Kelvinhall

Liam

I'm seriously struggling to work out how on earth Tasha managed to get her claws into Chloe's ex. Because while I know I've had a lot of "What a coincidence!" moments in my life, I also know that this is definitely not one of them.

I'm also worried what Tasha might do if she gets wind of any vibe between me and Chloe. Which I guess says a lot about my thoughts on Tasha these days; that I wouldn't trust her not to try to metaphorically burn the whole pub down with all of us still inside. Tasha wreaks havoc when she doesn't get her own way. I may have had blinkers on when we started going out, but by the end of our relationship my eyes had been fully opened to this.

But has she seriously hunted down and started dating a member of my friendship group - albeit one on the periphery - just to get to me? Or am I seriously reading too much into this?

Everyone else who knows her seems to be in agreement with me though.

On top of this, my phone buzzes and I can see I have yet another message from Sandy.

Where's your group at? We've made it to Hillhead, skipped a few stops. Any luck with the girl or have you changed your mind yet? Xxx

Seriously, will she let it go? I type back a brief message to try and shut her up.

Becky's back, having conducted a brief interrogation at the bar. "She's still playing the innocent," she reports. "Claims she met Michael in Waxy's two months ago and 'just knew he was special'." She rolls her eyes as she air-quotes. Becky only met Tasha a few times but I know she was never really a fan.

Poor Michael. He's getting a bit of a short shrift from us in this, isn't he? Honestly though, if you knew Tasha at all, you'd understand our doubts.

"Wait . . . Didn't your Glasgow stag night start in Waxy's?" Chloe asks Luke suddenly. "And that was around two months ago, wasn't it?"

Ah, the infamous stag night . . . Where Alex well and truly fell out with me. I think back to that day; why was I running late again?

Oh that's right, because Tasha had turned up at my door as I was about to get ready, wanting to talk. To ask me to reconsider- again - giving things another try. I told her my thoughts hadn't changed, but it was difficult to get her to leave. I ended up being 45 minutes late to the night out as a result.

Had she followed me that night? I'd stupidly told her where we were starting off, weakened by the arguing. Although she may have already known that, if Alex had told her.

Waxy O'Connor's in the city centre is known well by Glaswegians as being a bit of a maze. With different levels, rooms and alcoves, it's a running joke that you can get lost just going for a piss. Even when sober. It actually would have been probably pretty easy for Tasha to be there without any of us spotting her. And to work out who was part of the stag group.

And possibly identify and pick off the weakest one in the herd?

Again, sorry Michael.

I can tell Luke is on the same page as me. He remembers the harassed state I was in when I got to the pub, and exactly why that was.

"I never saw Michael with a girl that night," I say aloud. Remembering that I had no reason to believe at that point that he wasn't still with Chloe, and he hadn't given me cause to think otherwise.

Luke seems thoughtful. "Do you know, I actually do remember him saying to me later on in the night that a girl had given him her number though." He laughs. "He seemed a bit confused about what to do with it."

We all laugh at that. Even Chloe.

"So she is at it!" Becky exclaims. "She's here to get to you, Liam. 100 percent."

At that moment, Alex rejoins the group. He's frowning. And, weirdly, making direct eye contact with me. "Liam, I think there's something you should know," he says.

"If you're talking about the fact that your sister has clearly targeted Michael at Luke's stag night to somehow get to Liam, we already worked that one out." Becky interrupts. I think the amount of alcohol she has had is probably making her seem abrupt but I also think most of us have had our fill of Alex today thanks to his snarky behaviour.

Alex looks helpless all of a sudden. He glances at Becky and then back at me. "I'm sorry. I didn't know she would do this."

I shrug. "Well, you need to realise that I'm not entirely to blame in what happened between me and your sister, and she's not perfect."

He nods and slinks away to the other end of the group.

So what now? We're just going to have to play happy families for the rest of the subcrawl? Not sure I can handle that.

Once again, I wish I was still in Chloe's flat.

I meet her eyes then and try to smile reassuringly but I think it falls flat. Her own smile is decidedly forced too. I can't really blame her. I wasn't expecting Tasha to appear minutes after we agreed to give things a try either. Although I had been worried something might go wrong, I would never have anticipated it would be my ex appearing.

"I think it might be a good idea to move pubs," Luke decides. "If the lovebirds aren't finished their drink yet they can just get us in there. With any luck they'll get lost."

Change of scenery. Great idea.

I doubt we'll manage to shake Tasha though. Now she's wormed her way in, she'll probably be here for the long haul.

At least, that's what I'm afraid of anyway.

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