“Nah, I’ve had too many pints for that. I do need a piss though.” Ronnie wandered off towards the gents by the tourist information centre, leaving Alle and Paul behind.
“Think he’ll be all right?”
“Don’t stare at any strange dicks in there,” Paul hollered to him, earning himself a two fingered salute. “He’ll be fine. Reckon your man’s waited up?”
“Not sure.” Spook’s sleep cycle was unpredictable. “It’s 50/50, I reckon, whether he’s waiting up or sleepy and snuggly.”
“Wouldn’t say no to either of those things,” Paul mused.
“You make it sound like Paul the eternal nomad is contemplating settling down.”
“Nah.” He gave her a friendly push. “Just busting for a shag. A really fucking good shag. Don’t suppose you and Spook are looking for an extra body in the bedroom?”
They weren’t. Leastways, she wasn’t, and Spook had Xane if he wanted to engage in extracurricular activities. “I think leaving it at the one time is probably best. I love you, Paul, but—.”
“I know, he’s good for shagging you silly these days. No surrogate knobs needed. Well, fuck it. Looks like the wanking hand is getting another work out.”
“That is too much info even to share with your bestest friend.”
“That right, bestie?”
She nodded at him while grinning so hard she worried the cold sea wind might fix her expression. “Right or left hand for getting off?”
“Right.” He held up his hand. “You?”
She flopped against the grass but raised her right arm. “Also right, but mostly just two fingers rather than the whole hand. Actually, mostly just one finger, but I alternate which one.”
“Uh, huh, that right. And Spook?”
“You testing my intimate knowledge of my life mate?” She thought for a moment. “Right. Doesn’t everyone just use their dominant hand?”
“Dunno. Maybe so. Bushie, which hand do you wank with?”
Now on his way back from the Gents, Ronnie froze still a few yards away from them and raised both hands in bewilderment. “Um. Shit! Both. Maybe. Yeah. Both. Fuck, where’s my doughnut?” He raised his hand to his head, then swirled around looking for it.
“Right here,” Alle laughed. She was sitting on it. “How much longer do you think?”
“Twenty minutes until it’s crossable by car,” Ronnie informed her. “It said so on the information board. We can probably walk it a bit before that if we don’t mind getting our feet wet.”
When they rocked up on the shore of Liddell Island again, Spook sat waiting for them on the roof of Blackwater’s restaurant, nestled between the neon letters and the strings of faerie lights. He looked as if he’d been settled there for some time given the collection of empty beer bottles around him.
“How the fuck did you even get up there?” Alle asked him, peering up the side of the building to where his feet now dangled over the edge.
“Levitated.”
Something she suspected might be a bat swooped overhead, causing her to duck. “Please come down.”
“Yeah, all right.”
“We’re gonna head home.” Paul clapped a hand on her shoulder, then pressed a kiss to her temple. “Night babe.”
“Night. Night, Ronnie.”
The two rogues headed off along the coastal path towards the cottages and the recording studio. Meanwhile, Spook landed beside her, raising a puff of dust.
“That was too fucking high to get down from like that.”
“Except it wasn’t.” He gave her a pat on the bum. “Ready for home, you dirty stop out?”
