Chapter 10

"Bella?" Adam asked a girl holding a red rose outside the small Chinese restaurant in the town centre and she nodded.

"Adam?" she asked with a girly giggle and held her hand out for Adam to take.

"Shall we?" Adam asked, and when she nodded chivalrously opened the door to the bright restaurant. "We have a reservation, name of Adam Hodson," he asked the waitress who ushered them to a small table in the window of the eerily quiet restaurant.

"Bloody quiet," his date muttered and Adam shrugged.

"'Tween Christmas and New Year," he told her with a grin and took her coat to put on the coat-stand behind him. Bella's eyes twinkled as he sat down and he looked her up and down.

Bella was a big girl; not fat, or at least not very fat but big. She had long brown hair that stretched below her shoulders and sparkling brown eyes, as well as a cheeky smile that oozed playfulness rather than seduction. Adam's eyes glanced down to her cleavage, Bella was big-breasted and she shook her head as his eyes flicked down. "40FF," she announced loudly and shrugged. "Every guy wants to know how big me assets are."

Adam spluttered and passed her a menu; her breasts was almost straining at the tight lycra like red material of her red dress that was emblazoned with a red heart in the middle. "I wasn't going to ask," Adam admitted truthfully.

Bella spluttered. "Yeah right. Ya were," she said confidently. "But ya know I don't ask how big ya cock is on a first date. But you ask how big my tits are." Adam stared open mouthed at the girl who laughed as she spoke and then buried her face into the menu.

Adam could smell alcohol on her breath and knew that she had been drinking before meeting him but scanned the menu and waited for his date to make her mind. Bella was too busy moaning about the injustices in life. "Cause, if I shag a hundred blokes it's all slut this and loose cow. But if you shagged a hundred lasses, it's well done mate, jack the lad and all that. It ain't right."

Adam peered at her over the top of the menu. "What dya want love?"

"Love?" Bella giggled and looked at the list. "Pint of lager."

Adam ordered two pints of beer and sat back as they ordered when the drinks came. Bella took one sip and then continued drinking, downing two thirds of her drink in one go. "Thirsty?"

"Drier than a Nun's chuff my throat," Bella announced and sighed. "Did twelve coaches today. Me back's killin'." She stretched in her chair, and leant forward and she pushed her bum into the corner her seat, affording Adam an excellent view down the top of her dress. "Hey, you've barely touched it."

"Yeah," Adam told her. "I was ummm ... well I ain't planning to do a session tonight."

Bella snorted and held onto her glass. "So Nat says you got a bike and work in a factory."

"Yeah," Adam told her. "We make security products – alarms and stuff." He waited for a moment and looked at her. "Nat said you worked on the coaches."

"Yeah, as a cleaner. Crap job but pays the bills."

Adam shrugged and she rubbed her eyes, finishing the last of her beer and ordering another one when the waiter asked what they wanted to order. "So go on," he told her. "What else?"

Bella shrugged. "No boyfriends for six months. Last one Pete. He was a dirty bugger." Adam looked around the small restaurant and was a little embarrassed as two women turned to look in his direction at him and his date, who was bellowing instead of chatting. "Always wanted it up the shitter. I mean I ain't gonna get knocked up back there, but it ain't right doing it in public."

Adam gasped and she snorted. "I mean, I've had a few one-night stands since then, who hasn't? Ya know everything they say about black blokes is true."

Adam nodded. "Right?"

"Yeah, and men with big feet." She giggled as a few people turned to look at the obscene girl. She drank half the glass of beer, her hands shaking and put the drink down. "However, that Pete, he nicked from me. Stole money from my purse. And he was always banging on 'bout me and callin' me stuff. Mean, I fixed his car for him. Paid tons of money to get some belt fixed or owt and he fucks off."

She took a few more gulps of her drink and put it down on the table with a start. "And as for work. Well Nat is a right demanding cow. She always on at me as well. I've 'ad to stay behind for six nights this month and I ain't had any extra cash for it. She's a mean fuckin' bitch and I know she's ya friend and all that, but fuck me, she could screw over a Jew."

Adam pursed his lips and Bella clicked her fingers at the waiter. "Same again, love," she told him and finished her pint of beer and passed him the glass.

The waiter clicked his heels together. "Certainly Madam," he told her and Bella leant forward and look into Adam's eyes, passing wind loudly as she did.

"Hey, better out than in," she said with a smirk. "Ahh dain't tell me that ya ain't dropped one in public."

Adam blushed and she rocked back on her chair, giggling. "Once or twice," he admitted and Bella thanked the waiter as he put a third drink in front of her.

Adam was a little surprised when their starter arrived so quickly but Bella tucked into the meal, shovelling the spring rolls into her mouth and washing them down with a pint of beer.

She staggered to the toilet and returned a few minutes, sitting down and clapping her hands. "Oi," she yelled across the restaurant and held out her glass as Adam slid down in his chair. "Same again, Pedro."

Bella was loud as she openly discussed private matters candidly and without any measure of discretion. Adam was getting embarrassed and already had heard how her previous boyfriend never made her climax; it was too much information to broadcast around the small restaurant on a first date.

