A Funny Thing About Love (23 page)

Daniel gave a self-deprecating smile, and muttered, ‘No way.'

‘Or are you used to women throwing themselves at you?'

‘Um, maybe it happens every now and then.' So Daniel was not so modest that he didn't realise what a hottie he was. ‘But it's only flattering if you want that woman to throw herself at you. So what about you, Carmen? You must get lots of male attention?'

Carmen fleetingly thought of her flirtatious banter with Will and almost felt a pang for those lost days before replying, ‘Well, I don't want to boast, but I think I could have had Rico at my favourite café in London, and there was Connor the postboy.' She couldn't bring herself to mention Will.

‘I'd like it very much if you threw yourself at me,' Daniel said quietly, so quietly that Carmen wasn't sure she had heard him. She did a double take. ‘You heard me right.'

Whoosh! The Andrex puppy went into orbit. Daniel reached across for her hand and lightly held it in his.
My, what lovely strong fingers you have
, Carmen was tempted to say. They both looked at the white band where her wedding ring had been; still, at least she hadn't had Nick's name tattooed there, that would have been a whole lot harder to shift.

‘Do you miss him?' he asked quietly.

‘Not any more. He's moved on and I have as well.' Carmen had no intention of introducing the whole baby thing into the conversation. ‘How about you?'
Please
let him say that he had moved on too.

He looked serious. Maybe this was not the question to ask him. ‘Well, Imogen is always going to be in my life because of Millie, but yeah, I've moved on.
I'm ready for something else.' They held each other's gaze. It was an intoxicating moment, broken only when the pretty waitress practically slammed the plate of whatever it was in front of them.

‘D'you want me to talk you through the tapas?' she asked in a slightly shrill voice.

Without looking at her, Daniel shook his head. ‘I'm sure they're all delicious, thanks.'

Carmen was feeling far too twitchy to eat more than a few mouthfuls. Food was not on her mind right now, but Daniel managed to polish off the plate of whatever it all was plus all the focaccia. ‘Sorry,' he said, ‘I'm starving, I've been working on a garden all day.' And thus, thought Carmen, the empty plate summed up the world of difference between men and women – men were never too loved up not to eat. And he ate most of her main meal as well as his. Still, at least he would have plenty of energy for later. She made a quick dash to the loo, hoping that they could just pay and go. As she clattered down the stairs she practically bumped into the pretty, sulky waitress, who was coming up the stairs. ‘Sorry,' Carmen said automatically.

‘D'you mind me asking you a question?' the waitress asked, fiddling self-consciously with her plaits

‘Er, okay,' Carmen said uncertainly, wondering what was coming up.

‘Is Daniel your boyfriend?'

Carmen hadn't expected that question. ‘Um, no, we're just having dinner. Sorry, do you know him?'

‘In a manner of speaking. A brief fling in the summer.
Never heard from him again. I got the feeling he gets through women. He has this great act about being a put upon, right-on single dad, but actually he's out to get what he wants for himself.' She paused. ‘Sorry, I probably shouldn't have said that.' She switched to waitress mode and said in a sing-song voice, ‘Enjoy the rest of your meal.'

Why oh why was nothing in her life ever straightforward? Carmen continued on her way to the bathroom at a significantly slower pace. And what was the explanation for Daniel not acknowledging the waitress? That he couldn't remember? (Carmen remembered all of her lovers, some of them a little too well.) That he had deliberately ignored her? Neither exactly showed him in a good light.

By the time she returned to their table Daniel had asked for the bill. Carmen reached for her bag. ‘How much is it?' she asked, feeling as flat as day-old champagne, although in her present precarious financial state it would have to be cava.

‘I'll get it; you can get the next one.'

So Daniel thought there would be a next one. Carmen wasn't so sure. The waitress's revelation had taken some of the spring out of her step. Maybe she was one in a long line of women who wanted him to cultivate their lady gardens. Oh, for goodness' sake! She couldn't believe she'd thought that!

Outside Saturday-night Brighton was in full swing with a succession of hen parties traipsing along East Street towards the seafront clubs. There was a gang
with matching hot-pink tee-shirts with ‘Julie's hen party posse' plastered across them in pink glitter, and pink glittery cowboy hats –
how matchy-matchy!
Carmen thought to herself to try and cheer herself up. She and Daniel were nearly mown down by a group of bunnies, some of whom should have stepped well away from the black corsets, which were straining to contain their ample figures, followed by a gang dressed up as nurses, in very short white uniforms and fishnets. It was like a tidal wave of fake-tanned limbs coming at you, all with a slightly purplish-blue tint from the bitter wind that was whipping down the street.

