Billie looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity leaping out of them. 'What about Lucy?'
Jamie answered as honestly as he could. 'I shouldn't think she'll be that bothered, Bill. It's no big love affair and I've only been seeing her a couple of months. She's a nice girl and all that, but to be honest, we haven't really got a great deal in common. We don't really connect, if you know what I mean.'
Still looking pensive, Billie wriggled her hands free from his. 'You're not just saying and doing all this because you feel sorry for me, are you?'
Tilting her chin, Jamie moved his face inches from hers. 'Billie, I don't feel sorry for you. I love you, and if things work out between us, I would like to spend the rest of my life with you.' The passionate kiss that followed was all the proof that Billie needed.
Prising herself away from him, Billie gently stroked his cheek and smiled. 'OK, Jamie, you win. I would be honoured to be your girlfriend.'
Jamie hugged her, feeling as if he'd won the lottery. He had never experienced such strong emotions before, and the warmth of Billie's small frame pressed tightly against his chest made him feel like the luckiest man alive. Jamie looked down at her with a humorous glint in his eye. 'Right, now you've agreed to be my girl, ain't it about time you cooked me some bloody dinner?'
Billie laughed at his cheekiness and gently punched his arm. 'Don't start all that her indoors bit with me, you cheeky sod.'
Jamie held his hands up, shying away from her. 'I'm only joking. I'd take you out for a meal if the little man weren't asleep, so the next best thing I can offer is a Chinese takeaway.'
Billie flung her arms round his neck. She felt totally at ease with him. 'Chinese sounds just fine, but first I want another one of them kisses that I just had.'
Ten minutes later, the happy couple finally let one another go.
'Come on, missus,' Jamie said, kissing her on the tip of her nose. 'At this rate, we're never gonna eat and we'll both end up anorexics.'
Billie smiled happily. 'Don't bother going out to get it,' she said as she saw him put his coat on. 'I've got a menu here, we can get something delivered.'
Jamie picked up his keys. 'Nah, I've got to go to the cashpoint anyway, so I might as well go and get it. What do you want?'
Billie placed her order, watched him drive off and sat on the sofa to catch her breath. For the first time since her dad had died, she felt loved and protected. Picking up the earrings Jamie had bought her, she took her old ones out and put them in. Smiling to herself, she admired them in the mirror. Billie thought that they were the nicest present she'd ever had. It wasn't the fact he'd got them from Tiffany's. She wished he hadn't spent all that money, as she wouldn't have given a shit if he'd purchased them from Warren James. It was the way he'd given them to her and the thought that had probably gone into choosing them. It had been so romantic, just like something out of one of the movies that she loved so much.
Jamie sat outside the Chinese takeaway and ended his phone call. He'd just finished with Lucy and it had been much worse than he had expected. He thought she'd take it with a pinch of salt; they weren't exactly Romeo and Juliet. You could count the times they'd slept together on one hand, so the tears, screaming abdabs and abuse he'd just had hurled at him came as a bit of a shock. Driving home, he decided not to say anything to Billie Jo. He knew she was soft and didn't want to make her feel guilty.
Ringing the bell, Jamie handed Billie the takeaway.
'I bought us a bottle of champagne to go with it. I thought we should celebrate. Oh, and by the way, I rang Lucy and told her I wanted to call it a day. I didn't tell her about us, I just told her I needed to concentrate on work and stuff.'
Billie pecked him on the lips as she took the champagne off of him. 'I'm glad you've told her, I'd feel bad otherwise. How did she take it?'
'Oh, she weren't bothered,' Jamie lied. Quickly changing the subject, he held out his glass. 'To us and our future.'
Billie Jo sipped her champagne. 'To our happiness.'
A couple of miles away in Hornchurch, Michelle's evening was turning out to be anything but happy. 'Come on, love, out you go,' the big doorman said to her.
'You silly big cunt,' Chelle shouted, before collapsing onto the pavement. Michelle had gone out on her own for the night as all of her friends were busy. Three places she'd been slung out of and she didn't have a clue what she'd done wrong. She was a bit drunk, but so what? That's what pubs and wine bars were for, weren't they?
