Authors: S L Lewis
He responded minutes later with a short reply, ‘see you later then,’ and I wondered if my stony reply had hurt him?
The minutes gathered into hours and work was finally over and I made my way to the reception doors. ‘Nita, hold on,’ someone shouted. It was Sarah from Research so I stopped. ‘Hey Sarah, how’s it going?’ I asked as she gave me a hug which I’m no longer scared to reciprocate. ‘Hey hun, I have a huge favour to ask? I need another woman’s opinion on this dress I have saved for a wedding I’m going to at the weekend but they’ll only save it until
6pm
today. Will you be able to be my clothing advisor for the next hour or two?’ she asked with desperation in her eyes.
I thought about my appointment with Angus for a second then decided even if I am late it would show him that I’m a busy lady who doesn’t need to run every time he tells me to, so I agreed.
We arrived at the shop with10 minutes to spare and she tried on the dress.
It was beautiful.
It was a long flowing dark blue satin dress, with discrete diamantes in the right hand shoulder. It really suited her frame and with the obvious approval from the young sales girl, she bought it.
We went for a drink and after a brief catch up we both left. ‘I’m so happy we can still get along after what happened,’ she said as she gave me a hug goodbye. ‘You’re a great woman so what ever happened before is forgotten,’ I confirmed before we made an arrangement to meet next weekend for a girly night out.
My stomach was churning on the way to see Angus and I thought of what I was going to say and how it had to be said.
The Tube ride went unbelievably fast and I was there within 30 minutes.
As he opened the door, my eyes were hypnotized by the candle light swamping the room and I walked in.
I entered the front room to find the table set for two, beautiful alluring smells coming from the kitchen and sensual melodies humming from the space aged hi-fi which was on a silver stand in the corner of the room. ‘Please sit, I hope you haven’t eaten?’ he asked as he ushered me to my seat at the table. I just nodded as I was too overwhelmed to speak and he continued to pour me a glass of champagne and bring the starter.
The atmosphere was perfect and he was looking as sexy as a rock star singing just to me in a concert and I wondered if he ordered the food in from a posh restaurant because I couldn’t believe he slaved away at the stove and cooked this, just for me, but I didn’t question it. I just enjoyed each mouthful whilst trying not to show I was too impressed. ‘So, is this how you apologise to your wife?’ I blurted out and wondered where that came from?
There was an awkward silence and then he put down his drink and looked at me. ‘I know that you have opinions about me and my wife but I’m telling you, everything you saw in my office was just for show, for the children and the investors. There is nothing between us and hasn’t been for a long time. That’s why it hurt me so much when we had that ill feeling between us after Friday night. I really care about you and don’t want to loose you. Please accept my apology and don’t leave me,’ he begged.
‘Is he really being honest here? Does he really want me? Can I start to think of a future with this man or is it too good to be true? But what does he have to gain from saying all this to me?’
I asked myself as I continued to get embroiled in the sexual tension.
‘I don’t know what you want me to say?’ I asked nervously. ‘I want you to say you forgive me and you’ll give me another chance?’ and with that last question, he didn’t wait for a reply, he just got up, pulled me up from my chair and kissed me.
I would have like to have told you that I pushed him away but I can’t.
I continued to kiss him. On his lips at first, then his neck and lastly all over his face and then I was lost in his animal passion.
I cannot say I regretted everything or that it was like the other night where he couldn’t stand to attention because it was the opposite. As I lay in his arms feeling happy and satisfied, I started to wonder what my life would be like as Angus’s wife. Would we be that couple who everyone admired? Would we have children? Who would they look like? After his divorce, where would we live? How would his colleagues at work take his new relationship?
After the last question entered my mind, I felt Angus move from my side. ‘Well, I know you don’t have any clothes here so I’ll get you a towel and you can jump in the shower,’ he said as he went into a drawer and got me a fluffy white towel. ‘Oh, well you know I can stay a little longer,’ I said a little surprised at how fast he wanted me to get ready. ‘I know hun, its just I’ve got a few things I need to do before I go back home and I don’t want you to be bored,’ he concluded as he went to get in the shower.
I couldn’t believe how fast things were going but I knew I couldn’t lie in bed to think about it so I got up and joined him in the shower.
I went over to help shower him with the hope he would reciprocate the proposal but instead he kissed my hands and brushed me away.
I had enough of these mood swings and decided to confront him, ‘so is this how’s it’s gonna be? You do the whole Romeo and Juliet performance to get me into bed then as soon as the deed is done, I can go home cos I’m of no use anymore,’ I shouted to make sure he heard me over the hissing of the shower, as he had now left me in there wondering what had just happened?
He came back into the bathroom and popped his head round the shower so he could see me. He didn’t look happy but not as angry as he did in his office earlier. ‘I don’t know what you want from me Nita. I just told you how much I wanted to be with you but if you want to be with me, you have to understand that I cannot be with you all the time. I have other commitments that I must attend to but I’m trying to make time to be with you too,’ he alleged.
I felt so bad.
‘This man was in a dead marriage, had huge work commitments but still wanted me in his life. I should really be grateful for all the effort he put in
,
’
I contemplated as I gave him a kiss to say sorry and continued with my shower.
As I left Angus, I gave him a kiss goodbye and reassured him that I accepted his apology and everything would be okay between us and made my way home.
On hearing Amelia shouting I scrambled for the keys and ran through the front door.
