I knocked on the door of the hotel and waited. A few moments later the door opened.

The valet looked at me and then at her.

“Residents?”

Fuck, he’s not going to let her in. This can’t be happening.

“I am and she needs to help me get to bed.”

There was a moment of silence, well apart from the drunks shouting at each other in the distance.

“Otherwise, someone in the hotel will have to help me.”

That did the job.

“Come on in.”

As I went down to the lift I was relieved to feel her holding onto the back of the wheelchair. I quickly pressed the button in case the valet had a change of heart.

Once safely inside the lift, we both started to laugh.

“So, I’m your carer now, am I?”

“I think assistant is the more pc term for it these days. It was quick thinking though, wasn’t it?”

“It sure was, not just a pretty face.”

The lift opened and we continued down the narrow corridor to my room. A quick turn of the keys and we were in.

Now came the challenging part, transfer onto the toilet, then back on the wheelchair, and then into the bed. All the time hoping she didn’t fall asleep waiting.

It’s true, I had. A drunken tendency to tell my friends I loved them. And I did. But things change. I had a woman and my reptilian brain was telling me to lose the friends and fast.

“Oh, you don’t want us now. Forgotten about for some woman,”

It was Sean and he loved it, grinning with a wide smile across his face.

“Are you even going to introduce us?”

Fuck no, I thought to myself.

But then I realized I needed help getting down the step.

She took the initiative.

“It’s Leslie.”

Remember Leslie, Leslie is her name.

“Sean.”

“Ronan.”

And with that, they shook hands.

“And what am I to do with Ronan,” Sean asked as he helped me down the step.

“He’ll be grand. Shur, he can stay on the boat.”

That’s right, Sean had a boat and would occasionally stay the night.

“Oh, thanks. The two of us in a little boat.”

With that, we went in different directions. Myself and Leslie going in one direction and them in the other.

“Nice friends.”

“Yeah.”

“No really, I can see they really care about you.”

She must still be drunk.

It took us only a few minutes to reach the hotel. It was starting to feel cold.

She looked at me and grinned. She leaned towards me, putting her arms around my back, and kissed me on the lips. It was gentle at first but quickly escalated to her moving around my mouth.

I felt like heaven and never wanted it to end. It was like there was nobody else on the dance floor – just me and her. All thoughts of my two friends quickly went out of my head.

Then the background music stopped. This was not good news. A few moments later all the lights were on. The nightclub was over. Just like that and all too soon.

We broke off our kiss. She had such beautiful blue eyes.

“So, where to now?” she whispered.

“My hotel room is close by,” I replied trying to feign conference.

“Oh, you are sure of yourself. Come on so, let’s go.”

Everything was going to plan except, of course, I hadn’t planned for this event whatsoever. For, a second I even had to think about whether or not I had the key to the room. Phew, I had. Time to just run with the flow and hope for the best.

So, off we went.

“Hey horse, where are ya going? Running off without your mates. You were tell us you loved us only an hour ago.”

The drinks were flowing freely now but I knew the importance of pacing oneself after many nights of overindulgence down the years. It was important to be still able to talk to people at the end of the night or so my friends would tell me.

There were other ladies I got to chat with too. I always loved female company even if it was to just try and get a laugh out of them. Rachel, in her mid-twenties, was a fashionista, owning her own brands. She had blonde hair and was wearing a black jacket. She was affable and easy to talk to. Not the kind of girl that you would get chatting to in Mullingar.

And then there was purple-colored hair Rose, with a large ring on her nose. She knew everybody including myself by the end of the night. I would describe her as eccentric and presume she must have been snorting some cocaine at some point. If anything, she was a bit too chatty and I was relieved when the lads told me it was nightclub time.

“Where are you from?”

“What do you do?”

And she told me all about herself. An Arts student wanted to be a social worker. My voice had gone hoarse.

“So, where to now Sean?” I asked enthusiastically on getting outside.

“Back to Roisin Dubh.”

“And Paul is a writer,” Sean said somewhat proudly.

“Yeah, what do you write?”

Of course, I’m not one of those who like to boast but for pretty girls ten years younger than me I can always make an exception.

“Yeah, have you read or heard of Anderson’s Quest?”

“I have, are you the author?”

“Indeed, I am.”

“No way, and are you rich now?”

I briefly thought about trying to explain that it wasn’t about the money for me. But about the joy of writing, that it was a release and a form of self-expression. After, a few drinks though, I decide it’s better just to go with the flow.

“Not yet, it was big in Ireland but not much outside. Hopefully, next time.”

It was then that I noticed how she was glancing at Sean. Not that I blamed her. He was well built, muscular but not overly so, with a square jaw. And he was charming too.

It was just that I wished a woman would look at me like that. It had been years since I had last been with a woman and it was something that I wished to explore further.

Then Ronan began to speak and my focus switched back to the present.

This gave me a minute or two to collect my thoughts and survey my surroundings. The place was electric with everybody seemingly in good spirits. There also seemed to be a great sense of camaraderie, with some of the women going from group to group chatting away.

A few moments later the two lads had returned. With a quick shake of Sean’s head, I was informed that there was no space for a wheelchair inside. Not that I minded.

“A lot of talent around here,” I said loudly to Sean over the din of music.

Sean was somewhat of a connoisseur.

“Yeah,” he replied, “it’s all the universities, tourists and the like. It’s unbelievable around here. You can just be walking down the street and see so many good-looking women.”

I took another slug of my vodka and took in the atmosphere the two lads talked for a while.

Then while I got lost in my thoughts.

“Say hello to Irene,” Sean said to me.

She was one of the girls that had been going from group to group earlier.

“Hi, lovely to meet you,” I replied.

“Hi,” she replied with a warm smile.

“She’s a musician, very good too.” Sean continued.

She had shoulder-length brown hair and was wearing a black jacket.