Future Queens of England (42 page)

The waiter walked over to Tony, “Will your guest be joining you Sir or would you like to order now?”

“Can you give me five more minutes?” Tony replied, he wasn’t used to being in restaurants like this and he felt completely out of his depth.

The waiter smiled kindly, “Of course, Sir.”  He turned and walked over to the next table.

Tony tapped his fingers on the table and made up his mind.  He stood and pushed the chair backwards, it scraped across the marble floor.  He took out his wallet and placed ten pounds on the table to cover his drink.

The waiter walked over to him, “Leaving, Sir?”

Tony nodded silently and walked towards the door.

“Don’t forget your coat,” the waiter called over.

Tony walked over and collected his coat, thanked him and left the restaurant.  He stood in the doorway and looked up at the night sky.  He slipped on his coat and pulled it tight around him forlornly.  He walked out onto the street and wandered towards the car park.

“Tony!”

His heart lifted at the sound of her voice and something in his trousers stirred into life.  The click of her heels became louder as Louise ran towards him.

“Oh, Tony, I’m so sorry,” she said breathlessly.  She rested on his arm as he tried to regain her breath.  “I couldn’t decide what to wear, so sorry I’m late.”

Tony grinned, he reminded himself not to look too keen, and fought to stifle his huge smile.  “No problem, no problem at all.” 

“Shall we go and eat then?” she said pulling at his arm.

He took a deep breath and put his arm around her and they walked towards the restaurant.  He remembered what Gareth had told him and opened the door for her.

“Thank you,” she said.  “Oh, this place looks nice.  Have you eaten here before?”

“All the time,” Tony lied as he followed her in.

“Ah, good evening, Sir.  So nice to see you again,” the waiter said warmly, as he took their coats.  “Would you like your usual table, Sir?”

“Please,” Tony said, trying to keep his voice even. 

The waiter led them over to their table and pulled out Louise’s chair.

She sat down and allowed the napkin to be placed on her lap.  “Oh, someone’s left a ten pound note on the table,” Louise told the waiter.

The waiter smiled at Louise and then looked at Tony, “Oh, that must be a tip left for me by a very, very grateful customer.  Wouldn’t you say, Sir?”

Tony squinted his eyes, “Yes.  It must be.”

“Wonderful,” he said and then picked up the menus and handed them over.  “Can I get you some drinks whilst you peruse our menu?”

“We’ll have a bottle of the Pinotage, please,” Tony said handing the waiter the wine menu.

“Good choice, Sir,” he turned and left them to review the menu.

Louise jiggled in her seat and giggled.  “I’m very impressed, Tony.  You’ve changed so much.”

“For the better?” he enquired, with a raised eye brow.

“Definitely,” she reached over and squeezed his hand.  Tony’s stomach performed its second somersault, so far, that evening.   Louise pushed the candle aside and put her other hand out on the table.  Tony reached out and took it.  She stared at Tony’s face in the candlelight.

“Say something romantic to me,” she said dreamily.

Shit, Tony thought.  The girls he normally took out never made requests like this.  He concentrated hard for a moment and tried to come up with something.  “Where is fancy bred, in the heart or in the head,” Tony said, mentally crossing his fingers. 

Louise squeezed his hands, “Ooooh, that’s lovely.  That’s Shakespeare isn’t it?”

“Erm, I heard it in the Willy Wonka film actually,” he admitted, with a hint of embarrassment.

Louise laughed out loud, “Oh, Tony, stop pulling my leg.”

Tony smiled and decided to keep his mouth shut.

“Say something else.”

Tony racked his brain again searching for something appropriate, “
We are the music makers and we are the dreamers of dreams.”
 

“Now is that from Willy Wonka too?”  She smiled and rewarded him
with
a gentl
e
squeeze of the hand.

“Just teasing,” he said with a wink and a gulp.  “You know, you’re so sweet, I’m amazed that Slugworth hasn’t tried to steal you.”

“Tony,” she gushed, “you really are a smooth talker.”  She let go of his hands and fanned herself with the menu.  “We had better choose something,” she said, making an effort to compose herself.

After leaving the restaurant, she held his hand and swung his arm back and forth as they strode along in the cold night air.  “Oh, my god, Tony,” Louise said, squealing with delight, “I haven’t laughed so much in a long time.  I think I ended up drinking most of the wine tonight,” she giggled.  “Were you trying to get me drunk?”  She stopped and looked up at Tony and steadied herself.

“No, I wasn’t,” Tony said.  “I drove here tonight, so I could only have the one glass.”   

“Wow, so I drank the rest of that bottle?” she tittered.  “No wonder I’m so woozy.  I shouldn’t tell you this though, should I?”  She placed her hand on his chest and looked into his eyes, “I mean, some people will do anything when they’ve had a drink.”  Her eyes moved down to Tony’s lips and she ran her teeth over her own lip.

Tony
’s
heart began to thump in his chest.  He had waited months for this moment.  He leant down slowly and their lips met.  Her mouth tasted sweet, something was different about it, then he realised; it didn’t taste of smoke.  He put his hand onto the small of her back and pulled her close to him.  Tony felt her firm breasts against his chest and part of him readied himself for action.  He pushed the hard lump in his trousers against her and his breathing become heavy.

