Second Chances (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

ABI DRUMMED HER fingers impatiently on the counter, careful to not be seen doing so by the customer who was dithering over which designer bag she preferred. She smiled at the lady, trying not to visibly gag; the woman must have showered in Poison. Great big wafts of the strong scent billowed over Abi and made her eyes water.

Finally,
the woman laughed; a silly, tinkly, show-offy laugh, and said, ‘Oh, it’s Christmas… I’ll take them both!’ and passed her platinum Amex card over to Abi, who slid the card through the machine, gave the slip to the woman to sign and then set about carefully wrapping her purchases in tissue and placing them in a beautifully-designed carrier bag. She smiled at the woman as she exited, still swamped in Poison, and muttered under her breath, ‘Bitch.’

Thank
God it was closing time. Actually, thanks to that woman, it was way past closing time. They’d discreetly put up the “Closed” sign on the door at 8pm to prevent any other customers wandering in, but obviously had to wait until their final privileged “guest” had concluded her spree. She’d paid more for the two bags than Abi earned in a year as a sales assistant at the upmarket boutique. Sure, she got a small commission on the sales, but it wouldn’t even cover buying fake versions of the bags over the border at counterfeit heaven, Shenzhen.

Life
just wasn’t fair, Abi thought, as she wearily set about shutting down for the night. Startled by a sharp rapping on the storefront window, she glanced up and smiled.

‘Hey, you,’ she said, as she unlocked the door and let Clive in. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss. ‘You’re early.’

‘Couldn’t wait to see my favourite girl,’ he said, gazing down at her. ‘Ready to go?’

‘Sure, let me just get my bag,’ Abi replied, and then they were off. She and Clive had been on several dates since that chance meeting at the bar the other night, and she was surprised to find she actually, genuinely liked him. He’d seemed such a prat that evening, but once he was relaxed and not so self-conscious, they could chat easily and discovered that they had a lot in common. They could make each other laugh and, even more surprisingly for Abi, when she’d finally consented to sleep with him, she found herself enjoying the experience, looking forward to the next time they’d see each other again.

She
had always thought she was not the sort to get emotionally involved; not even with Jack. Even though they had been together for more than two years, she regarded him with a kind of detached fondness, rather like an adorable puppy that amused you but sometimes just got to be rather irritating because he wouldn’t leave you alone.

‘So… Chinese or Thai?’ Clive asked, his arm around Abi’s waist.

‘Can’t I just have you?’ she asked, giving him a kiss.

Bless
him, Clive didn’t realise she was Jack’s Abi. For all his bar-room sleaze, Clive was a man of honour, and would never stoop to sleeping with someone else’s girlfriend. Abi had been careful to avoid the subject entirely; it had never occurred to Clive that she might be “taken”. Most girls told him straightaway that they were unavailable, so the fact that Abi hadn’t must logically mean she was single and up for grabs, he concluded.

‘Thai it is, then,’ he said, smiling. ‘Bit of spicy food, followed by a lot of spicy sex, how’s that sound?’

Abi
had laughed, and they’d gone to a little Thai restaurant on Queen’s Road East, directly opposite the new Pacific Place 3, that served the best green chicken curry she’d ever tasted. They downed Singhas all night long, and Abi eventually had to excuse herself to go to the ladies’ room.

‘You be sure to be here when I get back, okay?’ she said to Clive, leaning over to kiss him before sliding out of her seat. ‘Don’t let any of these nubile waitresses whisk you away with the empties.’

Watching
her walk toward the bathrooms, Clive put a cigarette in his mouth and patted his pockets, trying to find his lighter. Damn, had he lost it? Maybe Abi had one; she wouldn’t mind him checking her jacket, which she’d left hanging on the back of her chair. He rummaged around in one of the pockets and felt her mobile phone, jumping a little when it rang in his hand. Oh well, might as well answer it and take a message, he figured.

‘Hello, Abi’s phone,’ he said, distractedly, as his cigarette had fallen out of his mouth when he spoke and he tried to catch it before it rolled off his lap and onto the floor.

‘Uh… Abi?’ a voice said. A man’s voice.

‘Sorry, Abi’s gone to the bathroom, can I get her to call you back?’ Clive said, still feeling through her other jacket pockets in search of a lighter.

There
was a pause, and the caller said, a tone of surprise in his voice, ‘Clive? Is that you?’

In
shock, Clive immediately dropped the lighter he’d just located. ‘Yes, this is Clive, who’s that?’

‘It’s Jack. I’m sorry, I don’t understand… Abi said she was working late tonight, something about extended Christmas shopping hours? … How is it that you’re answering her phone?’

