They waited in the lobby of the restaurant while the valet got the Mini from the parking lot. Sally took David’s hand while they waited and pressed herself against him, taking him by surprise. ‘Did you have a good time?’
‘It was a magic, thank you so much Sally. Are you sure you don’t want me to contribute? I mean, I imagine it was a lot?’
‘No, it’s fine, remember our agreement, it is my treat, although don’t expect to be brought to a restaurant like this on every date. You might have to make do with a McDonalds every now and then!’
‘That will be fine, and I’ll bear it in my mind for our next date when I’ll be paying!’
Sally laughed, and then surprised him some more by giving him a kiss in his lips. ‘I’d invite you back to mine for some coffee, but my dad is there and I guess you don’t want to meet the folks just yet?’
‘No, that would be a little bit too soon! I’d invite you to mine but my gran is there, and well, you’ve seen what she’s like!’
Sally laughed then led him by the hand out to the Mini which had arrived. ‘She’s lovely, and you know it.’ The valet had opened Sally’s door and then he scampered round to open David’s.
‘Yeah, she is lovely,’ David replied as he settled into the car, ‘but she can be a pain in the bum as evidenced this evening!’
She drove them sedately through the country lanes, holding his hand when she was not changing gears. He noticed that they were not driving back to his house but appeared to be heading out to the coast, and indeed after a few more miles they pulled onto the coast road.
‘I love it along this road at night. It is so peaceful.’ After saying this Sally then turned off the road and into a car park that was next to the beach. ‘Let’s go for a walk.’
‘Huh? It’s freezing Sally!’
‘Nonsense! It’s a little fresh, that’s all.’ As she opened the car door and swung her legs out, the cold wind whistled straight up her skirt raising goose bumps along her legs. ‘Hmmm, maybe it is a little chilly. Perhaps we can stay in the car?’
‘I think in this instance it would be a good idea.’
So she closed her door and turned to face him. ‘You do look very handsome tonight David, very dashing.’
‘Erm, thanks. So do you. Not handsome though, very beautiful.’
She smiled at him and leant across the middle of the car to kiss him which he responded to. Sally was very pleased to see that he was a good kisser and was even more pleased that her body responded when his hands started to wander.
All too often in the past, when she had been with a boyfriend, her body did not respond to their touch, she felt nothing. Now, as David caressed her thigh, she started to feel hot and there was definitely something happening in between her legs. Before they got carried away, and not wanting to lose her virginity in a car, she pulled away from him, smiling at him as she did so.
‘Shall I get my knight in shining armour home then?’
‘I suppose we better had. Work in the morning, and I suppose you’ve got college?’
‘Yep, unfortunately. Exam time.’
‘Be worth it when you get good grades.’
‘They’re only practice exams.’
‘Yeah, but if you do want to go to Oxford like you mentioned before then you need to study damn hard.’
‘Unfortunately, what you say is true, too true, and I’ve been slightly lacking lately.’
Sally started the car and made their way back along the coast road towards the town and David’s house.
‘Hey, I forgot. You didn’t tell me which college you go to?’
Sally quickly made a decision about this one and decided to be truthful. ‘The Mount.’
‘The Mount? Jeez, your dad must be minted!’
‘Not really, it’s just that he believes in getting a good education and he works hard, long hours in order to give me this chance.’ That wasn’t a lie, Sally thought, he bloody does!
‘That’s like one of the best schools in this area.’
‘One of the best in the country David.’
‘Yeah, true, true. I would have loved to have gone there, to be given a chance like that. Instead I got lumbered with a good old comprehensive. It was so frustrating for me. I wanted to learn, but unfortunately I was strongly in the minority. The rest of my year just fucked around in class so the poor teachers spent more time controlling the class than teaching the class. I tried to study outside class, but with my parents continually arguing from dawn until dusk it was a little hard.’
‘I can a imagine David. Sorry you’ve not had the opportunities I have.’ She took his hand and squeezed it.
‘But that’s life. You get the rich who have everything, and the poor who have nothing. People, politicians mainly, say there is not a class divide in this country anymore. Bullshit. My other gran, my dad’s mum, died because of breast cancer because we could not afford the best treatment. And you hear about these celebrities who go to clinics in Geneva or Paris or who knows where, and they pay the price and they get the best treatment and they survive. So, if my parents could have afforded the best treatment she would still be alive. How is that fair?’
Sally had not told him how her mother had died, and she was close to taking great offence to what he was saying. ‘It is not fair. Sometimes though David, even relations of billionaires die because of cancer after receiving the so-called best treatment. It is a horrible disease and it does not choose its victims based on social status, wealth, religion or whatever.’
‘Yeah, you’re right. But does it seem fair to you that people with wealth have better lives, while other people have nothing?’
Sally was now getting a little annoyed. ‘Maybe these people have wealth and better lives because they have worked bloody hard to achieve it?’
‘In that case those people deserve it. What about sportsmen though, people who get paid millions for kicking a sphere that bounces around a field? And the nurses who save people’s lives get paid peanuts? How is that fair?’
