Winner Takes All

by Katie Price

  ‘Great. Get on with it, then. Out!’

  Monica and Jas shuffled out of Harry’s office and high-fived on the way back to their desks. Jas was proud of them. Fifteen contracts signed, sealed, delivered, and they were two weeks away from heading out to Ibiza for most of the summer. Jas couldn’t wait to get away from London and into the Balearic sun, even though there was a good chance she might have to fly back at some point to see a judge about the divorce Richard was still vehemently defending. Back at her desk, an instant message popped up on her Google Hangouts on her email. Luke.

  ‘So, was he impressed?’

  ‘Uh-huh,’ Jas wrote back instantly, adding a smiling face emoji.

  ‘Congratulations, star producer.’

  Jas smiled. Since asking her out he’d played it totally cool, alleviating any awkwardness by joking around with her as normal when they bumped into each other in the canteen, or had a meeting about the show. They had become mates. Mates who flirted occasionally, but it was stupid banter rather than anything romantic. They’d chat over Google Hangouts, he’d send her links to YouTube clips of Black Mirror, the Netflix show they were both addicted to, and she’d send him silly GIFs of animals playing in the snow. With everything else going on, having someone at work just to be silly with was very welcome. Jas considered this. She could really do with seeing Luke, actually, taking her mind off Richard and celebrating the success of the show. Impulsively, she wrote: ‘I never did take you up on that drink offer, did I?’ It came out much flirtier than she’d intended.

  He didn’t reply, but a green tick told Jas that the message had been opened and read. She suddenly worried that she’d come across as too forward. She’d turned back to her emails when he buzzed a reply.

  ‘6 p.m. tonight?’

  She grinned. ‘Fuller’s bar. Across the road. First round’s on me.’

  Chapter 9

  Drinks turned into dinner, which turned into cocktails. At Fuller’s they ate peanuts, drank wine and Jas laughed more than she had done in over a year. She realised just how miserable she’d been with Richard, even before they separated last year. Constantly arguing, worrying about his worsening drug habit, infuriated with him for staying out all night. It hadn’t been a marriage, it had been a nightmare. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so relaxed in a man’s company and was grateful she had a friend like Luke.

  Over a table in the pub, they were debating the best pop music. ‘Blur over Oasis?’ he spluttered, an expression of genuine horror on his face. ‘You really think Blur were better than Oasis? Call yourself a northerner? Shameful.’ He shook his head and finished his glass of wine.

  Jas couldn’t help but giggle. He rarely reacted to anything with this much zeal. ‘They were both great bands, Luke, but at the end of the day it all came down to Damon Albarn over Liam Gallagher.’

  ‘Disgraceful,’ he muttered. ‘I’d offer to inspect your Spotify, but I’m worried about what I might find on there now.’

  ‘Eek! I don’t know if you’d want to go there either. Lots of Kylie, Britney, Girls Aloud. A few old-school nineties dance anthems, too.’

  Luke rolled his eyes. ‘Sounds utterly dreadful. The only nineties music you need to listen to was recorded by men in bands, with long hair and baggy clothes. I was going to ask if you wanted to get something to eat but now I’m wondering if we can even be friends!’

  Jas threw one arm around Luke playfully and leant in to whisper in his ear. ‘Come on, I’m starving. I’ll let you pick the restaurant.’

  Luke put his own strong arm around her neck and sighed. They walked out of the pub, arm in arm. It was just playful, friendly banter, thought Jas. There was nothing in it.

  He led her to an Italian restaurant tucked away behind London Bridge station and they ordered plates of creamy mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes and dough balls to start, followed by sea bass linguine for Jas and a steak for Luke, washed down with delicious wine. It didn’t go unnoticed by Jas that Luke always held the door open for her and topped up her glass before his own.

  ‘Tell me more about your sisters,’ he asked before the mains arrived.

  ‘Well, Meg turned thirty-two in February and Lila was twenty-five in May. Meg is ace. Super-chilled and easy-going and very sensible. She’s been with Oscar, that’s her husband, for about ten years. They’re dead sweet together and she’ll be pregnant by Christmas, I reckon. Lila couldn’t be more different.’ Jas paused. ‘I worry about her a bit. She seems reckless and has no ambition other than to party. What about your siblings?’

