A/N: Thank you for your feedback, it's incredibly important to me. Unfortunately this will not be an update a day because I had only got 2 Chapters ready to go, but hopefully I'll have some time over the weekend. Please review for me it's what makes me keep going.

Chapter Two

There was an immediate cease fire so that all the raucous yelling and swearing and pushing and shoving and the bitter accusations of treachery and underhand behaviour stopped when the dark-haired bloke sitting by the bar spoke. She hadn't even realised that he was one of them because although she'd sort of seen him there before she'd begun her mission of making a total prat of herself he'd just been sitting quietly watching the floor show as he'd nursed his drink, turning the glass round and round in his hands. She couldn't really see his face at all, so she didn't know exactly what he looked like because not only was the light coming from behind the bar so it was dark where he was sitting but her vision was ever so slightly impaired. She knew he had dark hair or thought he had and he had this very posh voice that carried without him having to shout, a voice full of some sort of authority as though he was used to people doing exactly what he said and them not arguing the toss with him.

Once you could hear the noise from the rest of the punters in the pub and once the lads had all stepped back from crowding round her, she had to admit to feeling a bit relieved, not that she'd been scared exactly, she was sure that they wouldn't have hurt her, but it meant that she could sort of breath out. She hadn't even realised until that point that she'd been holding her breath. Everyone had moved away a bit, all except for the one they called Fingers who still had the biggest grin on his gob as he put his arm round her shoulders and gave her a little squeeze as he said 'thanks a lot for that' in a sort of loud triumphant whisper, something she could really have done without.

She actually had no fucking clue who the dark-haired bloke was, no-one introduced him or even said who he was, but she nodded in his general direction, it felt like the least she could do, even if he did come across as a bit on the bloody bossy side. It had actually pissed her off quite a lot that he'd thought she needed him to step in and rescue her even though she supposed it was a bit nice of him, he'd most likely meant well and he didn't know her after all so he couldn't of known that she didn't need any bloke, whoever the fuck he was, to step in to look after her. She was a big girl now and could bloody well look after herself, she'd been doing it without that sort of help ever since she was a kid.

"Are you okay?"

Shit, he was bloody tall. He'd got off of his stool and walked over so that he was standing right in front of her, too close as far as she was concerned although to be fair there wasn't a lot of room, but standing like he was with legs wide apart 'n hands in his pockets he made her feel very small and uncomfortable as he rocked back on his heels and looked down at her as he spoke, so that she had to lean back and crane her neck to look up at him.

"Yeah, course, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

She felt a tiny spark of triumph when she saw how he was taken aback by the truculent tone of her voice so that he raised his eyebrows in a sort of silent question while he carried on looking at her, obviously unsure why she was being so arsey, something she wasn't that sure of herself, it was just that he made her feel uncomfortable.

"If you say so"

-OG-

"You were a bit bloody rude seeing as how he'd just rescued you"

"Didn't need a bloke to rescue me and it was none of his bloody business, was it? Who is he anyway?"

"They were calling him Bossman, so I reckon he might be the boss"

"Nah, really? Whatever gave you that idea?"

Molly had grabbed hold of Lauren and dragged her away to the nearest spare table which was way across the pub near the door, she'd wanted to put as much distance between her and Mr Bossy and the rest of them as she could manage and was now giggling as much with relief as anything else as she looked at a straight-faced and serious looking Lauren. Her attempt at sarcasm was actually lost on someone who was not only slightly the worse for wear but looked as if she was away with the bloody fairies, in some sort of deep trance as she narrowed her eyes and watched her date chatting and laughing with Mr Tall Dark and Bossy who had now joined the others round the pool table.

"You know, Molls, think I might have met him at last, Mr Bloody Perfect, or Mr Nearly Bloody Perfect for me, anyway"

"LAUREN, nah, nah, nah, you can't ….. uggh …. shit, nah, not that little …. Jeez, what makes you think …..? Nah, he's a complete knob and you need to get your beer goggles off" She was pulling a horrified face and pretending to gag "Good God almighty you can't, honestly you can't, bleugggh, he's a fucking nightmare"

"What?" Lauren turned and looked at her, a mystified expression on her face as if she hadn't heard a single word Molly had said, didn't even know what she was talking about especially when she started making faces as though something was tightening a noose round her neck or making her puke, at which point the penny dropped "Oh My God, no, shit no, not him, I wasn't talking about him, no, he's a complete knob, no I was talking about him" She nodded her head to indicate the direction of the bar and pool table "His boss"

"Okay … does he know yet that this is his lucky day?" Molly was now giggling "Have you told him the good news?"

