The 18th Floor

Chapter Twenty Three

"Bingo?", I ask turning to face Lucien.

"Am I to truly believe this was planned by you and not Abbi?", Reid asks too.

Lucien just shrugs laughing as he holds the door open for all of us, falling into a step behind me. We're guided over to our table with bingo sheets and markers. The place is full of colours and sounds. There is a stage in the middle with tables lined up around it. Disco balls hanging from the ceilings with flashing lights and music playing. It's set up like any club you can imagine except a few minutes later a drag queen comes onto the stage.

I squeal with excitement.

"I love bingo", I say to nobody in particular. The table has benches rather than chairs, so I've occupied a place at the head of the table. Simon is sat to my left and Lucien on my right, with Abbi next to him and Reid next to Simon.

"Let's see if you still love it when I win and you don't", Simon jokes.

"I'll run over your toes before you can shout bingo", I threaten back and hear Lucien laughing.

He puts his hands up, "I'm not involved", in surrender to not having his shoes ruined.

The drag queen explains the rules of the game, nothing any different than usual bingo; first to fill a row gets a prize and first to fill the whole box gets a prize. Except for that fact that she dances and sings to every number called, and the poor people who win also have to do the same.

I take my phone out to video of her and send it to dad; I know he would be having the time of his life here right now. There's another table in front of us so I can't get the best video, when suddenly Lucien reaches out his hand to me and says, "here, let me take it."

I hand him my phone and he stand up to take a video. I start laughing, "you don't need to be that extra", I say.

"Be quiet", he says back smiling, and then he turns to me and says, "let me take a picture." He takes a photo of me and Simon, and then the whole table of us and then asks some from the table behind to take a photo of all of us. I put my hand out to take my phone back, but he takes it off the stranger before me and switches the phone to selfie mode. I suddenly find my face and his reflecting back on my phone screen.

"Smile, Cyrene", he says as he looks to me and then looks back to my phone. I do as he says.

Still taken back from his unexpected photography expedition. He locks my phone and hands it back to me.

The rest of the bingo goes by in a blur, with none of us winning anything, which doesn't disappoint any of us because the prizes weren't that great but we spent most of the night laughing anyway. It's 10pm by the time the game ends and Abbi leaves shortly after saying her husband is probably exhausted looking after the baby and complains about how useless men are. I laugh and hug her bye, wishing her an early Christmas and New Year's.

Reid took the unlimited tab a bit too far and by the last game was passed out on the table. Simon and Lucien haul him into an Uber, with Simon texting Reid's flatmate to help him get out the car whilst apologising to the cab driver, even though he fell back asleep as soon as they put him in.

"Well," Lucien begins rubbing the back of his neck after he closes the door to Reid's cab, "I did have another bar planned but I didn't think everyone would jump off this quickly. We can head over there if you like... or head to my place for drinks?"

Simon isn't completely wasted either, but says he would rather fall asleep on Lucien's sofa than a bar table. I agree with going to Lucien's house. I feel like I shouldn't but he offered it up and I'd rather not hop from bar to bar.