Lost Angel by Mandasue Heller

couldn’t talk to.
    Before he could pull her up about it, Frankie strolled over.
    ‘Looks like people are getting ready to leave, so you’d best come out into the foyer to say goodbye and thank them for coming.’
    ‘About time,’ Ruth grumbled, gathering her skirts together and standing up. ‘And then we’re going to our room, so don’t try and stop us.’
    ‘You can do what you want,’ Frankie conceded. ‘After you’ve helped me get your mam into the car.’ He cast a disapproving look at his wife, shook his head in disgust and walked away.
    ‘Let’s get this over with,’ Ruth said, jerking her head at Johnny before following her dad.
    After the last guest had gone, and he’d helped Frankie to manhandle Rita into the back of the Rolls and waved them off, Johnny followed Ruth up to the room Frankie had booked for them. He’d never stayed in a hotel before, and he was knocked for six when he walked in and saw how luxurious it was. There was a massive four-poster bed with satin drapes at each corner, and matching curtains hanging from the floor-to-ceiling picture window which overlooked the hotel’s immaculately landscaped gardens. There was also an en-suite bathroom with a bidet and a walk-in shower, a TV, a telephone, and a minibar. And somebody had placed a huge vase of red roses on the breakfast table in the window alcove, alongside a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice.
    It was incredible, and if Johnny had been there with any other girl he would already have been getting stuck in to the champagne and bouncing around on the bed. But he didn’t hold out much hope of having a fun-packed night with Ruth if the moody look on her face was anything to go by.
    ‘Can you help me with this?’ She stood in front of him and looked back expectantly over her shoulder.
    ‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked.
    ‘Unhook me,’ she said, with a sarcastic edge to her tone, as if he should have known without needing to be told.
    There seemed to be a million tiny little hooks and eyes, and Johnny fumbled with them for ages before he finally managed to get a rhythm going.
    When the back of the dress was undone at last, Ruth waddled off into the bathroom to complete the job in private. Johnny opened the champagne and poured out a couple of glasses. Adding a miniature bottle of Jack Daniel’s from the minibar to his, he drank it in one and refilled it before getting undressed and climbing into the bed.
    When Ruth came back a short time later, she laid her dress carefully over the back of one of the chairs before slipping into bed beside Johnny and pulling the quilt up around her throat. She’d changed into a red satin nightie and, in the brief moment that he’d had a chance to see it, Johnny couldn’t help but notice how good it looked on her. Although he wasn’t sure why she’d bothered if she was just going to cover herself up like that.
    ‘It’s lovely here, isn’t it?’ Ruth said after a moment, snaking her hand out and reaching for the glass he’d placed on her bedside table.
    ‘Oh, so you’re talking to me now, are you?’ Johnny muttered, taking another hefty swig of his own drink.
    Ruth gazed at him and gave a guilty little smile.
    ‘Sorry I’ve been such a bitch, but I wasn’t enjoying myself down there. I’ve been dying to be alone with you since we left the church, but then you took off and left me with my mum, and everyone else was ignoring me. It was like they all forgot it was my day, or something. They just wanted to get at the food and booze.’
    ‘That’s what people do at parties,’ Johnny replied coolly, adding under his breath, ‘Wish I ’d been a bleedin’ guest.’
    Ruth caught it and blinked back the tears that immediately sprang into her eyes.
    ‘I ruined it for you, didn’t I?’
    The words Too right! sprang to the tip of Johnny’s tongue, but when he looked at her and saw how forlorn she looked, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. It had been a stressful enough