Hottest Day in June since records began.
That was what the papers were saying in one form or another. It was only the British that could have headlines about the weather when the world was going down the toilet. Jan Tanner shook her head and turned her attention away from the newspaper on the table, and back to her eBook. Fiction was better than real life any day.
She had no idea why she was even making this journey. She didn't normally do socialising. She much preferred to live in the small world she had created in her small flat. A collection of several hundred books, nearly a thousand DVDs, and high speed internet that could provide instant streaming of just about any movie or TV series available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. It wasn't that she was anti-social, although if pushed, she would admit she was a little agoraphobic. Mainly she just preferred her own company and wasn't interested in the happenings of the outside world. Unfortunately, her publisher and best friend was holding a garden party for her clients and other contacts, and had been badgering Jan to attend for days.
"You should come." Sara had told her. "There will be lots of useful contacts in the writing world there."
Eventually, Jan had relented, not wanting to admit her failings to her friend, and knowing that she wouldn't get any peace until she agreed. It had meant her catching the express from Euston, then changing trains at Chester then getting on the slow moving, local train, which stopped at every station in north Wales. All in all, a perfect storm for Jan.
After being sat on a stifling train for an hour, listening to a child constantly nagging its parents, and the tinny music that emanated from a teenagers iPod, Jan whished that she had been more resilient in her refusal to attend. As it was she could feel the beginnings of a headache building behind her eyes and she wished she was somewhere else. Travelling had never been one of her favourite pastimes. Going to somewhere was nice, getting there was a pain, in more ways than one.
It was just as Jan was debating getting out at the next station and heading back home, when the train intercom crackled and a nearly audible voice announced that hers was the next stop.
'Finally'
she thought. Another five minutes on the train and she would have been tempted to open a door and jump for it.
She grabbed her case and exited the coach. Whenever she travelled on a train she made a point of sitting as close to the doors as possible. It made escape nearer, and therefore the journey a little more bearable.
A few minutes later she was walking down the platform and breathing in the warm fresh air that was tinged with a taste of the sea. It did feel good to be away from the hustle of the capital, but at the same time Jan was a little on edge being this far out of her comfort zone.
Sara had promised to pick her up from the station, but typically, the station carpark held nothing but empty cars, none of them Sara's.
Swearing silently, Jan dragged her phone from her jacket pocket. This was typical Sara. Brilliant at organising things. Useless at actually carrying out her own plans.
As Jan waited for the call to connect, she absently glanced when the next train back to Chester was.
"High Jan, where are you?"
Sara's voice said after what felt like an eternity.
"Well I'm at the station waiting for my ex-publisher, who said she would meet me ten minutes ago." Jan replied slightly impatiently.
"Crap. Sorry, I hadn't noticed the time. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
Fifteen minutes. Jan glanced at the timetable again. Half an hour until the next return train. She made her mind up that she would be on which ever form of transport arrived first.
"I'll be in the bar by the station." Jan said. "For the next half an hour."
"On my way now. Sorry Jan."
Another head shake as she crossed the road, suitcase trundling along behind her and the headache slowly developing in to a migraine. She seriously needed somewhere cool and shady to sit, and a cold drink.
The stubbled face of a twenty something young man greeted her cheerily, as she entered the trendy looking bar café.
"What can I get you?" The young man asked, his voice accented with an Eastern European tone.
"Something cold and a new publisher." Jan answered, her irritation beginning to boiling over.
"Sorry?" The barkeep asked puzzled.
Jan waved her hand in apology. "Corona if you have it."
The youngster nodded and pulled a bottle out of the cooler behind the bar and opened it.
Jan placed a ten pound note on the bar top and took a long pull on the bottle. Corona was her one real vice, apart from fiction that was. She had been planning to be a teacher and was practically tea total up to her twentieth birthday. Then she had watched The Fast and The Furious at the cinema. It is funny how the smallest things can change your life. Jan hadn't really been one for films or the cinema, but whilst watching the movie, something grabbed her attention, igniting a fire in her that had been burning brightly ever since. A love of fictional, make believe stories. That was also when she began drinking Corona. She had left the cinema with Sara and gone to a bar. Once there Sara had said to her
'You can have any brew you want as long it is a Corona'
in a bad impersonation of Vin Diesel, and she had been enjoying the drink and writing fiction ever since.
Reality however, wasn't always as simple as fiction, her first book was awful, the second not much better. They would never have been published if it hadn't been for Sara, who had staked everything she had on starting a publishing house. At the half serious suggestion of Sara's boyfriend, she tried her hand at Gothic Romance. Something clicked in to place and her next book flew like an eagle. Now half a dozen years later, Sara's company was doing well, and most of Jan's books hit the best seller lists.
The empty bottle went back on the bar, and Jan indicated that she wanted another. Sara had been her best friend all the way through school, then university, and she had felt a little betrayed when Sara had moved out of London to move in with her partner James. If she was total honest with herself, she would have admitted she'd always had a crush on Sara, and never really been attracted to anyone else.
As Jan took a pull on her second bottle, she sensed she someone was watching her. Thinking it was Sara, Jan glanced round, expecting to see her friend and publisher standing behind her.
The bar was just as empty as it was when she walking in. Just her the barman, and a feint aroma that hinted of exotic flowers.
Jan shook her head. "I'm so losing the plot." She admonished as she checked the time once more. Unsurprisingly Sara was late.
The second bottle joined the empty first bottle, and Jan had just begun to make head way in to the third when Sara finally arrived. Whilst she wanted to be angry with Sara, the innocent enthusiasm the shorter woman carried with her quickly smoothed the edges off Jan's irritation.
"Sorry Jan." Sara opened with. "You wouldn't believe the time it takes to organise a garden party correctly."
