Mack's Progress Ch. 05

Anyway after George had gone home, I went into the kitchen just as Beverley was putting the telephone down.

"Next Monday you start a five day course!" Beverley told me as if I had any idea of what she was talking about.

I must have stood there like a dummy staring back at her.

"When George and I go on honeymoon, you'll need a publicans licence to run the place whilst I'm not here. Millie's got one, but she's married and not living here anymore, so I can't leave her in charge, and Michelle's a bit young. It'll stand you in good stead if you ever want to run your own pub!" Beverley added as if to settle the matter.

"You're the boss, Bev. Did you have a good night?"

Beverley smiled, "Brought back some old memories, Mack. You know when you're young, it's very easy to misunderstand some things, and make the wrong decisions. I think you wouldn't do yourself any harm if you sort out Lindsey and clear the air with her. You never have had it out with her, have you?"

"You can say that again!" I said as I left the room. I've always wondered if Beverley saw the double meaning in my statement.

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Two weeks later I was a licensed publican, albeit without a pub of my own. But I had all the relevant paperwork. Another two weeks after that, Beverley and George were married by our adulterous vicar and we had one bloody great party at the pub. Julia and Mike had somehow been invited. I discovered later that they were representing my mother and father, who Beverley had been in regular correspondence with.

The following morning Beverley and George were collected by launch from the pub garden to start their honeymoon. We know not where they went; because Beverley didn't have a passport -- she'd never taken enough time off from the pub to actually go abroad -- we knew they must be still in the country but their location was kept secret from everyone.

"Hi, Govna, what's it like to be the boss?" Millie asked when she came in to help with the lunchtime shift that Sunday afternoon.

"No different, I can't see that I needed to take that bloody course. You're here enough hours to have stood in for Beverley," I commented.

"Naw, Luvver, not a good idea at the minute. Phil and me's trying to have a baby. I'm liable to get a bit cranky now and again. Wouldn't do to have me brain one of the customers now, would it?"

I must admit I had no idea what Millie was talking about. What has trying to get pregnant got to do with losing her temper with the customers? Didn't make much sense to me but I was too busy to argue the point so I let it slide and forgot about it.

It was still low season so we weren't very busy whilst Bev was away. Michelle and me were in the pub alone most nights. Yeah, well, Patricia slept over at John's place most of the time. It might sound stupid considering how many nights Patricia had spent in my bed. But it was agreed between us, that because John and Pat never shared a bed in the pub when Beverley was there, they wouldn't when she wasn't there either. Anyway Michelle hardly moved out of my room for the whole two weeks.

After the honeymoon, George moved into the pub and her room with Beverley. Not that he hadn't spent most of the month before the wedding there as well. Only now it was official. He also retired from the police and joined the team running the pub.

George and I got on pretty well together; he was quite happy to learn the ropes from a young man half his age, and asked advice often. He had damned good people skills and handled the customers very well. That's the big secret of running a pub, being able to handle the public.

In the next couple of months before Patricia's wedding I noted some changes coming over Millie. Sometimes she'd be really down and she went sick a few times as well. At times she'd be her usual fun loving ribald self and other days sometimes for a week or so she be as grumpy as hell. Several more guys got a beer shower when they said the wrong thing to her.

"That's our Millie," one of the locals said, after she'd drenched another smart mouth guy one day. But it wasn't a Millie that I recognised. Then a few days later Millie was standing behind some guy's chair battering him around the ears with her knockers again. One of her party pieces she did when any guy got too cheeky. You'd be surprised how many guys get all embarrassed when she did that to them. It was a brilliant way to put a smart mouth down and give everyone else a laugh. Even Phil thought it was funny when he saw her do it.

Patricia's wedding came and went, and she moved out to live with John in a cottage in the village. Like Millie she did some shifts in the pub and was there to help most weekends. John normally working the shift with her, he wasn't a bad barman either.

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It was George who asked at breakfast one morning, "How come you and Michelle don't get hitched then, Mack?" and that took me by surprise. I really had to stop and think before I answered.

"Never going to happen, dad," Michelle replied whilst I was still thinking. Michelle and Pat were calling George Dad all the time by then. "Mack's a good friend and I love him to bit's, but we ain't meant to be together in the long term. Let's just say Mack and me are friends with benefits, shall we. I'm off to uni in the autumn and god knows where either of us will be in three years, isn't that right, Mack?"

For a moment I couldn't think how to reply. The news that Michelle was going of to university was a complete shock to me. I side stepped George's question by asking a different one of my own.

"What university are you going to, Michelle. Do you know yet?"

"Southampton, I think. I'm going to study journalism, might even try to get into the telly, you know a news reader or something."

This bit of news had really taken me by surprise and I began to realise that I couldn't let life just drift past me anymore. It was about time I started to think about my future.

End of Chapter 5