Later that night, they did not let go of each other as Ali took her to the corner of her road. They confided in each other’s intimate desires as they walked and he went on to tell Lucy all about his dream to have a place in the country where he can keep a horse, which he told her with a sincerity she had not come across before. “Horses have a majestic look about them,” he smiled. She adored listening to the wistful tone of his voice as he shared his dreams.
Before they parted, she asked him spontaneously how he came to be friends with Richard.
“I taught him tennis when he came to the courts with some of his business colleagues,” was his answer.
Lucy smiled to herself, of course.
***
Several days later, Lucy was wrapping a present for Richard’s celebration at the mansion. He had just had a major success in one of his business deals, which he was rightfully proud of. Lucy bought him a gold Rolex watch and made him a special Ikebana creation, which took her quite a long time to create. She had also told the chef to take the afternoon off yesterday so that she could make a celebratory cake. It turned out fairly good until it came to the part where she had to ice it, and the edible paper decorations started to collapse drunkenly.
Due to arrive were his mother (much to Lucy’s despair), a few people from Richard’s work, Lucy and Ali. Richard’s mother Martha was not expected to stay very long, but she wanted to come to congratulate her son, and undoubtedly inspect the state of the household.
As some time had passed since Lucy and Ali had given in to their passions, they had kept things secretive and spoke to each other on the phone with the utmost care. Lucy dreaded the thought that she might hurt Richard, and she was thankful that he hadn’t noticed any change in her whatsoever.
Ali had not arrived yet, but everyone else had. Half an hour in to the party, and Richard was shouting at the waiter he hired.
“What’s the matter?” Lucy asked when Richard eventually let the waiter serve the guests.
“I told him to serve the champagne with the shellfish, not twenty minutes after. He's bloody hopeless. Want anything done right you’ve got to do it yourself.”
“Calm down! We’re supposed to be celebrating remember. Give the boy a break. You can’t have been much more accurate than him at his age.”
Richard grunted something that sounded like ‘stupid kids’ and started sipping his champagne. It crossed Lucy’s notice just how quickly he was going through the drink, which she knew he wouldn’t be able to tolerate too well. “Just go easy will you,” she chuckled, “You aren’t used to drinking so much. We haven’t even cut the cake yet.”
“Which is precisely why I want to get drunk now,” spat Richard, “If I remember your cakes accurately.”
Lucy exhaled quietly and walked in a trance away from the party to prepare the cake. She dare not give the waiter this job to do; there was so much wrong with the cake that if the boy served it, Richard was bound to blame the state on him. But while she was arranging the ‘congratulations’ lettering to be somewhat legible, she felt a presence behind her. She turned around swiftly and there was Ali.
It was the first time she had seen him since the encounter on the tennis court. She felt the blood rush to her cheeks at the sight of his splendor. Ali was wearing a leather jacket with jeans, his hair wispy and thick. As there was no one else in the kitchen, Lucy went over to him and handed him a glass of champagne.
“Welcome back,” she said, clinking her glass with his.
Their eyes locked to each other’s and they took a long sip of their drinks together.
Their intimacy did not last long however, as Richard’s mother sauntered into the room as quietly as a ballet dancer, not making a sound until she was standing only a few inches away from the pair.
Lucy’s heart nearly sprang to her mouth, but immediately tried to act like everything was innocent and light.
“I cannot find these blasted shellfish anywhere,” the old woman moaned. “Where on earth is the waiter?”
“He’s in the other room Martha,” said Lucy, “But there’s plenty of shellfish in here. Did you want to try the oysters?”
It may have been Lucy’s hurried tone or the shakiness in her voice, but she was sure Martha looked from Lucy to Ali with a hint of suspicion. She helped herself to an oyster and slurped it out of its shell.
“I always knew my boy would do well for himself,” she said smugly. “I raised him to be who he is now, a success.”
Lucy was sure she sensed that Ali was trying to suppress a laugh, which made it all the more difficult to keep a straight face.
