Chapter Twenty-three
Twenty-three
I didn’t want to like Leo as much as I did. Or at all, really. Out of all the millions of men in the world, why did it have to be him? It was hugely inconvenient. The phone rang out next to my bed and scared me half to death, lost in thought as I was, loudly reverberating around the room.
‘Hello?’
‘Good evening, this is Anjali on the concierge desk. We have a Mr Kendrick in reception for you.’
Arghhh! He was here. Which of course I was expecting and what I wanted, but still… arghhh! I adjusted my slinky dress to show more cleavage and cleared my throat. ‘Send him up, thank you.’
Why did this feel so illicit? Like I was having an affair?
We weren’t doing anything wrong, but I was nervous and excited and terrified all at once.
I downed a whisky miniature from the minibar, then poured myself a wine and sat on the edge of the bed.
Then moved outside to stand on the balcony.
He’d be in the lift by now, maybe even walking down the corridor.
Oh God. My heart was pounding. What was I thinking inviting a strange man up to my room?
I toyed with switching my heels for slippers.
But then Leo would have shoes on, so I should too – I didn’t want it to feel like some weird pyjama party.
Was it too hot in here? I turned the air conditioning on and puffed up the pillows.
Should I pour him a wine as well or wait and see what he wanted…
? A sharp knock at the door made me jump.
Arghhh! I checked my teeth in the magnifying mirror and spritzed on some Coco Mademoiselle.
It was now or never as I eyed him through the spyhole, took a deep breath and opened the door.
‘Room service,’ Leo said, with a shy smile, holding up a bottle of red. He leant in and kissed me on the cheek, then pulled an orange rose out from behind his back. She’d got him again.
‘Two roses in two days!’ I said, smiling madly. ‘Obrigado, senhor.’ It had been forever since a man had bought me flowers and now it was raining roses… one at a time. ‘Come in.’
‘What a great idea,’ Leo said, looking around, then jumping on the bed. ‘Zach and I should have done the same. Although I don’t know what it says about how much you’re enjoying the cruise.’
‘I’m sure you can work it out if you try,’ I quipped. ‘It’s not that cryptic.’
I beckoned him out onto the balcony and lit a citronella candle to keep the bugs away. ‘Can I get you a drink, sir? Red, white, a beer?’
‘I’ll have whatever you’re having,’ he said, eyeing my wine. ‘We can open the red later with some cheese.’
‘Do you mean order some? I’m not sure there’s any…’
He pulled a camembert from his inside pocket and some crackers from his coat. ‘I took the liberty of swinging by the supermarket. I know you like a cheeseboard.’
He had me there. The cheese trolley at the end of each meal was always the best part of the night.
‘I do! How sweet of you to notice. Cheesiness is next to godliness in my book.’ I was entirely delighted.
It was rare to find a man with cheese in his pocket.
‘I’ve never been gifted a camembert before – more men should do this. Sod the champagne and roses.’
‘Noted,’ he said, taking the rose he’d given me and opening his jacket to tuck it away.
I snatched it back. ‘Not that one, you big tease. Is this more of your PR-man polish?’
‘Not at all. I just thought you might like it, that’s all.’
‘Well, you’re right. I do.’
‘I’ll help myself to a wine then, shall I?’ he said, disappearing back inside and rattling around in the fridge.
‘Kat! Kat? Can you hear me?’ A woman’s voice floated through the air, but I couldn’t work out from which direction.
‘Hello?’ I shouted, shading my eyes to focus. Was it a spirit?
‘It’s me! Heidi!’
My stomach dropped as I casually slid the balcony door shut and pulled the shutters down. Arghhh! I couldn’t see her and had visions of her leaping over the wall or bungee jumping in from above. ‘Where are you?’
‘Over here!’ she called, and her phone light turned on. She was stood in the shadows of her own balcony on the opposite side of the courtyard.
‘Oh hi! How are you feeling?’ I feigned concern and prayed Leo would take his time.
‘Much better. I’ve been asleep all afternoon and I’m having an early night. Keeping my eyes closed is the only thing that stops the pain.’
Leo was trying to open the door behind me, and I stepped back to stand in front of it.
‘Bath and bed for me too,’ I replied loudly to hide the noise, holding up my wine as if it was evidence. ‘After this one.’
‘What’s that, Kat?’ Leo shouted through the glass. ‘Are you talking to me? I can’t get out – the door’s stuck.’
‘Shhh,’ I side-mouthed.
‘Already in your nightie, I see.’ Heidi couldn’t resist a barb, even with a migraine. Can’t see well enough to type but can throw shade on me from a hundred metres. ‘I’ll leave you to get some rest. Goodnight!’
I raised my glass again and she turned, as Leo rapped loudly on the window. ‘Can you hear me?’ he shouted in a panic as I pulled the shutters up and slipped inside the balcony door, closing the curtains behind me.
‘That was close,’ I said, taking another whisky miniature from the fridge and downing it. ‘Heidi’s room is directly opposite. Five more seconds and she’d have seen you.’
Leo cracked a smile. ‘How exciting,’ he said, wrapping his arms around me. ‘I thought you were trying to trap me in your bedroom.’
‘Sorry to disappoint you, but you’re free to leave anytime. You could have walked out the front door.’
He gave me a flirty smile. ‘Why would I do that? I was warming to the idea of house arrest.’
‘Not sure we can sit out on the balcony now. Shall we have cheese and crackers on the bed and watch Portuguese TV?’
‘No,’ he said, taking my wine glass and putting it down with his. ‘We are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and your boss is safely tucked up in bed, so let’s go out.’
