20 December 2014
"Good thing you picked up Boyz in the bar last night. It's incredible how much gay life this city has to offer. I want to go everywhere!" John Paul enthused as he leafed through the weekly magazine.
"Well, somebody had to think ahead. We wouldn't want to end up sitting here all night, just 'cause we didn't know what to do. I've already read through everything that's on tonight and I have two suggestions." Nancy offered.
"Okay, go ahead. What?" John Paul looked up from the paper.
"Well, as I am a girl, I'm not allowed to go to every club there's on tonight, but there were two things that struck my fancy, because they're apparently quite mixed. One is the G-A-Y Christmas party in a club called Heaven, that's near Charing Cross, and the other is Duckie at something called the RVT, here in Vauxhall." Nancy suggested.
"Okay, let me check." John Paul reopened the mag and started looking for the ads for those clubs, as he continued speaking. "I've heard of both. G-A-Y has been around forever and they always have some famous acts on, the X-Factor winner's probably on tonight. He was shite, though, wasn't he? Duckie's very good, I've heard, quite alternative, apparently, always some weird acts performing. And it's nearby. What do you think? Should we give it a go? Easy to get home if we get tired, no cab. And there are loads of other clubs around here we can go to afterwards if we want to." John Paul had made up his mind and closed the magazine, not bothering to read the ads he'd finally found.
"I'm up for it." Nancy agreed. Just give me a couple of hours to get gorgeous and I'll be ready." She winked at him.
"I better take a nap then." John Paul joked. "I wouldn't want to wait in a pub or I'd be dead drunk by the time you'd join me."
"Myra, would you mind if I took Matthew to my mum's for the evening? They're having a small Christmas party at home, just a few drinks, sausage rolls, scotch eggs, mince pies, things like that. You can join us, if you'd like." Craig asked his son's grandmother.
"No, of course I wouldn't mind, love. It's nice for Matthew to get to know your family a bit better. Not that your mother hasn't been nice to him. But I guess I shouldn't be tagging along, I wouldn't won't to gate-crash." Myra replied, her tone of voice clearly betraying that she definitely wanted to join the party.
Craig contained a chuckle and convinced her that she'd certainly not be gate-crashing as he'd invited her as his guest. Myra accepted the reiterated offer quickly and a few hours later she entered the flat above the Dog in the Pond together with her grandson and her once-to-be-son-in-law.
It was a great Christmas party, in Myra's opinion. The booze was flowing, plenty of food on the tables, chatter, song and dance. The only thing missing were the sausages in the sausage rolls! And that ridiculous Frankie Osbourne still claimed that she'd made the rolls herself, and there'd be plenty of sausages in the dough once she'd put them in the oven. Huh! Did she really think that Myra'd believe they weren't just some cheap ready-made crap. It didn't stop her eating them, though, and she had to admit that the holes in the rolls were a little suspicious.
After a great curry in an Indian restaurant, called The Coriander, not far away from the RVT, John Paul and Nancy decided to go for a drink in a pub on the opposite side of the road. John Paul was pleasantly surprised to find that The Royal Oak was a real old-fashioned Irish pub that served real Irish crisps. A classic game of hurling was even being shown on one of the TV screens. They sat down at a table near the middle of the pub and enjoyed the crowd that was a strange mix of straight local people of various ages and small groups of younger gay guys warming up for the night ahead. The little old woman tending the bar had refused a drink for herself, but stuck to her tea and smiled warmly at them as she brought John Paul the best pint of Guinness he'd had since leaving Dublin.
Half an hour later the pair of them finished their drinks and headed to the RVT where there was already a small queue outside. They paid the entrance fee and entered what turned out to be a small club with a stage and a good dance floor. The décor was in very dark colours but the multi-coloured lights created a flamboyant atmosphere in the room. The club filled quickly and it got very warm. Fortunately there was an outside area which they could go to for fresh air and lots of people just seemed to hang out there most of the night.
The music was very good. The two DJs which John Paul recognised as The Readers' Wives played an interesting combination of seventies and eighties pop hits and alternative rock classics which you could dance to and him and Nancy danced for most of the night, apart from the two times hostess Amy Lamé appeared on stage to introduce the performers of the night. The first one was a hula-hoop artist that did mind-blowing stunts and held the entire audience spellbound. The second one, however, was a weird Danish guy who performed a strange combination of a strip tease, impromptu body painting and early-eighties-style synthetic pop, and John Paul and Nancy found themselves joining the huge crowd that had gathered outside as the show went on.
"You guys new here?" A tall and rather bearish dark-haired guy joined them. "Hi, I'm Dean. I haven't seen you here before."
"Yeah, we've never been. It's amazing, right?" John Paul replied. "I'm John Paul. And this is my friend Nancy."
"Hi." Nancy greeted the stranger shyly.
"Yeah, I love this place. I come here every Saturday. I still remember my first time, it was brilliant, and I just had to come back. Again and again. The shows are fantastic, most of them." Dean smiled and raised his drink towards them. "Cheers, nice to meet you guys!"
"And you. Cheers!" John Paul raised his drink in return, followed by a somewhat reluctant Nancy. Her friend ignored it and continued talking to their new friend.
When the show finished, people started going back inside.
"You feel like dancing?" Dean asked and John Paul and Nancy nodded and followed him to the dance floor.
When they'd finished their drinks, Nancy offered to go to the bar. Returning with the drinks she handed the two guys their cans of beer and whispered/called into John Paul's ear that she needed to go to the ladies'. He nodded at her and continued dancing.
After Nancy disappeared from his sight John Paul felt Dean getting closer and closer. He didn't mind. He liked the attention from this guy who was rather cute, he thought, and when Dean leaned in for a kiss he didn't move back but allowed his tongue to enter his mouth and joined in the snog.