Free Where Loyalty Lies by Hannah Valentine Page B

point in drawing out the conversation.
    Gus looked up at me. “What?”
    “Tonight will be my last shift. I’m leaving Hull.” For a moment, there was silence and I could tell Gus was thinking the situation over. Eventually he cleared his throat and stood up.
    “Just going to leave us in the lurch, then?”
    “Come on, Gus, I always told you this was temporary.”
    “Eighteen months is a long time for ‘temporary’, but I suppose there isn’t much I can do.”
    A wave of sadness swept over me. Just like The Royal Oak itself, I had got so used to seeing Gus every day that I hadn’t realised how old and tired he looked. I remembered how adamant he’d been that he wasn’t going to give me a job. It had taken me five days of sitting in the pub, from when the doors opened until they closed, to convince him to give me a chance. In our own dysfunctional way, Gus and I had a good relationship. We both liked to keep our business to ourselves which made us a good team.
    “Well, I’ll have your wages ready by the end of the evening,” he said, sitting back down and starting his tapping again. That was his way of ending the conversation. No asking where I was going or why I was leaving, typical Gus.
    “Well I’d better start work, then,” I said. I hung my jacket on the coat stand and went back out to the bar.
    It had got busier since I’d arrived and for half an hour I was pulling pints. Nothing other than beer was ever ordered here. The rush was soon over and out of the corner of my eye I saw Chris approaching. I cursed under my breath and desperately looked around for a distraction but it was too late.
    “You were late again today.”
    As he spoke, I forced myself to turn and look at him straight on, a position I usually avoided to spare myself his stinking breath. He stopped a foot away from me and lit a cigarette, then proceeded to blow smoke rings at me while staring at my boobs. I briefly wondered whether I was supposed to be turned on or intimidated, but then I remembered it was my last night and decided to enjoy winding him up a little.
    “So what?” I said with a casual shrug of my shoulders.
    “Well, don’t you have anything to say, seeing as I’m the manager?”
    He always loved to throw that in my face. He took another long drag of his cigarette and this time blew the smoke directly in my face, making my eyes sting. His eyes still hadn’t left my chest.
    “You’re only the manager because I turned the job down first,” I said. I’d always wanted to tell him that but knew that, once I did, he’d be even more unpleasant. It didn’t matter now, though. I laughed at the surprised look on his face.
    “Oh, didn’t you know that?” I asked. “Well, maybe now you’ll stop acting like a jumped-up little prick.” I went to push past him but he grabbed hold of my arm. He gave a quick scan of the room to make sure nobody had heard what I’d said and then he pushed his face into mine.
    “Just watch your mouth, you stupid bitch. One more scene like that and I’ll have you fired,” he hissed.
    I smiled, “Oh, that’s right, you don’t know that either; tonight’s my last night so I’ll talk to you how I damn well like.” I wrenched my arm out of his grip and remembered how sensitive he was about his height. “And I’d tell you to stop staring at my boobs because it’s rude, but seeing as they’re eye-level for you, I’ll let you off.”
    With that I marched towards the other end of the bar. I’d been dying to say that for so long.
    I knew that, as with a lot of men, Chris was somehow drawn to me and, on the few occasions when he’d asked me out and got a flat out refusal, he’d got bitter and found futile jobs for me to do. Most of the time, I just took it because it was easier than making more trouble. Chris and I went round in a never-ending circle of him asking me out, me saying no, him spending weeks trying to humiliate me and then trying to impress me. It was easier to keep my