The drinks certainly do

As they continued to speak that evening time passed with a surprising speed. Emma checked her phone, there had not bern another message from Tom since the last, but she did not want to add pressure to reply to her if he was still working.

She sipped her drink, the third that she had had since entering the hotel bar. Liam was sipping his effervescent lager while she enjoyed her coke and coconnut rum. She spied a few familiar faces coming in and out of the bar area. Some of Carrie's family, some old friends, but she never got up from her table to say hi.

From their table by the window they could see out onto the hotels lawn, in the darkness it faded away, lit only by light spilling out from the room they were in.

Liam asked after her family, she was touched by the little things he remembered. Like the way her dad would take his coffee, or that her mum crotched. Emma in turn asked after his family, recalling his sisters love of playing pranks on him.

"She still does that, but less often now. She's busier, at Uni in Wales now" he said.

"Is she enjoying it? I loved our uni days" she replied.

"Reliving it tonight it seems, me and you together in a pub. Im sure we did used to do some studying right?" He laughed. She laughed too.

"Fat lot of good my degree did me though" Emma opined "I studied history but now ended up in a job nothing to do with it".

Liam gave a sympathetic look. "Why didn't you go into a job in History?" he asked her.

"Well I met Tom and just ended up being better to work and get money for the moment" she explained "then we have just been trundling along."

"What's stopping you going to look for a new job now? Could he support you?" Liam asked innocently.