The Show

Short Story by Poppy Leverington

“What ya having?” Dan asks, leaning over the grimy bar.

Ted ponders the different taps before saying, “Guinness please, fella”

The bartender stood beside the till approaches the bar where the two are stood.

Dan gains his attention, “Hiya, yeah. Can we have two pints of Guinness please”.

“Yep,” the bartender nods and begins pouring.

After a moment of silence, Ted asks, “So, Been up-to much?”.

Dan purses his lips and looks up whilst shaking his head. “Not really, I’ve been trying to get out on my bike more whilst it’s sunny”.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, other than that, not much really. You?”

“Na same really, just…”

The bartender places down the first drink and holds out a card machine. Dan scrambles for his wallet and taps his card against the end of the reader. It beeps.

“Thanks” the bartender says holding a thumbs up.

“Cheers, mate” Ted brings the glass to his face and presses the foam into his top lip for a drink. The bartender tops up the last pint of Guinness before handing it to Dan who says to Ted, “No problem, I owed you a round anyway”.

“But yeah” Ted licks the white foam from his lip, “nothing much has been going on”.

“No? how’s Jess?”

“She’s fine, yeah. She should be here soon. She’s started watching the series following that guy Dex from the show. She’s obsessed with him. Anything with him in and she watches it instantly”.

“Oh yeah, Liz prefers Nick”

“Oh I hate that guy”

“Oh, I’m with you there” Dan chuckles, raising his glass in cheers.

“So, it was called The Show?” The journalist asks, she’s sat down in Ted’s living room. Butter his cat is purring as he rests beside her. She strokes butter every so often and he reaches his head up in a grateful gesture when she does. She can’t help but smile as he does so.