The Naked Drinking Club (45 page)

‘Are you a happy person, do you think, Scotty?’ I asked, putting my arm round him.

‘Well, you gotta laugh, mate, don’t you?’ He downed the rest of his glass and shook it at me.

‘Yeah, go on,’ I said.

Dirk and the new team arrived with Jim and Karin. The tennis girl pulled up a stool next to me with Karin, while the boys went to the bar.

‘So, how long have you been working at the Art place?’ she asked predictably. She had an irritating kind of cloth purse hanging round her neck.

‘A while.’ I felt like a worn-out old hand.

‘You still enjoy it?’

‘Nope!’ Karin and I both said at the same time, then laughed.

Jim and Dirk sat at another table going over maps of Sydney suburbs, Jim showing him the best areas. Dirk scribbled away keenly in a notebook. Scotty brought back two whisky doubles this time and we sank them immediately. The Gipsy Kings came on, which I hadn’t heard in ages.

‘This is for you, babe, you love this, come on – up you get!’ Scotty stretched out his hand across the table and pulled me up. We both lit up cigarettes and danced around the bar to ‘Bamboleo’.

I was really happy again. I span round and round. Scotty jumped up on the table until Val shouted at him to jump down, but everybody in the bar started clapping, so he stayed there, dancing, stamping his foot in an attempt to look Spanish.

I took off my vest and danced in my bra, swinging my vest around my head, then letting it go so that it landed on one of the Germans. Jim and Dirk stopped looking at the maps and joined in the clapping. Scotty jumped down and swung me around again, and as he did so I saw bits of everybody in the bar: bits of Mac with his inane grin, and bits of angry Val behind the bar; Jim was shaking his head while Dirk was looking at my tits.

‘Don’t, whatever you do, take all your flamin’ clothes off!’ shouted Scotty.

‘Don’t worry,’ I said, grabbing his face, thinking how it might be OK to go to Darwin for a while.

But I didn’t ever want to be held to anything. I wanted to be free and young for as long as I possibly could. Moments like this, I fuckin’ loved it, I loved life.

I thought back to being little, when I would travel on the bus with my grandfather, how sometimes the bus wouldn’t go the whole distance and it would pull in, and the driver would come upstairs to where we were sitting and shout out, ‘All change! All change!’

I have such beautiful people in my life now, and I am lucky to have had so much help and support. To all those who have helped me with my life and the writing of this book.

A massive thank you to:

Jake Lingwood and everyone at Ebury;

Kirsty Fowkes for being such a good editor;

My little pal Sarah Boyall;

Jeff Savage for all his help and generosity at BP Gardens;

Tad Chong and Philip Skinner at Shaw Walker and co;

The lovely Gerda Von Posch;

David Morgan;

Rebecca for her love and patience, and for her help, which allowed me the time and space to initially, create this;

My mum for my lovely writing time back home in the late summer;

Charlotte Leaper, for her invaluable support and kindness;

But most of all to Deb who saved my ass big time. I was a nightmare, I know. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be adirect infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in lawaccordingly.

Version 1.0

Epub ISBN 9781407029290

www.randomhouse.co.uk

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Published in 2008 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing
A Random House Group Company
First Published in Great Britain in 2007
This edition published 2012

Copyright © Rhona Cameron 2007

Rhona Cameron has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner

The Random House Group Limited Reg. No. 954009

Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9780091901844

To buy books by your favourite authors and register for offers visit
www.randomhouse.co.uk