Although she was teasing, it wasn't actually beyond the bounds of possibility that Lauren was intending to do exactly that. Lauren and Jamie's parents were a sort of hippy-dippy throw-back to the Sixties so they believed in flower power and the Summer of Love and all that shit, although they were far too young to have actually been a part of it. Molly sort of understood about growing up in a dysfunctional family, her own lot were completely off the wall most of the time, in their own way, but Lauren's mum and dad didn't believe in secrets, that privacy didn't exist, not of bodies or thoughts or anything, that they should all share and that it was right to be open and honest about what you want. It was something Molly had all sorts of trouble with especially when Lauren's parents walked around their house stark naked which meant that she didn't know where to look, in fact she avoided visiting when she knew they were going to be there. But what it also meant was that Lauren was without a filter so that if she thought it, it tumbled straight down the shute from her brain to her gob, and she was at that moment actively ogling a tall dark-haired bloke with a posh voice.

"What would you like to drink girls?"

GIRLS? Molly did her best not to giggle, why it was funny she hadn't got a clue, it just was when someone said it in such a posh voice, although she would have preferred it if he'd called them Ladies because then she'd have the pleasure of watching Lauren put him down like she did when other people made the mistake of calling them public toilets. Right now though Molly wanted badly to poke her finger in Lauren's ribs and tell her to put her tongue away, remind her that dribbling wasn't a good look.

"Thanks, I'd like a gin and tonic please, if that's okay?" "No thanks you're alright, we're just off"

The two of them spoke at exactly the same moment, making Molly raise her eyebrows in disbelief at Lauren when she'd registered that she'd asked for a drink, she'd thought that they were about to leave and go somewhere else, as they'd planned, just the two of them.

"Are you sure I can't get you a drink?"

"Yeah, I mean, nah, but thanks anyway"

She looked up at his brown eyes and wondered why she hadn't noticed them when they'd been by the pool table and then swallowed as he raised one eyebrow at her. Now that he wasn't standing over her, well he was, but not in a menacing sort of way, just for once she could see exactly what Lauren was on about. Okay, so he wasn't Jamie which meant that he wasn't the man of her dreams, but shit he was pretty bloody tasty in a tall, dark and handsome sort of way and he looked like he was fit, okay he looked like he was very fit, and that he had muscles where he should have them, a bit like her Jamie but much, much taller with much broader shoulders and the way his shirt fitted him sort of hinted at what he was like underneath, it wasn't too tight or anything, it just fitted nicely ….. she suddenly realised that she was staring, she was gawping at him as she checked him out so that she gave him a weak sort of grin as he smiled down at her. She had the distinct feeling that he knew exactly what she'd been thinking, as he turned and walked away meaning she couldn't stop herself checking out his bum as he went.

"Nice arse"

"LAUREN, bloody pack it in, 'n stop dribbling, I thought you was about to offer him a well …. or take him round the back or some'ing, and I thought the little blue knob over there was your date, or is he dumped already, have you got around to telling him yet? I thought we was about to go, we were only going to 'ave a couple in 'er 'n then move on, remember? You can't start perving on some other bloke"

"I'm not perving, I'm much more subtle than that"

"You? Subtle? Yeah, course you are"

"Stop laughing, come on Molls, got any better ideas how I'm going to get to know Mr Perfect if we go? Anyway I can't do that right now, he's getting me a drink so it would be bloody rude to just up and sod off"

.

"Okay" Molly grabbed hold of her friend's face with both hands and forced her to turn her head round and look away from the bar which currently had one hundred percent of her undivided attention "You might have a point, but look at me Lauren, this is your last one okay?"

"You know, I am going to have to keep on seeing the little blue whatsit" She totally ignored what Molly had just said about leaving, in fact it didn't look as if she'd even been listening, she was too busy weighing up the available options "I mean, he's not that bad is he?"

"Yeah, he is"

"Yes, you're right he is, isn't he? But how else am I going to get to spend 'quality' time with Mr Bossman?" She put her fingers in the air to denote inverted commas round the word quality.

