Beneath This Man

‘Mr Ward,’ Clive nods without paying much attention to us. ‘Hello, Ava.’

‘Hi Clive!’ I sing through my laughter. Jesse gets in the elevator and punches the code in while muttering under his breath.

‘Have you still not got that code changed?’ I smooth my palm down his back and into the seam of his boxers, giving him a little squeeze.

‘Shut up, Ava.’ he spits.

‘Are we friends?’

‘No!’ he slaps my arse hard and I yelp. ‘Don’t f**k with me, beautiful girl. You should know by now, I always win.’

‘I know. I love you.’

‘I love you too, but you’re a f**king pain in the arse.’

We pull up outside Kate’s super late after I gained Jesse’s approval on a blush Ponte dress and matching heels, but I very nearly got handcuffed to the bed again when he saw my engagement ring on the bedside table. I completely forgot about it, but Jesse made sure it made it onto my finger. I managed to convince him to leave the necklace in the safe, though. I’m not comfortable with this dirty great big rock sat on my finger as it is. The necklace added to the equation will tip me over the edge of nervousness.

Kate comes barreling out of her house and Jesse gets out, letting her in the back of the car. ‘Wow! I like this better than the Porsche.’ she says as she gets comfortable in the back. ‘Don’t tell Samuel I said that. Come on then, let’s have a look.’

‘What?’ I shift in my seat so I can see my fiery friend.

She freezes and throws the back of Jesse’s head a fearful look. ‘Oh shit!’

‘It’s fine.’ Jesse assures her.

I gape at him. ‘She knew?’

‘I needed one of your rings to make sure the size was right.’ He shrugs and keeps his attention on the road. I hear Kate sigh in relief.

‘You knew?’ I fire at her accusingly.

‘Yep. Was it romantic? Show me.’ She gestures for me to pass her my hand.

I actually laugh – really hard. Jesse looks at me out the corner of his eye, his lips pressed into a straight line as he weaves in and out of the traffic. ‘Yeah, it was romantic.’ I snort. If you call handcuffs and being forced to swallow romantic. I thrust my hand at her.

‘Fucking hell!’ She grabs my hand with both of hers and gets up close and personal with the diamond. ‘That is some serious special. So, when’s the wedding?’ She drops my hand and fishes around in her bag, pulling out her compact mirror. ‘Shit, Ava. Have you told your Mum and Dad?’

Kate has just innocently hit on two very sore subjects. We will be discussing the date of the wedding like grownups soon, and as for my parents? Well, I’m still stumped there. ‘Don’t know and no.’ I answer.

Jesse shifts in his seat and flicks me a displeased stare. I ignore it. I’m not getting into this now. I turn back around in my seat to face Kate. ‘Did you enjoy your evening?’ I ask sweetly.

‘Yes it was fab.’ She brushes my question off and keeps her eyes in her mirror.

‘What time did you wrap up?’ I push.

‘I can’t remember.’ She pouts in the mirror and then flicks her big blues to me. ‘Is there a point to this line of enquiry?’

Jesse laughs a little. ‘I think Ava would like to know if you enjoyed yourself upstairs after I took her home.’ he clarifies. I gawk at him, and he flicks a raised brow at me. Do I need to blunt up?

Kate slaps him on the shoulder. ‘That, my friend, is none of your business. Well, it is, but it isn’t.’ She laughs and once again, I’m stunned. I turn around and shake my head in dismay. I’m surrounded by crazy people.

Jesse pulls up outside Baroque and gets out to free Kate from the back.

‘I’ll get the drinks!’ she declares as she dances into the bar.

Jesse waits for me to come around to the pavement. He’s brooding again and it doesn’t escape my notice that he has just given the doorman a nod.

As soon as I’m close enough, he pulls me into his chest and sucks in a deep breath from my hair. ‘Don’t drink.’

‘I won’t.’

He pulls back and rests his forehead on mine. ‘I mean it.’

‘I won’t drink.’ I assure him. I’m not arguing. It will get me nowhere, except in his car and back at Lusso before I blink.

‘I’ll pick you up. Ring me.’ He brushes my hair out of my face and kisses me deeply, a public display of ownership. I’m wearing a colossal diamond; you don’t get more claimed than that. He seems so despondent, I almost don’t want to leave him, but we have got to get over this unreasonable anxiousness at me being anywhere other than with him.

I cup his face and kiss his stubbled cheek. ‘I’ll ring you. Go for a run or something.’ I leave him on the pavement and mentally pray that he goes home, gets his running kit on and does twelve laps of the Royal Parks. I smile sweetly at the doorman as I pass and he cocks his head at me, giving me a knowing smile. Ridiculous!

I find Kate at the bar with Tom and Victoria, who are already being served. Victoria looks a little less sulky and Tom looks delighted to see me. He’s wearing a ridiculous pink and yellow, candy striped shirt.

‘Ava!’ he screeches. ‘Wow, fabulous dress!’ he croons as he strokes me.

‘Thanks.’ God knows what his reaction would have been to the grey number.

‘What are you having, Ava?’ Victoria asks over her shoulder.

‘Wine!’ I blurt desperately, and all three of them laugh.