Knowing Me Knowing You (5 page)

‘
You’re not going to cancel are you?
’

‘
Yes! Of course! That’s exactly what I’m going to do. What other option do I have?
’
Kate said with a sigh.

‘
How about going to the function with a drop dead gorgeous guy and enjoying
yourself
for once?
’

‘
Oh
Mione
you don’t understand! I knew you wouldn’t. Miranda’s main enjoyment in life stems from seeing me struggle
.
S
he would take one look at this Joel and instantly know that he was a hired help,
’
Kate attempted to explain.

‘
I don’t believe that, that’s all in your mind
.
Y
ou think, for some daft reason that this chap is too good for you. You haven’t met him yet; he migh
t stink and have a limp.
A
lthough looking at this sexy picture I very much doubt it,
’
Hermione replied.

‘
I should have just had the courage to tell her I don’t have a partner at the moment and I was going on my own,
’
Kate said, pausing in her pacing.

‘
So is that what you’re going to do now?
’

‘
No
,
i
t’s too late
now,
I
told her I was bringing someone.
I’ve decided either to invent a swine flu ridden Carlos or go sick myself,
’
Kate said.

Hermione let out a squeal of laughter and put her hands to her mouth again.

‘
What?
’
Kate asked
.

‘
Well that will be playing right into her hands,
’
Hermione told her.

‘
Well what
d’you
suggest? I go, with this Joel, and have the entire firm knowing I use male escorts by first thing on Monday morning?
’

‘
Male escort or not, believe me you are going to have every woman at the dinner table wishing they had him sitting next to them.
’

‘
Argh
!
This is mad! How did my life get like this?
’
Kate questioned, picking up Joel’s profile from the table.

‘
You Sweetie need to lighten up
.
I
t’s just a night out, take it for what it is
and
to
h
ell with what Miranda thinks,
’
Hermione spoke.

Kate let out a heavy sigh. It was easy for Hermione to say, she was good at everything
.
S
he had a perfect life with a husband who adored her and three children who thought she was the best mother in the world, which of course she was. She had no idea what it was like to be abandoned and feel unwanted and useless.

‘
Enough of this
talk
of cancelling. Tomorrow bring
Bethan’s
overnight bag when you drop her off in the morning and I don’t want to see you again until Saturday.
’

‘
I’ll probably need all that time to try and make myself look like I could have a boyfriend like this,
’
Kate said
,
staring at the picture of Joel.

‘
If the banquet’s crap you can always come round here, I wouldn’t mind five minutes with him,
’
Hermione answered with a grin.

It was almost 6.00pm before Kate left work on Friday evening. The Lady Dragon had given her two sets of accounts to finalise that apparently she wanted to review first thing on Monday. Kate knew she had done it deliberately but she had almost given up caring. She didn’t have the energy for workplace games; it was all she could do to concentrate on the jobs. She dutifully did as she was told
,
not wanting to give Miranda any more reason to ridicule her. Of course the Lady Dragon had disappeared at 3.30pm to what was down in her diary as
an ‘out of the office meeting’.
Kate suspected it was a visit to the hairdresser or the beautician.
Somewhere exclusive and expensive, somewhere that catered for the rich and famous and Oscar nominees.

Kate had managed to get her hair done in her lunch break. She had never been to the salon before but she hadn’t had time to be picky. She had been quite scared when she arrived
,
as the sign over the door had letters missing and instead of reading ‘Crimpers’ it now read ‘Crap’ where someone had added an ‘A’ with a black marker pen. She wondered how long it had been like that and whether anyone else knew or cared.

The inside wasn’t much better, everything was vinyl and the sinks were avocado green. There was one woman having her hair tweaked with an afro comb. She had ended up with a dodgy perm like Deirdre Barlow in the early Nineties and another woman, hair set in rollers, seemed unperturbed by smoke billowing out
of
the back of her dryer. No one else looked bothered about it
either so
she
had taken a seat and
leafed through a 1998 edition of
Woman’s Weekly
. Thankfully ‘
Natalie’ had put her more at ease, making her a coffee and giving her a copy of the latest
Star Life
magazine.

She had a wet cut and it cost much more than expected. She almost choked when Natalie told her the price but she did like the finished result
.
Frankly that
was amazing given that she had seen two women with very dodgy feathering and another woman with purple highlights. Her usually untamed dark brown mop had been cu
t into a sleek, modern bob that
seemed to instantly
make
her look younger. Anything that did that had to be worth the money. But the expensive do had meant there wasn’t enough left for a new outfit or a manicure.

