Bombay Mixx (17 page)

‘Right
,
lets see how he gets out of this later
,
’
I thought as I left the florist and headed home.

Chapter Four – Trinity of Revelations

Renesh must have a guardian angel as he was saved from my tongue lashing, as Amelia came running in the front room waving some tickets in all our faces.

‘Get your glad rags on ladies we are off out to get liquored up,’ she paused for a moment and observed our already inebriated expressions and continued, ‘ok more liquored up,’ to which she handed us a ticket each.

The ticket boasted,

‘A night of pure pleasure to celebrate the successes of the designers of the year. With creativity, flair, and an element of the unexpected, please make sure you leave your inhibitions at the door, to enjoy this night of exploration.’

‘Errr what type of night are you taking us to Meels?’ I questioned as we all looked at each other with confused looks.

‘It’s just the fashion shows after party! You know they have to make it sound more fancy than it is, to stand out from all the other parties that are going on,’ she laughed as she walked into her room, probably to look through her Chronicles of Narnia wardrobe to see what she could find to wear tonight. However, I’m guessing that instead of her feeling freezing cold snow as she searched the back of her closet, she would feel about ten pairs of Jimmy Choo’s!

Feeling slightly more excited at the idea of lots of free champagne and beautiful garments (I can only look at as I knew the price of them would make me faint!), rather than a small dark room with lots of people ‘exploring’ their more intimate sides, which was the thought that ran threw my mind when I first heard the sales pitch, I went into the bathroom to get ready.

Walking through the heavy sliver doors, which made me think there would be a huge alien at the other side to devour me, we were met by a man in a flashy blue suit. ‘an I help you?’ he asked as he stood in a low lit reception foyer, with beautiful high ceilings. However, along with the marble black and white tiled floor there was nothing but an unusual shaped, large desk in the middle and an even more bizarre looking chair behind it.

I looked around to see if there was another piece of furniture in this sparse space but it was eerily vacant and silent, as though we had come to the wrong address.

‘We have an invite,’ Amelia announced as she handed the man the piece of card. He looked at it in detail and once he was happy the ticket wasn’t a fake, he opened some large, white, hidden doors to his left and we entered the blue arena.   

Streaming blue lighting surprised our eyes as we entered.

Cool white, oversized sofas covered the floor below, so we walked down the silver stairs to investigate further.

Dancer’s on stage captivated the men, whilst the male waiters wearing nothing but one of the designer’s boxer shorts kept the women engaged. It was surprisingly warm, so we tried to escape to the balcony section, where we passed a swimming pool with a floating bar.

Laughing at the men, trying to get in and out of the pool with some form of dignity, we didn’t realise the waiter’s constantly refilling our glasses as we danced to the latest dance song being played by an extremely enthusiastic DJ. Anya’s facial expression changed to one of thunder.

We all looked in the direction of her incensed glare.

This beautiful shimmering, low cut, backless dress was draped on this skinny, tanned, immaculate looking female who appeared to be walking on clouds of silver, until I looked again to see they were very expensive silver strappy sandals.

She glided through the door with her arm attached to a tall, equally flawless man in a black suit.

The man was turned away from me so I couldn’t understand why Anya was looking at this couple with disgust, until they came closer.

‘Daaarlings! I knocked your door to invite you but there was no answer and look…here you are,’ purred Tiziana, as she gave all, but Anya, air kisses and started complimenting our dresses.

We all made small talk quickly as the atmosphere was becoming intense; we were unsure why.

‘Anya, can I talk to you a moment?’ Tiziana’s date asked as we all stopped the small talk and wondered how this man knew Anya. ‘Dolph, let me introduce you to the ladies first,’ Tiziana scrambled.

Amelia stood with her mouth open and Gabrielle was equally stunned, as we have only ever heard about this man. Now to finally meet him in the flesh and see him on the arm of Tiziana after Anya’s recent revelations about her feelings for him was like witnessing a couple arguing in public on the Tube. You know you should look away but instead you pretend to read the crumpled copy of the Metro whilst texting your friend a word by word account of the dispute.

‘That can wait! I need to speak to Anya,’ he announced and grabbed Anya’s arm and guided her away before she could refuse.

Tiziana was visually embarrassed about being disregarded but decided to compensate her humiliation by moving over to a group of older men, who were admiring her ever since she entered the room.

As she basked in their admiration, she was ushered to their table where they continued to flatter her with glasses of champagne, compliments and their business cards.

‘How do they know she is an escort?’ Gabrielle innocently asked.

Amelia obviously found this question hilarious as she answered with a cackle, ‘I don’t think they did. I think they just thought they’d test the water to see if she would bite and guess what?’ Before she could finish her sentence I laughed, ‘and of course she did, daarling,’ as we walked further onto the dance floor and continued dancing.

The champagne flowed, the guests became more inebriated, the DJ started to get experimental with his mixture of pop, RnB, Dance and House music, models continued to float around the room and we all continued to enjoy the luxuries of this exclusive party.  

We were all having such a good time, we didn’t notice Anya coming back to join us, ‘Anya! Dolph is gorge,’ Amelia drunkenly stated to an unimpressed Anya.

