Part 17 (1/2)

'What doesn't?' Gwen said.

'You through here, us back there. It isn't very friendly.' Harry stuck out his hand to Ruby. 'I'm Harry.'

'Cam's friend,' Gwen supplied.

Harry smiled easily. 'For my sins.'

Gwen opened her mouth to say we're fine, but Ruby was already getting up, gathering her coat and drink.

Gwen glared at her behind Harry's back. Ruby shrugged and mouthed what?

'h.e.l.lo, again,' Cam said.

Gwen sat down reluctantly.

'I don't think I ever met you, Harry,' Ruby was saying. 'Back in the day.'

'These two didn't do much socialising,' Harry said. 'By all accounts, they were permanently attached to one another.'

'Don't I know it,' Ruby said, rolling her eyes. Which was very unfair considering she had been exactly the same with David.

Gwen started to peel the label from her lager bottle.

'Oh, they were completely crazed,' Ruby said to Harry. 'They used to snog for hours and hours,' she said, warming to her theme. 'I thought they must've developed a way of breathing through their ears.'

Gwen aimed a kick at Ruby under the table.

'Ouch,' Harry said.

'Harry was after Gwen's time,' Cam said. 'We met housebreaking.'

Gwen raised her eyebrows and Harry said, 'Not breaking. House borrowing. It was strictly temporary.'

Ruby frowned. 'And then you became lawyers? Just like that?'

'Hey, hey.' Harry put his hands in the air. 'I'm no lawyer.'

'He's worse,' Cam said, smiling. 'Police.'

'You wish. The ladies love the uniform,' Harry said in a cheesy voice.

'That a fact?' Gwen said, extremely grateful they were no longer reminiscing about her and Cam's s.e.x life. Actually, she could see Harry being a hit with or without a uniform. There was something incredibly sure and solid about him. Something unruffled. Something that said: Hey, everything's going to be okay. Let's have a beer in the suns.h.i.+ne. Cam, on the other hand, broadcast something like: Everybody is up to something and I'm going to find out what it is. Come to think of it, they were clearly in the wrong jobs.

'I'm a solicitor, to be strictly accurate,' Gwen tuned back into the conversation to hear Cam saying.

'Which is like a lawyer, only more boring,' Harry supplied.

'Thanks for that,' Cam said, 'but, essentially, yes.'

'So you don't do all that exciting courtroom stuff?' Ruby sounded disappointed.

'Barristers do the big-ticket stuff. They go to High Court and argue criminal cases. Solicitors deal with the big three.' Cam ticked them off his fingers. 'Divorce, death and The Council.'

'That sounds depressing,' Gwen said.

Cam shrugged. 'Pays the bills.'

'Divorce, though. Must be full of people arguing.' Gwen shook her head. 'Sounds like a nightmare.'

'Put it this way, I'm not exactly desperate to get married. I've seen how people behave to each other. And that's people who once loved each other enough to say ”I do”.' He shuddered.

Harry clapped him on the back. 'Ignore Mr Grim, Gwen. I'm sure he's got a sensitive, romantic heart underneath his hard exterior. I bet he's like a caramel. All gooey inside.'

'I am not gooey,' Cam said, looking disgusted.

'Sure you are,' Harry said, smiling as if Cam wasn't about to hack him to little pieces with a letter-opener.

'I just can't imagine you having the patience ...' Gwen trailed off as she realised Cam was glowering at her. 'Sorry,' she said hastily.

'It's definitely one of the skills you've learned,' Harry said. 'When I met you, you were more likely to deck someone that annoyed you.'

'I tried that.' Cam managed a sort-of smile. 'But it turns out it's frowned on by the Law Society.'

'Spoilsports.'

Cam brightened. 'Now I just hit 'em in the wallet.'

Later on, Ruby was deep in conversation with a friend of Harry's and Gwen was waiting at the bar, admiring the different colours that alcohol came in. She was just planning a rainbow-themed drinking game, when she felt Cam next to her. Without turning, she knew it was him. Great. She had Cam-sense. That was a helpful power. Not.

'Can I talk to you about something?'

Gwen closed her eyes. His voice really was gorgeous. It made something thrum deep inside her, like she was attuned to its frequency.

Bob appeared and she gave him her order, changing her mind from red wine to Southern Comfort at the last moment. She needed a stiff ... drink. She needed a stiff drink.

'What's up?' she asked, finally looking at Cam.

He paused while Bob placed a Southern Comfort on the bar.

'I've been thinking about us.'

'I'm sorry about Ruby,' Gwen said. 'She's got no tact.'

'That's okay.' Cam was smiling at her. He looked like his old self: that gorgeous lopsided smile, the devil's touch in his eyes. 'I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm having trouble keeping away from you.'

'Really?' Gwen said, brilliantly. She concentrated on staying upright.