"You can't do that, Lauren, it wouldn't be fair, you'd hate it if someone used you like that"

"You do, you use me so you can get to have a crack at twat face"

"Don't call him that and that's different and you bloody know it, you don't wanna sleep with me for a kick off" She paused "And I don't wanna sleep with you either, thanks very much, but look, yeah, Smurf's a complete dick, I mean what sort of bleeding name is that anyhow? But if you keep on seeing him he's gonna expect something and you can't blame him, but you can't shag him either, really you can't"

"Might have to, you know, maybe I should just do it, get it over with"

"Get it over with?"

"Well, sometimes you have to make sacrifices, haven't you ever had to do that?"

"WHAT?" Molly turned her appalled face in Lauren's direction "Not those sort of sacrifices, nah"

"It would be a sort of means to an end, so that when me and Mr Bloody Perfect over there are extremely happy together and having the best sex of our lives, it will all have been worth it, you'll see, problem solved" She paused to look over at him again as he started to walk across the pub in the direction of their table "You know how I've always said that the ugly ones are better at it than the good-looking bastards cos the good-looking ones have never had to work that hard for it, well one look at him and I can tell that he's the exception, that he doesn't have to be ugly to be good at it"

Molly started giggling as she turned and watched him speak to someone on his way back from the bar and then turned back to Lauren and raised her eyebrows "Yeah, I can see that about him"

"Oi, I saw him first, and anyway once I've slept with him you'd think it was too weird to go where I've planted my flag so to speak, so you can look at him all you like, like a piece of art" Lauren was also giggling "But that's it, nothing else, anyway I thought you was too busy lusting after twat-face, or have you gone off him?"

"Nah course not, but Lauren, you 'aven't planted your flag yet, 'ave you?"

"Details" Lauren sniggered "And it's just a matter of time"

-OG-

She'd expected him to deliver Lauren's Gin and to then piss off back to the noisy group at the bar, but instead he pulled out a chair and sat down with them, so that Lauren immediately leaned forward and rested her elbows on the sticky table before putting her chin on her hands and pulling her elbows in to increase the amount of cleavage on offer. She was also staring up at him and pulling a besotted face as she gave her very best impression of having lost the plot completely as well as being some sort of mute bimbo who was hanging on his every word, which made Molly's desire to giggle increase tenfold. She was dying to ask her what the fuck she thought she was doing, and why she didn't just take her knickers off and wave them in the air before putting them in his pocket and telling him he'd pulled.

"Tell me something little Miss Pool Shark, where did you learn to hustle like that?" He sipped at his beer as he looked at her over the rim of the glass "And how long have you known our Fingers?"

"What did you call me? I'm not a bloody pool shark and I definitely weren't hustling, I never asked anyone to bet did I?"

"No, sorry, but it was bloody funny to watch, it's not often you see a little girl like you get the better of a bunch of squaddies like that" He exhaled a short laugh down his nose and then looked at her intently as he carefully put his glass down on the table, then raised his eyebrows in a query, brown eyes twinkling with amusement as he shook his head "Do them good, but come on, you can tell me, how do you know Fingers?"

"I don't know him, I've never clapped eyes on 'im before tonight and ….. I'm not a little girl"

"Yup, sorry but you are a bit" He nodded his head and grinned at the expression on her face, she was totally one hundred percent convinced that he was verbally patting her on the head so that she wanted to be exceedingly rude to him "Alright, sorry, sorry, of course you're not, I'm sorry"

Molly knew when she was being patronised, humoured, so that she controlled her response with great difficulty knowing that Lauren would never forgive her if he took umbrage at something she said and pissed off to join the others, as it was she was glaring daggers at Molly for having a conversation with him that didn't include her.

"If you really don't know him, I wonder how the fuck he knew he was onto a winner"

"Dunno, got no idea, mate, obviously just a lucky guess"

"Hmmmm, I'm not so sure, I believe in Lady Luck, but that was definitely pushing it"

"Ask him then, cos I 'aven't got a scoobie"

"What the fuck is that?" He laughed "Is that even English?"

She laughed as she explained what she'd said, suddenly she was enjoying the way he was looking at her, his eyes were brimming with amusement as he raked his teeth over his bottom lip making her want to keep on entertaining him, keep on making him laugh, until Lauren cleared her throat and kicked her under the table, hard, she wasn't terribly happy with the way things were going.

"Might just have to do that"

"Go on then"

-OG-

-OG-