'Are you all right, love? Do you wanna hand?' asked a teenage lad.
'Yeah. Help me find me car. I can't remember where I parked it,' Chelle slurred.
'You can't drive home, love. You can't even stand up.'
'Oh, fuck off then if you ain't gonna help.'
The boy looked at his two mates. 'Nutter,' he mumbled, shrugging his shoulders.
Laughing, the three lads wandered off eating their chips.
After a struggle, Chelle lifted herself off the pavement. Remembering there was a car park behind the nearby Weatherspoon's, she tried to remember if she'd parked there. Staggering towards it she finally made her destination and leant against the wall. Fishing through her handbag, she found her keys. She could barely see, so decided to wave her alarm at each and every car. There it is, she thought, as she noticed the back lights flashing at her. Sliding into the driver's seat, it took Chelle a minute or two to remember how to start the engine.
'Here we go,' she said, as her car finally flicked into life.
Reversing, she clipped a parked car. Fuck 'em. Shouldn't have parked there, she thought as she changed gear. Hitting the main road, she put her foot down, cranked up the music and headed towards her luxurious home.
THIRTY-TWO
Danny O'Leary knocked on the door of the Cross Keys.
It was only 9 a.m., but he knew the landlord would be welcoming. He, the Fish and their cronies kept the boozer going, so he was hardly liable to get arsey. 'Morning, guv. I'll 'ave the usual and whatever these girls want.'
Ushering the girls into the pub, Danny ordered the guvnor to stick the jukebox on. Heading to the toilet, he shoved a line up his hooter and smiled to himself. He'd had a great night last night, fucking brilliant, and it weren't over yet. Pissing Billie off had put him on a high. After leaving hers, he'd rung Leon and gone on a bender round his way. He'd visited a titty bar in Hackney, where he'd had a blinding blow-job. He'd then headed to an illegal underground bar in Dalston which had been open all night.
The couver had kept him awake. He'd snorted tons of it and he'd carry on snorting it if it meant he didn't have to go home to that whinging bitch Debbie. All night she'd been ringing him. He'd ignored her calls, of course. He'd been tempted to answer the phone while he was getting his knob sucked by the Chinese bird, but it was in his jacket pocket and he hadn't been able to reach it.
Returning to the bar, he put a couple of quid into the jukebox and demanded it be turned up.
'I can't, Dan. It's too early, mate. I ain't meant to be open.'
'Boring cunt,' Danny said as the guvnor walked away.
'So where did you say you lived? I've forgotten,' Danny asked the girls. He didn't know the two birds from Adam, he'd only met them the night before.
'We told you twice. She lives with her mum and I live in a flat in Upney,' the pretty dark one replied.
'How about I shout us up some more gear, get us some booze and we go back to yours for a bit of a party?'
The girls giggled. They loved a bit of gear and this geezer provided mounds of it.
Danny said goodbye to the landlord and sauntered out of the pub. Slinging an arm round each girl, he smiled to himself. He had a beautiful son, loads of money, plenty of drugs and birds coming out of his earholes. His life was the bollocks and he was determined it was gonna stay that way.
Jamie turned up early at Billie's the next morning. He'd have liked to have stayed there the previous night, but was worried about Danny returning.
'Good morning, my
precious one,' he said cheekily.
'Do me a favour, Jamie. Keep an eye on DJ, he's just finishing his breakfast. I want to pop upstairs to get changed, I'll only be ten minutes.' Billie walked upstairs, smiling to herself. It was so nice to have a man in her life who was actually there for her. Her relationship with Danny had been total crap. She realised that now and wished she'd had the guts to finish it earlier.
Completing her outfit with a grey pinstriped suit jacket, Billie snapped her thoughts back to the day ahead. She was going to see a solicitor and was determined to look smart and sophisticated.
The actual meeting went well. Billie was over the moon with the lawyer that Jamie had found her. Marsha Huntingdon was an ex-victim of domestic violence herself. At forty-six years old, she was now celibate, wealthy, and extremely happy.
