Parisian Nights

by Louise Bay

  “Harry, get in here,” Jenny called.

  “This is totally the date dress, isn’t it, Harry?” Jenny asked, her attention focused on Haven. “It’s not too tight—it just hugs in all the right places.”

  “I don’t know,” Haven said, sounding unsure.

  Haven looked incredible. The dress came to well below her knees and her perfect tits were well covered, but the fact was, any guy was going to be imagining every inch of her body underneath that dress. It clung to her like a second skin. The room seemed to close in on me as her vulnerability and uncertainty hit me, mixing with images of her writhing on her quilt under my tongue.

  I started taking shots in the hope that the camera would hide my desire, which I was sure showed all over my face.

  “I think it’s too informal. It’s just jersey,” Haven said to Jenny as if I wasn’t there.

  “No, if we add on some jewelry, it will be perfect. You don’t want to seem as if you’re trying too hard.”

  “Jenny, I’m not going there to impress anyone, remember? This is work.”

  “For crying out loud. First rule of dating, Haven—just because you don’t like them doesn’t mean you don’t want them to worship you.”

  “That’s a stupid rule,” Haven replied.

  “Says the single girl,” Jenny said. “Anyway, I thought we were doing three outfits. There might be something better in there.”

  “No, I’m done. I don’t care enough about this shit.”

  Warmth spread inside me. I’d missed her feisty mouth and the way she had no time for things that would have kept women like Millie occupied for hours. She was special and I’d not fought for her.

  Sixteen

  Haven

  “Perfect. Now, perfume, shoes and a bag and you’ll be done. Harry, can you order a cab?” Jenny asked as we finished up the date preparation.

  “I’ve got the car. I’ll drive us. Are you coming, Jenny?”

  “No, I’ll just get the tube.”

  I needed some air, some space. Having Jake in my bedroom, taking my photograph was too much. It was as if I were faking it—trussed up like a prized cow, trying to present my best side, the side that wasn’t me. I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating. I wanted to scream at them both to get out. I wanted to get a cab on my own, but now Jake was driving. This was too overwhelming, too confusing. Why was he here? Why were his kind smiles and his long fingers picking at the edge of my resolve?

  “Okay, guys, I’m going this way,” Jenny said, pointing left as we got outside. “Good luck tonight, Haven. Let me know how it goes.”

  “I don’t need luck. It’s not a date. It’s work,” I replied, being scratchier than I’d intended.

  “It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself,” she said as she headed off down the street.

  “Thanks for your help,” I called after her.

  Jake opened the car door for me as if it were our date. “You’ve brought the fuckmobile?” I asked, then immediately wished I hadn’t. I navigated my way gingerly into the car. I felt stupid dressed up like this for what was essentially a work meeting.

  “It’s the weekend, give me a break,” he said, then closed the door as I got in. He rounded the hood and slid in the other side.

  His proximity was more than distracting. I’d never been so aware of him physically. His denim-covered thighs tensed as he braked before a traffic light and I couldn’t pull my eyes away. He turned up the air and all I could think about was stroking his hand. The smell of him—that clean, warm, masculine smell—was all around me, making my skin buzz wherever it was exposed. I had to work to control my breathing, to stop myself reaching for him, to hold myself back from asking him to kiss me.

  I needed out of the car.

  “This feels weird,” I said, breaking our silence as we drove along Edgware Road, stopping at more traffic lights.

  He nodded but didn’t say anything. Maybe it didn’t feel odd to him.

  My phone buzzed. It was my date, Gerald, texting to say he’d arrived and was looking forward to seeing me. It was nice.

  “That him?” Jake asked.

  “Yeah. It’s just work,” I said, for some reason, needing to explain getting a text from another man while I was with him.

  “It is what it is,” he replied.

  What did that mean? We drove the rest of the way in silence.

  The nearest parking space was a block away from The Holly Club. Jake offered to drop me off, but I didn’t want to go inside and meet this guy on my own.

