Zak was furious. It was 8:15 by the time he finally got to O'Connell's. There was no telling what damage had been done in the previous hour. The bill would be horrendous. He would have missed all the best bits, if they had even bothered and now Harry would be off to meet Charlotte. He'd be left alone with Nikki and she would be really pissed off at him. Even after a few drinks the thought of confronting a pissed off Nikki was appalling. He'd rather stand his corner and have one of those detectives yell at him for half an hour.

The bar was busy, he did a preliminary scan and didn't spot them. They'd probably had one drink and gone home when he didn't turn up. He could believe Leo had made him rerun all those samples. The man was infuriating focussed on the fine details. The results had been no different to the ones he'd handed in earlier but somehow Leo had discovered that he'd put the wrong column on his HPLC samples and so everything had to be redone.

Zak waved a tenner at Adam, maybe he would look on it as a down payment.

"Hey, how's it going? I heard you were picking up the tab tonight, what did you do to deserve that misfortune?" Adam asked.

"It's a long story," Zak admitted. "Can I get a beer, please?"

Having now made it to the front of the bar, Zak was confused to see a pile of £5 notes in front of the real ale pumps.

"What's going on?" Zak asked. "Have you been selling me out as a charity case, and this is the whip round from the regulars because they know how much damage those two can do to a bar tab in an hour?"

"Not quite," Adam admitted.

There was a sudden loud groan from a blond man at the far end of the bar.

"Five minutes and five seconds, I can't believe it's possible, I thought you died without oxygen," he muttered.

"What is going on?" Zak asked "Are they still here?"

"Oh yes, they're still here," Adam laughed. "I think you'll find they are what's going on."

There was another groan and another fiver chucked on the pile.

"This is just painful," the man cried.

"What do you mean?" Zak queried.

Adam gestured his head at the row of upturned spirit bottles hanging behind the bar.

"They've been doing shots for over an hour?" Zak cried, trying to keep the panic out of his voice and failing completely.

"No," Adam laughed. "Look past the bottles."

Zak stared, there was nothing past the bottles. Just the wall and Adam's Australian flag, it wasn't one of those pubs with the bar in the middle so you could see through. Behind the bottles was the flag and the wall; just the mirrored wall.

It was only then that he saw their reflection, just under the southernmost star of the Southern Cross. He was glad Adam hadn't handed over the beer yet, he had a feeling he would have dropped it straight out of his hand. Of all the sights he had anticipated this evening, this, was not one of them.

"Close your mouth, mate, you'll catch flies," Adam laughed.

Zak looked from the mirror to the pile of money and back to the mirror again.

"You're all betting on how long they can stay like that?" Zak spluttered.

"You bet we are, Frank here thought he was sure to win, but he's on eight minutes 59 seconds and there's still a minute to go, and they don't look ready to stop to me," the man next to Zak laughed.

Zak pulled out his phone, he had to do something.

"No, no, you can't phone them, that's not fair, put the phone down and we'll let you in on it. Pick your time, name your number just don't phone them," the man continued.

Zak laughed. "I work with them, I can't bet on that! I can't stand here whilst you all, you all…"

"Course, you can son, I heard they think you're paying the bill, a bit of loose change would come in handy!" his bar neighbour said.

Zak looked into the mirror again, he was surprised to be honest. Not surprised that the two of them were sat there in the middle of a busy pub necking like teenagers. Not that, but mostly because they looked like a couple of teenagers. Passionate? Yes. In a hurry to move to the next step? No.

From the way they argued with each other he fully expected that any movement in their relationship would be as explosive and dramatic as the way they fought. He expected there to be some kind of sonic boom or cataclysmic weather event to herald the change. He thought when the change did come, it would be sudden, fervent and quick. It was one of the main reasons he always checked the locker room was empty, walking in on that… he shuddered. But there they were, in front of his eyes contentedly kissing and just that; kissing.

"Here's your beer," Adam announced. Putting the pint down in front of him but not taking the money that Zak was obliviously still holding in his hand. "What time are you going for then?"

"Well Harry's got a date at nine," Zak announced, causing his neighbour to choke on his crisps.

"I don't think he'll be going," he coughed out.

"What time do you close?" laughed Zak.

"You're not suggesting they could stay like that for the next three hours. They'll put the other customers off," Adam said. "And anyway that's surely not biologically possible, is it?"

"Knowing those two, I'd say anything is possible, talking of which where is this bill then?" Zak asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot, Harry left you this." Adam said as he handed over a napkin with Harry's left handed spidery scrawl on.

Thank you.

I figure I'll probably owe you.

Ring Charlotte and tell her I'm busy.

Please.

07965 877781

Harry

P.S. Enjoy your beer

Zak looked over to Adam with a puzzled expression.

"Seems like Harry knew it was going to be his lucky night, he settled the bill for you half hour ago, before all this" Adam gestured backwards towards the mirror, "kicked off."

Zak raised his glass to the oblivious couple in the mirror and called cheers. He then phoned the number Harry had left for him and told Charlotte that Harry had been called out to a scene, and wouldn't be back until late. He turned back to the growing pile of five pound notes and placed his bet on seventeen minutes and seven seconds. So there had been something useful in all that information Charlie had told him on that first day, they'd known each other for seven years she'd said, well in that case they had a lot of catching up to do, seventeen minutes didn't seem unreasonable. Practice makes perfect after all.

Thanks so much for reading, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Best wishes again for all of you doing exams, don't forget to take a break, remember Vera and have a laugh every now and then, it's a great stress reliever (and I shall expect messages in August to tell me how you got on). And Harry hugs to Hiroko and all the other mum's out there with children taking exams, as I am beginning to suspect with my son doing SATs and a piano exam in the same week, the being the mum bit could almost and I say almost be as hard.

Come on, come on, I know your imaginations are far better at getting them home from the pub than I can write…

Love to everyone who's read or reviewed but especially Lilypad.

d