Adam rolled his eyes and was, again, surprised how quickly his meal arrived. They seemed to have been served before most of the other diners and Bella picked up the chopsticks. "I am well good with these," she told him and sized up a piece of beef on her plate.

She brought the two sticks either side of the meat and raised it higher, before one of the sticks slipped and she managed to flick a piece of beef across the dining area so it hit a woman a few feet away. "Sorry," Bella called out. "Got a faulty chopstick."

Adam held his hand over his mouth, laughing at Bella who giggled at the annoyed face of the woman. "Faulty chopstick?" Bella nodded. He picked up the chopstick and drove it into a piece of beef, holding it up as if it was a lollipop stick. "See?"

Bella tried to do the same but she drove her stick into the meat and then brought it up to her face, flicking the stick with a flourish. The grey piece of meat left her stick and Adam, desperate to catch it, knocked the waiter into the unoccupied table next to him. "Sorry," Adam muttered as the young waiter got to his feet and Bella burst into uncontrollable laughter.

For the first time, Adam was enjoying himself and Bella smiled at him as she swapped her chopstick for a fork and began stuffing the food into her mouth. She certainly had a bit of trouble with her hand-to-eye coordination and Adam finished long before she did.

"Need slash," she told him as she got up and Adam watched as she staggered towards the toilets at the bottom of the restaurant. Adam shook his head and stretched; Bella wasn't an awful date companion but she was far from being good girlfriend material. She was too drunk to really know what she was like and whereas Adam was still technically sober enough to drive, Bella would probably still be over the legal limit the following morning.

Bella stumbled out of the toilets and pulled her dress down, grabbing hold of the sides of the material and tugging forcefully. Adam heard the tear from six yards away and Bella shrieked. Her dress had torn where the straps met the dress and it was falling down to her ankles. "Aaaaggghhhh."

A dozen faces turned to see Bella frantically scrambling to pull her dress around her pendulous bosom back up towards her neck but the garment, already having been charitably stretched around her bust was not an easy fit and the waitress had to guide Bella back to the toilet so she could make herself presentable.

"I think sir, it is time to take your companion home," the waiter told Adam with a solemn look.

"Yeah," Adam muttered and looked at him. "Blind date, you know."

He nodded and clicked his fingers. "The bill please, for Mr Hodson." Within seconds a bill for over ninety pounds was given to him and Adam grunted; Bella had drunk a lot and begrudgingly put his credit card down on the paper.

Bella arrived just as he had finished putting in his PIN into the keypad and scoffed. "I was just hoping for a last drinky," she shouted. "Or a pudding."

He spluttered. "I think we've had enough," he told her firmly and she adjusted her dress, straining the safety pin she had repaired her dress with.

"Fuckin' tightarse," she screeched and looked at him. "One drinky?"

Adam coughed and shook his head. "You've had enough," he told her and held out her coat. Bella snorted and stomped through the restaurant, her short dress riding up as she took long strides swaying into two other tables and nearly knocking over a drink.

Adam blushed as she snatched the coat from him and he opened the door. Bella slipped the moment she hit the cold air and her left leg swung out in front of her, throwing her against the restaurant glass and causing a couple in the window to jump as Bella slid down the window. Adam caught her before she hit the ground and she grunted in reply. "Let's get you home," he told her and Bella shook her head.

"Pub. Few more. Bet I can dweenk you under the table." She burped and Adam sighed.

"Another time," he said firmly and watched the buxom girl grab hold of his arm. "Where do you live? Nat said it was close to the town centre."

Bella zigzagged across the path and swung her arm out into the road. "That direction," she shouted across the square. "I live over there." A few people stopped to see the drunk girl screeching into the road and Adam grabbed her as she started walking in front of a double-decker bus. Bella stopped and Adam had to push her across the ring road, the loud sound of the bus's horn echoing around the historic architecture. "Fuck off," she shouted as Adam released his grip on her shoulder, and waved towards the bus making it's way down the street.

"You nearly got yourself killed," Adam moaned and she laughed.

"Hey, I know a trick," she told him and grabbed her purse from her handbag, extracting a bank note and putting it behind her back. Her hands ruffled her skirt and she brought her hands back empty. "See," she said and then put her hands behind her back and pulled out the five pounds note.

She stumbled into a low wall as they crossed the canal and Adam shook her head. "Ya knickers," he told her. "Ya just put it into ya knickers."

Ahh," Bella cried and slid her hands under her skirt to reveal a pair of black knickers which she threw into her bag. She repeated her trick and Adam shook his head; he wasn't sure where Bella had hidden the bank note but she giggled and Adam laughed at her smile. "See ya can laugh," she slurred and turned into a small set of maisonette-style houses.

She ran down a slight slope and Adam followed as she tripped but kept her footing and fell against a brown door. She looked in her handbag for keys but the door was opened by a teenager with long blonde hair and Bella looked up. "You pissed again Auntie?"

Adam hesitated; Bella hadn't mentioned a niece but what was she doing there? "Come in?" Bella told the hovering man. "Get your fuckin' arse in here. Coffee? Vodka? Beer?"

