The Reunion

man’s pub’ and it had become Andrew’s place of refuge when his girlfriend was in one of her more difficult moods, which meant he spent an awful lot of time in there. Difficult moods had become Lilah’s default state of late: she was either manically happy, in which case she tended to drink too much and become loud and lascivious, or miserable, in which case she tended to drink too much and become loud and angry. It was exhausting.
    But they weren’t here to discuss Andrew’s girlfriend troubles. This time it was Conor’s turn.
    ‘You’re not letting her go,’ Andrew said. ‘And I honestly don’t think she wants to go anywhere. Last weekend she was talking about the summer, about how much she was looking forward to going back to the house. She was saying you guys had been talking about maybe converting the barn out back?’
    ‘Yeah. We did talk about that,’ Conor said, his face brightening a little.
    ‘Seriously, she wasn’t talking like a girl who’s about to walk out on you. And I ought to know, because I live with a woman who threatens to walk out on me twice a week.’
    Conor shook his head. ‘Seriously, man, I don’t know how you live with it. It would do my head in.’
    Andrew shrugged. ‘I know she doesn’t mean it. Well, I know she doesn’t mean it all the time. Not even half the time, probably. It’s just Lilah being Lilah.’ He didn’t say it, because they weren’t here to discuss his troubles, that Lilah being Lilah wasn’t quite so much fun as it had once been. ‘I think you’re right, though, the thing about being clingy.’ Conor gave him a sharp look. ‘Not that I think you’re being clingy, that you’ve ever been clingy. It just sounds like it would help her if she felt, I don’t know, like she wasn’t under pressure.’
    ‘She
isn’t
under pressure.’
    ‘I know she isn’t. I know.’
    ‘The odd thing,’ Conor said, taking a slug of his drink, ‘is that after I got back from Cork and we talked about everything, things were going better. It seemed like we were back on track. It was like being on honeymoon.’ He gave Andrew a quick grin. ‘But then, I don’t know, I feel like I’m second guessing myself half the time now, like we’re both being really careful with each other, and we’ve never been like that. I catch her sometimes, you know, just staring off into space and she looks sad, I mean really sad, and I ask her what’s up and she won’t say… I know something is up. I just don’t know why she won’t tell me.’
    ‘Do you want me to have a word with her?’ Andrew asked. ‘Maybe I could get her to open up.’
    ‘Nah, you can’t – if you go talking to her now she’ll know it’s come straight from me and I don’t want to spook her.’
    ‘She’s not a horse, Conor.’
    He laughed. ‘You know what I mean. I was thinking of asking Dan to have a word, because they were like, thick as thieves when he was staying, and if Dan asks her what’s up she won’t think that I’m behind it.’
    ‘That’s a good idea.’
    ‘Yeah, if I could only get hold of Dan. He’s never bloody around, never returns my calls. And I sent him an email asking if I could come up and see him, thought it might be better if I could ask him face to face, but apparently he’s flat out for the next couple of weeks. I don’t know. I’m being ridiculous, aren’t I? I’m over-thinking.’
    ‘Yeah, pretty much.’
    They fell silent for a bit, sipped their pints, and watched the barmaid, who was tall and curvy and had the most amazing tits, bending down over the table opposite to pick up some empty glasses. Conor caught Andrew’s eye and they both started laughing.
    ‘You want another one?’ Andrew asked. ‘I can’t face going home to dragon lady just yet. We had an almighty row about my completely unreasonable desire to watch the rugby when it clashed with the
EastEnders
omnibus. I made the mistake of pointing out that she’d already watched all the
EastEnders
episodes this week, but apparently that wasn’t the point. She likes to watch the
EastEnders
omnibus when she’s got a hangover. I should know that by now.’
    He left Conor, laughing and shaking his head, and went up to the bar. The sexy barmaid gave him a dazzling smile as he ordered the drinks; she was always very friendly whenever he came in here. He cast an eye along the bar: it wasn’t that surprising that she was pleased to see him, he and Conor were the only people under the age of