Friday Night April 23rd, Week Minus 8
The pub was noisy and crowded, there was music coming from one wall and a big screen showing some ghastly American sporting event on the other. Who had picked this place Harry wondered? Had he known, he would have stayed home or gone over to his mother's for dinner, even that couldn't be worse than this. But they were supposed to be celebrating.
The three musketeers had done it again. This time last week they were all in white plastic suits, collecting every last piece of dust and junk from that disgusting flat and sending those three bodies to the morgue. This week it was all neatly filed and signed off after what in Harry's opinion had looked initially like an interesting and juicy gang massacre, had turned into a prosaic murder suicide. Why was half the world getting depressed about being alone, never having children or leaving anything behind? And the rest seemingly getting depressed because they were never alone, the children were driving them crazy and then shooting them and yourself to make sure nothing got left behind. Harry had learned at a young age, that life was at times shit, he had hoped his opinion might change as he got older.
Finally he glimpsed the back of Nikki's head in a distant corner of the room. Perhaps the evening might not be so bad. With her part time boyfriend she was still available for the occasional Friday night team drinks sessions they had. He could see Nikki's arm draped across Leo's shoulder, she had obviously taken it literally when he'd told them to start without him. Then he watched open mouthed as she placed a big kiss on Leo's cheek. It was then he realised, it wasn't Leo, the man was too tall, the hair too dark. It was Henry. This must have been his choice of pub. Harry checked his watch, was it too late to catch dinner with his mother? But by then he had been spotted and Leo escorted him over to the group."Hi Harry, you made it!" Nikki beamed at him, happiness oozing from every pore. "You've met Henry haven't you?"
"Hello" he said non committally and grudgingly shook hands. He looked back at Nikki who was still smiling at him. At least she wasn't as drunk as he first thought.
"I'll get you a beer, anyone else want anything?" she called hot footing it to the bar.
"How's business?" Harry asked Henry through forced politeness.
"There are some promising market opportunities opening up in East Asia..." Henry continued but Harry was just nodding and smiling and acting as if he was listening. He really hated this man. He hated all of her boyfriends as a matter of course. Some he hated with an intensity that shocked him but they were usually the real jerks.
But this one. There was something ..likeable.. no that couldn't be the word, there was something 'suitable' about him. He was a medic turned pharmaceuticals man. He understood the work Nikki did. He could discuss dangerous diseases over dinner and not be put off his food. He treated Nikki with a respect he'd not seen from any of her previous flings. He was reasonably good looking. He was in short, in Harry's eyes, potential husband material and for that he got Harry's full weight of loathing.
Harry realised the conversation had stopped and muttered,
"Hmm, very interesting" hoping that was vague enough to cover the fact he'd not heard the question.
"I said, how come you and Nikki haven't ever got together? Don't you think she's beautiful?" Henry questioned again.
For a second Harry imagined he must be looking like a rabbit caught in full beam headlights when he pulled himself together and with stunning bravado and his best camp voice replied,
"But of course she's beautiful, she's divine, perfect in every way, everyone needs a gurrrrrlfriend," with that he scuttled towards Leo and sat down wondering where his pint had got to.
"He seems nice." Leo was obviously treading carefully. Janet however missed this and the withering look Leo gave her as she began,
"You know what Harry, Nikki's Henry looks a lot like you, not as tall of course, not as handsome, not quite your chiselled jaw line, he obviously doesn't work out as much as you do, and the sense of humour isn't quite as sharp, you even have similar names, it's funny you two look as if you could be related."
"Janet!" Leo chastised. Harry wondered if Janet would realise that the rebuke was not for the inappropriate comments about his body.
Finally Nikki arrived with his pint, it looked like she'd drunk at least the top inch of it.
"Thanks" she said and crossed back to Henry.
Saturday April 24th. Week Minus 8
Harry performed his usual Saturday morning post mortem when he woke up.
Hangover?...light to moderate
Bed?...empty
Work?...not this weekend
Run?... Definitely
Mood?...Better than yesterdays
Harry's fitness had improved immensely over the course of Nikki's latest relationship. Pounding the pavement was the best way of shutting out all those nagging thoughts and feelings. All he had to concentrate on was making the next hill, or catching up with another runner in the distance. He decided on one of his longer routes and rolled out the bed.