  ‘Strangely similar. Michael is thirty-six and in a long-term relationship. He works for the civil service and lives down in Clapham. I see him quite a bit. My sister Kimberley is twenty-four. My parents had us quite young and her much later but I think my mum wanted to keep going ’til she got a girl. Kim is a PA at a PR agency in Hove but gets paid peanuts and still lives at home. It’s a good job, I suppose, but I worry that she doesn’t take it that seriously.’

  Jas smiled. ‘It sounds like you have a very accomplished family.’

  The mains arrived and they ate in a comfortable silence for a minute before Luke launched into new territory.

  ‘So, what about you? Any boyfriend on the scene?’ Luke’s eyes stayed on his plate as he tucked into his steak. Jas could tell that he’d deliberately dropped this into the conversation as casually as he could. She thought it was endearing, but felt a knot in her stomach at the thought of talking about Richard and sat back in her chair, taking a gulp of wine. She needed to change the subject quickly. She really wasn’t in the mood to get into all that now. And technically she didn’t have a boyfriend on the scene, so it was just a white lie, right?

  ‘Nope, no boyfriend. I don’t know how I’d find the time for one at the moment anyway. Work is taking over my life.’

  ‘Ah, but you’re doing a great job.’

  Jas wished she could feel so confident. Her mind flashed to the opulent Ibizan villa filled with those brilliant women all falling over Dylan. She really hoped everything would go well. She and Luke continued to talk about the show and Jas felt utterly at ease and thoroughly relieved that she’d swerved the ‘single’ question and it never came up again.

  Much to her embarrassment, Luke insisted on paying for dinner. ‘I’m all about equality,’ she pleaded truthfully, a firm believer in paying one’s own way in life.

  ‘Yeah, well, I’m all about being a gentleman. My dad raised me never to let a woman pay on the first date.’

  Even though they’d flirted throughout the evening, at the word ‘date’ their eyes met for a brief, awkward second before Luke cleared his throat. ‘A friends’ date, that is. Anyway, I earn way more money than you,’ he added with a wink.

  ‘That’s definitely true.’

  ‘Although, if you insist, I will let you buy the next round. One for the road?’

  Jas shrugged. ‘Why not? We’re celebrating a very successful work day. Come on, I know a great place.’

  They headed to a swanky cocktail bar a few roads away. It was Jas’s favourite bar in London, warm and friendly with the best Dry Martinis she’d ever tasted. She ordered one for herself and a straight whisky for Luke. Within minutes they were back to bantering, quoting clips of their favourite comedies to each other and doing impressions of Harry and the other top suits at work.

  Sitting up at the bar on stools, their knees brushed against each other. ‘Your Burrell impersonation is rubbish,’ teased Jas. ‘You’ve got the accent all wrong. He’s a cockney, not a scouser.’

  ‘It’s spot on. You’re just jealous that I’m better than you. In every way, I’d imagine.’

  Jas playfully batted his arm. ‘Yeah, right, you’re just jealous that a woman is funnier than you.’

  ‘Impossible.’ And, at that, his hand fell lightly on her thigh. To her surprise and delight, he kept it right there as they carried on bantering.

  This was no friend-flirting, thought Jas. She might have been drunk, but
there was no question Luke was insanely attractive and the mutual attraction was getting hotter by the second. Luke slid Jas across her stool towards him. Their eyes met again but, this time, neither of them looked away. With one hand on her waist, he reached the other to her chin and gently lifted it so their faces were almost touching. Jas’s stomach was flipping, her arms covered in goosebumps. He leant in so his lips were just brushing hers, then they were kissing, gently at first but with increasing passion as both his hands wrapped around her waist and her arms snaked around his neck. When they finally broke away she felt dizzy with lust.

  ‘I don’t normally do this on the first date, but do you want to come back to mine?’ Luke asked softly. Jas’s first thought was to say yes and get straight into a taxi with him. She liked him a lot and, if his kisses were anything to go by, doubted that spending the night with him would be a disappointment.

