A New York Love

Chapter 3 - Awkward Conversation

Hey guys and gals,

Chapter 3!

But hope you enjoy this chapter!

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 I knocked back my third raspberry sour. We were all sitting in a booth at The Haute and I had been drinking no-stop for the past hour. I, thankfully, wasn’t drunk yet thanks to my high alcohol resistance but I was nearly there and I think the others were staring to notice.

Last night after I got home from work I just collapsed from emotional exhaustion onto my bed, only to be awoken by my heart hammering into my chest and my whole body glistening with sweat. I dreamt about that night, the same dream I had continuously for months after the accident. And for the first time in three years I pulled out my beloved necklace with my ring on.

I was wearing it tonight under my dress. It always calmed me down when I’d had that dream.

I felt for the small indent at the base of my neck where its cold metal was sitting on my skin but hidden under the fabric of my dress.

The only one of my friends around the table that knew about my past was Greg. He was the friendly face I clung to before Brook and Chaz came in my second year of working over here. One night, Greg was at mine, he’d come over to help me move in with Hannah. We were watching TV waiting for Han to get back from picking up our take away, when the lead’s boyfriend had confessed to cheating on her and with the accident still fresh in my mind I had burst into tears and told him everything. He didn’t judge me or tell me that is was ok, even though he’d known me little over a year he knew that wasn’t what I wanted to hear. He just hugged me and put me to bed, saying that he would tell Han I wasn’t feeling well.

“Hey Ellie? Don’t you think you should slow down a bit?” That was Chaz after my fourth shot.

“Chaz just because you can’t handle alcohol doesn’t mean that everyone else can’t.” Yes, I was being a bitch tonight, partly because of the alcohol, but honestly I didn’t care. The only break I have from work was being taken away from me just because some idiotic bastard at work had gotten the dates wrong.

“Ouch Ellie, who gave you the bitch pills?” When Chaz said that Greg hit him on the arm. Hard.

“Hey! What the fuck Greg?!”

“Would you just shut up and leave her alone already?” I had rang Greg to meet at lunch on Friday and told him that my holiday leave got mixed up. He knew about my yearly trips and even surprised me one year when he rang me, telling me to pick him up from the airport. The introductions to my family were awkward to say the least. My Nan, bless her, asked if he was my boyfriend and if we were having safe sex! To which my brother flipped and said that if Greg hurt me he would fly over and ‘have words with him’, basically beat him up to put it bluntly. It was only after my hysterical laughter had died down and Greg’s face had returned to its normal colour, that I told them that he was just a friend.

“You ok babe? You’ve been drinking more than normal.” Brook brought me out of my reverie.

“Yeah, fine. Just pissed about my time off, that’s all.”

“At least you’ll be able to spend the time with John, Nat and the kids.”

“Or as we like to call them, the Muggle-Wump Monkeys!” Tony pipes up, he’s always been great with the kids and even gets along with my brother. I always say it’s because he’s the oldie of the group, at thirty-four he’s a closer age to my brother than the other guys.