In the End

25│Bottomless Devil's Spring Vodka

Daire Van Cortlandt played by Robert Sheehan

The worst thing about my job was how it's affected my sleep schedule. Returning hope at early hours in the morning meant that I had practically become nocturnal. I would sleep in until the late afternoon and spend the whole night keeping myself busy in an empty, quiet house.

The only thing I wanted in my life to return to normal? I just wanted to go back to waking up at a normal time.

The only good thing about it?

Alexei seemed to have the same problem.

"Ok here me out," I started, "You, me, we fake our death, forge new identities, run away to Europe-"

"But I have family in Europe," Alex argued, "Trust me, there isn't a country in Europe that I can go to unrecognised."

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, we'll go to Russia."

Alex cringed, "Nope, we can't go there either. We would be killed upon entering, I've got a lifelong ban."

Pausing, I said, "Do I really want to know?"

Alexei just shook his head.

"Fine, we'll run away to... Australia?" I asked, making sure that this country was still available.

Alex counted his fingers as if going through a list before nodding, "Nope, Australia is good."

"Finally. Ok, we run away to Australia-" I had to stop, "See I haven't planned for Australia, I planned for Europe. Ok, we arrive, we open a surf shop in Bondi and spend the rest of our lives operating a part coffee part surfing joint. What do we think."

Alex leaned back, "Ok, two points here, why are we running away?"

"Why not?"

"The second point," He continued, "I can't swim, I feel like that could be a pretty big factor in our surfing dream."

"I can't surf, but I'm sure that we can make this work." I insisted, "Trust me on this-"

Alex's phone started to ring. However, the moment that he looked at it, he gave me an apologising look before picking up the phone.

"Daire, my friend, how are you?" Alex said cheerfully. As the man on the phone spoke, Alex's face fell. "I'm so sorry, yes I know I said I would come. I just forgot you know how busy the job can get. Look, it's only midnight now, how about I swing around?"

After a few moments, Alex quickly relaxed as he spared a glance to me, "Hey, would you mind if I bring a friend around? She thoroughly needs a distraction, and I know you have the liquor cabinet to do so... yes, no she is seriously my friend, trust me, you'll love her." He winked. "Yes, yes ok, I'll see you soon, bye, bye."

He hung up the phone, "How tired are you?"

"I could stay up," I said with a shrug, "Why, are we going somewhere?"

Alex stood up, nodding sheepishly, "Weeks ago my ex invited me to his birthday party, which I have obviously forgotten. I'm going to swing around and have a few drinks, party a little. Knowing him the party won't stop until sun-up. Maybe not even then."

I raised a brow, "Come on, you remember the last time we got drunk together? Sorry, I got drunk because you didn't realise how lightweight I was and I ended up throwing up my entire guts the next morning?"

He waved his hand in dismissal, "Yeah, but you can hold your alcohol much better now, and I promise I'll be drinking just as much. It's about time we had some bloody fun."