  “Aren’t you going to struggle to walk in those?” Jake asked.

  My cheeks heated as Jake glanced at my feet. The last time he’d noticed my shoes was in Paris. He’d told me he was going to fuck me in my heels. He’d made good on his promise. Jake’s eyes met mine and I quickly looked away.

  “I’ll be fine. They’re not that high,” I muttered.

  “The club is fine with me taking some shots?”

  “Yes, Jenny checked.”

  He held the door open for me and I stepped inside an oak-paneled hallway. A hostess stood behind a dark wooden table toward the rear of the space.

  “Good evening, Mr. Harrison. Nice to see you,” she said, looking directly at Jake and ignoring me. Anger seared through me. Of course they would know him. I wondered how many women he’d brought to dinner here. “Are you planning to have a drink in the bar before going upstairs?” the hostess asked.

  “Mr. Harrison is here to take some photographs. I’m here with Rallegra. My assistant should have arranged something?”

  The hostess seemed confused.

  “I’ll be having dinner afterward, Belinda. Please let me know if my guest arrives early,” Jake said.

  Belinda smiled warmly. “Oh, I see. That’s fine. Let me take you through. So you’re Ms. Daniels?” she asked, looking at me. I nodded curtly.

  “You’re eating? Here?” I whispered. “With Millie?” Was he trying to sabotage things, or make me jealous? The pieces weren’t fitting together properly.

  “Yes to the dinner part and no, not with Millie. We broke up, I told you that. This is my Saturday night, Haven. There’s no reason I should waste it because I have to spend ten minutes taking some photos of you on your date.” He sounded exasperated and I hated myself for creating that in him. I wanted to be the cool, sexy girl he wished he hadn’t let get away.

  Belinda led us down a dark corridor, where old satirical cartoons were displayed on the walls on either side of us. I turned back to Jake. “Why do you have to bring her here?” I said it before I realized that doing so gave away that it bothered me. I didn’t want to see Jake dating other women.

  “What’s the problem? I’m a member here,” he replied.

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to reveal anything else and Belinda was showing us into the bar.

  “Hi, Gerald,” I said as I extended my hand to my date. I recognized him from the picture I’d seen at Glass Introductions. He was quite a bit older than me, but still attractive. Though, his photograph hadn’t told me how short he was.

  “Haven? Hi, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You look beautiful.”

  My cheeks heated. I felt anything but. I felt fake and overly made up, but he was hardly going to say anything else, was he?

  “Thank you. I thought we could just get the photographs out of the way and then enjoy our evening, if that’s all right with you?” I tried to sound enthusiastic about our evening. I didn’t want Jake to think my mind would be on anything but Gerald. I wanted Jake to think that I was looking forward to spending time with someone else.

  “Sure thing,” Gerald said.

  “Why don’t you guys just have a drink and get to know each other. Pretend I’m not here,” Jake said, his normal collected self. I wished I hadn’t mentioned him bringing his date to the club. If he was unaffected by this situation then I was going to do my best to match his indifference.

  Gerald may not have been my type, but I wasn’t going to give Jake the
satisfaction of giving any of that away in my interaction with him. This was a job and I was good at it.

  I was laughing overly hard at something Gerald had said when Jake approached the table.

  “I think I have what I need, so I’m going to leave you to it. Have a wonderful evening. Good to meet you, Gerald,” he said. He shook Gerald’s hand and gave me a nod before leaving.

  “Where do you live?” Gerald asked me.

  “Little Venice. What about you?”

  “I have a place by Hyde Park. And then a place in Surrey. And a small pad in New York.”

  I laughed to myself. I didn’t think he was really interested in where I lived. Was his question simply an opportunity for him to tell me all about how wealthy he was? Perhaps that was what women expected and wanted when they joined Glass Introductions. Or perhaps he just wanted me to like him.

  “Do you travel much?” he asked.

