by S L Lewis
I was just about to cross the road when I saw a lady come out of the shop, give him a kiss and hold his hand as they walked away.
‘WTF!’ I thought. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
This lady was not Shilpa and the kiss was not a peck on the cheek! It was a full, open mouthed smooch, which he was not fighting off!
The lady looked similar to Shilpa. She was Asian, looked in her mid twenties, slim frame, maybe 5ft 4, long and highlighted red hair. She was wearing a fitted white shirt, skinny blue jeans, brown wedge heeled sandals and a big brown clutch bag.
If I didn’t know better, I would have assumed this was his wife by the way they were acting.
I was flabbergasted at the obvious display of public affection and decided to follow them.
I felt like a Private Investigator but I wanted to be proven wrong, so I convinced myself I was only following them to prove they were just friends.
Unfortunately, this didn’t happen as I watched them continue to hold hands whilst walking down the street, stop for a kiss and cuddle and turn into a small hotel at the end of the road and not come back out.
I sat in the café across the road from the hotel for half an hour before I saw them emerge looking even happier than when they went in. ‘Ok, this is Renesh here. He would never cheat on Shilpa, especially with everything going on with mum and dad.’ I tried to convince myself as I decided to phone him to see if he lied about his whereabouts. ‘Hey bro, how’s it going?’ I asked as I saw him look flustered as he answered his phone. ‘Hey Neets, I’m good, is everything ok?’ he asked nervously, ‘Yeah I just wondered if you were around? I thought me, you and Shilpa could go for lunch?’ I replied.
He started to walk away from the hotel so I decided to continue my investigation. ‘I’m a little busy at the moment. Can I come round later?’ he posed. ‘Sure, how about 7?’ I requested as I could see her kiss him again and he moved the phone away from his ear. ‘Yep that’s fine. I’ll see you then,’ he ended as he continued the kiss.
I decided enough was enough and was grateful when I was close enough to take a clear picture on my phone. I went into the florist, which was on the other side of the road, hid behind a huge bunch of exotic flowers, ignored the suspicious looks from the owner and took a close up picture of the pair kissing.
‘Right, lets see how he gets out of this later,’ I thought as I left the florist and headed home.
Chapter Four – Trinity of Revelations
Renesh must have a guardian angel as he was saved from my tongue lashing, as Amelia came running in the front room waving some tickets in all our faces.
‘Get your glad rags on ladies we are off out to get liquored up,’ she paused for a moment and observed our already inebriated expressions and continued, ‘ok more liquored up,’ to which she handed us a ticket each.
The ticket boasted,
‘A night of pure pleasure to celebrate the successes of the designers of the year. With creativity, flair, and an element of the unexpected, please make sure you leave your inhibitions at the door, to enjoy this night of exploration.’
‘Errr what type of night are you taking us to Meels?’ I questioned as we all looked at each other with confused looks.
‘It’s just the fashion shows after party! You know they have to make it sound more fancy than it is, to stand out from all the other parties that are going on,’ she laughed as she walked into her room, probably to look through her Chronicles of Narnia wardrobe to see what she could find to wear tonight. However, I’m guessing that instead of her feeling freezing cold snow as she searched the back of her closet, she would feel about ten pairs of Jimmy Choo’s!
Feeling slightly more excited at the idea of lots of free champagne and beautiful garments (I can only look at as I knew the price of them would make me faint!), rather than a small dark room with lots of people ‘exploring’ their more intimate sides, which was the thought that ran threw my mind when I first heard the sales pitch, I went into the bathroom to get ready.
Walking through the heavy sliver doors, which made me think there would be a huge alien at the other side to devour me, we were met by a man in a flashy blue suit. ‘an I help you?’ he asked as he stood in a low lit reception foyer, with beautiful high ceilings. However, along with the marble black and white tiled floor there was nothing but an unusual shaped, large desk in the middle and an even more bizarre looking chair behind it.
