Semi-Detached Marriage (13 page)

'Oh, Simon, what an idiot thing to say!' And she
laughed despite herself.

'But true,' he insisted.

Cassie was silent for a long moment, then
said, 'I'm sorry. I was beastly, wasn't I?'

He laughed, his voice back to normal. 'A
temper is to be expected along with green eyes and chestnut hair.'

She wrinkled her now. 'I do try not to lose
it.'

'I know.' He paused, then added, 'You want to
have it both ways, Cassie; to keep your job and to have me with you, but you've
got to realise that you can't have both. I'll get home when I can, you know
that.'

'That sounds a very reasonable attitude,'
Cassie answered, her voice prickly again.

'But you don't feel reasonable?'

'No, I feel randy.'

Simon gave a laugh that was half a groan.
'When you say things like that you tempt me to just throw up everything and
take the first plane home.'    

'Then do it,' Cassie pleaded urgently. `Come
home and take me to bed, darling. I'm tired of conducting my sex life at the
end of a telephone line.'    

He groaned again. 'Cassie, for God's sake! Do
you think I don't want to?'

'But you won't?' she said flatly, dully.

' I can't.'

She was silent for a long moment, then merely
said bleakly, 'Goodnight, Simon,' and put the phone down again before he had
time to say anything more than her name in protest.

He didn't phone back a second time. Cassie
half hoped he would, but they both knew that it wouldn't do any good, they
would only tear into each other again, widen the gap that was beginning to open
between them.

During the next few weeks Cassie felt as if
she was on a roller-coaster; the weekdays were the downhill parts where
everything happened very fast and the adrenalin flowed like mad, and the
evenings and weekends were the everlastingly slow, dragging climbs up to the
next peak of activity. She didn't see Julia at all for shopping trips now, but
once or twice she spent Saturday afternoons with Sue Martin, whose husband was
still busy doing extra work for his company, and they drew some comfort from
being able to commiserate with one another and grumble about their husbands'
jobs.

One Friday evening, with only an empty
weekend ahead, to cheer herself up Cassie tried on a new outfit that she'd
bought on her staff discount in the store. It was the new buccaneer look with
soft wine velvet
knickerbockers, a white blouse with lots of
cascading lace at the front and on the cuffs, and a beaded sash which she put
across her shoulder and knotted at the waist. To amuse herself she tried out a
different way of doing her face, using more colourful and rather bizarre
make-up. Her hair she arranged into tightish waves at the ends, and then pulled
back from her head on one side, clipping it in place with a big ornamental
hairslide with a colourful butterfly on it. Then she sprayed on some of the
French perfume that she'd brought back on her last trip to Paris and stood back
to study the effect in the mirror.

At first she looked at herself with the
critical eye of a fashion buyer. This was the image that she had decided to
promote in the Top Togs department for this season, and already it was
beginning to catch on. But the important part was how it was put together,
every accessory to give the complete look had to be available in the store so
that the average girl would be able to picture herself in the outfit and buy
everything there and then while she was still full of enthusiasm. A buyer had
to decide on what her fashion statement for that season was going to be in each
particular department and then had to be careful not to go outside the season's
image.

Then she looked at her reflection, knowing
that the clothes weren't really her scene, but seeing that she looked
attractive in them and thinking of the way Simon would have reacted, raising
his eyebrows and laughing at her, but liking the change all the same.

And he would have taken her out to a disco
somewhere, probably one of the 'in' places in the West End, happy to show her
off, his eyes proud as he looked at her, and then he would have taken her home
and carried her into the bedroom, and said, 'Now, this is what I do to
pirates.'

Abruptly Cassie turned away from the mirror
and strode into the sitting-room. What the hell was the use in having new clothes
if there was no one to see them? She was too young and full of life and energy
to just an at home alone every night. She poured herself a drink and took a
long gulp of it, then picked up the phone and searched through her address book
until she found the number of one of her single girl friends. Several phone
calls later she put down the receiver and bit her lip, close to tears of
frustration; either there had been no reply, or the girls already had dates, or
they were washing their hair in readiness for a date tomorrow. Cassie suddenly
felt more lonely than she had ever been in her life, and she took another long
swallow of her drink. It was too late now to go to the cinema, too late to do
anything except go to the pub for a drink or to a restaurant for a solitary
meal. But she'd already eaten, and, even in this enlightened day and age, she
didn't care to go and sit in a bar on her own. For a moment she contemplated
going to visit her parents for the weekend, but couldn't stand the thought of
her mother's inevitable cross-examination. So all that was left was another
evening alone watching television or listening to music. Miserably Cassie
poured herself another drink and turned on the set just as the doorbell rang.

The man standing in the hallway was a
stranger. He was about thirty and tall, almost as tall as Simon, with thick
dark blond curly hair and one of those moustaches that came down on either side
of his top lip. He had a deep suntan that made his hair look lighter and pale
blue eyes that widened appreciatively when he looked her over. He lifted his
broad shoulders from where he had been leaning against the wall and said in an
American accent, 'Hi. You must be Cassie?'

'Why-why, yes.' She looked at him in
surprise, wondering how he knew who she was. She'd certainly never met him
before, she was sure of that; he was the type of man that if you'd met him you
wouldn't forget.
              

He grinned. 'It's okay, you don't know me.
The name's Tom Rydell. Simon and I worked together a few years back, and he
told me to look him up whenever I was in London.'

'Oh. Wel ler-how do you do.' Lassie's hand
was taken in a strong grip that hurt her fingers. 'You'd better come in.'

