Since I Saw Him Last: A Gary Barlow Fanfic

Chapter Twenty Eight

It was Thursday, the day Charlotte and I would be double dating Mark and Gary. I've known Charlotte for most of my life but we'd never done anything like this before. Sure, we had attended social occasions together with boyfriends but this was the first time we'd be going on a date, just the two of us, with our very sexy boyfriends. I wore a dress to work; I don't usually wear dresses to work unless I'm going out somewhere after. That morning, I received a call from Elizabeth, "Why are you phoning me Liz?" I asked her. "Dave's lurking. I don't want him to see us chatting," she whispered. "He's not deaf you know, his office is only metres away. He's always earwigging my conversations." She looked over at me and smiled, "Why are you wearing a dress today, got a hot date?" Elizabeth teased. "What's it to you?" I hissed. "Oh, calm down Natasha. It was only a question. I'm taking your defensive reply as a yes!" She giggled. I felt someone walk up behind me; from the corner of my eye I could see it was Dave. "Yes madam. Sorry for the delay with the letter. We will endeavour to get that to you as soon as possible." I pretended to talk to a customer. I looked up at Elizabeth who had her hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing. I could see Ellie looking over at us wondering what the commotion was about. "Thank you for your patience, goodbye." I put the phone down; Dave snarled at me, "Customer was it? Funny how their name comes up on your phone, seems to have the same name as Elizabeth over there." He looked up to glare at Elizabeth. Elizabeth turned around. "I've had enough with you and your little clique. Why can't you just do as you're told?" Dave shouted at me. "Dave, with all due respect, I don't know why you're talking to us like we're school kids. We're adults; maybe if you treated us as such we'd actually respect you. I'm a good worker and all you do is give me grief, I can never win with you. I would like to get on with my work now." I avoided his stare, I swivelled my chair to face my computer screen. Well, for someone not so outspoken, that was pretty outspoken! The office was full of applause. Dave straightened up his jacket and walked off in a huff. I could see Ellie give me a thumbs up at the other end of the office. "Good on you Natasha, he deserved it." Elizabeth shouted over to me. I think dating Gary, oddly enough, has given me a confidence boost.

Finally, it was the end of the day, I looked at myself in my pocket mirror to check my make up was in place. I put on my 24 hour stay lipstick, neon pink this time, and made sure my eyeliner hadn't smudged. Perfect. My pocket mirror made a snapping sound as I closed it shut. I made my way out of the office, Elizabeth followed behind and caught up to walk alongside me, "Definitely going on a date with that lippy. You look hot." She smiled at me. "Thanks Liz." I smiled back at her sheepishly. "Still not going to tell me what you have planned?" I gave her a sideways glance, "Fine. I'm meeting up with my friend Charlotte now at The Butterfly Bar. Then we'll be meeting Gary and Mark at SOS, we have a reservation for 7pm." Her eyes widened, "I still can't believe I'm like only one degree of separation from Gary. You girls are in for a treat, you need a 'key' to get into SOS. And it's not cheap. I hope you have fun." She gave me a hug and we went our separate ways.

Charlotte was sat at a table in The Butterfly Bar, she'd already bought the first round of cocktails. "You finished work early?" I said as I hugged her. "I had time owing to me so I popped back home to get changed. You know how dingy I can look in my work clothes." I rolled my eyes with a slight smile. "So, one thing we haven't discussed is the photo Mark posted Friday night. Did you see the response?" "Yep, comments and likes are still coming in as we speak. It's crazy." I replied. "Tash, do you think we'll get noticed soon?" Charlotte said excitedly. "I hope not. I can't deal with the hysteria." I sipped my cocktail. "What you talking about? Don't you want the world to know you're dating Gary? I know I want every man and his dog to know I'm dating Markie." Charlotte was more flamboyant than me. "You do realise there's a very high chance our photo will be taken by paparazzi tonight. And once our face is plastered everywhere in the press, our lives are never going to be the same. We're going to be hounded and questioned everywhere we go. I've already had Elizabeth and Ellie at work giving me the Spanish inquisition." I spoke so fast that I had to take a deep breath. "How apt!" Charlotte winked at me, I was half Spanish so she liked the pun. "You need to stop worrying hun. You and Gary, I can tell, are in it for the long haul. You're going to be papped and hounded eventually. Why does it matter if it happens sooner rather than later?" I shrugged at Charlotte and sipped some more of my drink. I need this alcohol to take me over, my nerves are getting the better of me already. "What you think about Stef and Jay?" I asked. "Lush. Oh my God. They're even cuter than you and Gary. They're both sweethearts. She text Zoe saying they did go on their Yoga date. We'll have to question her about it this weekend sometime." Charlotte said. I nodded, "And Vicky, she doesn't hold back." I said wide eyed. "I know, I knew that was going to happen even before they met." "Yes, because you planned it Charlotte!" "Tash, you can't plan chemistry. It's natural, pheromones and all that stuff." She giggled, "I think we should now help Zoe and Dougie." "I wish you wouldn't meddle Charlie. Just like you said with Vicky, if there's an attraction, it'll happen naturally. Out of everyone, Zoe is the one person who I don't want getting hurt, she's a fragile person. As much as I like Howard, he's known to be a bit of a player. We shouldn't push them together, we should let them be." I could tell Charlotte was weighing up what I'd just said, "Yeah, I suppose you're right." I'd already finished my drink, "My round, want another?" I asked Charlotte. "I haven't finished my first one yet, but go on. Why are you drinking so fast? You don't want to be falling all over the place coming out of SOS later," she lectured. "I'm frigging nervous that's why." I said shortly. "Why are you nervous?" Charlotte asked dismissively. "I'll tell you after I get the drinks."