For a free drink you will stay

“What you girls drinking?” you suddenly get asked as one of the men stands from one of the long sofas. You and Lucy step towards the bar to join him, and moments later both find drinks thrust into your waiting hands.

“Cheers” you say as you clink your bottle with Lucy. You look around as you follow the man back to the sofas, confirming what you first thought, that there are twelve men and no woman here. “What do you think Luce, we gonna stay or not?” you whisper into her ear.

“Oh I don’t think there is any harm in staying for a couple of drinks Dani” she lets you know as she shuffles into a gap that has appeared on one of the sofas between two of the men. As you look for a seat, the man who brought your drink shifts over and creates a space for you on the second of the sofas, which you take without hesitation.

Making yourself comfortable with your drink, the conversation flows around you. By the time you are on your third drink with them, you have discovered that Mark, one of the quieter men in the group, is the one getting married in a week’s time. They are around thirty years of age, although a couple are nearer forty you are sure.

The arrival of champagne convinces you that you should stay a little longer, and by the third glass you are laughing at the slightest joke, and paying no attention to the hand that keeps finding its way onto your knee.

“So anyway girls,” the man who first asked you to join them starts, “aren’t you going to give Mark some last taste of freedom before his wife gets her claws into him.”

You look around the twelve faces that are now focused on you and Lucy, although not in a threatening way, just looks of hope that you are as game to play along as they thought you would be when they first invited you to join them.

As you consider what you could do, someone is again topping up your glass from yet another bottle of champagne that has appeared on your table. Even as you are sipping your once more full glass, you see Lucy giggling at something that has just been whispered into her ear and looking up in your direction.