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– a goth, a hippy, a prostitute –‘
    ‘Don’t
forget that skank who thought you were a pirate,’ I interrupt.
    ‘Yes,
there’s her. And then there’s you. ‘
    ‘Oh
dear, what kind of woman am I?’ I ask. As I turn to face him so he can’t get
away with lying to spare my feelings, I notice that even the taxi driver is
watching our conversation play out in his rear-view mirror.
    ‘One
of a kind,’ Troy says with a laugh. ‘But I like it.’

Chapter Eleven: Is it because he's a Leo?
     
    Doing
the job that I do and having friends who travel a lot, I’ve been to a lot of
places – some nice, some shitholes, some interesting places, but this town…
this town is weird. I can’t make my mind up if it’s weird and wonderful, or
just plain weird. I’m wandering this as we walk through the door of Groovy
Baby, and as I catch my elbow on a sculpture of a giant baby smoking a joint, I
realise it’s just plain weird.
    ‘Can
I help you?’ asks a lady who looks and dresses exactly like Eddie from
Absolutely Fabulous.
    ‘Yes,
how much for the baby?’ Troy asks.
    I
shoot him a look which hopefully tells him that while I did find that funny,
we’re sort of up against it.
    ‘Actually,
I’m just looking for a friend. He came here to buy…’ I pause for a moment
because it just sounds so dodgy. ‘…pleasure beads.’
    ‘Dylan!’
she shrieks. ‘What a soul!’
    ‘Oh,
yes. Troy, aren’t I always saying that about our Dylan?’
    ‘Yeah,’
he chuckles. ‘It sounds a bit like that.’
    I
subtly give him that evil glare again before turning back to the Eddie
lookalike.
    ‘Anyway,
do you know where he went?’
    ‘Yes,
but it’s not my place to say.’
    ‘It
really is,’ Troy interrupts. ‘You’re the only person who knows where he’s
gone.’
    ‘I
don’t want to cause him any trouble,’ she insists, biting her lip.
    ‘You
won’t be, we’re his friends,’ Troy assures her in that soothing voice of his
that has been making me melt for the past few hours.
    ‘He
met Lola and seemed quite taken,’ she says uncomfortably. ‘They’re staying at
the same hotel so they went back there.’
    I
don’t know why she found it so hard to tell me that, if only she knew I’d been
chasing him from woman to woman all night long. A customer walks up to the till
with a pair of feather earrings, so the Eddie lookalike goes to serve her
quickly. We hang around for a few seconds to say thank you.
    ‘Bloody
hell,’ I whisper to Troy. ‘The easiest way to find Dylan would have been to
book a room and wait, he’s shagging his way through the hotel.’
    Troy
laughs and kisses me on the cheek.
    ‘Oh,
are you not Dylan’s girlfriend?’ the shopkeeper asks me after she is finished
with her customer.
    ‘Nope,
I’m not.’ So that’s what she didn’t want to tell me that he’d gone off with
this Lola chick.
    ‘Is
it because he’s a Leo?’
    ‘No.’
I smile. ‘It’s because he’s an arsehole. Thank you for all your help.’
    We
quickly leave the shop and I’m careful not to knock the giant baby like I did
on my way in.
    ‘You
know how some people have a little black book?’ Troy asks me as we wait for a
taxi.
    ‘Mr
Reeves,’ I say, faking shock. ‘Do you have a little black book?’
    ‘I
don’t have time for a little black book. But other people do, right?’
    ‘Right.’
    ‘Is
Dylan’s little black book just the actual phone book?’
    I
laugh. ‘Brilliant. Have you been working on that one for long?’
    ‘Since
the prostitute,’ he replies proudly.
    Our
taxi pulls up, so we hop in and head back to the hotel. I’m having so much fun
with Troy, I almost don’t want to find Dylan. It doesn’t even cross my mind to
stop trying and hang out with Troy though, because whichever way I look at it,
Dylan needs to be at that charity show tonight. He owes it to himself, his band
mates, his tour manager, his fans and the charity to be there. I know he would
never intentionally let anyone down, he