‘Although I agree with you that the wages modern sportsmen get are totally obscene, you have to remember that it is all about supply and demand. How many teams in the Premier League at the moment?’
‘Twenty.’
‘Twenty multiplied by eleven?’
No hesitation. ‘Two hundred and twenty’
‘Good maths!’
‘Always been a strong point.’
‘Anyway, two hundred and twenty football players start in the games in the Premier League every weekend then, right?’
‘Right.’
‘How many nurses do you think are in our local hospital?’
‘I don’t know, but I imagine more than two hundred and twenty. I see the point you’re trying to make.’
‘Yeah, there are a lot more people capable of becoming nurses than top flight footballers. Therefore, supply and demand. Footballers can demand the ridiculous wages because the clubs know that high quality footballers capable of playing in the Premier League are few and far between. Therefore, the clubs pay their players a high wage to tempt them to play for their club.’
‘It’s still obscene though.’
‘I totally agree with you. It is totally, totally obscene and wrong that anyone be paid that much for kicking a pig skin around a field, but because of the supply and demand factor the players can request and be paid such staggering salaries.’
‘Indeed.’
‘I’m sorry about your gran. I had someone very close to me die of cancer. It’s horrible. I was only young, but I remember watching her waste away…’
‘Your mum?’
‘Yeah, how did you…’
‘You told me earlier in the night that she had died.’
‘Well, yeah, my mum. Breast cancer too. I was only young too. I hated watching her die like that. I kept on expecting to see her back in her kitchen, making me cakes, but she just got sicker and sicker. I didn’t really understand what was going on.’
‘Nei
ther did I.’
The conversation halted as they both became lost in their thoughts and soon Sally pulled into David’s street where she pulled up in front of his house and turned to face him.
‘I’ve had a great time David, a really lovely time.’
‘Me too. Thank you for the meal.’
‘Thank you for fixing my car!’
‘No problem. Anytime.’
She leaned across and kissed him. ‘Saturday night?’
‘Yes, definitely.’
Sally then asked him, ‘What do you want to do?’
‘Do you like the theatre?’ Sally was not expecting this and the surprise must have shown on her face.
‘Just because I’m a mechanic doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the finer things in life!’
‘I know, sorry. I just wasn’t expecting the theatre to be offered to me. I’d love to. What are we going to see?’
‘I can drive us into the city to watch Les Miserables if you like?’
‘Perfect. Which theatre is it on at?’ David told her and she was relieved because it was not the theatre owned by her father.
‘I think the doors open at seven so shall I pick you up at six?’
‘That sounds brilliant!’
‘Oh, don’t expect executive seats or anything.’
‘I won’t and I could be sat behind a pillar for all I care so long as I am enjoying myself with you.’
‘Oh, thanks Sally. That’s a lovely thing to say.’
He leaned forward and kissed her, deeply and passionately until he heard a distant banging on one of the windows in the house. He looked up and saw his gran with her face pressed against a window shaking her finger at him and clearly mouthing the word sinner at him.
‘I don’t believe her!’ David muttered under his breath.
‘Now, now David that is the language of Satan! You’ll burn in hell!’
‘Bloody hell Sally, don’t you start!’
They both laughed until David leaned forward again and engaged Sally in another deep kiss. The banging on the window was renewed with increased vigour and carried on even after David ended the kiss.
‘Right, better go before the old bat has a seizure or something.’
‘David!’
‘Sorry, but come on, I’m an adult and I can’t kiss you?!’
‘She’s a lovely lady and she cares about you which you should be grateful. She’s just from a different generation, you have to understand that.’
‘Oh I understand it alright. I understand that she should be locked in a padded room with a stick between her teeth!’
‘David! That’s your gran you’re talking about!’
‘I know, I know. Right, seven, no six on Saturday? Where do you want me to pick you up from?’
‘I’ll come here and you can drive us to the theatre.’
‘Eh? That doesn’t make any sense? Why don’t I just pick you up from your house?’
‘Because I’ve got to take my uncle to the airport so I’ll get ready before and come here after dropping him off.’
‘Okay, if that makes you happy.’
‘It does. You’d better go. She’s going to smash that window if she hits it any harder!’
They both laughed and David gave her another kiss before he got out of the car. He watched as she drove slowly down the street, waving out of the window before she turned and was gone from his view. He walked up the drive and opened his front door to be greeted to the sound of his gran laughing hysterically from the front room.
‘Your face! Your face when you saw me banging on the window! I nearly wet myself!’
David stood at the bottom of the stairs shaking his head in amusement at the merriment his gran was giving herself. He did not enter the living room but instead from the foot of the stairs said, ‘Goodnight gran.’
Then he went upstairs to bed, the hysterics of his gran eventually dying down.
Chapter 24
‘How did it go? Did you get laid?’
‘Michelle! Behave yourself!’
It was the day after their respective dates and Michelle had called Sally on her mobile. ‘Well, did you?’
‘No, I did not! He’s a good kisser though and he made me feel very hot in the car!’
‘I bet he did! You didn’t lose your virginity in the back of a Mini did you?! That’s not very romantic. At least that idiot, my so called boyfriend, ex-boyfriend now thankfully, seduced me into a bed, not into the back of a car!’