  “I love Paris,” I said before I’d thought about it. It was true; I just didn’t like to think about why.

  “You do?” he said.

  I smiled. “It’s a beautiful city. I was there recently for work.” I shouldn’t have brought up Paris. I needed to change this subject. “What do you like to do in your spare time?” I spotted Jake moving toward the door of the bar. I followed his line of sight and came to possibly the best-looking woman I’d ever seen. She was tall and very slender with a chest small enough to be natural but big enough for men to notice. She had long, silky black hair and eyes that screamed wild. She wasn’t dressed up like Millie had been. She wore skinny jeans, a silk vest and killer heels. Of course that was Jake’s date. It couldn’t possibly be anyone else.

  “Do you like to ski?” Gerald asked.

  I hadn’t been listening. I turned my attention back to him. “Not really. I never learned as a child and I think it’s hard to start as an adult. I’ve only been a couple of times.”

  Jake had never struck me as a boob man in particular. He’d seemed to like every part of my body equally.

  “Skiing in the US is better than Europe. There’s just more space,” Gerald said.

  “Do you go a lot?” I asked.

  Jake took a table at the other end of the bar, so once he was seated I couldn’t see him or his date. Good, I should be focusing on Gerald.

  “As much as I can. Aspen mainly, but other resorts in Colorado and sometimes Whistler. I like to mix it up. I have a lot of friends who ski and a couple of them have places, so if I’m visiting them I get to go to different areas.”

  “Sounds fun.” I smiled.

  “It is. My job can be stressful, so it’s good to blow off steam. And the après-ski always helps.”

  “That’s the bit I’m better at.”

  He laughed as Belinda approached our table. “Would you like to go through to the restaurant?” she asked.

  I nodded and we stood up. I took the opportunity to steal a glance at Jake and Queen of the Glamazons. They were hunched toward each other over the table, much closer than Gerald and I had been. I wondered how long he’d known her.

  It was good to go into the restaurant for dinner. A bit of distance between Jake and I was what I needed.

  “Can I ask why you joined the agency?”

  Gerald nodded. “I have a small circle of friends who I’ve known for years. Some are married. I don’t really meet anyone apart from at work and I don’t like mixing business with pleasure. I’d like to find someone, and the agency seemed like the way to do it.”

  It was a logical answer. He seemed like a genuine guy. “That makes sense,” I said.

  “And you’re single?” he asked.

  “Yeah but . . . ”

  “I get it. I know this is for an article.”

  I squeezed a smile from my lips.

  “I just thought you seemed interesting. When I saw your headshot and your profile, I thought, hey, she’s not seeing anyone. I might just win her over, even if she is working.” He smiled and I thought how nice it would be if it were possible for Gerald to win me over. For life to be that simple.

  Thankfully, we were seated at the other end of the dining room to Jake and his date. But I could still see them. Effortlessly beautiful, she sat facing me. At least I couldn’t hear what was being said. Not that I was interested. I needed to concentrate on my date, on the article.

  “Have you ever been married?” I asked Gerald.

  “I’ve come close a couple of times, but no. No kids either.” He looked a bit sad and I wondered why he’d not found a wife. Wasn’t he the type of guy that Millie would have had her claws in in a minute?

  “You’re a rich, handsome man. How come it hasn’t worked out for you?”

  “Well, I’d like to think I’ve not lost hope,” he said, his eyes twinkling at me. I could feel the heat in my cheeks.

  “Sorry. I just meant—”

  “It’s a fair question. I spent my twenties and early thirties working really hard and didn’t have much time for anything else. When I came up for air, the music had stopped and there were no seats left. That’s how it felt anyway.”

  Wow, the idea that the time to find our soul mate had run out was depressing . . . but not unrealistic. There was an age by which people tended to have paired off.

  “All your friends were married off?”

  “Most of them by the time I noticed.”

  “There’s definitely a window for women,” I said.