I looked around to see if there was another piece of furniture in this sparse space but it was eerily vacant and silent, as though we had come to the wrong address.
‘We have an invite,’ Amelia announced as she handed the man the piece of card. He looked at it in detail and once he was happy the ticket wasn’t a fake, he opened some large, white, hidden doors to his left and we entered the blue arena.
Streaming blue lighting surprised our eyes as we entered.
Cool white, oversized sofas covered the floor below, so we walked down the silver stairs to investigate further.
Dancer’s on stage captivated the men, whilst the male waiters wearing nothing but one of the designer’s boxer shorts kept the women engaged. It was surprisingly warm, so we tried to escape to the balcony section, where we passed a swimming pool with a floating bar.
Laughing at the men, trying to get in and out of the pool with some form of dignity, we didn’t realise the waiter’s constantly refilling our glasses as we danced to the latest dance song being played by an extremely enthusiastic DJ. Anya’s facial expression changed to one of thunder.
We all looked in the direction of her incensed glare.
This beautiful shimmering, low cut, backless dress was draped on this skinny, tanned, immaculate looking female who appeared to be walking on clouds of silver, until I looked again to see they were very expensive silver strappy sandals.
She glided through the door with her arm attached to a tall, equally flawless man in a black suit.
The man was turned away from me so I couldn’t understand why Anya was looking at this couple with disgust, until they came closer.
‘Daaarlings! I knocked your door to invite you but there was no answer and look…here you are,’ purred Tiziana, as she gave all, but Anya, air kisses and started complimenting our dresses.
We all made small talk quickly as the atmosphere was becoming intense; we were unsure why.
‘Anya, can I talk to you a moment?’ Tiziana’s date asked as we all stopped the small talk and wondered how this man knew Anya. ‘Dolph, let me introduce you to the ladies first,’ Tiziana scrambled.
Amelia stood with her mouth open and Gabrielle was equally stunned, as we have only ever heard about this man. Now to finally meet him in the flesh and see him on the arm of Tiziana after Anya’s recent revelations about her feelings for him was like witnessing a couple arguing in public on the Tube. You know you should look away but instead you pretend to read the crumpled copy of the Metro whilst texting your friend a word by word account of the dispute.
‘That can wait! I need to speak to Anya,’ he announced and grabbed Anya’s arm and guided her away before she could refuse.
Tiziana was visually embarrassed about being disregarded but decided to compensate her humiliation by moving over to a group of older men, who were admiring her ever since she entered the room.
As she basked in their admiration, she was ushered to their table where they continued to flatter her with glasses of champagne, compliments and their business cards.
‘How do they know she is an escort?’ Gabrielle innocently asked.
Amelia obviously found this question hilarious as she answered with a cackle, ‘I don’t think they did. I think they just thought they’d test the water to see if she would bite and guess what?’ Before she could finish her sentence I laughed, ‘and of course she did, daarling,’ as we walked further onto the dance floor and continued dancing.
The champagne flowed, the guests became more inebriated, the DJ started to get experimental with his mixture o
f pop, RnB, Dance and House music, models continued to float around the room and we all continued to enjoy the luxuries of this exclusive party.
We were all having such a good time, we didn’t notice Anya coming back to join us, ‘Anya! Dolph is gorge,’ Amelia drunkenly stated to an unimpressed Anya.
I tried to sober myself up but instead I leaned on Gabrielle who was slightly more stable than Amelia. ‘He seems really nice but why was he with Tiziana?’ I enquired before we all decided to sit down to hear the latest bit of gossip.
Anya leaned forward so we could hear her more clearly over the loud music, and Tiziana’s obvious flirting a few sofas away. ‘He told me he wants to be with me in a relationship capacity not professional,’ she blurted out.
‘Awww but you like him so isn’t this a good think?’ I approached the questioning with caution.
