Chapter 21
As Sasha entered her living room, there was a burst of applause.
Klara led the cheering with a loud whoop.
Sasha smiled at her friends, cheeks flushed.
She couldn’t quite believe that Ben was sitting at the tiny table in her living room, eyes glowing with approval.
She felt a stab of guilt as she touched a finger to her lips. They felt swollen from his kisses.
‘Well done, gorgeous.’ Klara flung an arm round her. ‘That was a fabulous party – the first of many, I’m sure. The musical entertainment was divine, guys. And, as for the cake . . .’ She kissed her fingertips at Nathan.
‘Exquisite!’ Sasha added and Nathan took a bow as everyone clapped and whooped again. Beaming, he flopped back on the sofa next to Casey.
‘I’ll go and get some glasses.’ Sasha backed out into the hall and into her kitchen.
She was ultra-aware of Ben. It felt strange with him in her space, with her friends around her.
She wondered if they’d be able to tell they’d kissed.
In her imagination she could feel his lips on hers again.
His hands rubbing her arms and then stroking them so softly.
Her chest heated just thinking about it.
Did Klara guess something had happened? She hadn’t seen Ben in the garden but he kept looking at Sasha with that heat in his eyes. It must be obvious. She knew Klara had an instinct for that sort of thing.
‘Sasha, can I give you a hand?’ Ben loomed tall in the doorway of her tiny kitchen.
‘Oh, OK. Thanks.’ Her voice was husky, uncertain. But she handed him a couple of champagne flutes. As he took them, he cupped his fingers round hers and she nearly dropped the glasses.
He placed them on the kitchen counter. ‘Just something I have to do, first.’ He leaned towards her, and suddenly she was in his arms, his lips trailing kisses up her neck to her lips.
‘Sasha, I’m thirsty!’ called out Klara. Sasha jolted back, but with the kitchen cabinet behind her, there was nowhere to go. She pushed at Ben’s chest, feeling the heat of his muscled body through his shirt.
‘Sorry – just coming!’ Sasha called. She picked up a couple more glasses and Ben backed away, letting her slip past him, out into the hall.
Klara smirked as Sasha stepped into the living room, Ben close behind. ‘You guys look – cosy . . .’ She lifted an eyebrow knowingly as Ben handed her a glass.
‘Ben was just helping me with the glasses.’
‘I bet he was.’ Klara winked and poured champagne. ‘I’m sure he’d love to “help” you – don’t let me stop you. I just wanted a glass.’
‘It’s nothing like that,’ Sasha protested. Her face was burning. Her cheeks must be scarlet. She wished she didn’t blush so easily. Her skin wouldn’t hide the truth.
‘Bottoms up.’ Klara handed out the champagne-filled glasses. ‘These two need to get a room. I think there’s one down the hall?’ She raised her eyebrows suggestively.
‘No!’ Sasha turned to Ben. ‘Actually, Ben was just leaving – right? Don’t you have that – that thing in the morning?’ She widened her eyes at him, willing him to get the message.
‘Oh. Yes. Right. Sorry, guys, I better be off.’
‘Aw – just one drink?’ said Klara. ‘Have I scared you off?’
Nathan sloshed champagne into Ben’s glass. ‘Come on, handsome – bottoms up!’
Ben knocked back the champagne and then registered the look on Sasha’s face. ‘Sasha’s right – I have an early start.’
‘You part of the Bramleigh five-a-side? I might have to drag myself up to have a gander at their . . . training session,’ said Nathan. ‘I bet you look good in shorts.’
‘Objectifying much?’ drawled Casey, grinning.
‘Just a – er – a run on the common. But well done, everyone – fab tunes guys – amazing cake, Nate.’
Sasha shooed Ben into the hall and opened the front door. He leaned in to kiss her but she drew back. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘Everyone in Bramleigh knows you’re my client. I just can’t!’
‘All right – I get it. Sorry if I’m embarrassing you.’ The stricken look in his eyes stabbed her in the heart but she heard Klara swishing behind her and pushed him away.
Klara handed Sasha a glass. ‘Here, lovely – get that down you. Bye, Ben, do you really have to go?’
‘Yes!’ Sasha shut the door.
Klara drew her back into the living room. ‘Sooo . . . tell Aunty Klara all about it. Come on, spit it out!’
‘What? What are you talking about?’ Sasha hid her confusion, pretending all was fine.
‘Oh, Saa-shaa!’ Nathan threw a cushion at her. ‘Something’s going on. Tall, dark and handsome couldn’t take his eyes off you. Why’d you throw him out?’
