The One and Only (3 page)

‘Luke begged me to invite you,’ Ryan grinned.

I frowned.
Jesus, Ry.
‘Er . . .’

Ryan whacked me on the arm. ‘Ooops. Sorry, man.’ He winked at Hayley. ‘Guess I’ll leave you two alone together.’

He sloped off towards the girls on the dance floor.

Thanks a million, Ryan.

Hayley smiled again. ‘D’you want a drink?’ she said.

‘Cool. Thanks.’ I watched her lean against the bar, trying to attract the barman’s attention.

It didn’t take long.

Ryan had been right about the hot body. Hayley’s dress was so tight I could see every curve as I followed her outline all the way down.
God.
She had the fittest bum . . . And
she
was buying
me
a beer!

I decided to talk to her.

‘So how d’you meet Ry?’ I shouted over the music.

Hayley handed me a bottle of beer. ‘At the cinema. I was with some friends and he just came over and started talking to me.’ She grinned at me, her cheeks dimpling. ‘You know what he’s like.’

I nodded. Ryan. The world’s most successful flirt.

‘So you went out?’ I said.

Hayley sipped her beer. ‘Yeah. Only a couple of times, though. One of those times was your party. But I didn’t see him after that. We . . . it wasn’t a big deal. You know?’ She stared up at me meaningfully.

‘Whatever,’ I said hurriedly.
God.
The last thing I wanted her to think was that I was interested.

Why not be interested?
said a small voice in my head.
Eve doesn’t want you any more.
I took a swig of beer. ‘This is a good place, isn’t it?’

Hayley nodded. ‘Yeah. Though I went to this really flash club last week which was better. Cost a fortune to get into.’

I didn’t know what to say to that. I tried to think back to the Six Steps Ryan had told me about.

Six Steps to get you any girl.

I sighed. Who cared about steps to a girl. I’d had a girl. The perfect girl.

What are you doing now, Eve? Are you thinking about me?

‘I can’t stay long here, though.’ Hayley’s voice brought me back to the noisy room.

‘What?’ I shouted.

‘I’ve got to check on the fish in my sister’s flat,’ Hayley explained.

What was she talking about?

There was a long pause.

Then Hayley spoke again. ‘I think I’ll go and dance.’ She looked at me expectantly. The words ‘me too’ stalled in my throat, like a crap car.

I watched her high-heel her way onto the dance floor, then I turned round and slumped against the bar. Why was I so rubbish with girls?

It was easy with you, Eve. Why aren’t you here?

I stared down at my beer. The music thudded in my head. I’d never felt lonelier in my life.

Ryan materialised at my elbow. ‘What’s the matter?’ he said. ‘You’re not blowing Hayley out are you?’

I ran my hand through my hair. ‘I just can’t talk to her,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what to say.’

Ryan rolled his eyes. ‘Believe me,’ he said. ‘You don’t need to say much. I guarantee she’s not interested in your conversation.’

I stared at him.

‘I told you already,’ Ryan said, exasperated. ‘She likes talking. She likes you. Just listen. Then go for it.’

He vanished, dragged onto the dance floor by one of Chloe’s friends.

I wandered round the club for a while. Everyone else seemed to be having a great time, but all the fun had evaporated for me. I hated myself for feeling so crap.

Snap out of it, Luke. You’re being stupid.

Maybe I should try talking to Hayley again. I looked round for her. And suddenly, as if by magic, she was there, right beside me.

‘Hi.’ I smiled. ‘I was looking for you. I owe you a beer.’

Her eyes sparkled up at me. ‘I have to go,’ she said.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Oh . . . OK.’

Hayley hesitated a second. ‘D’you want to come with me?’

‘What?’ I said. ‘To the fish-care flat?’

She grinned. ‘Yeah. It’s not far. In fact it would be nice to go with someone. I get a bit freaked out in the dark on my own.’

I nodded. I knew what that felt like from the night that Eve’s ex, Ben, had beaten me up. I drained my drink.

‘Sure,’ I said. ‘I’ll come with you.’

The flat was about twenty minutes’ walk away.

Hayley talked most of the way there. ‘It’s not really my sister’s flat,’ she said. ‘It’s her boyfriend’s. He’s only twenty-one but he’s loaded. He bought her this dress I’m wearing. She only wore it once then she let me have it. She does that with loads of stuff – make-up and jewellery and . . .’