I tried to sober myself up but instead I leaned on Gabrielle who was slightly more stable than Amelia. ‘He seems really nice but why was he with Tiziana?’ I enquired before we all decided to sit down to hear the latest bit of gossip.

Anya leaned forward so we could hear her more clearly over the loud music, and Tiziana’s obvious flirting a few sofas away. ‘He told me he wants to be with me in a relationship capacity not professional,’ she blurted out.

‘Awww but you like him so isn’t this a good think?’ I approached the questioning with caution.

Amelia and Gabrielle continued to be the ball girls in this tennis inspired conversation but instead of picking up the balls, they picked up their glasses of champagne for much needed moisture for their stunned lips. ‘Yes but he has been with Tiziana so he couldn’t have liked me that much,’ Anya professed before she took a large gulp of her champagne.

‘How do you know he slept with her?’ Gabrielle asked quietly as though she was scared to get her head bitten off by Anya’s underlying anger. ‘Did he say he has?’ Amelia added as though she was throwing the rope to Gabrielle to join her in the helicopter before the lion was let out into the arena. ‘He didn’t have to. The way they entered together was very friendly. Anyway, I told him to leave me alone and go find Tiziana, as I am his client only, nothing more,’ Anya replied as she regarded him from across the room with a raised eyebrow.

‘You cannot use this as your proof, Anya. Let him explain,’ I begged but she held up her hand and I knew the conversation was over.

After 10 minutes, Dolph left and never returned to the party and although Anya was trying not to look hurt, she did not join us back on the dance floor and instead decided to look for potential clients.

Gabrielle was invited to join Tiziana with her increasingly intoxicated crowd of men where she enjoyed the constant attention and compliments from the gentlemen offering her trips on their yacht around the
Mediterranean
.

Flirting with the waiter’s and accepting the usually unwanted chat up lines from older, orange coloured men due to my inebriated state, made me feel like I never wanted the night to end, until I needed to go to the bathroom.

Pushing through a now crowded dance floor, I made it to an open space and gasped for air. ‘Another drink, madam?’ the waiter asked but before I could answer I was already drinking it in gulps. The waiter laughed and walked off to reveal a loved up couple behind him.

The man, who was dressed in a dark grey suit, crisp white shirt, skinny black tie and expensive looking black shoes, had his arm around the lady’s tiny waist.

The lady, who was now stroking his arm, was wearing a gold lace mini dress with a low cut front and an equally low back, balancing on some outrageously high gold strappy heels.

This couple captivated their audience as the people in their circle joined them in laughter and amusing conversation.

‘What a cute couple’ I thought as I moved closer to the bathroom and wished it was me and Angus.

Staggering to the entrance of the bathroom, I thought I had made it with dignity but I didn’t see a woman’s handbag on the floor in front of me, and…

My feet got entwined in the shoulder strap and as I tried to run forward to balance myself, the straps got tighter, restricting my movement and eventually only allowing me to grab hold of an already unstable high table toppling it over.

Complete with glasses flying in the air, the waiter’s came running over to try to catch me and the table, to add attention to my humiliating finale…I went crashing hard onto the floor.

I would like to think only a small number of people noticed the disruption but I’d be lying.

A crowd surrounded me, with looks of annoyance and awkwardness but trying to hide this by asking if I was ok. ‘Yes I’m fine. It was just an accident,’ I managed to mutter before I handed the lady back her now dishevelled bag and stood up. As I dusted myself off, the crowd began to disperse, leaving only a few vultures waiting to see what my next trick was going to be.

I gained the confidence to look up, as I could not pretend to dust myself off anymore, and I saw the elegant looking couple, I was admiring earlier, looking at me in astonishment.

The lady continued to talk with the crowd but the man was staring at me in shock.

It was Angus!

I met his stare with surprise and only broke away to look at his hand, on his now apparent, wife’s waist. ‘Honey, you remember Nita from the office, don’t you?’ he managed to stammer as his wife broke away from her hilarious conversation with another woman and regarded me with confusion. ‘Oh yes. Are you ok? You took quite a tumble there,’ she replied condescendingly as she started stroking Angus’s arm, making him feel more uncomfortable.

Feeling the anger building inside me, I hissed, ‘I’m fine thank you’. His wife, not seeing my fury, continued. ‘Are you having a good time Nita? If I wasn’t married, I’d feel like a child in a sweet shop with all these beautiful men around? Anyone caught your eye yet?’ As she asked the last question, Angus’s glare became more intense. ‘Yes I have met one or two but you know us single girls like to test drive the cars before making the final purchase,’ I batted back as I no longer cared about Angus’s increasingly visible uncomfortable attitude.

‘I don’t blame you Nita. Well have a fun night and be careful, you don’t want to ruin that beautiful dress,’ she added as she guided a jaded Angus away.

Surprisingly, her last remark did not sound bitchy or condescending and I actually only had one unexpected emotion…guilt!

This woman was beautiful, intelligent and was clearly nice and friendly and I had been sleeping with her husband and making the affair acceptable by believing all of Angus’s lies about his marriage being dead and that she was the dragon who would take his children away if he divorced her immediately.