Chapter 12 #2
‘Not every day you see a beautiful woman smiling at a funeral.’
She’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even seen Murray Atkins coming from the other direction.
‘It’s not every day that a handsome guy hits a beautiful woman with a pick-up line at a funeral,’ she replied, with just the right amount of sass and coyness.
This wasn’t her first rodeo. If there was a humanitarian award for attracting members of the opposite sex, she’d have her name on more trophies than Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama combined.
‘Touché,’ he responded, putting his glass down on the high table in front of her and making it clear this wasn’t a drive-by pick-up.
‘Nice speech earlier. Did you mean it?’ Lila asked, teasing, one eyebrow raised and a smile on her red lips as she playfully provoked him.
‘I meant at least some of it,’ he conceded, and Lila was impressed that he didn’t try to bullshit her. They both knew too much for that to work.
‘Ah, that’s good, because I definitely only believed some of it.’
Lila could sense that he was enjoying this exchange as much as she was.
And why not? He’d been one of Kenneth’s friends and peers whom they’d socialised with often and they both knew the unspoken truth was that even though Murray had been married back then, he’d been attracted to her, wanted what Kenneth Manson had.
The underlying rivalry and competitiveness between the two men had been obvious to her, so she’d found it amusing, toyed with him occasionally, flirted a little – just enough to make Kenneth jealous.
Back then, she’d never seriously considered going further. But now?
They were both consenting adults. Both attractive.
In fact, she was pretty sure he’d never looked better.
She heard he’d recently divorced, and she could see it had worked wonders for him.
Like Kenneth, he had the body of someone who trained every morning at 5 a.m. His hair was grey but beautifully cut.
And his teeth were no strangers to a whitening procedure.
Maybe a bit of Botox in there too. She tried to think who he reminded her of.
The actor, Richard Gere. Yep, he definitely had sexy Gere vibes.
And she never tired of watching Pretty Woman, despite the fact that it was around the same age as she was.
She loved an old classic – in films, cars and men.
‘I definitely didn’t expect to see you here,’ he volleyed back, in the same teasing tone she’d used. ‘Last time we met…’
‘The Dome. Edinburgh. Five years ago. The night before Christmas Eve.’ She filled in the blanks so he didn’t have to, but the memory made something in her smile soften.
That had been a wonderful night. She and Kenneth had gone to Edinburgh so that they could have an anonymous festive night out, just the two of them.
He’d told Bernadette he’d be sleeping on the sofa bed in his office, as he occasionally did, because he had back-to-back surgeries.
Complete lie. They’d checked into The Balmoral, spent the whole day shopping in Harvey Nicks and he’d bought her a divine Yves Saint Laurent bag as a gift.
She’d dressed top to toe in red, and they’d gone for dinner in the splendour of the Dome restaurant, drunk cocktails, feasted on steaks, and they’d just ordered Irish coffees when Murray and his wife had walked past their table.
Kenneth had immediately jumped to his feet, and shaken Murray’s hand, then kissed his wife on each cheek.
Lila had met Murray many times over the years, but never with his wife.
Now she saw why. The woman was beautiful, but she clearly wasn’t impressed by bumping into them, and eyed Lila from her Tiffany earrings down to her Jimmy Choos.
Murray’s voice brought her back to the moment. ‘Yep, it sure was. I believe that was about two hours before my wife confessed that she’d banged him a few years before that. While we were married, but prior to him meeting you, of course.’
Lila wasn’t sure if that last bit was true, but for the purposes of her ego, her equilibrium and the flirtatiousness of the moment, she decided to go with it.
He had no reason to lie. Kenneth had never mentioned any kind of fling with Diana Atkins, but then, honesty and full disclosure had never been two of his greatest strengths.
‘You know we’re divorced now?’ he went on, spelling it out in case she had any doubt.
That almost made her laugh, given that it had already been pretty firmly established that being married clearly wasn’t an obstacle in her attraction to a member of the male species.
‘There was no coming back from her confession that night,’ Murray added. ‘He was one of my closest friends.’
‘And yet you forgave him? I do believe you stood up there today and told the world how great he was.’ Even for her, the double standard was shocking.
But Murray just shrugged. ‘Cutting him off would have been detrimental to my career and so much more. Besides… You can’t blame a guy for capitalising on an opportunity.’
Lila actually felt her veneers clench at that one, although, yet again, she admired his honesty.
It was the old boys’ network in plain sight.
This guy was exactly like Kenneth. Ruthless.
Blunt. Arrogant. Rich. Successful. And absolutely easy pickings to be played at his own game.
He wasn’t the only one who could look out for his own best interests. She was an expert in that field too.
He leaned towards her, lowered his voice. ‘For what it’s worth, Kenneth told me how things ended with you two, and I told him he was crazy not to choose you.’
‘You did?’ Coy again.
‘I did.’ He held her gaze, sending a signal that she was receiving loud and clear. He wanted her. And maybe she wanted him too.
Yes, she truly hoped her recently deceased former lover was looking down on her right now. Because if he was, he’d see that she’d just discovered that Kenneth Manson, RIP, could still do something for her after all.