“However, I think marriage is slightly pointless when one has tried it twice already. But Richard is allowed to make his own mistakes, so he keeps telling me.”
Martha took her glass of champagne back out to the living room area, and Ali released a laugh which it sounded like he had been suppressing for a while.
“She’s unbelievable,” Lucy, remarked, “Every time I see her, she just digs.”
“One day,” said Ali, wrapping his arms around her, “things will be different.”
She gave him a quick kiss and then walked back out to the living room. Everyone appeared to be well served and merry, besides Richard, who looked too drunk to be recognizable.
“I’m fine!” said Richard when his mother continued to ask him how he was. “Just need to lie down.”
Lucy made him comfortable on the sofa with cushions and a blanket. His work colleagues had hardly appeared to notice their friend, as they were too busy singing away to ‘Careless Whisper’ and howling at the moon. At this stage, Martha looked rather uncomfortable and announced that she was ready to go home.
“I’ll call you a taxi,” said Lucy.
“No, no, girl, no. I am perfectly capable of driving. Half a glass of champagne is all I had.”
That was certainly true, remembered Lucy. And there was no way she would be as prickly towards Lucy if she had been drinking more. “OK. Thank you for coming Martha.”
“He’s my son,” she replied before leaving. “You take care of him.”
“I will,” said Lucy, ignoring the stab of guilt that pricked at her.
It was not long before Richard’s drunken colleagues were gone too. Soon, there was only Ali, Lucy and Richard who remained at the party. Lucy had long since dismissed the waiters with a very large tip as an apology for Richard’s harshness.
“He’s never been much of a drinker,” said Lucy, “I suppose that’s why he was such a lightweight tonight.”
They sipped the last of the bottle of champagne as Richard began to breathe very heavily. He was lost in a deep sleep.
“I should go home,” said Ali as he watched Richard’s belly slowly move up and down with every long breath.
Lucy reached out to hold Ali’s hand and they began stroking each other’s arms slowly. They stood up and walked each other into the kitchen, where there was no chance anyone would interrupt them. Ali took Lucy by the waist and they kissed passionately, as if they had been desperately waiting for each other all evening. Lucy’s body longed for him as she melted into his arms and felt herself dissolve in the warmth of his hold. She wanted him gradually the more they kissed, until the desire consumed her completely.
“Come up,” she said with a glint in her eye, and pulled him out of the kitchen with her, towards the staircase.
Ali followed her lead, and when they reached the bedroom they soon became frantic, ripping off their clothes and consuming each other under the duvet. Unbeknownst to them, Lucy’s heel accidentally knocked the photograph of her and Richard on their wedding day, which crashed to the floor next to their underwear.
They hadn’t noticed the lady in the Mercedes that drove into the driveway, parking and pulling out a key to let herself in the door. Richard’s mother had returned upon realizing she had left her coat behind on her departure. She did not dither to let herself back in the house with a spare key, not wanting to wake her son by knocking. Wh
en she reached the living room sure enough, Richard was still asleep on the sofa, snoring away. It was then that she questioned what she heard from upstairs, the sound of squeaking and bedsprings. She made her way for the stairs and walked straight into the bedroom, turning the light on to assure herself that her ears were deceiving her. But her worst suspicions were confirmed.
Ali and Lucy stopped dead with the shock of the bright light, horrifically exposing their vice. The duvet had covered most of their bodies, but it could not be clearer what they were doing. Ali was positioned on top of her, sweat streaming down his back, and Lucy was underneath. Though she shamefully hid her face with her hands, her hair was flowing wild and free over the pillow.
When the initial gasps of horror had ended, all that was left was silence that seemed to last for an eternity. Ali slipped out of her and rolled on to the other side of the bed. They watched as Martha’s face continued to possess a look of disgust and fury. Lucy was terrified, the amount of shame she felt was soul destroying.