‘Michelle, my virginity is one hundred percent intact thank you very much. Considering how much you’re talking about sex all of a sudden I guess this means you got laid?’
‘Nope.’
‘You didn’t?’
‘No, I told you, nice and slow with Simon, nice and slow.’
‘I’m sure!’
‘I mean it. At least six months.’
‘No way.’
‘Seriously, six months.’
‘When are you seeing him again?’
‘Saturday.’
‘Then I’ll give you until Saturday before you’re in bed with him.’
‘Not going to happen Sally. When are you seeing the gorgeous David again?’
‘Saturday. We’re going to the theatre?’
‘You’re not taking him to the theatre your dad owns are you? Fancy taking your new boyfriend, who incidentally doesn’t know how rich you are, to the expensive restaurant that your dad owns!’
‘I know, not my smartest move. No, all his suggestion and he picked the theatre. Les Miserables. I’ve seen it, but it’s good so I won’t mind sitting through it again. And you? Where are you going?’
‘My place.’
‘Your place? And your parents?’
‘Out. They’ll be in London performing.’
‘Like I said, Saturday!’
‘Not going to happen!’
‘Hmmm, we’ll see. Hey, my dad came to my room before,’ Sally rolled over on her bed and put her mobile to her other ear, ‘and he told me that he’d been talking to the C.E.O. of the Formula 1 team. He told us what cars we’ll be driving around the track. We’re going to be driving…’
*
As Sally and Michelle talked about and planned their trip to the Monaco Grand Prix, Sarah was having one the worst days of her life.
She had woken up in Peter’s bed at about nine the next morning with him snoring next to her and at first felt fine. Looking round the bedroom, Sarah saw the empty syringes but instead of being concerned she shrugged her shoulders and tracked down her handbag. She removed a package from the bag and took a contraceptive pill, after which she went downstairs and made them both cups of tea. When she came back upstairs Peter was awake and thanked her for bringing him the tea.
‘That was pretty wild last night Peter. Just what I needed. Been having a lot of trouble with my mum at home and needed a blow out.’
‘I thought you had a blow out on Friday?’
‘I’ve got a lot of trouble at home and I need a lot of blow outs!’
‘Fair enough. She bad?’
‘Horrendous. She doesn’t move from the chair in the living room unless it is to get a fresh bottle of spirits. Dad left, with a cleaner from his work.’
‘Ah, okay. Bastard.’
‘Yep. What was that you gave me last night? Was it really cocaine?’
He laughed inside at her naivety. ‘Yeah, just a stronger version. Want some more?’
‘Yeah, I think I do.’
So he got out of bed and got another syringe, but this time he did not squirt some of the liquid into the pot plant. She sat down on the bed and he prepared her arm for her. Then he slid the needle into her arm and again the affect on her was near enough instantaneous. She collapsed backwards onto the bed with her eyes tightly closed and her breathing deep and heavy. Peter left her to her drug ecstasy and wandered downstairs to get some breakfast.
After he had not heard anything for an hour he thought he had better go and check on her. A
s he walked into his bedroom the first thing he noticed was the smell. It made him feel nauseous and he soon saw the reason why. The heroin had clearly made Sarah feel sick and she had obviously attempted to make a dash to the bathroom. She had not made it because there was a pile of vomit on his bedroom floor. After vomiting she had then returned back to his bed because she was curled up on it fast asleep. He walked over to her and looked at her face to check that she was still breathing. She was, but he noticed that she still had vomit around her mouth and had in fact managed to transfer the vomit onto his pillow and duvet.
Peter managed to catch his temper before he exploded at her, but only just. He did shake her awake though and loudly said, ‘Sarah, wake up Sarah. Come on honey, you’ve been sick.’
Sarah groaned. ‘What time is it?’
‘About noon.’
‘Shit. I was meant to be in an exam an hour ago.’
‘Never mind. You’ve been sick. Go and take a shower why I clean up.’
‘Shit, sorry. I felt sick. I don’t know why.’
‘It might be the drugs. You’ve taken a lot.’
‘Yeah, I think so. Sorry, I’ll go for a shower.’
She walked out of the room, stepping around the pile of vomit. When Sarah was out of the room Peter cursed her and started to strip his bed. When this was done, he took the bed linen downstairs and placed them straight into the washing machine which he started. He then returned back upstairs and contemplated the sick. ‘How the fuck am I going to clean that up?!’
Deciding on a plan of action he went downstairs, unlocked the back door and retrieved a shovel from the garden that was not too dirty. When he returned back upstairs, Sarah was getting dressed and offered to help as Peter scooped up the vomit onto the shovel. Once it was all on the tool, he poured it carefully down the toilet and then went back down into the kitchen for some cloths and carpet cleaner. Cursing Sarah again, he returned back to his bedroom and cleaned the carpet and once this was done he was quite happy with the result.
‘Sorry.’
‘It’s okay. It’s partly my fault. I allowed you to take way too much.’
Everything to Nothing Page 24