The Bow Wow Club Read Online Free PDF

and want someone to give you a tall hug when Big Ben strikes, let me know.’
    ‘Michael?’
    ‘I’m here.’
    ‘I just wanted to say thank you so much for going back to find the ring. That meant such a lot.’
    ‘I aim to please.’
    ‘And… ’ Ruby paused. ‘I really would like to see you again. It’s just…’
    ‘You don’t have to explain - I understand. Now take care of you, enjoy the night with your friends and I will see you next year.’
    ‘Goodnight, Michael, and it’s so lovely that you’re being so cool about everything.’
    ‘Goodnight, sweet girl.’
    Ruby hung up and smiled. Sweet girl, eh? Aw, he was so nice. But this whole situation was bittersweet. She was excited to see him again but also had this awful underlying feeling that she was betraying George.
    She looked up at Patrick, her much-loved moggy. She was sure even though he was stuffed that he changed his expression daily.
    ‘What do you reckon then, old boy?’

– Chapter Fourteen –
    Michael pulled open his laptop on his desk/dining table and pushed some letters to the floor to make space as it was so cluttered. How he wished he could afford to get out of this one-bedroom high rise. His dream was that this novel would help him to do just that and so much more. He sighed and began to type.
    My first novel – by Michael Bell - TITLE - TBD
    Chapter 6: Michael hung up. He was more than disappointed that Ruby didn’t want to see him on New Year’s Eve, but also quite relieved as he wasn’t sure at all how he would have sneaked off from the party he was going to down the road from his house in Clapham. He realised how much he had missed her quirky sense of humour over Christmas. Stupid really but this felt different somehow. Sexy, but comfortable too. Just hearing her voice again made him yearn to see her, to hug her and just make her feel safe and wanted once more.
    ‘Michael. What are you doing up there?’
    ‘Just finishing off a chapter, darling.’
    ‘Damn you and that bloody novel. I never get to talk to you. We’ve got to be at the party for eight and you need to shower.’
    Michael raised his eyes to the ceiling. Why he had got involved with this self-centred woman he’d never know.

– Chapter Fifteen –
    ‘You look amazing!’ James Kane exclaimed as Ruby walked tentatively up to him and Fi in the busy Putney bar.
    ‘You don’t look too shabby yourself. I love a man in black tie.’
    ‘Hands off, he’s all mine.’ Fi laughed and kissed Ruby on the cheek. ‘And bejaysus you do look a picture. Did you design that dress yourself?’
    ‘I did. Love a bit of emerald-green satin, you know that.’
    ‘Well, it suits you - and do you know what? It’s lovely to see you looking so radiant. It’s been too long. I’ve missed you.’
    ‘New year, new start and all that.’ Ruby smiled, but still felt like crying inside.
    ‘Now special ladies, what’s your poison?’ asked James.
    ‘Surely it has to be fizz all the way as it’s New Year’s Eve,’ Fi hollered above the now cranked-up music.
    Two bottles of champagne later and James and Fi were already singing along to every tune they even remotely recognised. The bar was heaving and Ruby was not short of admirers. She made small talk but wasn’t really in the mood for socialising. She felt drunk but not happy drunk. In fact, she was dreading the countdown, and at thirty-five years of age, she still didn’t know the words to ‘Auld Lang Syne’ anyway.
    At ten to midnight she came out of the toilet. James and Fi were laughing and smooching at the bar. Never had she felt so lonely in a room so full of people. She looked to the door, closed her eyes briefly and made a wish that at the first stroke of midnight George would walk right through it with his East End swagger. He would flash his cheeky grin and swing her round as if nothing had happened.
    Reality hit her with a thud as the first DONG of Big Ben resounded out across the room. The big screen in the corner