Clive
felt his heart sink as realisation dawned. Quickly gathering his wits, he answered brightly, ‘Oh, I was passing the store and saw her just as she was closing up, about 15 minutes ago. She looked beat, so I stuck my head in the door and asked if she’d like to join me for a drink before heading home.’

‘Ah…’ Jack was wracking his brains, trying to think if and when Clive and Abi had ever met, then figured they must have been introduced at a party and he simply didn’t remember. ‘Okay, well, could you just ask her to call me? I haven’t seen her for a while because she’s been so busy at work, and I was hoping she’d drop by my place tonight.’

‘Sure, no problem, I’ll do that. Bye…’

Clive
slowly pressed the “end call” button and stared at the phone. Jack. Abi’s Jack. Clive was aware that Jack had a girlfriend, but he’d never really mentioned her or even said what her name was. Now he knew. And Abi had been too “busy” to see Jack, not because she’d been at work, but because she’d been too busy seeing Clive. He suddenly felt a crushing weight of anger and regret. Why hadn’t she said anything? She must know that he and Jack knew each other, sometimes worked together on various projects, had a friendly, drinking-buddies relationship. Damn her. Damn him. And himself.

Clive
put his head in his hands, thinking how sordid his luck was that he should fall for a friend’s girlfriend. That was the worst of it, he really did like Abi. But she’d hidden the truth from him. Why?

‘Hey, why so serious? You’re not feeling sick, are you? Too many Singhas?’ Abi had slid back into her seat, massaging the back of Clive’s neck.

He
shook her hand off and she looked at him, surprised, then went pale as she saw her phone in his hand.

‘Jack called,’ Clive said, tightly, sliding her phone across the table to her. ‘He asked if you could call him back, please, as he hasn’t seen you for a while and he misses you.’

‘Clive… oh shit, I meant to tell you…’ Abi began.

‘Oh, you meant to tell me? Really? When? Later tonight, perhaps, when we were in bed? When you should in fact be in Jack’s bed? For God’s sake, Abi, he’s my friend! You knew that. How could you do this to us both?’ Clive stared at her accusingly.

‘Look, it’s complicated,’ she said, defensively.

‘Complicated? Too right it’s complicated. I’ve now officially been fooling around with a girl who not only has a boyfriend, but the bloke is also my friend. Jesus, Abi!’

‘Jack and I have an open relationship,’ she said, desperately. ‘That’s why I didn’t think there was any reason to tell you about him when we started seeing each other.’

‘Well, you might think you have an open relationship, but he doesn’t. Jack’s been pathetically faithful to you, didn’t you realise that? I’ve seen the girls flock around him, offering themselves to him… and he’s always turned them away, because of you,’ Clive said, angry now on Jack’s behalf.

‘And
you know what’s even sadder? There is this other woman, in fact, and they really like each other, so much that it makes me sick, but he won’t do anything because he believes you’re in love with him and he would never do anything to hurt you. Meanwhile, you… you…’

His
voice trailed off in disbelief. Jeez, there he’d been, thinking Jack was some sleazy berk flirting shamelessly with Allegra, when all the time… And Clive now realised for a fact that nothing had ever happened between Jack and Allegra, or she’d never have ended up in his own bed.

Abi,
meanwhile, had gone quiet, trying to think of a way out of this mess. Jack didn’t have to know. They wouldn’t have to tell him. She didn’t want to lose Jack. But she didn’t want to lose Clive, either. Between the two of them, she got everything she wanted. If they could just somehow be one man, they’d be perfect. Then something Clive had just said hit her.

‘What other woman? Jack’s fallen in love with some other woman?’ she asked, scarcely believing what she was saying.

‘Yes, I think he has fallen in love. Like I said, I’ve seen him flirting with loads of girls and it never came to anything, but this one woman… It’s different with her. I can’t explain it, I can’t describe it, I just know it,’ Clive said, determined not to give Abi too much information, just enough to maybe hurt her the way she had just hurt him, the way she was hurting Jack without his knowledge.

‘But
unlike you, he’s not prepared to cheat. He’ll stay faithful to you to the very end, and by then, it’ll be too late for him and this other girl, which is a damn shame because fuck knows she deserves him more than you ever did or ever will. And he deserves someone better than you, too.’

‘Clive, listen, we can work this out,’ Abi said, pleading, terrified that she was about to lose both of the men in her life. ‘Jack and me, well, it’s been over for a while —‘

‘Yeah? Tell him that,’ Clive interrupted her, getting to his feet and throwing some cash on the table to settle the bill. ‘He thinks you two are still in a real, loving relationship. You know, Abi, the real pisser of this is that I actually liked you. And I thought you liked me.’

