Chapter 2
2
By the time Kate had bathed Bethan, put her to bed and read her a story, it was almost 8.00p.m. Her brain actually ached and she was completely exhausted. Although she should have known it before, she hadn’t actually realised just how tiring having a child would be. Now she was doing it on her own and trying to hold down a job all at the same time. She was struggling with it, emotionally and financially. There were bills that needed paying, bills she had ignored for too long. Most months, she didn’t know whether she was actually going to get through it just breaking even.
She thought about her delicate finances all the time and that meant she thought about Matthew a lot of the time and what a bastard he was for leaving her. But knowing he was a bastard somehow didn’t stop her wishing he was still there. There were moments when she missed him desperately.
She pulled the cork out of the bottle of wine and felt a sense of relief the minute she poured it into a glass. This was her time, her time to relax, even if it was on her own. Sometimes, it was lonely, like when there was nothing to watch on TV, or when she began to think too heavily about Matthew, but most of the time, she was asleep on the sofa before the loneliness had a chance to take hold. Tonight, all she could do was stare at the business card Hermione had given her while she set the microwave timer to two minutes and popped in a carbonara meal for one.
Elite Escorts it said in glittery letters. There was an address in the town centre, a telephone number, email address and a website. Kate took a swig of her wine and opened her laptop.
She typed in the web address and almost at once, the page flickered into life and music blared out. It was the theme from Baywatch . Kate hurried to turn the volume down before it woke Bethan, almost knocking her glass over in the process. She half expected to see a bare-chested David Hasselhoff pop up on screen. Not that it would have been a bad thing. She’d always had a soft spot for him since Knight Rider . Or maybe that had just been because of the cool car.
More glittery letters appeared and then flashing icons came up and an option to choose Gentlemen or Ladies . Kate clicked on Gentlemen and was given an entire gallery of men to look through. This was certainly a happy kind of shopping!
The first man she clicked on, Barry , looked very camp, like a younger, much shorter version of Dale Winton. The next one was Keith , who looked friendly enough, but according to his date of birth, he was forty-seven. She then looked at Michael (had little hair and reminded her of Harry Hill), Finlay , who said he liked Boyzone and David , who was six foot five inches tall. There was no way, even if she wore heels, that she would be able to talk to anything but his navel.
It was then she noticed the search section. In this, you could input all your likes and dislikes, just like building your own perfect man. Now halfway down the glass of wine, Kate actually smiled at the screen and began to type.
Less than six foot, but over five foot seven, dark hair, no preference on eye colour, athletic build, educated to at least O-level equivalent, likes films, music and dining out. It was like shopping online at Argos but much more entertaining. She half expected the computer to build her perfect man in front of her very eyes with the capacity to have him packed and shipped.
Kate pressed the search button and a large picture was displayed of Stephen .
Stephen said he was five foot ten, athletically built, dark hair, green eyes, with an A-level in economics. He liked action films and dining out. He was good-looking but not her usual type; he had a friendly smile and kind eyes. Kate stared at the photograph and took another sip of her wine. To book Stephen, you had to fill in another form with your details and the date and time you wanted to order him for. Even more like shopping online at Argos, but no delivery charge. Kate took a deep breath. This was insane. What was she doing?
She got up from the table to fetch the bottle of wine and suddenly remembered she had microwaved her dinner about half an hour ago. She set it to cook again and stared over at her computer, still displaying the smiling photo of Stephen. She put the glass of wine to her lips again and cursed the Lady Dragon for putting her in this position. The microwave beeped. She got a fork out of the drawer and, plastic container of overcooked carbonara in hand, walked back over to the table. Stephen didn’t look like an escort – that was a good thing – but did he look ordinary enough for the Lady Dragon to believe Kate was dating him? Possibly, although he was better looking than Matthew. Kate swallowed. She didn’t believe she had just thought that. She loved Matthew; she had thought he was handsome the minute she set eyes on him. She looked over at the photo of Bethan and Matthew on the sideboard. They were both smiling, father and daughter together. She had loved him but perhaps she hadn’t really ever known him. The person she had been in love with wouldn’t have left her and his daughter without a second thought.
Now feeling angry, Kate turned to the laptop and pressed a key to submit. She wanted to forget Matthew. Perhaps Hermione was right; maybe a night out was in order.
