Chapter 73
Gen
Iblink. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I have this idea.’ She spreads her hands wide.
‘A documentary about me, a middle-aged woman coming out of a long marriage and finding myself again. Sexually. Bear with me. Much as I’d love to trash-talk John to every tabloid in the land, I won’t do it because of the kids. He’s still their father. Unfortunately.
‘But what if I made a documentary about a woman who’s dealing with a lot of shit, who’s lacking confidence and finds it again because she decides to fucking own her sexuality?
There’s this expectation that men like John get divorced and sail off into the sunset with some hot blonde half their age.
But if I did something like that, and I shared my experience, it would send the most amazing message to women out there.
Newsflash: you’re not damaged fucking goods.
You have a future. You have value. Go fucking own it. ’
I shut my eyes for a second and then give her my most sincere look.
‘I absolutely love it. I love everything about it. I think it would be amazing for you, and extremely powerful for other women. But Alchemy’s very discreet.
Our entire MO is discretion. So the mere concept of letting cameras inside is a huge red flag for me. ’
‘Please think about it,’ she begs. ‘I’m not talking about filming me having sex.
Obviously. And we wouldn’t need to do it inside the club, even.
But please, please consider helping me out.
Maybe it puts the spotlight on a whole new line of business for you guys, like you have this service where you matchmake members with men or women who need to have their confidence restored in a safe way, with rules and boundaries. It’s a good thing.’
I take a sip of my wine and eye her, because, while I agree with what she’s saying, I’m not remotely convinced about dragging the club into this. I don’t think the guys would go for it, anyway. ‘I’ll consider it,’ I tell her. ‘You have my word.’
She salutes me with her glass. ‘Thank you. I appreciate it. I think it could be fantastic. Obviously, the BBC would never go for it, but I feel like Channel 4 might? Or one of the streaming platforms.’
‘That would be amazing,’ I say. ‘I’d love to see something like this told sensitively, and done in a way that’s more reportage than reality TV, you know?’
‘Exactly.’ She shoots me a megawatt smile. ‘Now, tell me everything about running a sex club. It’s so cool. Do you avail of all the D?’ She looks me up and down appraisingly. ‘Because you’re fucking gorgeous. I bet you do well for yourself. And you’re not wearing a ring, so…’
I throw back my head and laugh heartily. ‘I did avail, very much, until quite recently. I’ve been seeing someone.’
‘How’d you guys meet?’
I pause. ‘At the club.’
‘Oooh!’ She claps her hands. ‘I love it. You dirty girl.’
‘Yeah, well, he’s in the doghouse at the moment,’ I say drily.
‘What’d he do? Tell me.’
I cock my head and survey her. ‘He overstepped. He’s a very strong character—used to getting what he wants.’
She rolls her eyes. ‘Aren’t they all?’
‘Anyway. He forgot that I’m an actual grownup who’s perfectly capable of making my own decisions, and he waded in and “rescued” a work situation that absolutely did not require rescuing. Without my permission.’
‘Asshole.’
‘Precisely.’
‘So you’re making him sweat?’
‘Something like that,’ I say. ‘Not for the sake of it. But you know men. They need to work these things out for themselves.’
Once we’ve said our goodbyes and I’m hailing a cab back to Alchemy, I consider Aida’s proposition. There’s no way we’d ever agree to a documentary for the sake of publicity. Publicity like that could only be detrimental.
That said, if Cannes goes well and we want to expand internationally, putting our brand out there in a carefully controlled way could be positive for us.
More importantly, I bought into her pitch.
I believed in it, and I believe the world needs a documentary like that.
What if the stars are aligning? Because investigative reporters and storytellers like Aida Russell don’t fall into your lap every day.
Something she said as we parted stuck with me. I asked her, jokingly, who her ideal man would be.
‘I mean, if you can hook me up with Theo James, that would be awesome,’ she shot back immediately.
If we were to even consider doing this, we’d need to find someone perfect for Aida. Someone professional and considerate as well as gorgeous and sexy and fucking amazing in bed.
Someone we, and she, could trust to handle themselves perfectly.
Someone who’d love being on camera.
And someone with Theo James-level hotness.
Hmm.
I can’t help but think this would be a job for Cal.