“Nah. Mainly drunk teenage boys in back to front baseball caps. You’re a refreshing change, actually. Are you okay, then? Do you need…Rocky…urgently?”
“Depends what you call urgent. I’ve had a bit of a shock. I need to talk to him about it…but he probably won’t want to know.”
“Is he…are you…some relation of his?”
There was a bark of laughter, devoid of mirth. “In a way. You could say that…now. The mother of a man’s child is a relation of his, isn’t she?”
Flipp’s fist closed on the tissue, balling it up at lightning speed.
“His child?”
“Unborn.”
“Oh. Right. Yeah. That’d be a shock.” And not just for you. “I can put the kettle on if you want.”
“Oh yes, why not? Tea solves all problems, doesn’t it? Except it doesn’t. Especially the kind of problem that hangs around your neck like a millstone for eighteen years eating your time and money.”
“Babies aren’t all bad, are they? You might…want it. Or if you don’t…” She left the implication unspoken.
“I know all that. I know. But I won’t let him get away with what he’s done to me scot-free. I want him to know and I want him to pay. I’m not joining the other mothers of all the Rocky Junior bastards he’s fathered around town, moaning about maintenance at the school gates. I’m going to make damn sure he acknowledges this and accepts his responsibility.”
“Rocky Juniors? Are there many?” Flipp’s dismay was trickling down her spine like cold gravy. She felt sick.
“He’s like a one-man stud farm, darling. What’s your name, by the way?”
“Flipp.”
“Well, Flipp, I don’t know if Rocky has turned his devilish charms on to you yet, but believe me, he will. And when he does, don’t get caught out like me. Run for the hills. Run before you can’t move because he’s got you knocked up too. Get right away from him.”
Flipp was still not sure she recognised the heartless lothario being painted for her nonedification. She fidgeted with her bangles for a minute, trying to decide if it would be heartless to get rid of this unwanted visitor as soon as she humanly could.
“I don’t really know him, love,” she opened guardedly, but the girl hissed in her face, almost spitting the words.
“Don’t really know him. You’re fucking him, darling. How is that not really knowing him?”
Flipp, senses on alert, pressed herself against the back of the booth, preparing to strike if necessary. “What the fuck do you know about my sex life? Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
“You don’t need to know who I am. But you do need to know that Rocky is off-limits. Do you get me? Do you, Flipp, or whatever your name is? Eh?”
“Get out of here.” Flipp flung the little door at the side of the booth open and began to manhandle the other girl out of it, with considerable difficulty given her adversary’s stature. Coins were swept from the counter and hair pulled, then there was screaming and struggling that rose above the endless unmusical music and boom-boom of the arcade.
“Laura.”
The bundle of combined hair and teeth paused midwhirlwind, staring madly at the black leather apparition that stood glowering at them.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“Ask her.” Laura spat. “Ask your floozy.”
“I don’t know what you mean, but I think you’d better leave, don’t you?”
“She just came at me,” Flipp blurted, still shaking from the shock of it. “She says she’s pregnant.”
Laura held Rocky’s consternated gaze, level and fiery eyed.
“Yeah,” he said after a beat. “Well, call me cynical, but I think you’ll need to show me the test before I go out shopping for prams.”
“You’ll see,” said Laura, wild-eyed.