Free That Friday by Karl Jones

he was almost as old as Tess was
then, that he'd taken up drinking, a vice brought on by a combination of
situations involving a former lover of his. One such situation had brought to
the forefront of his thoughts the long suppressed memories of what his father
had done. The other had been the discovery that during their time together Sam
had become pregnant with, and then lost, a child that was almost certainly his.
    During pauses in Tess' stories he
told a few of his own, which only served to remind him of just how boring he
had been as a teen and made him hope that she wouldn't decide he was still
boring and leave him for someone more exciting and interesting.
    They were so engrossed in the
exchange of stories, more on Tess' part than Charlie's, that the arrival of
their dinner surprised them. Neither was sure if the food had been prepared
quickly or if they had been talking for ages, not that it mattered much to
them.
    The stories continued over dinner,
with Tess secretly pleased that for once she wasn't the 'quiet' one at the
table. Her stories made her life seem more exciting than it had been. She'd had
to be home before midnight, even after she finished school, which meant she'd
had to catch the last bus, getting home hours before her curfew on some
occasions because the buses left her with no other choice. Because of that she
had never truly been able to party the way her friends had, and she had not
been properly drunk.
    Soon enough, the food was
finished, as were their drinks, and they sat together in silence, finally, for
a short while to let their food go down. The silence, the longest that had
fallen between them since the train station, was both comfortable and
comforting, with neither of them feeling the need to fill it unnecessarily.
    "Do you fancy another
drink?" Charlie asked finally. He was thirsty, and wanted another drink,
perhaps more, to help him relax and fully enjoy the evening, but didn't want to
seem too eager with his drinking. He knew Tess knew all about his drinking, and
how bad it had been in the past, and didn't want her to think he was back to
his old, bad, habits.
    The nervousness Tess had been
keeping hidden as best she could was wearing on her a little and she was only
too happy to have another. In earnest she nodded. "Yes please, vodka and
coke again, if that's alright."
    "Of course," Charlie
said with a smile, amused that she thought it might not be. "Shall we play
some pool when I've got the drinks?"
    "Sure, I'll take our stuff
over to the tables and start setting up." Tess grabbed up her jacket and
handbag as she spoke, wanting to get to the vacant pool table before anyone
else stole it.
    It didn't take long for him to get
their drinks and make it to the pool table, where he found Tess idly hitting
the cue ball up and down the table. "I thought you were going to set
up?" he said as he handed her her drink.
    "I was," she smiled,
"but then I decided I'd leave it to you," she told him. "I've
never been much good at setting the balls up; I never remember the right way to
put them in the frame."
    "Me neither," Charlie
admitted. "I've been shown loads of times but I'm never quite sure I've
done it right." That said, he set the rack on the table and began loading
the red and yellow balls into it. Once they were all in the rack, with the back
ball next to it, he began re-arranging them, trying hard to remember how he had
been taught to set them up. Finally, he stepped back from the table; he thought
he had the balls arranged properly but after a moment he decided it didn't
really matter, they only wanted to have some fun.
    "Would you care to
break?" he asked, joining Tess at the other end of the table.
    Tess shook her head with a smile.
"You break. I'm lousy at it."
    "Okay." Charlie picked
up the two cues at the side of Tess and weighed them in his hand. When he had
decided which of them felt best, he returned to the table, where he bent to
line up his shot.
    Her drink in hand, Tess moved
around