Crying in the Rain (Hiding Behind The Couch Character and Festive Episodes)

27 New

Ade

“H i , S haunna .”

“Hi, George. How are you?”

“I’m…” George grinned. “Great.”

“I bet!” Shaunna laughed and gave him a hug. “George. This is Ade. He and Kris are together.”

“Oh, OK.” George smiled at Ade, who was still processing ‘are together’ but managed to smile back. “It’s good to meet you.”

“And you,” Ade said, shaking George’s hand. He seemed a nice guy, not dashingly handsome in the way Dan was, more of a rough diamond, but it was difficult meeting exes, and first boyfriends were no ordinary exes, either. Those inaugural relationships broke hearts irreparably, and from what Kris had said, it had been a difficult break-up.

Of course, Shaunna was also Kris’s ex, though it didn’t feel like it to Ade. The longer he spent in their house, the more he’d come to realise they weren’t ex- anything. True, there was nothing romantic or sexual going on between them, but they were still together in every other sense, and Ade was unexpectedly fine with that.

“Where’s Josh?” Shaunna asked, and Ade realised he was still shaking George’s hand. He released it and blushed, no clue how long he’d been lost in thought, other than it was long enough to amuse George, who turned away and pointed across the atrium to a man standing, arms folded, against the adjacent wall.

He was a similar height and build to Ade, perhaps a little slimmer, with dark-blonde hair that covered his eyes until he shook it back and looked over, briefly meeting Ade’s gaze before shifting his attention to George. While Kris and Shaunna had mentioned Josh’s name, neither of them had told Ade that he and George were a couple, but there were probably satellites going haywire from the charge zipping between them. No, George was definitely not someone Ade need worry about.

Dan stepped in front of Josh, interrupting the current, and the two men moved off towards the bar room, reminding Ade that Kris had been ‘getting drinks’ for ages. He’d no doubt got caught up chatting to one of his and Shaunna’s many, many friends.

“So, Ade,” George said. “Have you been together long?”

“Oh, er…” A fortnight and a half? Twenty-one days? There was no work-around without it sounding convoluted. “Three weeks,” he confirmed quickly.

“Ahh! That’s what he’s been up to.”

Ade nodded, even though he and Kris hadn’t spoken or seen each other for two of those weeks. Sadly, he suspected Kris had spent them in a very bad place.

“How did you meet? Online?”

“At work. He was in a play I produced, and we hit it off.”

“Cool.” George smiled. He wasn’t expressive in the way Kris was, but Ade could tell he was genuinely pleased for them.

“Have you seen who’s over there?” Shaunna asked, nodding across the room to the woman she’d earlier identified as Jess.

“Where?” George turned to look. Jess and the woman with her were dancing on the spot, seemingly oblivious to everything else going on around them. “She looks happy enough,” he said.

“I didn’t think she’d come, did you?”

“She told Josh she and Andy had sorted stuff out, so it probably would’ve been worse if she’d stayed away.”

“Maybe.”

“And I do kind of feel sorry for her,” George said.

“Hmm.” Shaunna clearly didn’t. “Anyway, we’re not here to bitch. We’re here to have fun.” With that, she dropped in height by three inches and kicked her shoes away. “That’s quite enough being glamorous for one evening.”

Ade looked her up and down. “Nope. Still fabulous, honey.”

“You do look beautiful,” George agreed. “That dress is the perfect complement to your hair.”

“Oh, enough with the hair already. He’s a ginger too, you know.” She tilted her head in Ade’s direction.

George squinted at him. “Oh, yeah. So you are. I hadn’t noticed.”

“I wonder why that is?” Shaunna teased.

George turned pink. “I’m gonna leave you to it,” he said, giving a final nod to Ade. “Good luck.”

Ade laughed. “Thanks.” Message received, loud and clear. Being with Kris wasn’t going to be easy, but he wanted it enough to make it work. He watched George retreat across the atrium, to where the other guy—Josh—was standing once again.

“They’ve only been together since the summer,” Shaunna said.

“Really?”

“Yep, but they’ve been in love since high school.”

“That explains it.”

“The sparks?”

“Yeah.” Josh leaned in and said something in George’s ear, then glanced past him, making eye contact with Ade. Ade raised his hand in acknowledgement. Josh gave him a quick smile and returned his attention to George. “How did it take them so long?”

“God knows.”

They were fascinating to watch. Josh was subtly trying to draw George closer, but George was resisting. Even though they weren’t touching, it was so intimate that Ade felt he was intruding, so he shifted his gaze to a guy carrying a tray of flutes of Champagne.

“Maybe we should just grab a glass from him,” he suggested, watching him weave his way through the crowd towards them. “Oh, hello there!” Ade grinned. “I’m guessing that’s Dan’s brother?”

Shaunna nodded. “That’s Mike. ”

“I thought you called him Andy earlier.”

“There’s three of them. Mike’s the eldest, then Andy, then Dan.”

Ade continued to appraise the glorious Adonis as he headed over. Like his younger brother, Mike was tall and dark, though not as ripped as Dan but muscular nonetheless, his tight T-shirt showing off his pecs and abs to full effect. He paused for Ade to take a couple of glasses of Champagne, gave him a nod and was on his way once more.

“And is Andy a fittie too?” Ade asked Shaunna.

“Hmm?” She wasn’t listening, her eyes trained on a spot on the balcony. “Be right back,” she said and off she went, across the atrium and up the right staircase, leaving Ade with both drinks. She reappeared on the balcony a few seconds later.

“I guess that’s a yes,” Ade muttered. The guy she was standing next to could have been Dan’s twin, the differences between them largely superficial—longer hair, an earring, a more casual stance—and he was hot as hell. He leaned on the banister rail, and as the lights passed over him, his gaze shifted from the room below to Shaunna. There was history there, for sure, and once again Ade sensed that same intimate connection he’d felt between George and Josh.

Perhaps it was down to them all being friends for such a long time. Whatever the cause, Ade stopped watching, downed both glasses of Champagne, and went off in search of Kris—or that was his intention, but he only moved a couple of feet before Krissi grabbed him and pulled him into the centre of the floor to dance. They’d met the previous evening for the first time and instantly hit it off.

“Have they abandoned you?” she asked breathlessly.

“Looks like it.” He took her lead and got into the groove, quite sure the music was going up a few decibels with every song. It was an eclectic mix too, spanning about forty years of pop and rock with a few hardcore dance tracks thrown in .

The current track faded out, and Ade and Krissi paused to catch their breath.

“Woo! I love a good dance, don’t you?” she said. “Are you having fun?”

“I am! Are you here on your own?”

“No. My friend Jay’s about somewhere. The lights are giving him a headache, or so he says. More like he’s just being miserable and boring as usual.” The next track properly kicked in, and Krissi groaned. “God, I heard enough of this growing up to last the rest of my days.” It was a -h a —‘Take On Me’.

“Don’t you like them?”

“They’re all right, I suppose. My mother’s a Morten fan girl. She’s obsessed. I reckon that’s why she fell for Kris.”

Ade laughed, thinking Krissi might well be on to something. But for all of her complaining, it didn’t stop her from grabbing Ade’s hand, and they sang and danced their way through to the end of the song, at which point Ade felt a tug on his arm. Kris had finally made it back with the drinks.

“Sorry,” he said sheepishly. “I got sidetracked.”

“Don’t worry. Is everything OK?”

“Yeah.” Kris looked doubtful. Ade mouthed see you later at Krissi, and he and Kris moved to the side of the atrium, where they’d been standing before, although they’d lost their spot, and Shaunna’s shoes were gone.

“Shall we get some air?” Ade suggested.