I tuned out completely. It was a cold night and our breath was misting in front of our mouths. I glanced down from time to time, snatching glimpses of Hayley’s bum and legs. She had this slightly strutting way of walking which was really sexy.

We stopped outside a modern-looking brick apartment block. Hayley fumbled with a key and we were inside. The hall was laid with a soft grey carpet and the walls were painted pale green.

We crossed the hall. Hayley pressed the button for the lift. After talking all the way here, she suddenly seemed self-conscious.

‘So what’s with these fish you’ve got to check on?’ I said.

‘My sister’s boyfriend keeps tropical fish,’ Hayley said. ‘Some of them are worth a fortune. When he goes away he sets up this automatic feeder thing, but he likes it being checked. That’s partly why I’ve got the keys. They’re away until tomorrow night, so . . . so I thought I should check on it . . . on the fish . . .’

The lift door opened and we stepped inside.

‘You mean you’ve come round in the middle of the night just to check whether his fish-feeding system is working?’

Hayley pressed the button for the seventh floor. She looked at the lift carpet.

It suddenly occurred to me that the whole fish-checking scenario might have been a cover for getting me to leave the party with her.

‘Oh,’ I said.

We ascended to the seventh floor in silence.

The flat was a total shag pad, complete with plain wooden floors, massive soft leather sofas and an enormous plasma screen TV. Windows ran all the way round two of the walls. They overlooked the river and the centre of London, all lit up with street lamps and Christmas lights.

‘Wow.’ I looked round. ‘Cool place.’

Hayley took off her jacket and wandered over to an enormous fish tank in the corner. A handful of brightly-coloured fish were swimming happily through green fronds and bubbling blue water.

The feeder system was obviously working fine.

‘What does your sister’s boyfriend do?’ I said, genuinely curious about how someone so young could afford a place like this.

‘He’s in the City,’ Hayley says. ‘Earns masses. The furniture in here cost a fortune – it’s all designer stuff. That glass table’s worth over ten thousand pounds. He’s got this amazing sports car, too. I’ve been out in it. It cost him, like, seventy grand . . .’

I tuned out again, remembering Alejandro’s Alfa Romeo Spider and the night he’d driven me out in it in Mallorca. When he’d told me that Eve loved me and still wanted to go out with me.

Is that still what you want, Eve?

I wandered across the room to a large modern print on the wall. Eve had a similar picture on a postcard in her bedroom.

Something constricted in my chest.

I wish you could see this. You’d love it.

‘That’s an original,’ Hayley said confidently. ‘Worth a packet.’

It struck me that Hayley not only talked a lot – as Ryan had said – but that she was also completely obsessed with how much everything cost.

I suddenly missed Eve unbearably.
Jesus.
Maybe I should just go home. Although . . .

I turned round. Hayley was looking at me from one of the windows on the other side of the room. Her face was lit up with excitement, her eyes shining with how fantastic the flat was and how much she was enjoying showing it off to me.

‘It’s a great place,’ I said. ‘I’d love to live somewhere like this.’

We stared at each other. She was undeniably hot. Not Eve hot. But her face was pretty. And she had a great body.

Go and kiss her. She wants you to kiss her. And stop thinking about Eve.

Hayley shrugged. ‘Maybe you will some day.’

I wandered over to her, my heart beating fast. Hayley turned away to look out of the window. ‘It’s a great view, isn’t it?’ she said.

I reached out and touched her cheek, turning her face back to me. I gazed into her eyes. ‘Amazing view,’ I said.

OK. I
know
that was super-cheesy. A real ‘line’. But it worked. Her eyes sort of melted up at me. I leaned down and kissed her.

I hadn’t kissed anyone since the night on the beach when I’d said goodbye to Eve. Those kisses had been sad and gentle and full of love. This was completely different. Hayley was snogging me as hard as I was snogging her, her small tongue flicking against my mouth. I reached round and ran my hands right down her back. Eve had loved it when I did that.

After a few moments, Hayley pulled away from me. Her face was slightly flushed as she blew out her breath. ‘Wow. Who taught you to kiss like that?’

Eve.

Shit.
Stop it, Luke. Stop thinking about her.

I shrugged.

