Strange Relationship – Version X Chapter 005: Come Dancing

“Hi Caitlin, call for you.” A call for me at work was in itself a surprise. That the voice on the end of the phone belonged to the receptionist Adele was even more of a surprise.

“Thanks Adele. I’m glad you’re feeling well enough to be back at work. How are the boobs?” She’d gone up a couple of cup sizes, and the op had left her bruised and tender.

“Well, the bruising has mostly gone down, but I can’t really bear anyone to touch them, which is a bit of a shame because-”

“Yes, I can imagine. Who’s on the phone?”

“Sorry?”

“The phone call for me, who is it speaking?”

“Oh, somebody called Ben. Hey, call down in a bit, I’ll show you the girls now the swelling has gone down.” There was a click on the line and Ben was patched through. Funny, even down the phone I could tell he was grinning.

“You okay?” That was it. No ‘hi’, no ‘how are you’, just launches straight into it. Oh, hang on, he did just ask if I was okay. See, I was already busy being indignant; I wasn’t actually paying attention to what he said.

“Your father nearly caught me. I’d only just got in the kitchen and taken of my shoes and he came in.”

“Did he know anything was wrong? Do you think he-”

“No Ben, don’t panic, he didn’t suspect anything. Quite the opposite in fact, he- ” I stopped, abruptly. I may have just gone down on a teenage prostitute in front of him but I wasn’t going to discuss the sex life I shared with his father – it just wasn’t proper.

Strange Relationship – Chapter 5 (Version VI)

Originally I had no intention at all of meeting Ben again; it was the girls who talked me into it. Once I’d confessed to them that we’d met up for a drink, they were full of questions. None of them particularly like Richard, even though they haven’t met him. But they’ve all been around when I’ve had texts telling me he was going to be late, or heard him on the phone breaking a date. They never thought to ask how far Ben and I had gone on the date, which was good because I wouldn’t have been able to lie very well to them. I did suggest that he seemed ‘interested’, and once that was out they insisted they would frog-march me to meet him if I didn’t agree to go. Surprisingly enough Richard was busy the following night – he had some sort of print worker’s convention that required him to stay overnight – so I was totally free, if I did want to go. I met the girls for lunch, had a glass of wine, and allowed myself to be talked into it.

The bar in question was some way from the scene of our previous date, and c completely different type of bar. It favoured a slightly more mature clientele, which I thought was very considerate of him. Perhaps he’d seen me wincing as I tried to ignore the din from the other bar (do they call it gangster rapping, or something like that?). This one had deep leather sofas in various colours in pairs facing each other, and although the walls were adorned with flat-screen TVs they were easy to ignore. The music was soft and quiet, summery almost, all pianos and glitterballs. I took a stool at the bar and when a very smart barman smiled expectantly and placed a napkin before me, I ordered a gin and tonic.

I was rather hoping that Ben would think I looked rather better out of work clothes – and in partying clothes, rather than just out of clothes altogether. This was my number one LBD, short and silky, delicate cleavage allowing the choice of whether to go with undies or not. I decided I would, simply because I do pride myself on being a connoisseur of lingerie and therefore own many items that he may or may not be lucky enough to get a look at. Underneath this was a pink and black set, very lacy, and not very much of it. The cups gave me rather more cleavage than would normally be available and honestly, there’s nothing that gives a girl more of a confidence boost than looking down and seeing the cleavage of a supermodel. Well, nothing that gives this girl more confidence anyway.