A group of two women and three men came into the bar just after Isaac’s meal break and found a table near the door. He didn’t know them and none of the regulars said hello so he assumed they weren’t villagers. One of the men, tall and blond, took one look at Lily and assumed an expression of naked lust. He smoothed his hair as he approached the bar, gave her a smouldering smile and kept his voice low so she had to pay close attention to him in order to catch his words. In his thirties, he was good-looking and not wearing a ring. There was no reason he shouldn’t stare at Lily with open admiration, nor to pull up a bar stool and try and engage her in conversation but Isaac had to stop himself from marching over and telling him to piss off. He wanted to remove Lily, find her a job in the back so she wasn’t exposed to the customer’s smile, his admiring eyes, but he could only continue to do his job.

Lily treated the guy with the same pleasant but cool manner she was using on Isaac these days, which was some comfort.

At nine, Hayley wandered down into the bar. Isaac couldn’t blame her for getting thoroughly sick of her own company upstairs. Isaac hoped Hayley would at least sit near good-looking-and-ringless guy and distract him but she tucked herself at one end of the bar against the wall, talking to Lily when she came within range, sipping mango juice. Gabe was nearby too and nobody could resist his good nature and total lack of guile if he decided to talk to you. Then one of the guys from the garage, the quiet one, Jos, joined them, and Hayley seemed to relax in their company.

Isaac could hear her talking about her schedule, about the dreaded results she was due on Monday. How they would seal her fate regarding further treatment. Lily was listening, Isaac was pretty sure. He watched the slight turns of her head as she glanced Hayley’s way and then back at whatever drink she was getting.

‘Getting results on the 23rd of December might at least mean a happy Christmas,’ Gabe observed, pushing back his long silver ponytail. ‘Fingers crossed for you.’ Nobody mentioned that bad results on the 23rd would mean a very unhappy Christmas indeed.

Lily finished up with her customer and went out to the dining area to clear tables.

The good-looking guy turned to watch her move across the room. Isaac crossed to his area of the bar. ‘Are you waiting to be served?’

The guy hardly spared Isaac a glance. ‘No thanks, mate.’

Isaac noticed the man’s four companions grinning. They didn’t seem to mind him sitting alone at the bar. Maybe it was all a bit of a game for them to watch him make his move.