‘I do like you, Clive, a lot,’ she said, starting to snuffle as tears came to her eyes. ‘Why else do you think I went out with you?’

He
just stared at her, gutted, wanting to get out of there as quickly as he could. ‘We could have been good together, you and me,’ he said, quietly. ‘But it’s never going to work this way. You might have no qualms about betraying Jack, but I do.’

Clive
pushed his chair back and stalked out of the restaurant, leaving Abi sitting there with tears starting to slowly roll down her cheeks.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

HE KICKED the door open, still holding her, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist, kissing her hard, and they stumbled through the doorway, a tangle of arms and legs and bags and keys being thrown to the floor as he pushed the door shut behind them, slammed her up against it, pulling her skirt up, his hand between her legs, pulling aside the flimsy lace of her panties and oh… there… his fingers were inside her, he was still kissing her, his other hand under her blouse, pulling aside her bra, rubbing his thumb over her nipple, now he was kissing her neck, moving lower, biting her through the fabric of her top…

‘Oh God… oh Jack…’ Allegra felt dizzy, she couldn’t breathe, her hands on either side of his waist pulling him towards her, she could feel him hard against her belly, then she was unbuckling his belt, frantically pushing down his trousers, she moved her feet apart and twined her left leg around him, then he was at last inside her, at last after all those days of waiting, aching, and they both gasped at the same time, moving in rhythm with each other, his face in her neck, her arched back against the door to take more of him into her, both breathing loud and heavy, him thrusting as she moaned and then in one huge, juddering climax, they came.

‘You’re amazing…’ he was kissing her face, little butterfly kisses over her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, then her lips, biting gently, licking the sweat off her chin, his tongue inside her mouth, kissing her hard again. ‘Come.’

She
was still trembling, still breathing hard, as he took her hand and led her to the bedroom. They stood at the foot of the bed in the dim half-light, touching each other, hands stroking hands and arms and shoulders as they slowly undressed each other. She saw him naked for the first time; gorgeous, amazing arms, smooth chest, small, brown nipples, flat belly, the sexiest garden path of hair snaking down from his navel to his groin, the curve of his abdomen by the hips, and… she blushed.

‘So… it’s true what they say about the size of a man’s shoes, then…’ she whispered, tearing her gaze away from his crotch to look up at him. ‘Because you have the biggest feet I’ve ever seen…’

He
laughed, flattered and self-conscious at the same time, and even though it had been barely minutes since he climaxed, could feel himself getting hard again. He’d never been with a woman who was older than him, hadn’t been sure what to expect. And here she was at last, standing in front of him, naked, still quivering …

She
had none of the muscular hardness of the girls he’d slept with before; in its place was a pleasing, wonderful softness that made him want to hold her to him. Her breasts were still full, she had almost boyish, narrow hips, and he was surprised to find himself turned on by her belly, which was rounded, not flat; soft, not toned; maybe it was because when he pressed himself into that softness, it made his hardness feel more… powerful.

‘I love your smile,’ she said, softly, as they wrapped their arms around each other, swaying slightly, as if to music which only they could hear. He kissed her and they moved as one onto the bed, pushing aside the covers as he maneuvered her onto her back so that he could see her, him on his side, one leg over hers, stroking her stomach, kissing her neck, her shoulders, the crook of her arm, licking her fingers, her palm, as he slowly moved one hand up her legs, between them, feeling her dampness, then gently pushing his fingers inside her again as she arched her back and moaned.

‘Oh God… yes, oh… Jack…’ Her breath caught on his name as she gasped. ‘Don’t stop…’

And
then, in one fluid move he was on top of her, her legs wrapped around his waist as he thrust himself inside her, her nails digging into his sides as she became consciously aware for the first time how big he really was, oh God, she was ready to come again and he’d barely begun moving.

‘Stop… just stop for a moment,’ she whispered. ‘I want to feel you inside me.’

Jack
thought he was going to explode, he’d been ready to come as soon as he was inside her, and this was just torture. He groaned, kissing her neck, willing her to release him from his exquisite agony, then she slowly began moving her hips against him, and just as slowly, he allowed himself to move along with her, gradually moving faster and faster until it was all a blur and he could hear her cry out and lights exploded in his head and he came harder than he’d ever come before. Fuck, she was amazing.

Allegra
woke with a start, tingling, smiling… Then reality crashed back into her consciousness. It was a dream. Just another dream.