Amelia and Gabrielle continued to be the ball girls in this tennis inspired conversation but instead of picking up the balls, they picked up their glasses of champagne for much needed moisture for their stunned lips. ‘Yes but he has been with Tiziana so he couldn’t have liked me that much,’ Anya professed before she took a large gulp of her champagne.
‘How do you know he slept with her?’ Gabrielle asked quietly as though she was scared to get her head bitten off by Anya’s underlying anger. ‘Did he say he has?’ Amelia added as though she was throwing the rope to Gabrielle to join her in the helicopter before the lion was let out into the arena. ‘He didn’t have to. The way they entered together was very friendly. Anyway, I told him to leave me alone and go find Tiziana, as I am his client only, nothing more,’ Anya replied as she regarded him from across the room with a raised eyebrow.
‘You cannot use this as your proof, Anya. Let him explain,’ I begged but she held up her hand and I knew the conversation was over.
After 10 minutes, Dolph left and never returned to the party and although Anya was trying not to look hurt, she did not join us back on the dance floor and instead decided to look for potential clients.
Gabrielle was invited to join Tiziana with her increasingly intoxicated crowd of men where she enjoyed the constant attention and compliments from the gentlemen offering her trips on their yacht around the Mediterranean.
Flirting with the waiter’s and accepting the usually unwanted chat up lines from older, orange coloured men due to my inebriated state, made me feel like I never wanted the night to end, until I needed to go to the bathroom.
Pushing through a now crowded dance floor, I made it to an open space and gasped for air. ‘Another drink, madam?’ the waiter asked but before I could answer I was already drinking it in gulps. The waiter laughed and walked off to reveal a loved up couple behind him.
The man, who was dressed in a dark grey suit, crisp white shirt, skinny black tie and expensive looking black shoes, had his arm around the lady’s tiny waist.
The lady, who was now stroking his arm, was wearing a gold lace mini dress with a low cut front and an equally low back, balancing on some outrageously high gold strappy heels.
This couple captivated their audience as the people in their circle joined them in laughter and amusing conversation.
‘What a cute couple’ I thought as I moved closer to the bathroom and wished it was me and Angus.
Staggering to the entrance of the bathroom, I thought I had made it with dignity but I didn’t see a woman’s handbag on the floor in front of me, and…
My feet got entwined in the shoulder strap and as I tried to run forward to balance myself, the straps got tighter, restricting my movement and eventually only allowing me to grab hold of an already unstable high table toppling it over.
Complete with glasses flying in the air, the waiter’s came running over to try to catch me and the table, to add attention to my humiliating finale…I went crashing hard onto the floor.
I would like to think only a small number of people noticed the disruption but I’d be lying.
A crowd surrounded me, with looks of annoyance and awkwardness but trying to hide this by asking if I was ok. ‘Yes I’m fine. It was just an accident,’ I managed to mutter before I handed the lady back her now dishevelled bag and stood up. As I dusted myself off, the crowd began to disperse, leaving only a few vultures waiting to see what my next trick was going to be.
I gained the confidence to look up, as I could not pretend to dust myself off anymore, and I saw the elegant looking couple, I was admiring earlier, looking at me in astonishment.
The lady continued to talk with the crowd but the man was staring at me in shock.
It was Angus!
I met his stare with surprise and only broke away to look at his hand, on his now apparent, wife’s waist. ‘Honey, you remember Nita from the office, don’t you?’ he managed to stammer as his wife broke away from her hilarious conversation with another woman and regarded me with confusion. ‘Oh yes. Are you ok? You took quite a tumble there,’ she replied condescendingly as she started stroking Angus’s arm, making him feel more uncomfortable.
Feeling the anger building inside me, I hissed, ‘I’m fine thank you’. His wife, not seeing my fury, continued. ‘Are you having a good time Nita? If I wasn’t married, I’d feel like a child in a sweet shop with all these beautiful men around? Anyone caught your eye yet?’ As she asked the last question, Angus’s glare became more intense. ‘Yes I have met one or two but you know us single girls like to test drive the cars before making the final purchase,’ I batted back as I no longer cared about Angus’s increasingly visible uncomfortable attitude.