Slowly, she pulled away from the kiss and smiled with a look of satisfaction.  “You’re keen aren’t you?”

Tony wasn’t sure how to interpret this and decided against responding directly to her question.  “My car’s over there,” he said, pointing. 

They walked along the road together towards the car park, neither of them speaking, but Tony limped slightly.  A group of girls stumbled out of a pub and onto the street in front of Tony and Louise. 

“Right, let’s get a kebab,” one of the girls shouted.

They walked towards Tony and Louise.  “Hey, love birds, where‘s the nearest kebab shop?”

“I don’t know,” Tony said cordially and attempted to walk through the crowd.

Suddenly, one of the girls shrieked with laughter, “Could you point us in the right direction, mate?” she said, waving her hand at Tony’s trouser area.

Tony tried to pull his coat down to disguise himself.

“We should report you to the police for carrying an offensive weapon,” another girl cackled.

“Quick run, girls, before he stabs one of us with it,” and with that they stumbled past Tony and Louise in search of their midnight feast.

Tony and Louise walked together in silence for a few moments. Louise sniggered, but then forced
herself to stop.
 
Tony twitched uneasily, but tried to ignore the elephant in the room. He couldn’t believe this had got to him. Normally, this sort of thing wouldn’t bother him, but he knew that Louise was different and he couldn’t let anything mess this up.  He tried to pick up the pace and get to the car, once inside he could put some music on and the awkward silence would be gone.

As they entered the car park Louise could feel her insides knotting. She tried to think about something different, anything would do, but all she could think of was Tony’s involuntary reaction. Then, unable to control herself any longer, she burst out laughing.  Tony hung his head down, how on earth was he going to recover from this?

Louise looked at him, “Aw, Tony, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. There’s no need to be embarrassed, it’s a completely normal reaction. Look at it this way,” she chuckled “I gave you an erection and you gave me an anecdote.  Surely, that’s a fair swap?”

Tony fidgeted self consciously, but a glimmer of a smile broke through.

She kissed him on the cheek and brought her mouth to his ear. “Has it gone yet?” she whispered playfully.

“Pretty much,” he mumbled with a smirk, as he felt her putting him at ease.

She peered down, “Oh, yes, it’s gone. I think we’re safe now.” She put her arms around him and gave him a hug.  “Now, what’s a girl got to do to get a ride home around here?”

Chapter Twenty
T
wo

The sunlight burst through the window and landed on Tony’s face.  He squeezed the lids of his eyes shut even tighter and turned onto his side with a grunt.  He tried to pull his pillow up over his face to shield himself from the light, but it wouldn’t reach that far.  He gave up and rolled onto his back again, yawned and stretched.  He reached under the covers and began to scratch himself.

“Errgghh,” came the voice, followed by a “ssshhh.”

“Huh?” Tony said groggily, forcing his eyes open.  Bleary-eyed, he stared into the light and tried to focus.  At the end of his bed he could make out five figures looming over him.

“Arrghh!” he shouted, “get back!”  He pulled the covers up under his chin to protect himself.

“Calm down, Tony,” Hugh said.  “We didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t scare me.  Anyway, what do you want?” Tony growled, as he fought to get the sleep out of his eyes.

“He thinks we’re after his body,” Bruce jeered.  He started to pull at Tony’s duvet.  “Come on, Tony, show me what you’ve got under there,” he tittered, tugging the bedspread.

“Stop that!” Keenan said with a scowl.  “Don’t wind him up or we’ll never find out.  We don’t want him waking up on the wrong side of the bed now, do we?”

Bruce nodded and let go of the covers, “Sorry, Tony.”

Tony rubbed his face with the palm of his hand, “What do you want and what time is it?”

“It’s eight am and we want to know how your date went last night,” Hugh said eagerly.  “We couldn’t wait any longer.”

Tony sat up and yawned again, but didn’t speak.

Uwe kicked Tony’s bed impatiently, “So, come on.  How did it go?”

Tony grinned to himself, “It was bloody brilliant,” he said punching the air.  “It couldn’t have gone better.”

The group all clapped their hands together excitedly.

“What else?  Tell us more,” Gareth demanded hungrily.

“Okay, okay.  It was amazing, it wasn’t like anything that I’ve experienced before.  No one has ever made me feel this way.”  Tony let his mind slip back to the night before as he tried to recall as many moments as possible.

Gareth started clicking his fingers in front of Tony, “Hey, are you still there?”

Tony flinched and blinked a few times in quick succession, “Oh, sorry guys.  You know, I think this is it?”

“You mean …” Hugh began, but trailed off.

Tony nodded, “Yep.  I can’t believe I’m about to say it.  In fact, this will be the first time I’ve ever said it in my life.”

The group leaned in tentatively and no one spoke.

Tony opened his mouth slowly and they watched as the words left his lips, “I think I’m in love!”

They all gasped at Tony’s admission and they all stood in stunned silence.

The words lingered in the air for some time before Bruce finally broke the silence.  “I bet you never dreamed of finding love at gay school, eh?” he chuckled.  “I can’t wait to hear you tell your mates all about this.”

Tony remained in bed with a faraway look in his eye whilst he tried to make sense of his feelings.

“So, Tony goes on one date and falls in love,” Uwe said playfully, “who would have thought it?”