  “A window?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I mean, with the girls at work? I feel like they’re on a countdown to get a ring before the clock gets to zero. I’m not sure it matters who the guy is.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, now that you say that I think women can be a bit like that. My first proper girlfriend really wanted to get married before she hit thirty. She had a complete obsession about it.”

  “You didn’t want to marry her?”

  He took a beat, clearly thinking before he replied. “I think I did for a while there, but . . .”

  “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me.”

  “I’m just trying to remember what it was, but I think it was that she didn’t want to marry me, she just wanted to get married. It soured it for me.”

  “I get that. I’m not sure I believe in ‘the one.’ I just know I don’t want to settle for someone who isn’t right for me,” I said.

  “I could tell you were a romantic.”

  His comment caught me off guard. Deep down I considered myself a romantic, but I didn’t expect anyone, not even Ash or Luke to see that in me. “I’m not sure I’d describe myself like that,” I said, grinning at him. He was nice, and kind and subtly flirtatious. He was good company. I rarely talked to people about how I saw the world, but it felt easy to talk to him.

  “Of course you are. It’s one of the reasons I know we’ll get along,” he said. I smiled at him. “What wine would you like?” he asked, indicating the list.

  “Surprise me,” I said.

  “I intend to,” he replied.

  For about twenty minutes, I forgot about Jake and his impossibly beautiful date. I felt good.

  Seventeen

  Jake

  I didn’t like Gerald. I certainly didn’t like the thought of him having dinner with Haven. And after dinner what would happen between them? Was he driving her home? Would she invite him in? I messed about with the food on my plate, then dropped my fork, my appetite having disappeared. I glanced across at Nicola and she was staring back at me.

  “Are you okay, Harry? You seem a bit . . . off.”

  “I’m sorry. This new business is taking a lot of energy.”

  She raised an eyebrow at me. “Really?”

  I grinned. “No pun intended. There’s a great deal at stake. I just want it to go well. Anyway, tell me about Milan.”

  “I will when I’ve been to the ladies’. I’ll be right back,” she said as she left the table.

  I took the opportunity to glance at Haven’s table. I had deliberately sat with my back to her so
I didn’t get distracted. It hadn’t worked. She didn’t notice me look. She was smiling, as if she was enjoying herself. Perhaps I should offer her a ride home? Then she wouldn’t have to go home with a total stranger. I pulled out my cell and texted her, offering to take her home at the end of the evening. She must have had it switched to silent or ignored it because she didn’t check to see who was texting her. She was having a good time with Gerald and I was just making myself miserable. It was ridiculous. Haven had made her choice, and I needed to leave her to it. It didn’t matter how I felt. Beth was wrong about that.

  I resolved to make more of an effort when Nicola came back to the table. She was a nice girl and I was a dick for bringing her here.

  “So, Milan?” I asked when she got back. “How was it?”

  “Oh, you know. Full of Italians. It doesn’t seem to matter which city I’m in these days, it’s the same old, same old. You know?”

  I nodded. “You’re a smart woman. Do you not want to do something with all that brain power of yours?” I’d always liked how sharp she was—she’d made some really good decisions during her career.

  “I’ve been thinking the same thing. I’m considering doing some talent management at the moment.”

  “That sounds great. Managing other models?”

  “God no, they would drive me crazy. More like actors and musicians, maybe? I’m just talking to a few people at the moment. I want to set up on my own. And I can still model here and there for the time being.”

  “Well, if you want some help on your business plan, let me know,” I offered.

  “You’d do that?” She smiled. Right there was why she’d been so successful as a model. She was gorgeous.

  “Of course,” I said as I grinned back at her.

  “So, dessert?” she asked.

  “You know that you’ll just have one mouthful and then leave the rest. It’s such a waste.”

  “Well, it’s better to have a taste than to miss out altogether.”

  Was that true or would it be easier to have never known Haven, never had the promise of something so sweet?