Fireflies by David Menon Read Free Book Online Page A

banal Ellie Goulding piece of crap going burn, burn, fucking burn all the time? She reached out from underneath the darkness and realised she was in a bed. It wasn’t her bed. So whose was it? She had to go into a semi fight with the duvet to get the thing from being wrapped round her like a fucking python. She opened a bleary eye and reached out for where she could see her phone vibrating on the bedside table but her hand fell short. A bedside table? That was a bit domestic for the men she liked to go with. Rough and ready types who showed a girl a good time was what she was partial to and they tended to have a bed in the bedroom and not much else.
    She could barely remember being in that last bar and looking at her watch seeing it was after half past two. That last vodka and coke had been a mistake. She could feel something beside her. Something was breathing. This was no good. Thirty-three years old and waking up in someone’s bed with a hangover from hell and having no idea where she was. It had got to stop.
    ‘Are you going to get that fucking phone?’
    The voice was aggressive but female. Oh no, thought Sharon. When was she going to learn that if she couldn’t find a man to get off with she shouldn’t fall for the charms of the nearest lesbian. She’d always had a bit of a lesbian fan club. It came from her being slightly on the butch side but she wasn’t a lesbian or even just a little bit bisexual. She liked men. She just couldn’t find one with a bed with a table beside it.
    ‘Sorry’ croaked Sharon. She edged further towards the end of the bed and this time managed to grab the phone to her ear.
    ‘Sharon?’
    ‘Get your arse down here pronto’.
    ‘Oh good morning to you, Ken’.
    ‘You were supposed to be here ninety minutes ago. I can’t keep covering for you, Sharon. I don’t care where you are or what state you’re in. Get yourself here. I’ve got a job for you’.
    Sharon pressed the end call button and rubbed her face. Ken was a good sort. Shame he was old enough to be her Dad and had been happily married for thirty years. He was just the kind of man she needed because he took no crap from her and told her in no uncertain terms when she was out of order. This was another morning in a long line of mornings when she felt like shit. She’d get through it. She wondered what kind of job he had for her. Bless him. Even though she gave him so much bother he did tend to give her some juicy stuff to do.
    ‘I think you should go now, please’ said the woman next to her as she got out of bed and walked round to the door in the corner. Sharon could see she was quite a fit looking bird with shoulder length red hair and big well defined tits that were much better than her own.
    ‘I’m sorry if I passed out’.
    ‘I don’t mind you passing out. What I mind is you using me for sex tourism. You were useless in bed. I might’ve known you weren’t gay’.
    ‘Could you tell me where I am?’
    ‘You’re in the northern quarter a couple of blocks from Piccadilly gardens’ said the woman before disappearing into the bathroom and slamming the door shut behind her.
    ‘I suppose a coffee is out of the question?’ Sharon shouted. Her request was greeted with silence. ‘I’ll take that as a no then’.
     
     
    FIREFLIES FIVE
    Jeff got himself showered and dressed before seeing to Toby and preparing breakfast whilst his son was watching the cartoon channel on their TV set in the kitchen diner. They both had toast with cheese spread on and whilst Toby went for coco pops, Jeff made himself the kind of instant porridge that you just add boiling water to. Toby had a cup of Chinese tea which he’d really taken to after his grandparents had introduced him to it and Jeff had a mug of earl grey with a slice of lemon. As they sat around the breakfast table talking and consuming Jeff was acutely aware, as he always is, of who was missing. It was as if there was an empty space in every room of the house since