He had a masterful energy that was hard to resist and I was far too heightened to stay in the room with him now – I’d be buzzing about like a lost wasp.
He was right; we needed to get out and explore.
We jumped in a cab outside the hotel and Leo said something in Portuguese to the driver.
‘There’s a roof bar I want to check out, are you OK if we go there? ’
‘More than OK. It’s nice to go along with someone else’s plans for once – being away with Heidi is like being a single parent. I’m part business director, part PA.’
The taxi turned into a derelict side street and stopped outside a car park. Leo and I exchanged a nervous glance.
‘Chegamos!’ the driver said with a cheerful smile. ‘Park bar!’ He pointed to the barricaded entrance where there was a small door covered in graffiti. No doubt where the Grim Reaper was waiting to take our coats.
Leo googled and paid at the same time, while I locked my door. ‘You take me to all the best places.’
‘Looks different in the photos,’ he said. ‘But this is it.’
We got out and the cab sped off, which did nothing to reassure us.
My inner voice was clearly telling me I was about to be mugged, but I ignored it and took Leo’s hand, holding on tight as he knocked on the gross graffiti door.
It creaked open to reveal a set of concrete stairs and he glanced at me and shrugged.
‘In the words of Yazz…’
‘The only way is up.’
And up was a bloody long way. Five flights of stairs later we arrived at the top, sweaty and panting. Which is how I’d imagined the night might have ended in the hotel, not in a multi-storey car park.
Leo opened the door onto the roof, and it was a relief to find Lisbon’s answer to Club Tropicana hiding behind it.
An open-air bar, full of sofas and high-top tables, where all the beautiful people were hanging out.
The blood rushed back to my face as happy house music pumped out of the decks and a vigorous violinist grooved past. We were safe.
I kept hold of Leo’s hand as he weaved through the crowd, past groups of friends drinking colourful cocktails and couples dancing to the beats.
Tiny candles flickered inside blue jars, and lamps with white globes had been dotted around to give the place a soft light.
It was like being on set in a music video.
‘What do you want to drink?’ I shouted, trying to get control back of the situation.
Leo either couldn’t hear me or ignored me, brandishing a fifty euro note at the barman who caught his eye. ‘Dois champagnes!’ he said, holding up two fingers. How did he know what I wanted? I’d been doing dating all wrong – somehow I always ended up buying the first round. And the last.
We crammed into the crowd, eventually finding enough space to face each other as the saxophonist started playing ‘Baker Street’ over a beat from an old Chemical Brothers song.
She had black corkscrew curls and was giving it some welly, so there was no hope of us having any kind of conversation.
Leo looked at me unblinking, really looked at me, then smiled and clinked his glass against mine.
‘Cheers,’ he mouthed. He was tall enough to see over all the heads, while I was blocked in by necks and chests.
A bloke barged through the crowd towards the bar and Leo put a protective arm around me as if I was his and the pair of us were one unit.
It felt strange to be out with a man like this, rather than getting lashed with the girls or going on a pub crawl of average dates.
To be out with a man I genuinely wanted to spend time with.
He leant down and kissed my cheek, but it wasn’t enough; the connection between us was hot and electric and I wanted his lips on mine. I beckoned him back in, snogging his face off in the middle of the melee, the champagne adding an extra layer of fuzziness to the moment.
‘Maybe going out wasn’t such a good idea,’ he breathed in my ear, starting to dance. ‘You’re getting me all excited.’
‘Good,’ I replied mirroring his moves. It was a very different style of dance to the silent disco – pumping his body to the beat.
I tried to channel my old Ibiza days, when swinging arms were an acceptable dance move.
The violinist appeared next to us and the crowd shrank back as the spotlight found her.
Leo seemed to go up a gear, keen to be part of the show, whereas I wanted to shy away into the shadows.
The crowd clapped along, egging us on, and Leo did some breakdancing spins, then dropped to the floor and launched into the worm.
I shimmied next to him, then reverted to waving my arms. Basic and boring in comparison.
The saxophonist piped up over the other side of the bar and the spotlight switched to her, our moment of fame over.
A couple of Portuguese bros slapped Leo on the back, with nods of admiration, and he held up his hands in thanks. I hovered in the background like a proud wife.
‘Wow. Are you a professional street dancer? Where did you learn all that?’
He laughed. ‘It’s an evolution from trampolining in my youth to try and impress girls.’
‘Well, it impressed me. Very cool. What other surprises have you got up your sleeve?’
‘Ohhh… all sorts. There’s loads of stuff you don’t know about me – and I don’t know about you. But that’s half the fun, isn’t it? Finding out.’
He twirled me round, then clasped my hips and pulled me close. I tried to think if there was anything out of the ordinary he should know about me. Had I been an Olympic athlete in my teens? No. Was I the child of a billionaire? No. Could I fold myself up into a suitcase? Not anymore.
***
We rolled into the hotel reception and nervously ran into the lift. Presumably Heidi was sound asleep in her bed, but better to be safe than sorry.
‘I honestly don’t mind going back to the ship, you know,’ Leo said, putting his arms around me.
‘Whatever you want. Just see me to my room, at least.’
‘With pleasure.’
His voice was deep and gravelly and his eyes were full of desire as he leant down to kiss me. The lift jerked to a stop, pressing us into each other and the second the doors pinged open I ducked under his arm and ran up the corridor.
‘Hey! I’m supposed to be accompanying you!’ Leo called, chasing after me. He caught me up as I unlocked the door and I pulled him inside by his belt, popping his shirt open with my other hand.
‘Can you accompany me any further?’ I asked.
‘All the way,’ he said, picking me up and throwing me on the bed.