Fit For Purpose by Julian Parrott (novels for students .TXT) 📕

Tom raised an eyebrow.

“Strong woman that one,” the landlord finished and went to serve another party goer.

Tom took the drinks to the small table. He looked over at Goldenboy, his eyes met the actor’s and Tom held the stare until the actor looked away with a contrived smirk. Nia followed Tom’s stare.

“Nothing to worry about there, darlin’,” Nia said with a sweet smile.

“I hear he tried it on,” Tom said, matter-of-factly.

“Yeah, but I can handle myself,” Nia said and took a long drink from her wine glass. She reached over the small, round iron topped table and grasped Tom’s hand.

“Nothing to worry about there, darlin’,” repeated Nia. “Nor anywhere else actually. I’m a one Tom woman.”

Tom laughed. “I’m very glad to hear it,” he said with a full smile.

They both took long drinks simultaneously.

“I’m so glad you came,” Nia said. “I was missing you something awful.”

Nia smiled shyly with her honesty and vulnerability. It was something she would have buried deeply before Tom. Almost no one who knew Nia thought of her as vulnerable.

The small karaoke stage began to attract some more interest. One of the film shoot’s steady-cam operators had started to belt out an off key and drunken rendition of ‘Mac the Knife’ in a strong West Midlands accent. Nia went to the bar and the landlord poured another round. The steady-cam operator began ‘I’ve Got you Under my Skin’ as Nia deposited the glasses of wine and cider at their table and then went over to the karaoke area to use the system’s laptop to search for a song. She returned to the table grabbed her wine, took a long pull and smiled.

“What have you done?” Tom asked.

“A surprise,” Nia replied.

Nia waited for the Black Country Sinatra to finish, took another gulp of her wine and went to the karaoke stage. She took the mic out of its stand as her music started.

Already some of the cast and crew began to watch her. Tom barely recognised the opening bars of the song, Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Sad Eyes’, but then remembered Nia had mentioned it as one of her favourites.

Nia had dropped her voice into a lower range and sang beautifully, imbuing the lyrics with personal meaning. She swayed in a simple side to side, two step movement and closed her eyes when she hit the high notes of the song’s chorus. Tom’s breath caught in his throat.

Nia had captured Tom’s gaze. He was smiling as broadly as a circus clown. They were aware only of each other. No one in the room spoke, most eyes were on Nia. A few eyes were cast in Tom’s direction. Goldenboy looked at Tom. The actor telegraphed hatred towards Tom.

Goldenboy hated the way Tom looked at Nia, hated his smile, hated the way Nia responded. But, most of all, he hated the surprise wave of envy that gripped him. Nia had never publicly and transparently expressed her feeling for him the way she was doing for Tom. He stared daggers at Tom.

Nia ended her song to rapturous applause, whistles, and shouts for encores. She blushed a little and giggled as she made her way over to Tom’s table. Tom stood and they hugged, and Nia kissed him full on the lips, her eyes closed. The crowd applauded again, and wolf-whistled. Tom flushed as they sat down.

“That,” he said, “was brilliant.”

“The kiss or the song?” Nia replied her dark eyes glowing.

“Both.”

Tom leant over the table and kissed Nia again. When they broke the kiss, Goldenboy was standing at the table.

“Nia, babe, why don’t you introduce me to your guy?” Goldenboy asked in his plummy accent.

Nia knew his smile was phoney but smiled sweetly back.

“This is Tom.”

“Hi Tom, so how long have you known Nia then?”

Tom didn’t like the way Goldenboy’s questions sounded like orders and he certainly didn’t like him referring to Nia as babe.

“Oh, for a few months now,” Tom replied unsmiling. He caught Nia’s eye to see if he could read her thoughts. He could tell she was nervous as she leaned forward in her chair with her hands together.

“You know she was my wife for a couple of years and girlfriend for a lot longer than that?” Goldenboy’s words were beginning to slur a little. Nia looked into his eyes wondering whether he was high or drunk, or both.

“Yes, I’m aware of that,” Tom replied. “Quite some time ago though,” he added with a fake smile along with a hard stare, eyes like flint. “More like a lifetime ago, I believe, wasn’t it?”

Goldenboy smiled broadly, “Yeah, but you never forget your first true love, though do you? Do you Nia?” He moved towards the bar before Nia could respond.

Nia looked at Tom and reached over for his hand.

“Wanker,” she said, and Tom nodded in agreement.

Goldenboy returned from the bar with two bottles of red wine. He stopped at the table and put one bottle down.

“Looks like you still like your vino eh Nia?” Nia nodded apprehensively. “Here’s a bottle on me. More for Tom than you babe.” He turned to face Tom, “She’s an animal in the sack after a few wines have been taken, in case you haven’t found that out yet.”

Tom stood, immediately shifting weight to respond to any movement from Goldenboy. Tom clenched his fists but kept them down at his sides and took half a step towards the actor. Nia stood and moved quickly to Tom’s side. She noticed his eyes had darkened and his jaw had clenched. She put her hand on his arm and felt his body rigid and taught. Tom stared deep into Goldenboy’s eyes.

“I think you’d better fuck off now,” Tom said slowly and quietly and almost in a growl.

Goldenboy stood for a moment, mouth half