If Tomorrow Never Comes
Chapter 14
Shane pulled his car up in Mel’s driveway.
“Okay,” he said, encouragingly to himself, “I'm sure she doesn’t hate you.”
He walked up to the front door, and opened it slowly.
He looked in and saw Mel lying on the couch, reading a magazine.
“Hey,” Shane said, giving Mel a nervous smile.
“Oh, hi Shane,” Mel said, looking up from her magazine and smiling widely, “how did
your date with Gill, go?”
Shane looked at Mel with confusion, “aren’t you still mad with me?” he asked.
“Shane,” Mel said, rolling her eyes, “I was never mad at you!”
“What?” Shane said, moving closer to the couch, and placing his keys on the coffee
table, “but you were yelling at me this afternoon, like there was no tomorrow…”
Melanee smiled, “so you were convinced, then?” she asked, putting down her magazine,
and sitting up, “did I get a bit carried away?”
“What are you talking about?” Shane said, now totally confused.
“I was only acting, Shane,” Mel said, going over to him and pinching his cheek lightly,
“there was no other way of getting you to spend some time with Gill.”
Shane stared at Mel in disbelief, “you mean that, whole thing was just…”
“Yep!” Mel said, triumphantly, “now do you see how I got into television?”
Shane smiled, and pulled Melanee into his lap, “you’re the best friend a guy could
ever have,” he said, “I can’t believe you set all that up!”
Mel laughed, “well, I couldn’t exactly just say, ‘hey Shane, I'm leaving now so you
and Gill can get it on’ could I?” Mel said, “I had to give you something believable
so that you wouldn’t have to lie to Gill… cos I know that you’d get all sweaty, and
she’d know you were having her on!”
Shane laughed too, “so she’s gonna think your this weird, insecure chick, when she
next meets you,” he said, shaking his head, “what are you going to say?”
Mel tossed her hand dismissively, “blame in on P.M.T,” she said, hopping off Shane’s
lap and stretching, “oh, I've rung her and asked her to meet us for dinner tonight,
okay.”
“You’re not gonna suddenly come up with another case of ‘Pathetic Mel Tendencies’
are ya?” Shane asked, getting up and heading toward the kitchen, “cos I don’t know
if she’d believe it twice.”
Mel followed Shane into the kitchen, and pretended to look angry, “I don’t have
‘Pathetic Mel Tendencies’,” she said, “I’m just trying to set up my two good friends,
that’s all.”
“Fair enough,” Shane said, pulling out a bottle of coke from Mel’s fridge, “two can
play at that game!”
Melanee raised her eyebrow at Shane, “and what is that supposed to mean?” she said,
stealing the bottle from Shane and taking a sip.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Shane said, pretending to think about it, “maybe a few calls
should be made to the recently single, Nicky Byrne!”
Melanee gave Shane a look, “if you dare, Filan,” she said, raising her finger, “I
will have no mercy!”
“Oh really?” Shane said, smiling widely, “I'm sure I could handle that!”
Melanee smiled, then leapt on to Shane’s back, “no mercy,” she grunted out as she
and Shane wrestled each other to the floor.
“Ha!” Shane said, as he got on top of Mel, and pinned her to the floor, “pinned ya!”
he said, in his best Lion King impression.
Melanee squirmed, but ultimately, Shane got back on top of her, “pinned ya again,”
he said, trying to keep the accent, but failing miserably.
“Okay, okay,” Mel said, wriggling from underneath him, “stop fooling around, we have
a party to get to!”
“What?” Shane said, getting off the floor and dusting off his pants, “I thought we
were going out to dinner?”
“Well, that was a bit of a fib,” Melanee said, smiling, “we’re going down to that
club on ‘Calloway st’, you know that blue one?”
Shane shook his head, “how long have we got, to get ready?” he asked, finishing off
his coke.
“About 2 hours…” Melanee said, glancing at her watch, “I'm just gonna go pick out
my outfit, okay.” Melanee ran up the stairs, and was soon out of sight.
Shane glanced over at the phone, then back up the stairs.
He smiled to himself, and went over to it, dialling a familiar number.
“Hello,” Mark answered on the other line.
“Hi, Mark,” Shane said, “what are you doing tonight?”
“Erm…nothing, why?” Mark asked.
“Do you and the lads wanna come out with me, Gill and Mel, tonight?” Shane said;
peering up the stairs, to make sure Melanee wasn’t listening.
“Erm, yeah, sounds like fun,” Mark said, “where will it be?”
“The club on the corner of Calloway and McConnell st,” Shane said, “you know that
blue one?”
“Oh yeah, cool,” Mark said, writing it on his hand, “can we bring our girls, along?”
“Sure,” Shane said, smiling to himself, “just make sure Nicky turns up.”
“Okay,” Mark said, a little confused, “what are you up to, Shane?”
Shane just laughed, “you’ll see Mark,” he said, “I'll see you there at 7:00, sharp,
alright. Bye.” “Bye,” Mark said, hanging up the phone.
Shane put down the phone and smiled, “let the games begin.”