After the party was finished, Alec attempted to leave without being noticed but Linda hounded at him like a wolf by the time he got back to his car. He had no escape.

“I’m so sorry that Tommie behaved so badly earlier,” she began.

“Uh…” Alec blinked for a few seconds in surprise, caught off-guard by her apologetic tone, “That’s okay…”

“But I’d like to say that even though Tommie was acting spoilt, I am concerned about how you were so quick to yell at my son, he was just a child and it was his special day,”

Ah, here it is. I knew this was too good to be true.

“I’m sorry Linda,” he replied hollowly.

She only frowned more in response, “I think... if you find it hard to deal with children... I’ll be brutally honest here, you shouldn’t really be a kid’s party entertainer,”

You know, it's not like I had a choice but to be stuck with kid's parties. Though, I have to admit, she was far more observant than I could have given her credit for.

“I am sorry Linda, truly, I hope Tommie is okay,” he said a little more genuinely.

“He is, he is very pleased with that fiver you gave him, but you shouldn’t be relying on money to win children over after making them cry, I’m afraid to say that I’m going to have to ring your manager to suggest that you aren’t suitable to have a responsibility of looking after children.”

Oh no.

“Please don’t do that!”

“I’m sorry Mr. Smoke but you disappointed me today, this day was supposed to be special,” The woman sighed to herself dispiritedly, “You see... my husband and I have recently split up and Tommie has been having a really rough time with it. I know that spoiling him is not necessarily the answer, but I just wanted him to be happy today,”

Oh shit.

She walked away, leaving Alec standing alone, utterly dumbstruck, by his car.

He got in dejectedly and closed the door. It was only a matter of minutes before he received a call.

“Is that you Alec?”

“Yes, Sheila I can explain-”

He got cut off by a single bland statement, “You’re fired.”

Then there was the telling click of her hanging up on him, and that was it.

He had just lost his job and he had just ruined a kid’s birthday.

Great.

Now what was he going to do with his life?

There was only one thing for it, a trip out to the pub to celebrate his achievements in life.

*  *  *

The pub that he arrived at, “The Pensioner’s Leg,”, was a rather small, dingy little place that sold cheap ales that Alec was reluctantly fond of and would visit from time to time. As he walked in, the barman took one quick look at him and said, “Rough day mate?”

“Yeah,”

“What would you like?”

“A glass of brandy,”

“I would offer it to you on the house, but we can’t afford that,”

“No worries Jerry, thanks a lot mate,” Alec tossed several coins to him, “Don’t suppose you also have a packet of smokes?”

“Here, you can have some of mine for free,”

“Jerry, you are a legend, just what this town needs,”

“Too right,”

“Thanks a lot, Jerry,”

“Don’t mention it,”

He went over and sat himself down in a corner by one of the fireplaces, a nice warm crackling fire was going. Alec took his suit jacket off, exposing his pristine white shirt, which was covered by the slightly sparkly braces from his trousers, letting himself warm up against the heat as it was rather chilly outside. The sound of general chattering and occasional laughter that permeated the establishment was oddly comforting to Alec, as well as nostalgic with the smell of booze, woodsmoke and tobacco. You’re not meant to smoke in pubs, in fact, it was illegal, but Jerry was awfully lax about that kind of thing. Most of his regulars were heavy smokers. Alec wasn’t a heavy smoker himself, he had been trying to quit this past year, but after today, he thought he deserved at least one smoke.

Alec didn’t bother using a lighter and just reached down to place his cigarette by the fire. Once it was lit, he took in a deep draught whilst closing his eyes, afterwards, he let out a long breath and a lazy cloud of smoke.

Ahh, that’s better... Much better.

Then after taking one appreciating look at the translucent cubes swirling in a glass of liquid amber, he took a large swig of his brandy. Almost gulping it down in one.

Abruptly, the sound of a large group of people entering the building disturbed Alec’s small moment of peace. He stared at them irritably from his corner. God, why do people have to be so noisy? Why can’t they bring their happiness someplace else?

They were certainly a bunch of rather interesting-looking people, he had to say. One of the men in the group caught his gaze and looked back at him. Alec quickly turned away before he could further embarrass himself.

He took another puff of his cigarette.

He sincerely hoped that they would sit someplace far away from him.