Die Hard Mod (7 page)

The two lads exchanged an awkward handshake and Steve felt sure that Rich was giving him a dirty look.

‘Bobby’s over there,’ said Steve, gesturing towards the area nearest the DJs. ‘You might find he’s a bit preoccupied though.’

‘Think I’ll go over and say hi anyway,’ said Rich. ‘The fucker’s owed me thirty quid for months. I’ll be back in a jiff, Sal.’

He stroked Sal’s arm territorially before strolling purposefully towards his debtor.

‘He really fuckin’ wants that money, eh?’ said Steve.

Sal smiled.

‘Yeah, tight bastard. Not one of his more endearing qualities. I’m sure I’d have ditched him eventually if he hadn’t ditched me first.’

‘Seems to me like you might be giving him another chance.’

Sal looked at Steve apologetically.  

‘Steve, I really enjoyed the other night but it seemed to me that you weren’t gonna be around
Brighton
for long and you didn’t call me during the week so I just assumed you weren’t bothered.’

‘It’s been a mad week Sal and I’ve had a lot on my mind. I really did want to see you again, honest. So have I blown it then? What’s the crack with Rich?’

Sal shook her head.

‘I dunno. I’ve still got feelings for him so when he called me out of the blue last night and asked if I fancied coming along to the Hanbury, I just said yes ‘cos I had nothing else on. Maybe if he can get over his weakness for impressionable 18-year-old art school chicks with a bad boy fixation, we might have a chance, you never know.’

‘You don’t really owe me an explanation Sal. I just hope he doesn’t mess you around.’

Looking at her sweet face, Steve would have felt like kissing her again if he hadn’t seen Rich striding back from the dance-floor with an expression that seemed to confirm that he’d retrieved his thirty quid and was smug in the knowledge that he had a pretty girl’s company guaranteed for the night too.

‘C’mon Sal, lets get out of here,’ said Rich. ‘There’s a house party in
Devonshire Place
that’ll be a lot livelier than this place. They’ve set up decks and there’s loads of booze apparently.’

‘Free drink… your favourite two words in the English language, eh Rich? Alright then, let’s skedaddle.’

Sal turned to Steve and gave him a peck on the cheek.

‘Hey, it was nice to see you, Steve. Hopefully see you around again sometime.’

Rich put his arm around Sal and the pair walked off. Steve had hoped that Sal might make one last gesture to suggest that she was still interested in him and it was some consolation that she made a point of turning round to give him a parting smile as Rich held the exit door open for her.

‘Oh dear, boss, looks like you should struck when the iron was hot the other night.’

Bobby had come up to the bar with his new conquest and was looking a lot more chipper than Steve was feeling.

‘Aye, the luck of the Irish seems to have deserted me tonight, Bobby. But hey, the bar’s still open. Fancy another wee swallee?’

‘Nah, you’re alright boss. Think me and Helen here are gonna hit the road.’

The girl gave Steve a coy little wave by means of introduction.

‘Suit yerselves. I’m gonna get maself one more pint. I’ll see ya back at the ranch later mate.’

The alcohol was anaesthetising the sense of lonesomeness that Steve had felt earlier and he hadn’t given up on the hope of finding someone to take home. As he lent on the bar, he looked to his left and started taking in the rear view of an elegant-looking brunette with hair cascading down her back who was chatting to a pair of female friends. She was wearing a slinky knee-length black dress that clung to her curves and emphasised the peachiness of her ass. Steve reckoned that if her face was anywhere near as attractive as the rest of her, she’d be a stunner. He pondered what sort of opening gambit he might make to get talking to her. He opted for something innocuous.

‘Sorry to bother ye luv,’ he said as he tapped the girl on the shoulder. ‘Do ye know what time this gaff shuts at?’

His heart lurched when she turned round.

‘Jeanie!’

17

Her hair and style of dress had changed radically but there was no mistaking those cheekbones, full lips and big brown eyes.

‘Christ Almighty… Steve! What the hell are you doing here?’

Steve had prayed so long for this moment that the sight of Jeanie before him hardly seemed real. He could feel his voice trembling as he tried to keep his composure.

‘I’m, uh… well, I just fancied getting away for a while. You know how it is Jeanie… anyway, I reckon it’s you that has some explainin’ to do.’

Jeanie looked at him impassively with a mildly bemused smile.

‘Sometimes a girl just needs to spread her wings.
Belfast
was just doing my nut in, darlin’.’

So that was the best she could muster? All those months of misery and soul-searching, lying awake at night mulling over every possibility of where she could be and what might have become of her.

‘Jesus, is that all you’ve got to say to me? For fuck’s sake Jeanie, all you left me was that poxy note that explained fuck all and left me worried sick. I thought we had something together and next thing you do a fuckin’ Lord Lucan act on me.’

Jeanie noticed that her companions were becoming all too aware of their lively exchange.

‘Could you keep it down, Steve? I don’t think we should be discussing this here’.

Her voice quietened to a whisper.

‘Look darlin’, I’ve been wanting to ditch these too all night, they’ve been boring the arse off me. I’ll have a quick word then we can split. Okay?’

18

‘Let’s just find somewhere quiet where we can get a drink, okay?’ Jeanie said brusquely as they walked along Marine Parade towards the Palace Pier.

Steve struggled to think of how he could get a conversation going as she moodily blew smoke rings from her Menthol cigarette.

Outside the Madeira Hotel, two girls in hen night fancy dress were sat on the pavement with one of them holding the other’s hair back as she puked into a drain.

‘Classy,’ said Jeanie.

‘Seen a lot worse in
Belfast
,’ said Steve, ‘... at least she’s keepin’ the boke outta her mate’s hair. That’s showin’ a lotta class in my book.’

