Chapter 19
“Ofcourse, darling,” Melanee said, reaching across the table and picking up the ice
bucket. Shane gave Melanee a quick kiss and put some ice in his drink.
Everyone was on the dance floor, except Nicky, Gillian, Shane and Mel.
“So Shane,” Nicky said, taking a gulp of his 3rd pint, “why didn’t you tell us earlier
that you were dating Melanee?”
“Well…” Shane started, not really knowing what to say, “We wanted to know if we’d…make
it, before telling you guys.”
“Oh, right,” Nicky said, nodding his head and taking another sip of his drink.
Gillian was sitting quietly beside Nicky, shooting Shane a few dirty looks.
They had all had a few pints each, except Mel- who’s been drinking wine, and were
all rather on the worse side of tipsy.
“Shane,” Gillian blurted out, after a few minutes of watching Shane and Mel kissing
each other, “how come when I asked you, at lunch, if Melanee and you were together
you answered no and flirted with me?”
Shane, Mel and Nicky were all a little taken aback by this.
“Erm…” Shane said, looking over at Mel for help, “I…we…”
Melanee thought about this for a moment, and thought this her perfect chance.
“Work with me,” Melanee whispered to Shane, and gave him a look.
Shane nodded, although a little confused.
Melanee took a deep breath, “is this true?” she said, looking at Shane, and forcing
some tears into her dry eyes, “were you…flirting with Gill?”
“What?” Shane said, trying to act surprised, “how can you even ask me that?”
“Well I mean…” Gill said, thinking that she had started something, “he wasn’t flirting
with me…exactly…”
“Don’t try and cover for him!” Mel yelled, turning back to Shane again, “I thought
you loved me?”
Shane was quite impressed with Mel’s acting abilities, but was a little worried about
his own, and how he was going to pull this off.
“I do love you,” he said, taking hold of her hand, “I do!”
“Don’t touch me,” Melanee said, snatching her hand away from Shane’s grasp, “I can’t
believe you did this to me…to us!”
Melanee rose from the table, and gave Shane the dirtiest look she could.
“If I never see your face again it’ll be too soon!” she said, slapping him across
the face, “get with Gillian for all I care, just don’t try and crawl back to me,
when it doesn’t work out!”
With that Melanee stormed off into the female toilets, upon arrival, she fell to
the floor and burst out laughing.
“Shane, I…” Gill said, looking to where Melanee had run to, “I didn’t mean to cause
that…I’m so sorry…”
“That’s okay…” Shane said, secretly smiling to himself, “I guess, I’ll have to… let
her go.”
Nicky looked down at Gillian, then over to Shane, before his eyes finally landed
on the female toilets.
He got up quickly and made his way to the toilets, mumbling his apologies to Shane
and Gillian.
Melanee was still laughing to herself inside, and was re-applying her makeup, when
she heard Nicky calling her name outside.
“Go away,” she called quickly, trying to continue her make-up, “I’m… very sad… I
need to be alone!”
“I’m coming in!” Nicky called out bravely from outside, “I don’t care.”
“Shit!” Melanee cursed, trying to dash to a cubicle before Nicky saw her, but she
was too late.
“Melanee?” he said, putting his hand on her shoulder, “I’m so sorry for your...”
He stopped suddenly, when he saw Melanee’s smiling, refreshing face stare back at
him.
“Nicky,” Melanee started, seeing his confused face, “I need to ask you something.”
Nicky just nodded his head.
“Do you really like Gill,” Melanee asked, smiling guiltily, “like, I mean a lot?”
Nicky didn’t know what to say, “yeah… I guess…” he said slowly, “why?”
“Well,” Melanee said, thinking for a second, “if I were to say that Shane and I pretended
to go out with each other, to make you two jealous, so that Shane could win over
Gillian… what would you think?”
Nicky just stared back at Melanee with disbelief, “what?”
Melanee smiled guiltily again, “well, you know…” she said, “if that were to be the
case, would you be distraught?”
“You and Shane did that?” Nicky asked, beginning to see the funny side, “just so
that Gill and I would get jealous.”
“Oh, well, only to get Gillian jealous,” Melanee said quickly, “I mean, I didn’t
do it for you or anything. But basically, I just wanted to ask if you and Gill were
serious?”
Nicky laughed again, “no, not really,” he said, “this is our first date. She’s good
looking, but I mean, I haven’t got to know her that well yet.”
“So it’s no big loss?” Melanee asked, biting her lip, “if Shane and Gill were to
get together. I mean Shane is totally crazy about that girl!”
“That’s cool,” Nicky said, looking into Mel’s eyes, “I mean, I guess it probably
wouldn’t have worked anyway, if both parties involved fancied someone else.”
Melanee raised her eyebrows at this, but let it go, “let’s go see if our little plan
worked, eh?” Nicky smiled, “sure,” he said, following Melanee to the door.
Melanee clapped her hands silently when she saw Shane and Gill in each other’s arms,
“it worked like a charm!” she said to Nicky, “she’s like comforting him or something…”
“So this plan was totally for Shane and Gill, was it?” Nicky said, looking over Mel’s
shoulder.
“Well…” Melanee said, looking up at Nicky, “not totally. Would you like to dance
with me, Mr. Byrne?”
“I would love to,” Nicky said, taking Mel’s hand and kissing it lightly, “after you,
Ms Spencer.”