‘I don’t blame you Nita. Well have a fun night and be careful, you don’t want to ruin that beautiful dress,’ she added as she guided a jaded Angus away.
Surprisingly, her last remark did not sound bitchy or condescending and I actually only had one unexpected emotion…guilt!
This woman was beautiful, intelligent and was clearly nice and friendly and I had been sleeping with her husband and making the affair acceptable by believing all of Angus’s lies about his marriage being dead and that she was the dragon who would take his children away if he divorced her immediately.
How stupid could I have been? This woman was nothing more than a woman in love with a dirty dog, who would obviously never change.
With that last thought I rushed into the toilet as the tears began to tumble like a rain.
Luckily, I was able to compose myself after a few minutes in the toilet cubicle and emerged to a stony faced looking Anya.
‘I saw Angus. Are you ready to go?’ she asked as she observed my red eyes. I couldn’t speak without bursting into tears again so I just nodded and we exited the bathroom and made our way to the exit.
Gabrielle’s curiosity obviously got the better of her as we left her to join Tiziana entertaining their enthusiastic audience and Amelia dancing with a tall, model looking man who seemed to be enjoying her company as they were hugging whilst pretending to dance. ‘I guess no more Geron,’ Anya supposed as we both looked at the dirty dancing they were now doing in the middle of the dance floor.
‘I guess not,’ I managed before we left.
**********
‘So, where did you get to last night, then?’ I questioned Gabrielle as we waited for Renesh and Shilpa to come for Sunday dinner. Before she could answer, mum decided to show us the new salsa moves she had learnt from her two lessons at the community centre.
‘Really good mum. You’re a natural,’ I commented before she twirled back into the kitchen, nearly knocking herself out on the door as she realised she’d need a few more lessons to learn how to avoid the dizziness.
‘We just went onto one of the guy’s apartments’ Gabrielle replied secretively.
It was not like my sister to be so coy.
Usually, she would be boasting about the intimate details of the night, so something wasn’t right.
I continued my interrogation. ‘So come on, spill the beans. I wanna know all the details. Please tell me you didn’t do anything with any of them?
You remember you’re engaged, right?’ She looked at me and sighed.
‘I am aware I’m engaged,’ she retorted before she continued, ‘I don’t think I’ll be spending much more time with Tiziana.’
‘Oh wow and I thought they were best friends now,’ I pondered.
‘Why? What happened?’ I asked innocently. She looked at me to see if I was genuinely concerned or whether I was going to use the information to mock her in the future.
She explained. ‘We went to one of the guy’s apartments and it was amazing. Beautiful wall to ceiling windows, Japanese inspired furniture, luxurious rugs…you get the picture. Well we went into the lounge area, sat down and one of the men got a crate of champagne and we continued to have a laugh. There were six of us and it felt really comfortable, until one of the men took out a plastic bag, put one of the small white tablets on his tongue and offered it to Tiziana which she accepted whilst kissing him. I tried to shake it off but when another man started lining up coke on the table and the guys started snorting it, I had to get some air so I went to the bathroom and stood by the window. I thought I locked the door but I obviously didn’t as I felt a hand on my arse and I turned to see one of the men smiling at me. He grabbed me and tried to kiss me but I pushed him off. I tried to run out of the bathroom but he blocked the door and started grabbing at my shoulder straps. I kicked him in the nuts and ran out of the bathroom, trying to fix my now broken shoulder strap. I ran into the front room to see Tiziana practically in an orgy with four of the men and when she saw my shaken state, I told her what happened and said I wanted to leave. She didn’t even seem bothered. She told me to relax and have a line before getting back to her foursome. I couldn’t believe it, so I walked out and didn’t look back.’
