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The last thing he’d said to her as they got in the car. ‘We are just here to manage things.’ Ellie had nodded, digesting the information. Yet somehow had acquired a candy floss in one hand and had her camera out in the other.
‘I knew this was a bloody awful idea.’ Alec had said at the sight of the funfair. She was at least five steps ahead of him, but her ears worked better than most.
‘You’re a miserable sod, Hardy.’ Ellie replied, taking in the lights and the music, as if she was twelve again. Who wouldn’t want to spend their evening ‘evidence collecting,’ at the local festival. ‘Let’s get a hot dog.’
‘I don’t eat hot dogs.’ Alec wondered if his childhood was the reason for his lack of tolerance to all things fun. Ellie just put it down to him being a grumpy twat.
‘You don’t eat anything.’
‘I do....’ Alec answered, but quickly realised that she was right. Not that he would admit it. ‘Shut up Miller, we are here working.’
Ellie sighed, reluctantly walking past the hot dog stand and the hot chocolate bar. She couldn’t help but miss when her boys were younger, and they would visit the fair.
‘Right so remind me why we are here again.’ She asked as the approached the over eighteens section. What lay ahead was a sea of drunk teenagers, dancing to some sort of modern music neither of them had heard before.
‘We are just people watching Miller, I want to get a sense of how the youth in Broadchurch spend their spare time.’ Hardy reached for his phone, only then noticing that she had disappeared yet again. This time, ordering some sort of alcoholic abomination from the bar.
‘I got you one.’ She said as he approached her, ignoring his shaking head.
‘Oh and whose driving home?’ Alec asked with his arms crossed. He was met with a eye roll, and a very sarcastic smile.
‘We will walk it.’
‘Miller no. I’m not leaving my service vehicle at the local festival. It may have escaped your mind but we actually here to work.’ Alec may as well have been talking gibberish, as he watched her drink the Bacardi based cocktail.
‘You’re bloody boring.’ Ellie shouted, with extra influence on the ‘g’ at the end of the word.
‘Classy.’ He said, as he pulled her arm back towards there end goal. Alec was racking his brains of why he thought this was a good idea in the first place. ‘Come on.’
‘Dance with me Hardy.’ She said trying to wrap her hands around his neck. She wasn’t drunk, well only drunk on life. There was this small part of him that wanted a bit of her energy.
‘I’m not dancing with you Miller.’
It wasn’t working. She was now back at the bar, after drinking her own drink and his. He didn’t attempt to stop her. She could be vicious when she wanted something. He wasn’t going to test how far that may go.
‘I’ll buy you fish and chips, if you leave the bar alone and stop dancing like some sort of idiot whose had too much caffeine.’ Alec was bargaining here, she was no longer sober. And was now drunk on life and Bacardi.
‘Make it a large and you’ve got a deal.’ She said, linking his arm like some drunk teenager. Before winking at him, and saying one of those awful comments she makes every now and then. ‘That wasn’t a euphemism.’
‘I should sack you for being drunk on the job.’ Alec said, getting her into the car. He didn’t even want to risk queueing for the chips with her.
‘You wouldn’t do that. I’m the only one who actually doesn’t mind you... shitface.’ Ellie followed this comment with a roar of laughter.
Ellie never made it home that night, finding comfort on her bosses sofa. When she awoke the next day to a note and glass of water, saying ‘don’t rush in, I’ve given you today off x.’ she realised that ‘shit face’ may not have such a bad heart after all.