Waiting for the Night [Dalan]

Chapter 18

If Martin was human, the sheer amount of alcohol he had imbibed would have surely floored him by now. But thankfully he was still on his feet - swaying a little, perhaps, but still on his feet. He was having a blast talking to some of Dave's friends, who seemed like the funniest guys he had ever met. They were all helping themselves to Dave's tiramisu, which tasted like it had a potent amount of rum in it. Martin finished his third bowl of it, then staggered over to where Dave and Nicole were talking, slinging his arm around Dave's tattooed shoulders.

"Hey, Mart." Dave scrunched up his nose, probably at the smell of alcohol. "Wow, you sure had a lot to drink tonight, huh?"

"Yeah honey, you reek of wine," Nicole said, in her low, husky voice. She reminded Martin of a female Alan, in a way; she also had dark hair and a classic beauty about her, although her eyes were blue where Alan's were grey. "You sure you don't need to sit down?"

"I'm fine." Martin smiled happily as he rested his head on Dave's shoulder. "Nicole, can you come with me? There's someone I want you to meet."

"Sure." Nicole set down her glass of merlot, exchanging an amused glance with Dave. However, Dave didn't look too pleased. "Dave, you gonna be okay on your own?"

"Yeah, I'd better go and make sure Knox hasn't passed out somewhere," he said distractedly, and Martin chuckled.

"I'll return her in a jiffy. See you!" Taking Nicole's hand, he tugged her towards the bar where Alan was talking to Johnny, hoping that Dave wouldn't be too angry if Nicole and Alan did manage to hit it off. Maybe there had been some history between Nicole and Dave, which would explain his reluctance. Still, it didn't hurt to make new friends, right?

When Alan looked over at Martin, his eyebrows jumped. "Mart! You're so hammered!"

Johnny was staring at him. "Yeah, you're shitfaced! You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Martin tightened his arm around Nicole. "Alan, this is my friend, well actually Dave's friend, Nicole. She's a singer. You should get her to sing for your next album."

"Nice to meet you," Alan said politely, shaking her hand. "What sort of music do you sing?"

Nicole shrugged. "I don't really sing, actually. More of a spoken word thing, I guess. Reading poetry and all that."

Martin could already see Johnny's eyes glazing over, but Alan was nodding interestedly. "That's great, I've got a few spoken word CDs and was thinking of dabbling a bit in that myself."

Nicole was tilting her head as she looked at Alan with a growing, almost flirtatious smile. "Well, my style is more 'broken word' than spoken word, actually."

Martin slid over to nudge Johnny, whispering in his ear, "Hey, could you help me bring out more beer? It's running low."

It finally dawned on Johnny. "Ah, I see what you're doing, Mr Matchmaker." He winked at Martin as they quietly left Nicole and Alan to talk, heading into the storeroom to get more beer, Martin glancing over his shoulder and grinning at the sight of Alan and Nicole deep in conversation. Maybe he really was going to succeed after all.