  But something held her back. Even through her drunken haze, the sensible, logical part of Jas’s brain was telling her that this was a mistake. She had too much riding on her job without getting distracted, not to mention the ongoing divorce battle she’d failed to even mention to him. No, Jas needed to go home alone and sleep this whole thing off. Nip whatever was happening in the bud. It was just one fun night.

  She must have been weighing up her options internally for a while as Luke prompted her quietly with another kiss. ‘So?’ he asked, softly.

  Jas shook her head. ‘I’ve had a wonderful evening, Luke. But I think we should call it a night. Busy day tomorrow and all that.’

  He joined her in standing up. ‘Of course. Let me call you an Uber?’

  ‘It’s cool, there are plenty of black cabs outside.’

  He held the door of the taxi open for her and kissed her on the cheek. Jas had a fleeting urge to pull him into the car with her, but thought better of it. She didn’t want to do anything she would regret later.

  Chapter 10

  Jas awoke the next morning with a sore head and a dry throat. She rubbed her temples and knocked back the pint glass of water she’d strategically left on the bedside table. She set her alarm on ‘snooze’ for an extra few precious minutes before she had to get up. As she did, the events of the previous night slowly came back to her, piece by piece. The flirting, the touching of knees, wandering of hands … And that kiss. Jas turned her face into the pillow, both completely mortified and wracked with guilt. Thank God she had thought logically enough to go home alone! But, still, what the hell had she done? She was a married woman! And she’d not exactly been forthcoming with that information to Luke over their long and intimate date.

  The alarm rang again angrily and Jas hit it off and begrudgingly lurched out of bed. Stepping into the shower and letting the cool water run over her and wake her up, a memory of last night’s passion flickered through her mind. She batted it away.

  Freshly showered, Jas threw on a green midi skirt, white t-shirt and red heels. Black mascara opened up her heavy eyes, and after a dash of Chanel foundation, brush of bronzer and slick of lipgloss she looked normal again, even if she didn’t quite feel it yet. She popped two paracetamol with a glass of orange juice and strong black coffee. On the Tube into work her hangover lifted and she busied herself with answering emails, reading the morning’s headlines and checking the Instagram sites of all the contestants to see what they were up to. Throwing herself into work was the best way to forget about last night.

  ‘What, you didn’t sleep with him?’ Monica asked, aghast, an hour later as she and Jas grabbed a coffee from the canteen. Jas’s eyes darted around but there was thankfully no sign of Luke. Stirring sugar into her extra-shot skinny latte, she shook her head.

  ‘No, Mon. It’s so not the right time for me to be starting up a new relationship or even anything close to that. Especially not with someone I work with. It’s a bad idea.’

  ‘You know you haven’t done anything wrong, right?’

  ‘It feels like I have,’ Jas replied glumly.

  ‘You’ve been separated for months! From an arsehole, I might add. And you haven’t even had a sniff of a date. Luke couldn’t be nicer, everyone knows it.’

  Jas was about to reply when her phone beeped. ‘Oh my God, it’s from him.’

  Monica grabbed the phone and read the message aloud.

  ‘“Hope your head isn’t too sore this morning. I had a great night.” Oh, Jas, he’s so sweet!’

  Jas snatched her phone back. ‘Don’t make me feel any worse!’

  ‘You should have told him last night about Richard, he would have understood.’

  ‘I need less drama in my life, not more. The best thing is to end this before it gets even more out of hand. Nip it in the bud.’

  ‘Okay, but I think you’re crazy. Every woman in the building has their eyes on that man. He’s genuinely nice and he’s clearly crazy about you!’

  But Jas had made up her mind. It was one night of fun and that was the end of it.

  She went back and forth over what to write back to Luke but, in the end, didn’t reply at all. Logging on to Google Hangouts she expected another cheeky message. But there was nothing. Jas shrugged and distracted herself with work. With Monica and their team of assistants and researchers, she was finalising flight details for everyone and arranging venues around Ibiza for Dylan to take his chosen date. There would be picnics on the beach, dinners in fancy restaurants, boat trips with champagne, snorkelling and romantic walks. Harry had extended the budget even further to accommodate helicopter rides and flights to other destinations for the extra-special dates. No expense was spared.