In her younger days, Marsha had been one for the men and had had numerous live-in boyfriends. Donny Parker had changed all that, and after suffering years of domestic abuse with the no-good bastard Marsha had packed her bags, fled with her daughter Melissa and moved from Yorkshire down to London. Starting off at a safe house for battered wives, things hadn't been easy for Marsha. But after securing a job early in her stay, she had rented a place, gone to college, and eight years ago had passed her law degree with flying colours.
Marsha now hated men with a passion and swore that if she ever saw a cock again, she'd chop the bastard thing off!
Towards the end of her meeting, Marsha leant across her desk and gently squeezed Billie's hand. 'Now don't you worry about anything, darling. You make sure you do everything I said and you'll be just fine. Ring the police and report every little incident, OK?'
Billie was mesmerised by the strong northern woman sitting in front of her. She had thought all solicitors were blokes and was amazed to find a female one, especially one whose ex was so exactly like her own.
'Thanks for everything, Marsha,' Billie said gratefully. 'I'll call you as soon as I have any grief from him. It's bound to be this weekend, as he thinks he's picking the baby up.'
Marsha stood up to see Billie out. 'If you're still there Saturday, do exactly as I said. Stay in the house, have as many people there as you can as witnesses and as soon as the bastard breaks in, ring the police. Remember, though, Billie, you must contact Danny beforehand, to say that he can't have the child after all.'
Billie thanked Marsha again, said goodbye and left her office feeling confident. Jamie had insisted that she went in alone, so she could chat woman to woman.
'How did it go?'
Billie sat on the seat next to him. 'Brilliant. She really knows her stuff. I felt so comfortable with her.'
'What advice did she give you?' Jamie said, putting the frantically giggling DJ over his shoulder.
Billie relayed the meeting word for word on the journey home in the car. 'So she said the one thing I must do immediately is find my own place. She said if he breaks in where I am now, there's not much I can do, as his partner owns the property. Once I get a place on my own, and he breaks in, I can get him arrested. I've got to get out of there and preferably before Saturday, when he's coming to pick the baby up. Marsha said, even if all you can find is a shithole, just take it for the time being.'
'Well, I'll tell you what we'll do now then. We'll head straight to Romford and pop into a couple of estate agents. If we don't get any joy, we'll get all the local papers. I'll take you to lunch, we'll go through them and I'll ring up the ads for you.'
'Thanks, Jamie, but don't say nothing about me having grief with an ex. No one is going to want me as a tenant if they think I've got a nutty bloke in tow.'
Jamie glanced sideways at her. 'I know what to say, leave it to me. I'll tell them you're my girlfriend and your mum's kicked you out to move in her new boyfriend, or something. They'll feel so sorry for you by the time I've finished that they'll be throwing properties at you left, right and centre!'
Billie laughed. He had a way with words did Jamie. He was a typical market trader with a cockney sense of humour. Despite his Irish origins, her dad had been like that too. When Billie had first met Danny, some of his sayings and expressions had reminded her of her dad. The more she'd got to know him though, the more she had realised that he was nothing like her father. Jamie was much more like her dad. He'd lived in Canning Town before he'd moved to Romford and he had a real East End way about him. How could she have chosen Danny instead of Jamie? She must have been bloody mad.
'Penny for your thoughts,' Jamie said, turning off the engine.
Squeezing his hand, Billie looked at him lovingly. 'I was just wondering how I ever looked at Danny and not you.'
Jamie took off his seat belt and held her tightly. 'Forget the past, Billie. We're together now and that's all that matters. You weren't the only girl to fall for Danny's charms, they all did. I loved you from day one but Danny chose you, so I was left with your mate. That's history now, let's just concentrate on the future. It's all about me, you and DJ now, girl.'
Billie kissed him gently on the lips. 'You're right, but we're going to have to tell Carly about us at some point.'
'I'm sure Carly'll be pleased for us. Anyway, now she's jacked her job in and is larging it in Tenerife, I'm sure she's pulling plenty of blokes. She'll be enjoying herself too much to be bothered about me and you, that's for sure.'
