Shadows of the World » Band of Brothers

29: The Cloud Not the Storm

"I saw the Cloud, though I did not foresee the Storm." - Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders

-

"Penny! I'm tryin' so hard to be serious for once and you're fuckin' laughin' at me! Unbelievable," George ranted with feigned agitation whilst Juliette tried desperately (with limited success) to stop giggling. The pair of them were already more than a few drinks in and Jules' attempts to train George in the art of wooing women had them both in fits of giggles at alternating times, making it exceedingly difficult to actually get anything done.

"Right. No, right. I'm okay. I'm not laughing anymore. Okay." Jules sucked in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and nodded to herself as though affirming her sobriety, before she began again. "Okay, so you're going to go up there and just introduce yourself, okay? Just - George!"

This time it was George's turn to burst into hysterics, and Jules quickly dissolved into giggles herself despite the lack of anything particularly worthy of such a reaction.

When their laughter subsided Juliette had to purse her lips to maintain seriousness. "We seriously need to hurry this up, George, I've needed a new drink for about half an hour."

George laughed. "Yeah, me too. So I'll go up to her and -" he broke off laughing once more, but to his credit sobered himself up relatively quickly, before continuing on as though nothing had happened, "I'll tell her my name and ask her how she's doin'."

The giggles were back. As soon as she broke so did George.

"It's not even that funny," Juliette choked out between laughs, which only made the pair of them laugh harder. They eventually calmed down, their giggles fizzling out into sighs and breaths to regain composure.

"Right. Ask her how she is. That's good. Then what?"

"Just have a normal conversation as if I was talkin' to you. No pick up lines, no gimmicks, no obvious flirtin'."

"Perfect!" Jules exclaimed with a clap of her hands. "And remember that when she replies you should be able to gauge whether or not she's interested. If she's not interested just order and leave her alone but if you think she is then you can ramp up the flirting. But not too much! Remember what I said!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't come on too strong, I got it," George replied with faux-exasperation before Juliette nodded with a grin. She placed both hands on his shoulders and levelled him with a suddenly serious expression, which he met with the same level of intensity; they were both taking this very seriously all of a sudden. "George, you've got this. Go and blow her away."

George closed his eyes and inclined his head to her in a display of esteemed respect for his teacher before turning and heading straight for the bar like a man on a mission. Juliette watched from behind Bull's back, using him as a shield so she wouldn't be caught spying. A proud glint formed in her eyes when she saw the barmaid, Mary, smile at what George had said and say something relatively lengthy in reply.

"Yes!" she cheered quietly. She then turned and resolved to leave them to it, even though she regrettably still didn't have a drink.

"Hey, sweetheart! You done lecturin'?" a voice which so obviously belonged to Bill Guarnere called out. She spun to face him with a look of mock sympathy.

"Don't worry, Bill, I can give you lessons as well if you want?"

Joe Toye, who was beside him, laughed, in the face of which Jules shot him a grin. Bill rolled his eyes.

"I'd love some, 'cept there ain't nothin' you can teach me that I don't already know," Bill replied with a smirk, slinging an arm over her shoulders. Jules giggled.