As we walk into the bar, we find the stool that I always seem to get positioned on is taken by a man. He soon makes way when he sees us approaching, raising his glass in greeting. I’m lifted onto the stool and Mario is with us without delay, leaving the members of The Manor to be served by one of the other bar staff.
‘What would you like to drink?’ Jesse perches on his stool opposite me and takes my hand in his. ‘Most Marvelous?’ He raises his eyebrows.
I turn to a waiting Mario. ‘Please, Mario.’ I say, and he smiles his usual fond smile, but looks a little more flustered than he did earlier. I’m not surprised; he’s being run off his feet.
‘I’ll have one of those.’ Kate joins us and leans on Jesse’s shoulder with a huff. ‘These shoes are killing me!’ she exclaims with a look of true pain on her pale face. ‘Seriously. A man categorically devised the high heel and he did it in an attempt to make it easier for you dudes to rugby tackle us womenfolk to the ground and haul us back to your beds.’
Jesse throws his head back and laughs a proper belly laugh as Sam and Drew find us.
‘What’s the score?’ Sam asks as he eyes Jesse laughing hard. He looks at me and Kate and we both shrug on wide smirks. Kate slaps Jesse’s shoulder affectionately. I can’t help but share in Jesse’s amusement at Kate’s dry comment. When he laughs like that, faint lines spring from his twinkling greens and fan his temples. He looks so handsome.
‘I’m sorry, drinks?’ he asks, getting his laughter under control and giving me a wink.
I pool on the stool, sending him a telepathic message to take me home. Basking in the sun on Central Jesse Cloud Nine has resumed. I’m in my element.
Drew and Sam throw their orders at Mario, but he’s already halfway to the fridge to collect their beers. I scoop our cocktails up and pass one to Kate, catching her nodding over my shoulder. I frown at her, so she repeats the jig of her head, and I realise what she is signaling – she wants a cigarette. I lean into Jesse, and he drops his conversation with the boys’, instantly turning his face to me.
‘What’s up, baby?’ He looks worried.
‘Nothing, I’m just going to use the ladies’.’ I lower myself from the stool and grab my clutch from the bar. ‘I won’t be long.’
‘Okay.’ He kisses my hand.
I walk away and join Kate. ‘I need a fag.’ she spits urgently.
‘Really? I thought you wanted to drag me upstairs,’ I flip as she leads me out. My casualness with regards to upstairs must be a result of Mario’s Most Marvelous. ‘I’m going to the toilet quickly, I’ll meet you outside.’
‘The front.’ she calls, making her way to the entrance hall, while I head in the other direction towards the toilets.
I find the ladies’ empty and let myself into a cubicle. I’ve not attempted the task of using the toilet in this dress yet. I could be a while. I negotiate the dress up to my waist with relative ease and make sure I hold it all up before I sit. I don’t know why I’m worrying; the toilet floor is spotless. I hear the door open and a few voices chatting happily.
‘Have you seen her? She is young for our Jesse.’
Oh no!
I freeze mid-wee and hold my breath. Our Jesse? What? Did they share him? I sag on the toilet and release my bladder. I’ve started now, I can’t stop.
‘He’s all over her. Fucking hell, did you see the diamond around her neck?’ Voice number two gushes.
‘You can hardly miss it. It’s obvious what she’s after.’ Voice number three pipes up.
How many of them are there out there? I finish up and start pulling my dress back down while contemplating what I should do. What I want to do is go out there and put them straight on the whole money business.
‘Ah, come on, Natasha. Jesse is beyond a f**king God. The money is just a bonus.’ That’s voice number two, and now I know that voice number three is Natasha, the incorrigible flirt. And he’s my f**king God!
‘Well, it looks like we’ve made all this effort for nothing. I had heard, but I didn’t believe, not until I saw it with my own eyes. It looks like our Jesse has been whipped from under our feet.’ Voice number one laughs.
I stand in the cubicle willing them to leave so I can escape, but I can hear the pops of lips from the reapplication of lipstick and the spray of perfume going on.
‘It’s a shame, he’s the best I’ve had and I’m never going to get to try it again.’ Voice number three – AKA Natasha – muses.
My hackles rise. He has slept with her. I look up at the ceiling, trying desperately to gather some calming thoughts, but it’s impossible, especially with three tarts out there having a good old chinwag about my God’s sexual capabilities.
‘Oh, me too.’ Voice number one adds, and I stand there with my jaw on the toilet floor, waiting for voice number two to pipe up and make it a clean sweep.
‘Well, I don’t know about you two, but he was too good to give up trying.’ Voice number two totally finishes me off.
I can’t listen to this shit. I flush the chain, silencing all three, and make sure my dress isn’t tucked into my bodice before I swing the door open and walk casually out of the cubicle. I smile politely at the three women, all with some sort of make-up suspended in front of their faces, staring completely flummoxed at me as I make my way to a mirror at the other end of the bathroom. I calmly wash my hands and dry them before topping up my gloss, all in silence and under the wary eyes of the three brazen hussies at the other end of the ladies’. I waltz past and leave the bathroom without a word, my dignity still firmly intact.