‘Well, it obviously worked.’
‘Yeah. He… he kind of asked me up to his room when we went back to his hotel for a drink.’
‘The cheeky bugger!’
‘He said he doesn’t usually move that fast,’ Claire said defensively, ‘but he felt like we’d already known each other a long time. It was like that for me too.’
‘So, did you go?’
‘No. I was tempted, but it would have been kind of obvious that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. My cover would have been blown.’
‘Mm, I see what you mean. That’s a pity. You finally meet a man you like and he’s off-limits.’
‘Only temporarily, I hope. I really do like him. And I think he likes me too. He asked me over to London for a weekend.’
‘To stay with him?’
Claire nodded. ‘I’m going to try to get over while Mum’s still in the nursing home.’
‘So, what are you going to do? I mean, you can’t keep fending him off for ever.’
‘I wouldn’t want to. But I told him I have a five-date rule.’
‘A five-date rule,’ Catherine mused. ‘I didn’t know people really did that.’
‘Apparently they do. So I can date him for a while, get to know him better, without sex being an issue. And in the meantime I’m going to get some practice.’
Catherine almost choked on her sandwich. ‘Practice?’ she croaked when she had recovered. ‘Please tell me you’re not going to start trawling bars and picking up strange men.’
Claire shook her head. ‘I already have someone lined up to practice on. He’s a friend of Yvonne’s. I met him at a party last week. So it’s all perfectly safe and above board.’
‘Blimey! Does this guy know he’s a sort of coach, training you up for the big occasion?’
‘Oh, yeah. I was completely upfront with him about it. He knows the whole story and he’s fine with it. He’s a total man-whore – shags anything that moves, I gather. He’s broke, so I’m paying him to… teach me.’
Catherine looked at her in slack-jawed silence. ‘Let me get this straight,’ she said finally. ‘You – Claire Kennedy – are going to pay a guy to have sex with you. When you bust out of that shell, you don’t do it by halves, do you?’
‘Oh, believe me, this isn’t easy for me,’ Claire said, with a shaky smile. ‘I’m not looking forward to it, but it’s a means to an end.’ She was dreading it, in fact. It would be beyond awkward, but she would try not to think about it too much, and once she’d got through it, she’d never have to see Luca again. She could put the whole episode behind her and forget about it.
‘We’re starting tomorrow night,’ she said, feeling the stirring of nerves in her stomach at the thought of it.
‘Well, good luck!’
Just then, Claire’s phone pinged with a message. She pulled it out of her bag, feeling a little glow of pleasure when she saw it was from Mark:
What are you wearing?
She smiled to herself as she texted back:
A lot of green and a little mayonnaise. Lunch in the park = challenging!
His reply came back a moment later:
I bet you look adorable in it. Just wanted to let you know your offer letter is being drawn up. Everyone here very excited about publishing Scenes. Must dash. x
‘Sorry,’ she said to Catherine as she typed a quick reply:
Yay! Excited too. x