She led the way into the sitting-room and
then turned to look at her visitor. 'Can I get you a drink, Mr. Rydell?'

'Sure, Scotch on the rocks would be fine. And
I said my name was Tom.'

Cassie smiled at him, liking his open
friendliness. 'All right Tom.'

She gave him his drink and gestured to a chair.
'Do sit down.' She sat opposite him and said, 'I'm afraid Simon isn't here.
Mullaine's have put him in charge of an oil terminal they're building in
Scotland and Simon is living up there until the job's finished.'

'Hey, that's too bad. I was really looking
forward to seeing him again and rehashing the old days over a few beers. But
maybe I'll be able to get up to Scotland to see him.'

'I'm sure he'll be pleased if you could.
Where did you work with Simon?'

'Over in the States. He was over there for six
months in the New York office of Mullaine's.'

'Yes, that's right. But that was before I met
him.'    

'Yeah, but we kept in touch for a while. He
even seat me an invitation to your wedding, but I couldn't make it because by
then I'd left Mullaine's and decided so go it alone.'

'You mean you started up your own company?
That was very enterprising of you. How's it going?'    

He gave her a wide grin, showing white, even
teeth. 'Just great. As a matter of fact I'm over here to open up a London
branch.'

He talked for a while about his company, then
said, 'But how about you? Why aren't you with Simon in Scotland?'

His eyes ran over her again as he spoke,
openly liking what he saw, and Cassie reacted instinctively to his admiration,
putting up a hand to her hair and sitting up a little straighter so that the
material of her blouse tightened across her breasts. 'Oh, I have my own
career.' She told him about it and then suggested she phone Simon so that they
could at least speak to each other. Tom thought it a great idea, and the two
men talked for quite some time while Cassie sat quietly in a chair with a
magazine, pretending not to listen to Tom's half of the conversation. It
appeared that the two of them had had quite some times together in New York,
and she made a mental note to ask Simon one or two pointed questions next time
she saw him when she saw him.

Tom was still chuckling as he put down the
phone. 'Say, it's a real shame Simon isn't here. I was kind of depending on him
to show me my way around London.'

'Haven't you been here before?'

'No, it's my first trip.'
               

`Would you like another drink?' Cassie got up
to get his glass.

'Well, thanks, but…' He looked up at her as
she reached out a hand to take it. 'Hey, were you going out or something before
I called? I'm not keeping you, am I?'

Cassie smiled slightly. 'No, I wasn't going
out.'            

'Then,' he hesitated, 'how about you coming
out with me for a drink? I don't know any places in London and I'd sure be
grateful if you could show me round a little,' he added with a grin.

Cassie, too, hesitated, but only for a
moment, then she tossed her hair back and said, 'Okay, why not?' She smiled
back at him; that grin was infectious.

She guessed that he'd like some typical
English atmosphere, so took him to an old-fashioned pub near Highgate Hill
before going on to one of the new discos in the West End. Then, nearer
breakfast than supper time, they went on to a salt-beef bar and watched the
assistant expertly carve thick slices from a huge roast of meat, brown at the
edges but still pink in the middle, and place them between two slices of crisp
white bread.

They munched the delicious sandwiches,
talking as they ate; they hardly seemed to have stopped talking since the
moment they met.

By the time she got home at about four in the
morning, Cassie felt like a different person, the boredom and frustration was
gone and she felt young and alive again. It had been fun to show her kind of
London to someone new, to someone who appreciated and enjoyed the places she
took him. And, she had to admit it, it had been a great boost to her ego to
have an escort as good-looking as Tom, to have other girls watching and envying
her. Especially when she could be completely at ease with Tom because he was
just a friend, there were none of the nerves she'd felt when she'd been single
and had gone out with a new boy-friend for the first time: would he ask her out
again, would he try and proposition her or take her back to his place? Until
she had met Simon it had always been like that, but it was amazing how quickly
she'd forgotten, how glad she was that she didn't have to go through it again.
Tom saw her safely into the flat and somehow, despite her weak protests, she
found herself promising to take him on a sightseeing tour round London the next
day.

From then on life became full and hectic
again, with Tom monopolising every minute of her spare time. At first she tried
to make a determined effort to protest about him wasting his time with her when
he could be escorting more eligible girls, and offered to introduce him to one
of her unattached friends, but he laughed the idea away.

'Aren't you enjoying showing me around,
Cassie?' 'Well, of course I am, but…'

'Then why try to push me off on one of your
girl friends?'

'I'm not trying to push- you off, it's just
that… well, I'm married to Simon and you're free, and you might want-er-might
want to have more from-era relationship than I-er…' She stopped, floundering
and then realised that Tom was openly laughing at her. She flushed and gave him
a mock punch in the ribs. 'Oh, hell, you know what I mean.'

They had been walking along the street, but
now Tom stopped and pulled her arm through his. 'Hey, you blushed!'

'No, I didn't,' Cassie denied, her cheeks
flaming more than ever.

Tom put a finger up to touch
her face. 'Sure you did. Say, you English girls are really something. I haven't
met a girl who blushed in years.'

'Well, if you like English girls why don't
you let me introduce you to…'

He moved his finger to put it over her lips.
'I like you. Why should I take a chance on dating some strange girl when I
already have the prettiest one in town to show me around?'

'Oh, but…'

'No buts. And I know what you're thinking,
but I'm quite capable of taking care of my own sex life. Okay?'
             
Cassie looked up into his amused blue eyes, found herself starting to blush
again and hastily looked away.

'Okay.'

'Now,' he kept a firm hold on her arm,
'didn't you promise me a ride on top of one. of your London buses?'