When the telephone rang, it woke Kate up. She had eaten the chewy pasta meal, finished the bottle of wine and attempted to watch a programme about overweight children at a fat camp. It had been such a good documentary, she had fallen asleep within the first five minutes, just after fifteen-stone Kylie from Stoke had admitted her partiality for ring doughnuts. Half asleep, she grabbed the phone and put it to her ear.
‘Hello.’
‘Hello, is that Kate Baxter?’ a male voice asked.
It was a nice voice. Soft and deep, strong yet not overpowering.
‘Yes, it is,’ Kate answered.
She was slightly concerned it could be her bank manager. It didn’t sound like him but he had been known to make his assistants do the initial call before he came on the line and gave her an earful about her financial situation. Like she wasn’t fully aware she was poor.
‘Hi Kate, I’m from Elite Escorts. My name’s Joel,’ the lovely voice informed her.
‘Joel?’ Kate queried, rubbing her eyes and trying to wake herself up. She was glad he wasn’t from the bank but concerned he wasn’t called Stephen.
‘Yes, I know you were expecting Stephen but I’m afraid he’s booked up the whole weekend and I was your next best match,’ Joel continued.
‘Oh, well, I…’ Kate began.
‘I’m just ringing to check what time you want to meet up and where,’ Joel spoke .
‘Oh, I don’t know, um, I haven’t done this before,’ Kate blurted out.
And very unlikely to do it again and in fact wouldn’t be doing it at all if it wasn’t for her interfering childminder.
‘That’s OK. Listen, I usually meet people at Fenton’s, the wine bar in the town square. Do you know it?’ Joel asked her.
‘Erm – I’m not sure,’ Kate began, looking around for a pen and paper in case she needed to make notes.
‘It used to be the biker’s pub,’ Joel added.
‘Oh yes, I know where that is – used to avoid it like the plague,’ Kate spoke, overturning Bethan’s drawings in an attempt to find a piece of paper that hadn’t been drawn on.
‘Good, so what time? Seven? Half past?’
‘Erm, better make it seven; the meal’s supposed to start at eight,’ Kate replied, finally pulling out an A4 pad and reaching for a pen.
‘And where are we going? In your email, you said it was a work function.’
‘Yes, it’s a dinner, banquet thingy, something posh like that. It’s at the Grand,’ Kate replied.
‘Is it black tie?’
‘No, at least I don’t think so. Shall I check?’ Kate asked, becoming flustered.
It would be posh but she didn’t know the dress code. The Lady Dragon was wearing an Oscar-worthy dress though so maybe it was black tie.
‘That’s OK; I’ll dress smart and bring the dinner jacket in the car just in case,’ Joel replied.
‘Good,’ Kate said, not knowing what else to say.
How could she find out the dress code without actually speaking to the Lady Dragon? Lynn! She would ask Lynn.
‘Right, well I’ll meet you at seven at Fenton’s on Friday,’ Joel spoke .
‘Good, OK – wait – how will I recognise you?’ Kate wanted to know, a hundred things going through her mind.
‘I’ll be wearing a tulip in my lapel,’ the honeyed voice replied.
‘A tulip, right, OK,’ Kate responded, writing it down on her pad.
‘I’m just kidding! You can have a look at my profile on the website; there’s a photo,’ Joel responded, a hint of amusement in his voice.
‘Oh, yes, of course,’ Kate answered, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She was so glad he couldn’t see her or he would be running a mile in the other direction and changing his phone number.
‘OK, well I’ll see you on Friday.’
‘Yes, good, Friday. I mean not as in Good Friday, as in next Friday, sorry,’ Kate babbled, her cheeks reddening as she cursed herself.
‘Bye,’ Joel ended.
‘Bye.’
Her heart was racing as she put the phone down. What had she done? She had engaged the services of a male escort to accompany her to a work function. If it backfired and people found out, she would never be able to hold her head up again. And it wasn’t going to be Stephen! Smiling Stephen with the kind eyes and a hint of stubble that she thought had really suited him. She had almost got used to the idea of passing a few hours with Stephen. Kate raced back over to the laptop. She didn’t have a clue what this Joel looked like. What if he wasn’t appropriate? God, had she really said that? What a snob! He had said he was a close match to the criteria she had entered. But what if that meant he had one eye instead of two or no hair when she had definitely asked for hair? She almost couldn’t bear to look as she typed the name into the search engine and waited for something to appear. She didn’t have to wait long. In a matter of milliseconds, Joel’s profile appeared on her screen and looking through her fingers, she let out a horrified gasp. There was no way she could take him to the function, no way in the world.