'I suppose you're right.' Billie opened her car door and lifted a sleeping DJ out of his seat and into his buggy.
The trip to the estate agents turned out to be a total waste of time. The snooty cow who sat opposite them told them that housing benefit payment wasn't accepted for any of their properties and that they'd be better off trying the council. Billie had just been about to pull the girl on her stroppy attitude, when DJ, who was running about like a blue-arsed fly, knocked a big tray of papers onto the floor. Laughing all the way to Pizza Hut, Jamie and Billie ordered lunch and scanned through the local papers.
Half an hour later, Jamie had rung all the suitable properties. 'Right, three are no good, Bill. One's in Barking, that's a shithole, you don't want to live there. One you can't move into for another six weeks and the other one won't accept housing benefit. We've got three to go and view, one in Romford, one in Dagenham and one in Collier Row.'
After viewing the first two, Billie's good mood had vanished. The flat in Dagenham was at the top of a tower block and the one in Romford was on an awful-looking council estate. Pulling up at the address they'd been given in Collier Row, Billie felt her spirits lift slightly. The area looked a far better one than the previous two they'd just visited.
Billie took a good look around inside the two-bedroom flat she was shown. It was nothing special, but it was clean, tidy and looked a damn sight better than the other two she had seen. 'I'll take it, on condition that I can move in tomorrow,' Billie said, looking expectantly at the man who was showing them around.
Peter Fuller dug his hands deep into his trouser pockets and pondered the proposal. He prided himself on being a good judge of character and he'd liked the look of these two immediately. The fact that the girl was so keen to move in the next day unnerved him slightly. The last girl who had been in a rush to move into one of his flats had turned out to be a heroin addict who had done a runner and sold all his furniture.
'Look, you can move in tomorrow, but I need a grand deposit off you first.'
'No problem,' Billie said confidently. 'I'll meet you here at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. I'll bring the cash and you bring the keys.' A handshake later and the deal was done.
Billie and Jamie spent the whole evening packing. Billie was pleased that the place they'd found was part-furnished because she was only taking her personal belongings and the odd few bits she'd bought and paid for herself. By midnight everything was boxed up, bagged up and ready to go.
Billie flopped down on the sofa next to Jamie. 'Please don't go home tonight. Stay here with me?'
Jamie smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulder. 'I've no intention of going anywher
e, Billie. I'm so knackered, I can't even move.'
'Don't stay down here on the sofa, cuddle up to me in my bed.' Taking him by the hand, Billie led him up the stairs. The events that followed were some of the best moments of Billie's young life. Making love with Jamie was entirely different to the rough, horrible sex she'd experienced with Danny. Jamie was kind, tender, loving, soft and gentle with her. Danny had been the total opposite of all those things.
Jamie held Billie, cuddling her long into the night. Finally, he drifted off to sleep and Billie lay awake listening to his gentle snores. Tonight had been a real eye-opener for her. In the past, she had wondered if there was something wrong with her. Danny had told her time and time again that she was frigid and useless in bed. Whenever they had rowed he'd brought up the subject of their sex life. Now she knew that it wasn't her after all. There was something wrong with him, not her. Danny was disgusting, dirty and kinky. Making love with Jamie had been wonderful and idyllic. A gentleman, Jamie had treated her with the utmost respect and Billie had enjoyed every single minute of it.
Lying in the dark, Billie thought of her dad. She knew he would have approved of Jamie and she hoped he knew that she'd at last found happiness. Billie wasn't overly religious but she was a believer and had often prayed for a better life. That night she actually believed that she had been listened to. God must have heard her and had felt sorry for her.
Finally, He had answered her prayers.
THIRTY-THREE
Michelle propped herself up on the uncomfortable bed and buzzed for the nurse. Requesting some painkillers, she picked up a magazine from the cabinet next to her and started flicking through the pages. It had been four days now since she'd been admitted to hospital and she'd had a hell of a lot of time to sum up just how shit her life really was.
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