Bernie slumped down with her glass of whiskey and stared bleakly ahead of her. It had been that kind of a day.
'Been that kind of a day has it?'
A handbag was dumped and the owner slid into the space next to her. Bernie didn't need to guess who it was, she could sense the Shiraz already. She nodded and kept up her staring match. She couldn't miss Serena's cheeky smile, that was seared forever into her peripheral vision. She didn't need this kind of distraction today. Wanted it, certainly. But didn't need to think about her colleague any more than was necessary. It was embarrassing when she did. She refocused on the wall.
They sat there in companionable silence. Bernie drummed a hand on the table in agitation. She didn't really know how to express herself right at this point. Her companion kept leisurely drinking. Bernie glanced to the left and noticed something that made her draw in her breath. There was something different about Serena tonight.
She figured out when Serena set the glass down and rooted in her bag for her ringing phone. She had watched those fingers endless times; poking and prodding organs and soft tissue, twirling a pen and tapping on the keyboard. Those elegant fingers were usually topped with clear polished nails at a modest length, not like Bernie's nails. But today they were clipped just the same. Short and sensible. She felt like an idiot staring at someone's hands. But she didn't need glasses. She knew what she was seeing. Glancing at Serena still on the phone, she got a wink and another view of her hands as she picked up the glass and drank as she listened to her daughter ranting down the phone. Bernie had the idea that she was overthinking it but wanted to choose the other thought rattling round in her brain. She knew her best cod fish impression was screamingly obvious, but she couldn't help being thoroughly distracted by the somewhat smack in the face hint that Serena was slightly more knowledgeable about the Sapphic persuasion than she'd thought.
Bloody hell. She looked back at the wall, all previous weariness fled out of the window. Little did she know, Serena had definitely been to Stepney at least once in her life.