TGI Chronicles Pt. 2 Ch. 04

"Good God. I've known you five years Dave, and I never knew you liked theatre. We could have gone together more often. I love theatre, it's Beth who's not so keen. She only goes if I make her, if I had an excuse of a foursome with you and whoever, I'd have seen a lot more."

"Well, actually, I'm not a big theatre person. But Davinia is. And she's involved in a production of The Rivals at the moment. And as I've never seen it, I thought I ought to, so that I can talk sensibly about it."

"Oh. I see. Let's hope you get the chance. Look, why don't we nip into a ticket agency right now and get a pair of tickets, then I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to get something to eat beforehand. We could even still nip over to Soho." he said, with a mischievous smile.

And that's what we did. It was a bit of a rush to catch the last train after we got out of the theatre.

Once we settled onto our train, I thought back on the play we'd just seen, "So that is where Malapropism comes from."

"Didn't you know that, call yourself educated! Do you think the buffet car is open? Fancy a beer?"

"Yes, why not?"

So he went off in search of beer. He returned with half a dozen cans and two plastic glasses.

We sat and drank, in silence for a while, each with our private thoughts. I was certainly wondering how Beth's hen party was going. I hadn't realised that Tim was thinking the same.

He turned to me, "Let's hope Beth is working her magic."

"Other than Alice and Davinia, obviously, do you know who else was invited."

"Nope. We'll just have to wait and see. Let's hope that Dav doesn't just illiterate you from her memory, to misquote."

"I missed that one. But I thought 'He is the very pineapple of politeness' was the best one. . I hope it was a worthwhile evening, time well spent and all that."

"Well it was for me. Seeing a good National production of a classic is always worthwhile."

He sat and watched me as I drank some beer. "Look, Dave, I hope this evening's little exercise lets you and Davinia get back together. But, if it does, then please give her room to show you that she was sorry for her outburst."

I looked at him, but there was more to follow, "One of the things I've had the greatest difficulty with since I got back together with Beth, is finding ways of letting her show me just how sorry she is. I used to think it was her trying to heal me, and I didn't need that. But it wasn't, it was about her trying to heal herself. I think that you may be a bit like me, it's easy to give, it's damn sight harder to receive."

"I don't think myself and Dav are quite at the level that you and Beth got to, but I know what you mean. And I'll let you remind me when I forget."

"I hope I don't have to. Now drink up, we've got two more of these to get through before we get home."

I walked home from the station, and got there just about quarter past twelve. I was in bed by half past.