‘Bloody hell!' Carmen exclaimed in appalled fascination.

‘It's the cheeky, kiss-me-quick side of Brighton,' Daniel said. ‘So what now?' He steered her into the doorway of L.K. Bennett as another group bowled past them in tiaras and veils, hell-bent on hitting the clubs.

Carmen had a flashback to Will steering her into the doorway on Great Portland Street, and look where that had ended. Perhaps she was only good for doorways. ‘The sanctuary of beautiful shoes,' Carmen said, gazing in the window at the deep-aubergine patent-leather stilettos and the delicate silver pumps. ‘One can always rely on shoes.'

Daniel frowned. ‘Is it my imagination or have you gone a bit funny on me?'

‘Um, I kind of lost my zing on the stairs.'

‘Your what?'

‘That waitress,
our
waitress, said she knew you, said
that you'd had a fling and that you got through a lot of women.' The words came out in a rush. Carmen hadn't realised how shaken she had been. It was possibly irrational but the revelation had made her feel stupid. She'd thought that she was special, but apparently she was just one of many. The whole I'm-not-used-to-this-flirting-business act that Daniel had been putting on was just that – an act.

Daniel frowned. ‘I've got no idea what you're talking about.' There was a pause then he came out with, ‘Oh hang on, shit, that must have been Kirsty.'

Carmen glared at him.

‘Don't give me that look!' Daniel appealed to her. ‘When we had our fling, which was only twice if I remember, she had black hair. I thought it was nothing more than a fling, I didn't really have anything in common with her, but she kept calling me. I didn't handle it very well.'

Carmen wanted to ask where the pretty waitress fitted in with Jess's friend's friend, but it was probably none of her business.

‘Shit,' Daniel said again, looking serious under the glow of the L.K. Bennett lights. ‘She must think I'm such a bastard. No wonder she gave me a funny look when I walked in, but I honestly didn't recognise her.'

To believe or not to believe, that was the question, though actually, did it really matter if Daniel had had a fling with a woman he didn't recognise? Carmen wasn't his keeper.

‘Has that killed the moment?' Daniel asked. ‘I'll go
if you'd rather but I'd rather not, because I really like you, Carmen.'

A beat. Did Carmen want the night to end now?

Daniel was nice, Daniel was hot, Daniel was very sexy. Daniel had selective amnesia about the women he'd slept with but he might be just what she needed to feel happy again. She took a deep breath. ‘Do you want to come back to mine?'

Daniel smiled. ‘Yes, shall we get a taxi?'

Daniel was not as green as he made out.

Carmen had expected to ease into the whole seduction scene. Earlier on she had activated her inner control freak and remembered her Girl Guide motto of Be Prepared. She had set up Miles Davis,
Kind of Blue
(a timeless classic, everyone liked it, didn't they?) on the CD player, had a choice of red or white wine ready and had stashed condoms in the bedroom and living room. But as soon as she shut the front door Daniel put his arms round her and kissed her. And oh, what a kiss. A perfect, seductive, caressing kiss that even had Carmen's toes curling up in delight, whilst other areas experienced a rush of tingling pleasure that seemed to have been absent for a very, very long time – well since her last kiss with Will, actually, but that had ended with the kiss, and Carmen was pretty sure there was going to be more going on here.

At first they were both cautious in their caresses and then as their kiss grew more intense it freed something in both of them. Daniel unbuttoned her shirt and
caressed her breasts, those lovely deft fingers grazing across her nipples in a most tantalising way. She slid her hands under his tee-shirt and felt those abs, and they did not disappoint, nor did subsequent explorations. Daniel groaned as Carmen boldly caressed him through his jeans, then he was inching up her skirt and sliding his fingers into her silk briefs and then everything went on fast forward as they pulled each other down to the floor – on to Marcus's hard stripped wooden floor – but Carmen didn't care as her head banged against the wooden boards. She was heading for the best sex of her life, and what were a few splinters and possibly mild concussion compared to that? Daniel might have claimed to have been in a sexual wilderness himself but he certainly had not lost his touch, as his knowing caresses of her body proved.