‘It’s nothing – he has an early start.’ She threw the cushion back towards Nathan but it hit Casey on the sofa.
‘The lady doth protest too much,’ Nathan pronounced.
‘Shut up, guys – Ben’s my client, that’s all. I’m trying to find him a match.’
‘Shut up, Nathan,’ said Casey, throwing the cushion back at him. He glanced at Sasha, taking pity on her. ‘Shall we have a few tunes?’
He picked up his saxophone and played a riff.
Nathan made a suggestive face at him. ‘Oh darling, you can blow on my horn any day.’
The champagne was hitting Sasha’s bloodstream. Now Ben had gone she could relax. She nudged Klara. Leo had loosened his shirt, the top two buttons were undone. Klara ignored her. ‘Nathan – dance?’
Nathan and Klara pushed the coffee table aside and started to dance to Casey’s tunes, while Leo sat quietly watching.
Leo definitely has a thing for Klara. Sasha recognized repressed attraction. She was becoming an expert herself.
She kept thinking of Ben’s lips, on her neck, on her face.
The heat of him. How was she going to be able to look at him in the eye and talk about finding his perfect match?
Why hadn’t she remembered Por Por’s warning?
She’d made a terrible mistake, kissing him back.
She should have had more control over herself.
‘Top-up?’ Klara waved the bottle at her and she looked down, surprised to see her glass was already empty.
She nodded and after Klara had filled her glass, took another big gulp.
The champagne was doing its job, relieving her jittery confusion.
Soon, that glass was empty too, and the room was spinning.
Sasha relaxed, finally. She stood up and swayed to Casey’s saxophone rendition of ‘What a Wonderful World’. Nathan sang along, twirling a giggling Klara round and round.
The alcohol helped Sasha forget about Ben’s kisses.
About everything. The numbness was welcome.
She mustn’t let herself feel. Feeling was dangerous.
If she gave in to her emotions, she would run back downstairs and out into the street.
She would find Ben and throw herself right back into that hug and kiss him until . . . but no. It was impossible.
Ben was her client, she had to keep reminding herself. This unprofessional behaviour had to stop.
‘Have you any more booze, hun?’ asked Nathan as he tipped the last of the champagne into her glass.
‘I think we brought all the champagne upstairs, but there might be an old bottle of something in the sideboard. I’m sure I’ve seen something . . .’
She stumbled to the sideboard, crouched down and opened a drawer. She rummaged inside. ‘Here!’ She pulled out the bottle, victorious.
She remembered finding it when she’d moved in. The previous tenant must have been on holiday in Greece – the label had a bright-blue typeface printed in Greek letters. Her future hangover wasn’t going to thank her but it was the ideal medicine for her mental state right then.
‘Ouzo – perfect!’ said Klara.
‘Shot shot shot shot!’ shouted Nathan, drumming on the coffee table.
‘I’ll go and get glasses.’ Sasha took some time out in the kitchen, fumbling through the cupboards.
She pictured Ben there. The air held a trace of his aftershave. It had felt so good, that brief moment in his arms before she’d pulled back.
No. She had to stop thinking about him. Her face was heating up.
She rinsed her wrists under the cold tap and splashed water on her face before drying off with a tea towel and taking the shot glasses back to the others.
‘Come on, kids, line ’em up!’ bellowed Klara.
Everyone was giggling, raucous and drunk. Casey had put his saxophone away and Klara was playing some samba from her phone, moving her hips while Leo drank in the sight of her.
‘Here – get that down your gob,’ said Nathan, handing Sasha a shot glass brimming with a clear liquid.
She knocked it back. The alcohol burned rough down her throat, tasting of aniseed. She coughed until her eyes leaked tears. They were all coughing and whooping with laughter. Even Leo.
Seconds later, she couldn’t feel her face, her cheeks temporarily paralysed. At last, her mind was blank. The forty-proof spirit had numbed the thoughts crowding her mind. She forgot about Eleanor. Ben. The café. The lease renewal.
She plugged the music into her speakers and turned it up. Klara grabbed her hand and they danced. She wiggled her hips to the music, swaying her body, in a warm haze.
After the dancing, someone suggested a drinking game. There was a vague memory of another shot burning her throat, by which time she could hardly speak straight.
Minutes or hours later, she was aware of Nathan and Casey kissing on the sofa. Leo had left and Klara was stumbling to her bedroom. Sasha vaguely clocked that she was dragging out spare blankets and pillows from the drawer under her bed before she collapsed.