When she got home she luxuriated in a bubble bath courtesy of
Bethan’s
Mr Matey. She couldn’t remember the last time she had had time for a bath. The water felt wonderful, soft and silky on her skin. She had opened wine as soon as she had got in (her favourite South African was back on the shelf, £2.99 and 14%) and now she was halfway down the bottle. She wished she was
n’t going to the stupid banquet.
S
he
wished she
could have just stayed in the bath relishing the fact she was completely on her own. There were no nappies that needed changing, no bottles to warm, no relentless, mind
-
numbing children’s television programmes to endure. Her eyes closed
.
S
he was so
tired,
sleep would be nice, completely uninterrupted sleep. She imagined being asleep, being covered up in her duvet,
her
head on the pillow. And as she began to relax and let her mind wander
,
Mat
thew was next to her in the bed.
H
andsome
, wavy-
haired Matthew,
the
husband she loved. Then the image of him suddenly became distorted. He wasn’t lovely Matthew any
more, he was Matthew who had l
eft her and left their daughter
t
he Matthew she hated. As that realisation came to the forefront of her thoughts she snapped open her eyes and hurriedly sat up. She started to wheeze and cough, desperately trying to clear her lungs of the water that had seeped into her mouth while she had been fantasising about someone she loathed. She took
another drink of wine to clear her throat and checked her watch. It was 6.45pm and she wasn’t even dressed.

Half an hour later she almost fell through the door of Fenton
’
s wine bar. It was 7.15pm, the taxi had been late and she hadn’t had a chance to take any time over getting ready at all. She had managed foundation and lipstick but that wa
s it on the make-
up front. In the end it had been a case of throwing her one and only good dress over her head and hurrying out of the house hoping she had managed to avoid white deodorant marks in her haste. Now she was being overwhelmed by atmospheric di
m lighting
(
so dim she could barely see
)
and hideous cocktail bar piano music.

She scrutinised the people stood at the bar. There was a group of men in dinner jackets sharing bottles of champagne and laughing loudly at every second word one of the older me
n in the group said,
a
ll on their way to being pissed. There were two women her age sat at the bar whispering to one another over cocktails and licking their lips over the barman
.
A
nd
finally
there was one man sat on his own, back to the door, picking at the bowl of n
uts on the counter. He was dark-
haired and Kate judged he was approximately six foot. It could be Joel, or maybe, given her late arrival
,
Joel had gone home. She didn’t know whether she wanted him to be here or not. She could still invent Carlos, she knew a lot about swine flu,
she
had researched it on the internet in case
Bethan
developed symptoms.

‘
Excuse me, are you Kate?
’
a velvety voice asked from behind her.

She knew that voice. It sounded like it could wrap her up in silk and feed her caramel centred chocolates.

Kate turned around and immediately looked into a face she also recognised. Despite the picture on the
internet making him look like some sort of Adonis
,
somehow it hadn’t really done him justice.

‘
I’m Joel,
’
the gorgeous vision in front of her proclaimed.

Kate couldn’t stop herself from very obviously looking him up and down. He was over six foot, athletically slim, with dark hair and the largest eyes she had ever seen. He was impecca
bly dressed in a dark blue suit teamed
with a white shirt.

‘
Are you Kate?
’
he repeated as she hadn’t spoken.

‘
Yes, yes I am.
H
ello
,
I’m Kate, nice to meet you,
’
she
hurriedly spoke, offering her hand to him.

Joel ignored the offering, leant forward and kissed her on the cheek.

‘
If we’re supposed to be dating I don’t think we should shake hands,
’
he said quietly to her.

‘
Oh no, I suppose not,
’
Kate answered
her cheeks flushing.

‘
Can I get you a drink?
’
he
offered.

‘
Oh no, I should pay
.
W
hat would you like?
’
Kate asked, fumbling in her handbag for her purse kn
owing that she only had about five pounds
in cash and that her credit card was on the verge of meltdown.

‘
I insist,
’
Joel said and he took her hand out of her bag and smiled at her.

‘
Oh,
’
Kate responded in the meekest voice ever.

‘
What will it be?
’
Joel asked again.

‘
A white wine please, medium,
’
Kate responded.

‘
OK. Why don’t you take a seat and I’ll bring it over.
’

Kate nervously nodded her agreement and moved to the nearest available table. She sat down and checked her appearance in the window. Her hair still looked good, although getting it wet in the bath and almost drowning hadn’t been in her plans. She screwed up her eyes. She wished she’d brought her eye make
-
up with her because it would have drawn attention away from the bags she had
been unable to conceal. She
pursed
her lips. She would need to reapply her lipstick when they got to the hotel; it was already making a break for freedom.

She was still making a
face at the window like a ghoul
when Joel appeared opposite her with the drinks.

‘
Medium white wine,
’
he announced passing a glass to her and sitting down.