Chapter thirty

  Who were these hosts? I continued to ask myself as I stared around. The shop was close to empty and the only customers were a few teenagers who looked like they were prepared to leave, and two men that sat hunched in the corner and seemed to be having a hot argument with quite a lot of gesticulations.

Geoffrey took us to the back of the display counter towards a door. I nodded a greeting towards the woman who took his place behind the counter, and she returned a wide smile almost immediately, looking almost as giddy as her fellow coworker. I tore my eyes from her. Geoffrey led us through the door into a bar that was way larger than the shop. A buff man, a bouncer, I think, was at the entrance of the door. He glanced at us and moved out of the way, tagging behind us.

The bar was deserted but the club lights were still on. I could catch the different combinations of smells– citrus, wine, fizz; it was almost nauseating.