‘Yeah and using the drain’s a nice touch too, very civic-minded,’ added Jeanie.

They smiled at each other for the first time that night.

‘Hey darlin’, I’ve remembered somewhere we could get a late one,’ said Jeanie. ‘Place called The Fishbowl, just a couple of minutes away, okay?’

The bar was still busy at
2 am
but they had little trouble getting served and managed to find a seat by the window upstairs. Looking at her in the dim candle light, Steve felt himself fall under the spell of Jeanie’s beauty anew. He realised he barely cared what she had to say for herself. The fact that she was there right in front of him was all that mattered.

‘So what’s the story then, Jeanie? What was so bad about
Belfast
that you had to do a moonlight flit?’

Jeanie gave him a seductively wide-eyed look and sipped on her glass of red wine before replying.

‘I don’t know what you’ll think of me if I tell you the truth, darlin’.’

‘I can handle it.’

She set her glass down.

‘You remember that nightclub where I used to work?’

‘Aye, how could I forget a godforsaken meat-market like Temptations? All those flash wankers wavin’ their cash around and tryin’ to chat you up… and that sleazy posh-boy manager James Wilson always sniffin’ around you.’

Around 2004, Temptations had been marketed relentlessly as an upmarket addition to the nightlife of a rejuvenated
Belfast
and moneyed urbanites flocked to the place in their droves while bohemians and inverted snobs like Steve and his Mod associates despised the place.

‘What can I say, darlin’. A girl’s gotta make a living. The problem was that the money was shit and one night Temptations was the operative word…’

She smiled enigmatically.

‘Don’t go all mysterious on me, Jeanie. Spill the beans.’

‘Okay then. There was this backroom where James and the staff used to go for a little, y’ know, late night pick-me-up after the punters had left and we’d cleared up.’

‘You mean you’d be snorting coke into the wee small hours?’

‘I guess sometimes we did, yeah.’

‘So you got a bit of a coke problem that you didn’t want me to know about and you had to get away to go into rehab? Christ, Jeanie, I’d have been able to handle that. I’m no moralist.’

Jeanie took a large gulp of wine before continuing.

‘If only it was as simple as a spell in rehab, darlin’. The thing is, they kept a safe in the back room and when the boss was putting the night’s takings away, he didn’t realise that I wasn’t so off my nut that I couldn’t keep an eye on what combination he was using.’

Steve got the uneasy sense that he’d never really known this girl at all.

‘So you’re telling me that you’re not a drug addict, you’re just a thief. That’s okay then.’

‘No need to get sarky with me darlin’. Anyway, I thought you said you weren’t a moralist.’

The same Presbyterianism that had instilled a work ethic in Steve also made him abhor dishonesty and he was finding it hard to reconcile this with the intense desire that Jeanie aroused in him.

‘Just tell me how much you stole, Jeanie. If you’re in the shit, I’d like to know how deep it is.’

A faint smirk appeared on her face before she replied.

‘Twenty-five grand. Add half a kilo of coke and I’d guess I’m forty-five grand deep in shit, if that’s the way you want to see it. So do you see now, darlin’? My leaving
Belfast
was nothing to do with how I felt about you.’

Steve looked in her eyes for signs of shame or regret but he didn’t see any.

‘Well I’ve told you now, Steve. Aren’t you going to say anything?’

‘What the fuck do you expect me to say? Well done, Jeanie, you’re a criminal mastermind? So I’m guessin’ when you fucked off, James Wilson must have gone straight to the peelers and told them who he thought the culprit was.’

Jeanie’s calm façade no longer seemed convincing.

‘Thing is, Steve, James was just the respectable public face of Temptations… it’s the owner of the place I’ve got to be worried about and he wasn’t the type to have much truck with the police. You might have heard of him, he came from round your way… a nasty piece of work called Trevor McCann.’

19

After blurting out a ‘holy fuck!’ that made a few heads turn round, Steve offered to go up to the bar for more drinks. He brought back two large Jamesons and proceeded to tell Jeanie all about his own run-in with Trevor McCann.

‘Oh darlin’, that’s so awful… I know how close you were with Doug. I was fond of him too, he was such a lovely guy.’

The words seemed hollow when Steve remembered how cold Jeanie had been towards Doug; never making any effort to be civil to him whenever she’d stayed over at their house, but he tried not to dwell on that.

‘Thanks Jeanie. What a fuckin’ mess eh?’

She lent closer and held Steve’s hand.

‘Well let’s just hope that being in
Brighton
is the best way of getting out of the mess for the both of us. C’mon, let’s get out of here. There’s a place I think you’d like to see just near here.’

Still holding his hand, Jeanie led Steve out of the pub and down East Street. Just past a row of shops, she stopped at a narrow alleyway.

‘You know where this is, don’t you?’

Steve smiled.

‘Fuck! It’s where Jimmy and Stef hid from the cops in Quadrophenia, isn’t it?’

Jeanie gave him a sultry look that made him horny as hell.

‘But they made good use of their time in there, didn’t they? Do you want me to refresh your memory about how?’

She led Steve into the alley and they French-kissed with an intensity that made him feel dizzy. With her back against a wall, she took no time to reach for his cock while his left hand caressed the nipple of a bra-less breast.

‘Fuck me Steve. Now!’

Jeanie deftly un-buckled Steve’s jeans so they fell around his ankles. A night’s drinking had done little to weaken the strength of his erection and she stroked his balls as he fingered her wet pussy. As usual, she had no knickers on under her dress and as he lifted her by her bare ass to straddle him, she put her arms around his shoulders and kissed him again. He’d always loved the feeling of her mouth against his.