“Martha, I-“
“I won’t wake him,” she said coldly, “but you’ll have to tell him.”
The old woman swiftly fled back downstairs, snatched her jumper from the floor and stormed out of the mansion.
Later that night, Lucy and Ali were sitting together on the bed, their bodies covered with white sheets, shamefully staring at the blank wall.
“Let me tell him with you,” Ali offered, “There’s no reason you should have to do this alone.”
Despite the heated temperature of the room, Lucy was trembling all over. “I have to tell him alone. If nothing else, he deserves that much.
Ali reached to hold her hand, but she hesitantly took hers away. “It was me who phoned you, me who initiated our first kiss. It is my marriage to ruin. I need to tell him alone.”
Ali started to argue, to persist that she needed him there. But seeing the determination in her eyes and her exhaustion from the stress of it all, he said nothing. He simply kissed her forehead.
“It may have been you who started our relationship, but I love you Lucy.”
For the first time since their interruption, she turned to face Ali. She daren’t respond with words, but reached out and took his hand. It felt warm, open and strong as it held hers.
***
Lucy told Richard the next morning. She told him during a trip where they had stopped to get petrol. She was clearly frightened, shaking, stuttering, pale and ravaged with guilt. By the time Richard asked what on earth was the matter, Lucy exploded in to a fit of tearful apologies. In spite of the agony of it, she did not hold back. She told him everything; where they met, Martha finding them upstairs and even how she felt about Ali. She waited for Richard to respond, but his face did not change expression from the moment she had started explaining.
“Say something,” she begged him.
By the time Richard eventually spoke, his reaction was far from responsive. “Put the fucking petrol cap back on, it’s leaking everywhere.” He said before stepping back into the car. When he sat inside, he did not move or even blink. He just stared ahead.
Lucy frantically knocked on the window, seeing as the car door was locked. She had never felt so disgusted with herself or like less of a person. As she continued to shout through the window, her emotions shifted from a dream-like state of denial to an unbearable guilt.
“Please, please talk to me Richard,” she cried, hating the obvious desperation in her voice. After several moments of silence, Richard got out of the car. His eyes glazed over her, expressing a numb, distant coldness.
“In our bed?” he asked in a hollow voice.
Lucy could hardly speak by way of crying, a tightness paralyzing her throat so much so, that her words were inaudible.
“Did you have sex,” Richard repeated loudly, “in our bed?”
She turned away shamefully, her eyes consumed with tears. Richard walked up to her, grabbed her arm and painfully twisted it so that she was forced to face him. “I’m not surprised that a gold digger like you fell for a tennis star, cliché as it is. But what he saw in someone as bland as you, an unintelligent flower arranger when he could pick anyone he wanted I’ve no idea.”
“Richard-“
“You are nothing, you never were. You weren’t even going to see if I would forgive you, so run off with that tennis dick. You deserve each other. Have a great fucking life.”
“Richard!” she wailed.
Richard stepped into the car and immediately started the engine. He put the radio on loudly to obscure any noise she would attempt to make. Whether he would hear it or not, Lucy loudly shouted at him, standing in front of the car, not caring whether he would drive in to her, not caring about the audience of people standing around to witness the crazy woman.
“I did everything for you!” she screamed, “But I was never good enough for you and now look! Now I am in love with your friend, I am a horrible person! But I am not your person. I’m free! Stuff your fucking dinner parties!”
Lucy had no idea if he heard a word, but he responded by looking in his wing mirror and reversing, quickly, driving away at a dangerous speed. Lucy forced herself to sit down on the ground to aid her shakiness. The release of her frustration felt like a troubling weight had been lifted, as if she had been drowning and had only now been pulled out of the water. Drying her mascara stained tears on her sleeve, she decided to walk to the only place she felt she could.