‘I want you,' she murmured as Daniel kissed her neck, her lips, and then, when it seemed he was still intent on the starters, she took matters into her own hands, pulled down his jeans and boxers and wriggled into him. She was a woman on a mission. She had not had sex for nearly a year, she needed to have sex, right now. The hall was the one place she had not thought to stash any condoms, which seemed something of an oversight. Never mind, she thought as Daniel thrust inside her, she would get some in a minute, but right now, right now, this was so good, it was unfettered pleasure, it was desperate, frantic and delicious. Carmen was teetering on the brink of an orgasm that was so pleasurable that it almost hurt. She kissed him harder
and slid her arms down his back. All she could hear was their breathing, the rhythmic pounding of their bodies against the wood and a mobile phone playing the theme from
Star Wars
. Now that didn't seem right.

‘Oh no!' Daniel exclaimed, coming to an abrupt halt, whereas Carmen was well on the way to a crescendo. ‘I'm going to have to get that.'

‘No way!' Carmen exclaimed, winding her arms tightly round his neck. She was so close, he mustn't stop now! Sexual nirvana was in her sight and she really couldn't let it slip away.

But slip away it did. ‘I'm really sorry, I've got to.'

With a feeling of disbelief Carmen let go of him as Daniel disengaged, and scrabbled in his jacket pocket for his phone and flipped it open. Carmen sat up and attempted to straighten her clothes.

‘Yeah, I'll be right back,' Daniel said tersely. He looked at Carmen as he pulled up his jeans. ‘I'm really, really sorry, but Millie's had an asthma attack and I've got to go home.'

There was no comeback to that really, was there? Okay, your child is sick but I still need to finish what we started was not going to go down well.

‘God, I'm sorry,' Carmen replied, clambering up from the floor but forgetting to hold her skirt, so it fell down, unintentionally giving Daniel a final opportunity to see what he was missing.

‘I've got to go, I'll call you tomorrow.' He gave her an awkward kiss then he was gone.

*  *  *

Carmen did what any right-thinking woman would do under the circumstances; she poured herself a glass of Pinot Noir and phoned a friend.

‘Jess, I know it's late but please pick up,' she implored Jess's answerphone.

Damn it! She just had to speak to someone! Just as she was about to hang up, Sean answered. ‘Hi, Carmen, sorry, I was just with Harry. Jess is actually asleep in bed – she had a really bad headache so I don't want to wake her if that's okay.' Sean sounded uncharacteristically subdued. Really low.

‘Sure, sorry, I just needed to offload about something.'

‘You can tell me if you like.'

Carmen thought of the frenzied passion in the hallway, and decided it was probably a good idea if she didn't go into details.

‘Best not to, Sean. By the way, I've been meaning to ask, is everything okay between you and Jess?'

‘Fine.' Sean didn't sound fine.

‘It's just something Harry said last week.' Carmen left a pause, she was really hoping Sean would get it without her spelling it out.

‘Oh?'

She was going to have to come out with it. ‘It's about Jess.' Another pause. ‘About her drinking too much.'

‘Yeah,' a heavy sigh from Sean, ‘it's been going on a while. She's in complete denial about it, though, won't listen to me when I suggest that she cuts back or gets help. Says it's all to do with being stressed at work and
how she'll give up in the New Year. To be honest, Carmen, I'm not sure I can go on like this. It's getting worse and worse, and she didn't fall asleep this evening, she passed out. I'm worried about what she'll do. What if she drives with Harry in the car? I just can't trust her at the moment.'

‘God, Sean, I'm sorry. I had no idea it had got this bad. Shall I try and talk to her about it?'

‘You can try; she'll be defensive, just to warn you.'

Carmen ended the call determined to speak to Jess as soon as possible; she couldn't bear to think of her friend getting into such a state. She ran a bath and added relaxing essential oils. After the encounter with Daniel she felt as tightly coiled as a spring, as if the slightest touch would cause her to bounce off the walls. Man, she was tense. It seemed there was only one thing worse than being out in the sexual wilderness; it was being tantalised with the best shag of your life only to find it whipped away from you. The essential oils did bugger-all to relax her, so she watched TV, convinced that every single actor, chat-show host and comedian had had more sex than her in the last twelve months.