As she reached it Jim was hurriedly saying, “I will see you and Marcia later then, bye.” He hung up and clearly confused by Tasha’s shift in mood called to her, “Hey, where are you going? I thought we had another date.”
“You have work to do. I’m already disturbing you and as I have my gym shoes on, not my fucking shoes I’m going to be nosey and survey your estate, if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is, baby, wherever you want, but you haven’t disturbed me.” He smiled at her warmly, hoping to offer her reassurance or whatever it was she needed. “Oh, and Natasha, that mouth is going to get you into trouble again.”
She grinned at him, almost optimistically, but said nothing.
Tasha was lying in the bath, submerged to her neck when Jim appeared. “We will be late if you don’t hurry up.”
“There’s loads of time, you could join me you know.”
“But then we would be very late, so I am leaving right now.”
“Do you have a hair dryer and a curling iron?”
“No. Lizzie probably does, I’ll text her,” he called as he left.
With her hair curled into long ringlets she put on make-up of natural tones, beiges and pinks. She put on another set of underwear from New York; the same as the black set, but red and as she put black lace top stockings on and stepped into her favourite black stilettos she considered going to scrub Jim’s back as she could hear he was still in the shower, but resisted and instead put on her offendingflightdress. After a quick spray of perfume, she returned the items she’d borrowed from Lizzie’s room and went downstairs where she found Mike waiting for Sandra.
He let out a loud wolf whistle which made Tasha laugh and after a small curtsey Sandra shot him a steely glance before Jim’s voice sprang from behind her.
“It may not be wise to curtsey too low.”
She turned and grinned at him as Sandra stared at Mike again.
“Shouldn’t you be gone by now, Sandra?” Jim asked.
“I’m waiting for the last of the bread to come out of the oven and then Mike and I are going to the movies.”
“What are you going to see?” Tasha asked Sandra, wondering if she and Jim might do suchnormalthings as going to watch a movie.
“Not a clue, we’re just going to go and see whatever is ready to start.”
“Oh yeah, we’re rebels, Tasha,” Mike joked making Tasha laugh.
She liked him and Sandra, even when she was suspicious. They were like a regular couple. She wondered if they had children and wished she’d been fortunate enough to have parents like them and felt sad she hadn’t, nor Dan and Pippa and then she thought about what was waiting for her when she got home. She felt sick.
“Are you okay?” asked Sandra. “You’re as white as a sheet.”
Jim took her arm. “You do look a bit weird, do you want to cancel tonight?”
She shook her head. “No. It’s probably just because I haven’t eaten much today. I’ll be fine, thank you, but we should go or we will be late.”
Jim took her hand as they called goodbye to Mike and Sandra and headed out. He held the car door open for her which she thought was very sweet and rather romantic. It made her smile.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
She nodded.
“I was going to let you drive and show you where everything is, but maybe not if you feel unwell.”
“Perhaps next time,” she said as her text alert sounded. She replied to her message and threw her phone into her bag.
“Okay?”
“Yeah fine, can I put the radio on?”
“Help yourself, honey.”
