62 Days (2 page)

“
Well, it all sounds like really big money to me.”

“
Mega money I imagine.”

Suze pulled up into a car parking area and we sat inside for a while looking out.

“
I think I’ll leave the car here. It looks like it’s stopped raining for the moment so we can make a dash for it. It’s probably that one… but not a hundred percent sure…”

She pointed at a smart modern looking house with lots of lights on and cars around it about 200 yards away down the quayside. We got out of the car into the very damp, cool and breezy evening air.

“
Come on, race ‘ya!” She tottered off fast on her high heeled massive platform shoes with her wild dark red hair bobbing all around her. Suze always wore massive shoes, she was a little bit short without them.

“
No, I can’t run in high heels, you win.” She was too far tottered off to hear me so I walked briskly and caught up with her at the door.

The door was already open so we made our way inside. There were a lot of people in there and it was hot and noisy. I looked around at the interior. Very modern and simple. White, glass, wood, a touch of metal… I liked this type of thing. We hung around for a few seconds waiting for someone to come and welcome us. A tall and pretty dark haired girl with a tight lime green dress looked in our direction and made her way over.

“
Hello, I’m Cameron, Mark’s sister. I’m his meet and greet tonight.” She sounded very well spoken. Suze and I snatched a look at each other out of corner of our eyes. It definitely sounded like Cheltenham Ladies College had had a hand somewhere in her pronunciation skills. “Please make yourselves at home, you’ll find food over there… drink over there… Mark’s over there… Ladies room over there…” She pointed wildly around the room flicking her wrist and perfectly manicured hand.

“
Thanks Cameron. I’m Rachel and this is Suzanne” I introduced us both in my best legal secretary phone voice. “Such a beautiful home your brother has. A very modern design with a strong touch of urbanism.”

Suze dug me in the ribs with her elbow and gave me a ‘shut up, why don’t you’ look.

“
I wouldn’t know,” Cameron replied, “I haven’t a clue about design, other than haute couture of course!” She gave a tinkly little upper class titter. “Go help yourselves to a drink now girls, enjoy!” and off she went slinkily back to her crowd of presumably posh people.

We wove our way through the gathering towards the drinks area and picked up a very large glass of wine each. I’d never seen such huge glasses, these must be triples.

“
Shame I’ve got to drive, I can only have one. Oh fuck, I love drink…” Suze pulled a sad face.

She loved to get a little drunk. A lot drunk even more.

“
I’ll drive if you like Suze.” I offered. I hadn’t drunk much lately, not since the mad binge I had the week after Jon left me. I rarely drank these days. It was a depressant and I felt bad enough already.

“
No babe… you’re out to have some serious drinky fun tonight, I insist.”

We stood and looked around the room for a few minutes. Suze was doing a little talent spotting. We noticed Will had arrived at the door with two of his friends. He gave us a wave. Cameron did her meet and greet and after that he came weaving his way through to us.

“
Hey stranger…” he gave me a really tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Long time no see Ray. You look good.” His eyes lit up as he gave me a good look over. Then I got a big smile.

“
Hey Will, how ‘ya doing boy.” Will was Suze’s twin. He really was like a tall male version of Suze… shorter wavy hair, same large grey eyes… cheerful… I’d always got on with him. Purely in a sisterly way.

“
I’m good Ray.” He introduced us all to each other. “This is Harry and the other cool looking bloke here is Jack. They’re my rugby mates. Guys, this is my sister Suzanne and her friend Rachel.” We all muttered our hellos.

I took a look at Harry and Jack. Harry had his eye on Suze. Jack seemed to be giving me his. Oh yeah? No chance whatsoever. Suze might be up for it though.

“
Are you going to introduce us to your boss then?” Suze asked Will impatiently.

“
In a tick… first things first, let’s get a drink sorted.” They went over to the bar and helped themselves to a bottle of beer each from the large bucket of ice and then they returned. “Come on then, that’s him.”

We followed him squeezing through to a group of four people on the other side of the room. He tapped a tall dark haired man on the back.

“
Hey Boss, happy birthday!”

Boss swung round. Suze and I took in the dark good looks. What a complete hottie…

“
Hey Will, glad you could make it.” He looked at the five of us standing there. I had adopted my usual not interested in the world look. I’d got over the hottie phase in two seconds. Suze looked like she wanted to lick his face… or something else…

“
This is my sister Suzanne, her friend Rachel, my rugger mates Harry and Jack.” Will introduced us with a generous suck up smile at boss.

“
Pleased to meet you all, I’m Mark.” He glanced round at us, quickly past salivating Suze with a bemused look and then on to me with a small smile starting.

I didn’t have a returning smile to offer. After briefly wondering how many besotted and adoring women he had dumped in his life I shifted my gaze away from his face and busied myself looking absentmindedly over his shoulder at the large far too red modern painting on the wall.

Cameron broke through and rescued him from us. “Mark, David Hollings the Architect is here. You did say you wanted to welcome him personally.” He excused himself and left, Cameron dragging him off by the arm.

We made our way over to a less crowded area. Jack came and stood next to me. I swigged my wine. I didn’t want to be here, all chit chatty with Jack… How the hell could I avoid him though? I swigged at my wine again, a very big gulp this time. The alcohol was starting to give me a head rush. I should have eaten something before I came out.

“
So Rachel, what do you do?” Jack asked, his grey blue eyes on mine.

“
Legal.” I replied briefly

“
Solicitor?”

“
No.”

“
Secretary then?”