  Another huge task that was taking up a lot of Jas’s time, and had prompted a closer working relationship with Luke in the first place, was carrying out background checks on all the contestants they hoped would make the final grade. Luke had walked Jas and her director, Lyndsey, through the finer details of the process. Any past convictions or criminal records had to be declared to Harry. It turned out that not only was one girl already on bail for assaulting someone in a nightclub, but on closer inspection another contestant had lied about her age and was just fifteen years old. Jas was stunned – this girl looked at least nineteen – but there was a strict rule that contestants had to be over eighteen, so Jas and Monica scrambled to find the two best replacements among their reserves.

  Almost all the contestants were emailing asking what to pack. Gabriella, who’d tried unsuccessfully to demand money, was now asking for her own bedroom, claiming she couldn’t sleep with other people in the room. Jas replied politely but firmly to the email, explaining that there were five bedrooms in the villa and three girls to each, but they all had double beds and plenty of room. Jas had personally flown out to inspect the villa – the bedrooms were massive! Gabriella was clearly just chipping away to get all that she could for free. There was always someone who tried it on.

  At 6 p.m., exhausted and craving a huge bowl of pasta and a crappy comfort film on Netflix, Jas called it a day. But stepping into the lift down to the lobby, she came face-to-face with Luke.

  ‘Hi,’ she said awkwardly.

  ‘Hello.’ He smiled back at her. There wasn’t much more they could say in a packed lift. At the fifth floor more people bundled in, meaning Jas was standing even closer to Luke. Dammit, he smelt good.

  Safely in the lobby they got to speaking.

  ‘How’s your day been?’ asked Luke coolly.

  ‘Fine. I, um, haven’t heard from you.’ Shit! Why did she sound so desperate? She had to play it a lot cooler than this.

  He looked confused. ‘I texted you this morning. Everything okay?’

  ‘Fine, fine … just, you know, a busy day …’ Jas’s voice trailed off. Back when she was with Richard, he would have been outraged if she’d not answered his text. Luke was so chilled out. And why should she care? She was going to break it off anyway, right?

  ‘Up to anything tonight?’ he asked. ‘Because I’m pretty shattered but would love to make you dinner if you fancied coming roun
d to mine. We could stick a film on.’

  ‘Well, I …’ Jas began. She’d rehearsed what she wanted to say to Luke a dozen times but now he was here, smiling so sexily and being so charming, she was entirely lost for words.

  He leant down and whispered in her ear, ‘I’ve been thinking about you all day.’ Then he pulled back. ‘And I’m starving.’

  Jas was still lost for words. ‘Um, well …’

  ‘Or, if you prefer, we could go to yours, order in some food,’ Luke continued, scrolling through his phone casually as it bleeped. He was standing close and Jas breathed in his aftershave – Armani, was it? Dior? Delicious. The thought of going back to an empty flat on a Friday night was hardly appealing. Snuggling with Luke all night on the other hand …

  ‘I’d like that,’ was all she said, deciding that her great plan would have to wait.

  An hour later Jas was lying back on her grey sofa, a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc in hand and heels kicked off to the floor. Luke sprawled out at the other end of the sofa and gently lifted her ankles onto his lap, massaging the balls of her feet. It felt amazing. Jas was about to make a joke about how good he was with his hands but simply allowed herself to relax. She struggled to remember the last time she’d felt this good. She and Luke smiled at each other for a few seconds in a blissfully comfortable silence. He was the first to speak.

  ‘My mum’s a yoga teacher and massage therapist,’ he explained, nodding to Jas’s feet. ‘You pick up a few things.’

  ‘Ah, so that explains it. You use this technique on all the women you’re trying to seduce, I suppose?’

  ‘It’s working, isn’t it?’ Luke smiled, giving her a cheeky wink.

  ‘Smart arse.’ But she smiled back at him. ‘Is that what she’s always done?’

  Luke shook his head. ‘She was a schoolteacher for years but had a bit of a career change when my dad got the job in Brighton and we moved down south. He’s an IT consultant. She looked in a few schools in Brighton for a job but started getting more and more into the holistic side of things, retrained as a yoga teacher and now that’s it. She says she’s never felt happier.’