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“I don’t remember anyone except Legs Lauren.”
“She’s supposed to meet me here tonight.”
“Supposed to? Don’t you know for sure if she’s coming?”
“I’m freaking her out.”
“What did you do?”
“You know.” He turned his face away from her scrutiny. “I get a little…”
“Excited, bossy, full of yourself.”
“Yeah. She’s thinking about whether she can cope with a differently-abled guy who’s a bit full-on.”
Taylor snapped his head back around. “She has a problem with you being blind?”
He grinned at her. He wasn’t sure what drove Georgia’s hesitancy, but a bad marriage to a guy with a head injury might do it. She’d gotten over the hero-worshipping that came with being in the industry, and the physical aspect of him needing to be near her. She wasn’t slow to help when he needed it, and was sensitive to when he didn’t, but she had to be thinking about whether it was worth getting caught up with him too seriously.
“Nah. I don’t think she likes singers.”
The impression that he’d blown it with Georgia over by insistence about the dress, and with the stunt in the dressing room that’d led to kissing her like he owned her, stayed with him when he and Taylor joined Jamie and Sam at a table out the front. Angus served them tapas, but otherwise remained behind the bar. He’d started a new manager and wanted to stay close to her. Jamie put a plate together for him, bits of this and that. Damon had eaten a late lunch with Georgia so he wasn’t hungry, but he ate anyway.
If Georgia didn’t show up soon, he’d have to go on without saying hello. He checked his phone. Nothing in the message bank. If she didn’t come, he’d definitely pushed too hard. He could make it up to her, slow down for a start, let her set the pace. He had all this time off, he could use it wisely. But if she was thinking she’d had enough of gimps, it was probably all over anyway.
They talked about the song list. Taylor wanted him to sing Marshall Mathers to her Rihanna on Monster, but there was no way he was rapping. They had the same old argument about him being too old school for hip hop, too John Mayer to have any street cred and still Georgia didn’t come.
It was the end of the month so it was request night and just about anything might get asked for. If the room recognised the song and the band couldn’t play it, Angus had to shout the requesting table a free round. That rarely happened. But the last time Damon had been in town for request night they got asked to sing The Wiggles’ Big Red Car and crashed out. As a point of honour that wasn’t going to happen this time, but if there was any hip hop happening it was all on Jamie.
“Who is Angus chatting up?” said Taylor.
The table shifted as Jamie pushed against it to look. “I dunno. She’s on her own. Damon, does your date have mousey brown hair, pale skin and look like she’d rather be home tidying her sock drawer?”
Sam thumped him on the back. “You have a date, Dame? Go you old dog.”
“Quit it with the old stuff. What do you mean she looks like she’d rather be darning socks?”
“Move.” Taylor replaced Sam on his right. “She’s got lot of curly hair, hides behind it, decent figure, but she’s hunched over as if she’s hoping no one notices her.”
He frowned into his water glass. Maybe that wasn’t Georgia, though Taylor’s description more or less matched Lauren’s but was even less kind.
“You never went for sex appeal but, if that’s your girl she’s, um, well, hey, it’s none of my business.”
He grabbed for Taylor’s thigh and dug his thumb and fingers in to hold her still, making her squirm. “Come on, wingman, tell me what you see. You’ve never held back before.”
“Yeah, but you like this one.”
He did like her. But he didn’t like to think of her as withdrawn and reticent.
“Sam.” Taylor could be brutal, Sam had no tact. You went to Sam when Taylor went soft. “Woman at the bar with Angus. Verdict.”
“He curled his lip,” Taylor said.
“Give me a sec. I’m considering,” said Sam. “She’s.” He breathed heavy. “Total wallflower. She looks like the kind of girl who should wear those thick glasses. Like she’d rather melt into the furniture. Nothing wrong with her a smile wouldn’t fix.”
“Ahh.” Georgia had smiled for him, he was sure he heard it in her voice. He didn’t think she hunched either, but maybe she did if she was nervous.
Taylor forced her face close to his. “You like confident women. Women who know who they are. She’s so not confident she keeps looking at the door as if she’s going to bolt. Do you want me to bring her over?”