“
Yes.”

He was obviously waiting for me to ask him something but I couldn’t be bothered. I knew I was being bloody rude.

“
Sorry, need the ladies…” I rushed off gulping my final big mouthful of wine and putting down the empty glass. I must get a bite to eat on the way back.

I made my way across the house to the cloakroom. I had to wait for two people in front of me to use it. Finally I came out and went to find some food in the dining room. I just wanted a sandwich or something. I looked at the food on display. Nothing resembling a sandwich at all… it was all salmon and caviar and little pastry thingies. Nice though. Whilst I stood there admiring the pretty food art in front of me I picked up a twisty breadstick and crunched it. A grey sleeved arm cut across the table in front of me and grabbed one too. I turned to the side to look at who it was. Oh hello, it’s Mark, Mr Hottie.

“
Are you okay?” He asked me quietly.

“
Yeah, why?” I gazed vacantly at him crunching my breadstick.

“
You looked a little spaced out back there, and you still do actually.”

“
No, I’m fine, it’s my usual look.”

He laughed and looked deeply into my completely disinterested in life eyes.

“
So, who are you Rachel?”

“
Just me.”

He smiled… “Yeah, and I’m just me.”

“
Well there you go… we know each other so well already.” I added in a natural deadpan voice. Didn’t even need to put one on.

“
Maybe we do.” He smiled again and carried on looking intently at me.

I started to get uncomfortable being stared at so continuously.

“
Stare any harder and I’ll have to turn you to stone.” Well I don’t know where that little spark of humour came from.

“
So, you’re a funny girl are you?” He asked giving me an amused but rather sexy grin and cocking his head. I obviously still recognised sexy looks, even if they did nothing for me.

“
Not intentionally.”

“
Kind of sweet though.”

“
Yeah sugar’s my second name… anyway, must go Mark, got someone over there I was half way through ignoring.” I said rather unsweetly and walked off leaving a surprised Mark standing behind me.

I grabbed another bucket of wine as I passed the bar area and took a few big swigs, returning to my gang of people after my long ladies room absence.

“
Where d’you go?” Suze asked giving me a big wide eyed ‘don’t leave me alone with these two rugger blokes ever again’ look. Will seemed to have disappeared somewhere.

“
Ladies… Big queue… Don’t leave it till the last minute…” Jack zoned in on me, ready for his next round of ignoring. Oh shit, I
so
want to go home! I swigged some more wine and then some more. The breadstick wasn’t really a main meal and my brain quickly began to get overloaded with wineiness… the room felt a touch spinny… I seem to be very out of practice with my wine swigging. I decided to slow down a little and wait for a while before my next one, otherwise I’d be flat out on the floor soon and the DJ hadn’t even finished setting up yet.

One good side effect of the wine swigging was that it had loosened my tongue and my uptight attitude a little and I made an effort to try and talk to Jack. To have a reasonable two way conversation. He was quite nice and fairly attractive. At one time I’m sure I would have loved to talk to him. Unfortunately just now it was hard going as I had no interest in him or anyone. I wished I could feel normal again, Maybe one day I would. After a while Jack had finished his beer and I’d finished my drink too. I asked him if he wouldn’t mind getting me an orange juice, to break up the hard going for a minute or two and to dilute the wine effect. Soon after that the DJ started up and the conversation was more limited. Thank God for DJs and loud music.

Suze did a little wild dancing on the spot. I did my usual unwild shifting from foot to foot. Hardly dancing. I actually did smile a few times at Suze’s mad dance moves, so it was worth me coming out tonight after all.

A while later, my fruit juice was finished and I decided to have another real drink… the wine fuzziness was now wearing off a little and I wanted it back. I really liked being a little warm and fuzzy. Perhaps I should swig wine all day.

After half an hour of slow and continuous sipping I had almost made it through the third massive bucket sized glass when the room really did start spinning… fucking badly… I needed to go outside and get some fresh air… no, what I really needed was to lay down somewhere, very soon… I stumbled through the people out to the hallway in a very bad fuzzy state. I caught sight of a familiar grey shirt and headed in that direction. Mark caught me as I stumbled towards him.

“
Take me up to bed.” I said in a slightly slurred rush, hanging on his shoulders to steady myself. That came out all wrong. He picked me up and whisked me up the stairs. My fuzzy mind was just about ready to pass out and I was so looking forward to it. I vaguely took in the sensation of being laid down on some cool bed covers, my shoes being removed, seeing blue eyes and dark eyelashes. I think I managed to say ‘thank you’ before I closed my eyes and gratefully disappeared into the beautiful black void that was calling out loudly to me in my head.

I woke up groggily. I could sense something was different. I hadn’t opened my eyes yet but I knew this wasn’t my room. It didn’t feel familiar. I rubbed my fingertips over the sheet beneath me… very soft and fine. Where was I?

I cautiously opened my eyes a little and the dim l
ight filtered through. My head felt bad… my stomach was churning mildly. I focused on the ceiling first, then the walls. It was a big white room. I was on a big white bed. I turned my head fractionally and looked out of the corner of my eye to the other side of the wide bed… apparently I wasn’t alone on it.

I leaned up on my elbow and looked
 
over. No way… Oh my God…! A massive smattering of memory flooded back. He really had taken me to bed then. I lay back again heavily as a strong wave of nausea rolled over me and my head thumped in protest. Mark stirred and opened his blue eyes, looking into my horrified brown ones.

“
So, how bad are you feeling?” he asked me softly.