She knew where Ali lived but had never visited before. It was over four hours before she reached his place. Her cheeks were stained with mascara, and her feet were painfully covered in blisters. She arrived at Ali’s door completely soaked from the rain. She explained everything, and being Ali, he understood. He told her everything would be all right, and although she felt horrendous at the time, Lucy believed that it would.
***
Predictably, Lucy received a phone call from her accountant telling her that Richard had withdrawn all the funds to her Ikebana shop.
She knew she would have to close the shop down, it was the very least she deserved for her behavior. Although she knew it was fair, she was a little sad to think that she would never again be able to run her own shop or create an Ikebana arrangement for her business.
She drove to the shop for the last time and collected all her flowers, tearing down all the decorations. She moved them all to Ali’s flat, and luckily they were a welcome sight for him. He tended to them well since he had always had a taste for them.
It was not long before the Ikebana shop turned into just another coffee shop, swish and stylish with its own unique drinks. But it was a cafe like any other, and Lucy would miss the friendly environment she had built there.
Several months had passed since the disastrous divorce from Richard. By this time, Lucy discovered that while they had been married, Richard had been unfaithful with many women, one being the rude but attractive woman she met at the dinner party. She wondered if this explained the affectionate text or why he had been ‘working’ so late. Although not news Lucy wanted to hear, it did help alleviate some of the guilt that she had been burdened with.
Ali was incredibly supportive over the dramatic few months. He offered numerous times to fund her business so that she could start her Ikebana shop somewhere else. But Lucy was insistent that she would not rely on him, not wanting to start up another relationship based on dependency or use anyone else for her own gains.
She lived very modestly and continued to make Ikebana in her spare time.
One day, while Ali and Lucy were hiking up the hills near their new country home, Ali dropped a bombshell. He announced that he had entered Lucy into an Ikebana arrangement contest in Japan. At first, Lucy thought she must have misheard him.
“Do you know how steep a competition will be in Japan?” she laughed.
Ali grinned as they plunged their walking boots through a river, “I had already considered that. But as you moved your things into the new house, I noticed all the rewards you
had for your Ikebana creations. They were impressive. And I’ve seen what you can do.”
When he saw Lucy still objecting he continued, “It doesn’t matter to me if you come first or last. Think of it as a holiday. Our first holiday. Anything else is a bonus.”
It never occurred to Lucy that she would have such an opportunity and she was impressed with the gesture, continuing to be thrown by Ali and his thoughtfulness.
They flew to Tokyo a month later where Ali took them to an exquisite hotel. The build up to the competition was the part she enjoyed the most; exploring Japanese gardens, historical sites, tasting exotic food and laughing with Ali at their hopeless attempts at speaking the language.
Lucy was nervous at competing with other Ikebana creators, but once she had recovered from this anxiety, she had fascinating conversations with like-minded people and even made a few friends.
“I don’t even care if I lose,” said Lucy, sitting hand in hand with Ali on the flight home from Tokyo. “That was the most wonderful experience. Thank you.” She rested her head on his shoulder and slept through the rest of the journey.
Of all the Ikebana creators, Lucy certainly did not expect to win, and at this stage she did not mind at all. But it still came as a welcome surprise when she received a certificate, a letter and a cheque for seventy thousand pounds. She only had to cast eyes on the first word ‘Congratulations’ for her to call down Ali. He rushed to her side, and they were both ecstatic, toasting the success with a bottle of champagne at ten in the morning.
Lucy ignored the bubbling ideas of potential purchases that played in her mind. She instead decided to use the money to start up a new Ikebana shop, very close to their country home. In time, the business would become successful, and somehow, Lucy found she enjoyed working there so much more now that she was funding it herself.
Sipping cups of tea while they were lying beside each other one morning, a golden Labrador at the foot of the bed and the sound of sheep from outside, Ali and Lucy quietly beamed at each other. It was a golden moment, and one of many, where they silently realized how lucky they were.
Romance: Bad Boy Romance: The Billionaire Revenge (A Contemporary Multicultural Office Romance) Page 6