"Coffee," Adam replied and closed the door behind him; the flat smelt slightly musty but he walked into a small dark room where the teenager picked up an electronic book reader and looked at Bella.

"Alfie went to bed at seven, Dia at seven thirty. Both are fine. Not heard a peep out of them."

"Alfie? Dia?" Adam muttered and Bella shrugged walking into to the kitchen and asking him if he wanted milk or sugar.

"My cousins," the girl told him as gathered her possessions into her arms. "They are good kids." she said and hesitated.

"Adam."

"Lucy," she told him.

Bella returned with a cup of steaming coffee and a massive glass of pale yellow liquid, which looked like wine. "Alfie and Dia?" Adam asked

"Ahh well, they me kids," she told him.

"You didn't mention it," he told her and she swayed as she sat down before taking a big gulp. Bella turned to Lucy as she put her shoes on her feet.

"Yeah well, they are good kids, dya reckon they'll like Adam?"

Adam's eyes widened as she spoke and Lucy pursed her lips together and nodded. "They didn't like that Pete bloke."

Bella snorted. "Well they better like this boyfriend," she said firmly and Adam suppressed the urge to shout out; what was this girl playing at? They had had one meal, and one date, and even that had not gone well. She was being a bit premature about him being her girlfriend.

While Adam did not dislike Bella and she was certainly a curvy and independent woman, the thought of being a father to two kids who weren't his own, was something not to be undertaken lightly. It wasn't something he wanted to leap into and Bella seemed so certain.

Lucy looked at Adam who shrugged at her and shook his head but Bella was drinking the wine and did not notice.

"I better be off now," Lucy said and got up, smiling at Adam. He hesitated; Lucy may have looked sixteen or seventeen but she seemed a far more attractive proposition than his date; he wondered if it was really bad form to ask for someone else's phone number while on a date and decided that it probably was.

Bella stumbled to her feet and hugged her niece, thanking her for babysitting in a drunken voice and cursed when her dress slipped. "I better get changed," she muttered and slipped inside her bathroom.

Adam drank his coffee, looking at a picture of two toddlers on the television; how had he managed to get himself into the situation he found himself in? He had to tell Bella that they had no future; he simply did not find her behaviour sexy or was comfortable with her outrageous antics.

His musings was interrupted by Bella as she stumbled out of the bathroom, her bathrobe loosely hanging over her shoulders and she staggered back into the room. Adam glanced at her tattoo covering the right hand side of her slightly distended belly and she glanced down. "Yeah OK, I'm pregnant too," she muttered.

"Pregnant," Adam asked and she held onto the back of a chair. "After what you've drunk tonight?"

Bella sneered. "Oh sound like my mother," she snapped and looked at him putting his coat back on. "You going?"

"Yeah," Adam said. "It's late and well you've 'ad a few too many."

Bella gripped onto the chair and swayed slightly. "'ve not," she cried and burped loudly. "Shit, maybe." Adam glanced into her glazed eyes and pursed his lips together.

"Well OK, I'll see ya," he told her and she held out her arms.

"At least hug goodbye," she slurred and Adam watched her stumble across the room. "Thank-oo for a nize-night," she babbled as she came across her room and stopped, burping a few feet from him. She held out her arms and then belched, followed by a giant heave and a flood of vomit left her mouth.

Adam leapt out of the way but he was too late, his trousers were covered by the warm liquid being forcibly expelled from the pregnant woman. "Ahhh ... shit," he cried out loudly and Bella stared at him, mumbling an apology.

Adam shook his head and opened the door, running out of the flat and not stopping until he was at least half-a-mile away from the drunken woman. He could smell the putrid liquid on his legs, the warm vomit decidedly cold in the December air. He tried hard not to think about the puke that was coating his legs but it was hard not to.

A few people turned their noses up at him as he walked and ran down the road towards his house. The light was on when he got home and Natalie shouted when he closed the door. "How was it? What the hell happened to you?" Natalie squealed with a smirk on her face, appearing naked at the door to the lounge.

"What does it look like? I have never, ever been on a worse date before." Natalie suppressed a smile and nodded. "And that includes the double date with Carl."

"Not good then. You had too many?"

"Fuckin' Bella had too many," Adam spat back. "Oh, and you didn't mention the kids, or the pregnancy." Adam grunted and stripped off his shoes and trousers, putting them into a discarded plastic bag by the hall. "I need a shower. Oh, and please, no more dates from your friends. They're crazy."

"She forgiven then?" Sarah asked as she went to leave the room.

Adam looked at Natalie. "Yeah. Sort of. She's promised to make good on the date front."

Natalie cocked her head. "He is getting a date from me tomorrow at a restaurant." Sarah murmured with raised eyebrows but Adam didn't notice and Sarah left to retrieve the popcorn from the microwave in the kitchen.

"Not the Chinese restaurant. Hell I ain't going there again, I'd be banned."

Natalie burst out laughing. "You should have worked her out," she said with a splutter. "Nice girl, likes her booze, drinks when nervous."