Geron had come to confront her about her allegations and it didn’t look like an argument you wanted to be dragged into. I saw Gabrielle and Anya hiding in Gabrielle’s bedroom pretending not to listen through the visible crack in the door, so I made my excuses and joined them. ‘What on earth is going on? And why is Geron here?’ I whispered as I listened to the Yellow Pages being bounced off his back. ‘Well, he is trying to tell her that he isn’t having an affair with Charlize and Elisa but he does have something to talk to her about but she isn’t interested cos she doesn’t believe him and I think she said and I quote, “I don’t care about your excuses I just want you to take your lying bastard self away from me and my life” and then you turned up,’ whispered Gabrielle whilst squeezing her face against the door. ‘Shhh, I can’t hear,’ murmured Anya.
‘Please Amelia, don’t do this. You don’t know how wrong you are. Just let me explain,’ begged Geron. Amelia paused to recompose herself and slowly replied, ‘go ahead. It’ll make no difference though,’ then she sat on the sofa and waited for Geron to continue.
‘I love you more than you know and I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that right?’ he asked to which Amelia just looked away and refused to answer. ‘I would never cheat on you as I want us to build a future together but I wanted to tell you this last week but couldn’t do it over the phone. I thought you deserved more than that. Elisa has been my friend longer than she has been Charlize’s girlfriend and when she asked for my help I didn’t think twice but I didn’t think it would happen that fast,’ Geron explained to an upset Amelia. ‘What would happen this fast?’ Amelia shouted. Geron paused and looked away but before he could continue his starling revelation, Amelia stood up, reached for the Thompson Local and aimed it at his head with full force.
It made contact and Geron was knocked unconscious.
Amelia did not come to the hospital so it was up to us to make sure the concussion wasn’t serious and to pass on Geron’s apologies and pleads for further communication with Amelia but by the time we got back home, the only memory of Amelia was a note saying she had gone to her parents for a few days and would be in contact soon.
**********
Chapter Three – Was it worth it?
Being in the flat was very strange without Amelia.
We tried to call her but we were unable to speak to her so we just communicated with her through her mother.
The next two weeks consisted of Geron constantly calling to see if one of us would crack and tell him where Amelia was and how he could get her back, he obviously didn’t believe that none of us had that answer.
Amidst the gloom of the Amelia and Geron situation, the rest of our lives were actually going quite well.
I was working really hard and in the hope of being offered a promotion (I think Sarah had a hand in me getting considered for the research assistants position but I wasn’t going to argue as it was a nice pay rise), me and Angus were going from strength to strength and we were now seeing each other at least twice a week and I had moved some of my things into his Golders Green apartment to make it easier, if I wanted to stay over in the week. He was still very busy and often had to leave for a few hours but it was understandable as he explained that he was trying to sort out how he could have a stress free divorce and met his solicitor a few times a week to go through the updates.
Anya was having a slightly more interesting time as she has recently acquired a new client called Dolph, who is a German Stockbroker, and is more fascinated with Anya in a personal capacity than professional and I think she might actually feel the same way.
Anya is very professional and never engages in anything personal with a client but when she accepted an invite from Dolph to attend one of his work functions in
Berlin
, I knew he was going to be different from the rest of her clientele. ‘So, how is Dolph today?’ I asked suggestively knowing it would spark a reaction. Anya regarded me with a cool stare and continued, ‘I think he is vine. I do not have a tracker on my clients, you know.’ I chuckled knowing she was trying her hardest to remain cool about the situation, so I tried to break the glass exterior. ‘Are you saying that you don’t like him? What if he asked you to move to his castle in
Germany
and live the rest of your life being Queen Anya and making strudels?’ I asked before falling into a fit of laughter to which Anya joined me whilst holding her stomach from laughing so much.
Gabrielle was a different subject completely.
Throughout the two weeks without Amelia, we hardly saw Gabrielle and only knew she was still alive when we had to begrudgingly sign for huge bouquets of expensive flowers and gifts from her admirers. When she entered the flat she would seem so surprised that the presents were for her then she thought it was a good idea to put us out of our misery and say us, ‘Awww, John is so sweet,’ as she read the silver card attached to the latest diamond bracelet.
The sick looks on our faces didn’t faze her as she continued, ‘John is so sweet but I think he should know me by now…I don’t do normal gold, only platinum, so I might give this to someone for their birthday. I think Shilpa’s birthday is next, isn’t it? Do you think she’ll like it, Neets?’ She purred as she flaunted it in my face.
I didn’t entertain her gloating so I just shrugged my shoulders but my lack of response didn’t deter Gabrielle as she went on, ‘I do like John but he’s a little boring so I might just see him once in the week and continue to see Carlos at the weekend.’ She grabbed another dowry but this time it was platinum, diamond encrusted ring encased in a beautiful dark green cashmere scarf. ‘You see Carlos knows me so well and he’s so much fun but he’s away with football so when we do finally have time together we have to make it extra special,’ she bragged as me and Anya just looked at each other in despair.
Anya couldn’t take anymore and decided to bring Gabrielle down from the clouds a little. ‘So if these men want you so much where is the engagement ring?’ she questioned as Gabrielle went bright red with embarrassment. She quickly packed away her gifts and answered, ‘I’m not ready to settle down yet. I want to be sure I have found Mr. Right first.’ Anya was very quick with her retort and swiftly asked, ‘but I thought Carlos was the perfect one at the moment? But you do know what they say about footballers, yes?’ Gabrielle fumed with anger and I know this meant there was the potential for an argument, which I didn’t want to be near, and with that notion I decided to pretend to get some water from the kitchen, still listening to what could be the cause of World War Three. ‘What do they say then, Anya? I always respect your opinion on men as you have so much experience with them,’ Gabrielle spat out to an unaffected Anya.