The Bow Wow Club by Nicola May Page A

beach way below the castle.
    ‘I’ve known you for less than two months, Michael.’
    ‘And I’ve known from the minute I met you that you are very special, Ruby. I can’t help the way I feel.’
    ‘You should have waited. It’s too soon.’
    ‘Not for me it’s not. I say it how it is - and how it is, is that I love you. I bloody love you.’
    ‘You don’t even know me.’
    ‘But I know how I feel.’
    ***
    ‘Tits, wanker, bollocks.’ Jimmy pushed the door open, roughly jolting Ruby back to reality and away from her thoughts of the dreadful long journey back from Devon in total silence.
    ‘Hello, Jimmy. How are you tonight?’
    ‘Oh you know, all right. Still waiting for Mrs Right. Sick of cooking burgers as I can’t find a proper job.’
    ‘I didn’t know you were looking. Milky coffee with sugar?’
    ‘Oh go on then, spoil me, Ruby, and yes - I’ve been looking for months. I’ve got a finance degree and I worked in Accounts for years, but when Jenny died at just thirty-two, I went to pieces.
    ‘It takes quite a woman to cope with a man with this awful syndrome, you know,’ Jimmy went on. ‘My self-confidence is at an all-time low at the moment.’ His whole body jerked. ‘When I have happy moments I don’t even tic. I really do think if I can get my life on track again and find a decent job and a woman who will take me on warts and all, this damn syndrome won’t be half as bad.’
    Ruby made a vow to herself there and then that in ten years she would have made the effort at least to have moved on from her current state of mind. Imagine still grieving after all that time. Poor Jimmy.
    Now that he had her attention, he wouldn’t stop.
    ‘I get the interviews no problem and then they see me and hear me and that’s it.’
    Ruby stepped back slightly as she got a stench of the bad breath Simon had warned her about. She for once thought carefully before she spoke. ‘Maybe you should smarten yourself up a bit before the interviews. You know - have a shave, iron your shirt nicely.’
    ‘That’s exactly what my Jenny would have said.’
    ‘See? You can do it, Jimmy.’
    ‘Can I?’
    ‘Yes, you can.’ Ruby put her hand gently on this arm.
    ‘Will you help me, please?’
    The Fireman crashed through the door with Ellie. They were laughing together loudly.
    ‘We share the jokes in here!’ Simon shouted from his desk, then whispered to Ruby: ‘Miserable fucking bastards usually.’
    Cali sauntered in with a yapping Fanny.
    ‘AITCHOO! That bloody dog!’
    ‘Bless you,’ the group resounded.
    ‘Right, grab your drinks you horrible lot, let’s Bow Wow.’ Simon slurped from his vodka mug. ‘Tonight the topic, my little lost lovers, is…’ He paused and looked at Ruby, who was clearing up in the kitchen.
    ‘After bereavement, how soon is too soon to fall in love again?’
    The mug that Ruby was drying slipped from her fingers and smashed to the floor.

– Chapter Thirty-Two –
    ‘A fecking box of chocolates and a dozen red roses. That was it. Rubes - that was it ! No proposal of any sort. In fact, he fell asleep on me before we even got at it. I’d bought a whip and some body paint as well. Fecking bastard.’
    ‘Blimey, Fi. Haven’t heard you this angry for a while. Calm down. Let me get us another drink and we can talk about it.’
    Fi took a massive slurp of her wine. The football was on so it was a busy Saturday afternoon in O’Neill’s Irish bar, but thankfully they had got in early enough to get a seat.
    ‘What’s the matter with him, Rubes? You know James as well as me; being a lawyer he is pragmatic and steady, but we’ve been together five years now and he knows how much I want to settle down.’
    ‘Hmm - and he usually does like his sex as much as you, so it was strange he fell asleep on you.’
    ‘Do you think he’s having an affair?’
    ‘I can categorically say no on that front. Whatever we say about James, he has been straight up about everything. I remember when