
“It’s your own bloody fault for being so damn beautiful,” he shouted through, but then paused thoughtfully, “Why do you do that by-the-way?”
“Aww and here’s me thinking all this time you were straight Dave!” he yelled back, voice sodden with sarcasm. ‘Shit I can’t believe I just did that, I’m such a mongol! Grrrrr’ he inwardly cursed him self, while making his way back to the main floor, knowing exactly what the latter part of his friend’s prose referred to.
“I am! And don’t you forget it! I’ve got enough on my plate without having to worry that you’re warm for my form, so to speak” Alex laughed heartily ‘thank the gods, he’s letting it slide, fuck that was close, better say something…’
“Don’t flatter yourself! I don’t know how that wife of your does it, if I had to wake up beside you every morning, I’d scratch out my own eyes!”
“Nice, Very nice. You didn’t answer my question though. Most people say Thank God, or Christ, or in my case, Fuck. What’s with the ‘Merlin’ business?”
SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT “I dinno, I guess I just picked it up somewhere………….”
It was at this point, that both the men seemed to notice that the bar had not in fact completely emptied, as they had assumed. Alex rolled his eyes up, and clasped his hands together; ‘Thank-you’ he mouthed, while Dave made his way over to a table in the corner.
“Sorry mate, we’re closin’ up now, you’ll have to face the missus sooner or later, right?” Dave chuckled at his own joke. It was well known that he and his wife were never more than two inches from throttling one another.
“That would be true, if I had a wife, fortunately for me, I don’t” came the slightly superior-sounding reply. The man, Alex noted, was of good build, around his age, maybe older, had long, straight, mahogany coloured hair, tied loosely off his face -though some stands had managed to escape, and deep brown eyes. Inwardly, Alex drooled; he also noticed that the man had made no attempt to leave.
Dave hadn’t seemed to observe this, he was far too eager to indulge in a spot of wife slighting. “Lucky you, Alex here’s filing for divorce tomorrow, we’re gonna celebrate with a bit of a night-cap, you fancy something?”
“Belle, Tennessee”, he said shortly, but his demeanour had changed: from indifference, to interest. “Pardon me for asking,” he turned to Alex, “but I got the impression, from your rather loud declaration to that drunken mess, that you weren’t the marrying kind, if you know what I mean.” He had in fact been listening to the two barmen’s entire conversation, but didn’t want to appear to be eavesdropping. Truth be told, it wasn’t the man’s homosexuality that intrigued him, it was the use of the name ‘Merlin’. Had he really just picked it up somewhere?
“He’s not, she’s a Russian hooker” called Dave, he was met with a firm glare as he turned back around to bring over their drinks. “Okay, okay, WAS a Russian hooker, he only married her to get her into the country, and away from the hell she was living in. I suppose it would be romantic if weren’t for the fact that they’re both gay”. He looked at his friend, who seemed appeased, now that his chastity and sexual preference had been reaffirmed to their new drinking buddy. He shot him a look that said ‘we like him do we?’ under the table, Alex kicked him, but smiled.
“Well, how very noble of you, you’d never get me to do it, but still… The name’s Lynott, you can call me Dashel”
“I’m Alex Benton, this is Dave, my long-term-drinking buddy and comrade, very handy when running a pub, everyone’s too scared of him to start anything, so things stay relatively free from police activity, a miracle considering the location…” It was Dave’s turn to kick him, thinking it best to cut off the nervous ramblings erupting from his friend’s mouth. Dashel smiled good-heartedly at this exchange, he wondered what it was like to have people watching his back for him like that, any friends he’d ever had would happily turn around and stab him in the back, for a big enough pay-off of course.
Alex looked at his watch, it pained him, but he really couldn’t afford to stay much longer. Intrigued though he was by this ‘Dashel’, he had to get home. ‘What should I do?’ He thought despairingly, ‘It’d be far too forward to exchange numbers now, I’ve only known him five minutes, LITERALY! I don’t even know if he’s gay…’ Sighing, he rose from the table, and grabbed his jacket from the chair next to him.
“I’ve gotta get off, maybe I’ll see you around some time Dashel?”
“I’d say that was a fair assumption, I’ll walk you to your car.” It wasn’t a request, more like a statement. ‘I think I like that, I’m far too used to being the one in the driving seat, no pun intended.’
“Oh I just live ‘round the corner, there’s no point in me taking the car, I walk instead”
“Just so long as you don’t skip,” Dashel retorted, as he too made to leave the establishment. Noting the confused look on his new acquaintance’s face, he added, “Like I said, I’ll walk you, we don’t want you wandering the streets at this time of night now, do we?” He wanted to get to the bottom of this ‘Merlin’ thing, though he didn’t know why it bothered him, he had left that world a long time ago.
The two bid their goodbyes to Dave, who assured them that he didn’t mind locking up by himself. Secretly, he knew that from the way the two had been eyeing each other up, if he tried to detain them any longer, they’d probably end up shagging in the stock cupboard. Besides, if his friend kept his babysitter waiting any longer she’d throw a fit…
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