Week 1 – What makes women drink?
The alarm is going off.
7.40 am and the snooze button is pressed.
The alarm is going off.
7.50 am and the snooze button is pressed.
The alarm is going off.
8am.
It’s Wednesday.
The room is dark. Clothes are still worn from the night before – jeans and a black strappy top. Shoes are strewn on the floor.
Sit up.
Feel dizzy.
Lie back down again.
Work starts a nine, bus leaves at 8.30. Ten more minutes of bed.
8:10am
Sit up.
Still feel dizzy.
Drink some water.
Take off clothes and put on grey charcoal suit with red top and red shoes.
Do not change knickers.
8.27am leave flat.
9:10am arrive at work.
10 minutes later lying on toilet floor being sick.
9:45 am return to desk.
10:15am back on toilet floor being sick.
The tiled floor is cold.
I rest my head against the white toilet seat.
I have flashbacks from the night before.
6:00pm left office with colleagues and clients up from Manchester.
6:30pm in pub next to work with a glass of Chardonnay.
I spent night talking to the Manchester lot.
There’s one really cute guy – James.
I’m not really good at chatting up men so I have another couple of glasses of wine.
I catch James’ eye.
I ask him if he would like a drink.
I buy two glasses of wine and get the rest of the bottle free. Bargain!
The wine does not really taste that good but I can hardly tell as already had three glasses.
Chat to James about work and Manchester.
I top up our glasses with wine.
I no longer feel nervous about chatting him up.
No ring on finger. So not married.
Lives on own. So not cohabiting.
No mention of girlfriend.
Feel brave enough to ask if he has a girlfriend.
NO!
EXCELLENT!!
We laugh and joke.
He touches my leg.
I feel really relaxed now.
The wine has given me confidence and I feel like the most beautiful girl in the room.
James goes to the bar and gets another bottle of wine.
He fills my glass.
He is so refreshing compared with the usual lot from the office.
So what if he lives in Manchester.
We could have a long distance relationship.
I tell myself “Scarlet calm down you’ve only known him two days. Don’t start picking out the engagement ring yet!”
I get up to go to the toilet.
Accidentally I bang into the table.
A glass of red wine falls over and spills onto a colleagues cream suit.
I grab the salt container on the table and throw it all over her.
She looks alarmed.
Well salt is supposed to remove red wine.
She tells me not to worry as she was about to leave anyway.
I go to the toilet.
I look in the mirror and apply dark red lipstick.
I take off my jacket to reveal a black strappy top.
Much more seductive.
I would not normally wear clothes like this with work colleagues but I am feeling brave enough to do this. The wine has made me feel sexy.
My work colleagues usually see this serious, controlled, conscientious woman in the office.
I want them to see there is a fun, crazy side to me too – I’d hate them and other people to think I was boring.
I return to the bar.
James is the only one of our crowd left.
I am feeling increasingly drunk.
I sit down.
I take James’ hand and we hold hands under the table.
Should I kiss him?
What the hell! Let’s just go for it.
I’m feeling beautiful, sexy, confident and DRUNK.
We kiss.
His face is beginning to look fuzzy to me.
We kiss again.
I write my phone number on the back of a beer mat.
My writing is hardly recognisable due to the wine intoxication.
We leave the bar.
We get separate taxis - me home and him to the airport.
I fall asleep in the taxi going home and the taxi driver has to wake me up…
I now feel like cringing about my behaviour from last night.
Think I’ll just stay in the toilet cubicle all day.
No one will notice.
There is a knock on the toilet door.
“Scarlet are you ok?”
“Yeah I’m fine”
I lift my face from the toilet seat.
Stand up and flush the toilet.
I splash my face with water and return to my desk.
Maybe I will have a text from James…