‘I wasn’t sure if you liked me,’ Hayley looked shyly up at me. ‘I mean, if you knew I . . .’ She blushed. ‘Um . . . d’you want a drink?’

‘Sure.’

She led me across the living room and into the little kitchen area – all clear, steel surfaces. Hayley pulled open the deep freezer drawer at the bottom of the enormous fridge. It was empty apart from a frozen pizza and a bottle of vodka. She took out the vodka and filled two little shot glasses to the brim.

We sipped at them, staring at each other across the kitchen.

I still couldn’t think of a single thing to say to her. In fact, the only thing on my mind was kissing her again. But before I could make a move, she smiled.

‘I haven’t finished showing you round,’ she said.

She knocked back the rest of her drink, then walked out of the kitchen area. I downed my own glass, feeling the syrupy vodka burn through me. Then I turned and followed her.

‘There’s the bathroom,’ she said. I glanced through the door, catching a glimpse of toffee-coloured marble.

‘And here . . .’ Hayley pushed open the door opposite. It was a bedroom. More stunning views over the city. Big black wood furniture. And an enormous steel-frame bed covered with white sheets.

Hayley leaned against the door frame. I smiled, then kissed her again.
Mmmn.
I ran my hand down the side of her dress.
God, was she sewn into it?
It was stretched like a skin over her whole body.

Her whole, fit, curvy body.

We snogged for a few minutes.

Hayley was kissing like she really meant it.
Go on. Next stage. Next stage.
After a minute I risked bringing my hands round to the front of her dress.

Oh yes.

Hayley was holding me tighter. Kissing me harder.
Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes.
I steered her across to the bed, then pulled her down beside me. We stared at each other for a second. There was something in the way she was looking at me.

My heart hammered. This instinct I hardly dared trust was telling me that if I kept going, she wouldn’t stop me.
Trust it. Go on.

I slipped the strap of her dress down over her shoulder.
All right.
I could hear myself gasping as I reached round for the zip and pulled it down. Suddenly the dress was loose in my hands, her skin smooth and soft under my fingers. I watched her face, half expecting her to tell me to zip the dress back up.

But she didn’t.

She just rolled away from me and peeled herself out of it completely.
Whoa.
She laughed at the expression on my face, then turned away and hung the dress carefully over a chair. Somehow I got my own clothes off and then she was back, lying down beside me, smiling. Inviting.

This was
it.
This was only freakin’
it.

We started kissing again.
Jesus.
She was making little moaning sounds as I touched her. It was like a dream. All happening so fast. No one would believe it. Ryan’s face – all impressed – flashed in front of my eyes.
Yes. It’s going to happen.
Except.
Shit.

I lay on top of her and pushed her hair back from her face.

‘Have you . . . ?’ I faltered. ‘I mean, have you . . . ?’

‘Yeah, several times.’ Hayley murmured. ‘It’s OK.’

I could feel myself blushing. ‘I didn’t mean that. I meant have you got . . . you know . . . it’s just I didn’t bring . . . I mean . . .’

Hayley wriggled out from underneath me and reached across to the side of the bed. She pulled open a drawer, drew out a pack of condoms and looked back at me.

‘That’s sweet,’ she whispered. ‘Sweet you didn’t assume.’

I stared at the condoms, a stab of fear thrilling deliciously through my totally sexed-up head.

Hayley’s eyes widened. ‘This is your first time, isn’t it?’ she said.

My face reddened again. I couldn’t look at her.

Hayley wriggled back underneath me and put her arms round my neck. ‘Luke?’

Be cool.

I stared down at her. She raised her eyebrows and gave me this mocking, sexy smile. ‘So.You OK with this?’

Was I
OK
with it?

Was she serious?

I’d been OK with it since we’d kissed by the window.
God.
I’d been desperate to get OK with it for at least three years – ever since I first started properly imagining this moment.

And yet this was absolutely not what I’d expected to happen tonight. With this girl I hardly knew. And here. In this designer flat. On this big, designer bed.

Of course, at the time I didn’t think any of that.

I just thought one thing.

Yes.
Oh, yes, please.

I didn’t get home until nearly six am. I left Hayley asleep in the flat and caught one of the first tubes back to North London. It was freezing cold and still dark outside, but I was so pleased with myself that I hardly noticed.