'Neil? Why is DI Manson ringing you at this hour? Emma said as he picked up Beth's mobile.
'What?' exclaimed Beth, setting down her drink.
'DI Manson is ringing you… and by the looks of things has been for a while, theres 11 missed calls from him. Someone wants to get hold of you!' she exclaimed.
'I hope you don't mean literally! If he's been ringing all night… I guess it must be important.' She took the phone out of Emma's hand. She was right… he was ringing her again.
'Hello' she said after a minute holding the phone. 'Em-hm ok' he said after a minute, although Neil hadn't actually said anything.
'Guys… I'm gonna have to take this somewhere quieter, I can't hear anything he's saying.'
The others didn't seem suspicious, as the karaoke had just started up.
'OK' said Mickey looking at her.
'Neil'
' Beth… I'm sorry I didn't ring. Long day and I lost track of time. Why didn't you pick up your phone?'
'It's been a long day, and I just lost track of time.' She repeated, running her finger along the bottom of her lips, ultimately to fix her straying lip-gloss. She reached into her coat pocket to bring out the tube.
'OK now your just being awkward!'
'Really… I hadn't noticed!' she exclaimed, running the lip-gloss brush along her lip.
' OK be like that, but come home, I'm leaving to go to your flat now. And I ain't leaving until I get to talk to you.'
'Well you'll be waiting a while then!' she said and flipped the phone down and threw it onto the counter. Tears started to well up into her eyes. A single tear tringled down her young face. She didn't wipe it away until the tear had entered her mouth, leaving only a shiny trail, clearly indicating where the tear had streaked it.
10 minutes later she emerged from the Bathroom, make-up clearly had been reapplied, and she was looking refreshed.
'You OK?'
' yeah, thanks. Listen guys… I'm gonna have one more drink and I gonna head off. It's getting late and it has been a long day.'
' Beth its only 10pm!' said Mickey, pointing to the clock above the door.
'I no but I'm tired, and I just want to go to bed.'
' Ok… so what do you want then.'
'Orange and Vodka. Thanks Mick'
Half and hour later she left the pub and scrambled into the taxi. She was surprised. She had had Eight shots, 3 V&T's and and a vodka orange, but she was hardly drunk…. She didn't even feel a little bit tipsy. Mickey on the other hand was falling over tables and had gone to kiss sally, but quickly changed his mind, but sally was so out of it that she probably wouldn't have noticed if Mickey had snogged her!
' Sycamore house please.' She called through to the driver, and handed him a fiver. He cab Departed from the side of the road, and vanished into the distance.
Outside the entrance hall, Neil was sitting in his car. He was not intending to go against his word.
The cab which Beth had left the bar in had pulled up. Neil hadn't seen this. Beth climpbed out of the cab, said the door and shoutde bye to the driver, He waved back and drove away. she stood for a minute, expecting Neil to be standing waiting for her, but he wasn't. So she made her way up to her new flat, And Neil still Didn't know that she was there.