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Callum
The next morning, we took Buster for a walk down to the beach. Adaline sat on the pebbles wrapped in a blanket while I went for a swim. Buster joined me for ten seconds until he realised how cold the water was and ran back to Adaline to take cover under the blanket. When I emerged, Adaline had Buster on her lap, they faced me with their tongues hanging out. Buster for obvious reasons, he was a dog. To see Adaline openly appreciate me boosted my ego. I needed it to get through the party this evening. It never occurred to me that I should be outraged that she ogled my body like a starving creature. I loved it. I loved it because I believed she appreciated more than my chiselled muscles under this wetsuit. She didn’t want me for my money, or for any other vapid reason.
We spent every night together enjoying good food, every night taking pleasure with each other’s bodies. She helped me with my design ideas for new clients, and I helped her build a business. Her shop was nearly ready to open. She’d held off making plans for an opening day. Adaline didn’t want to do anything until she’d secured the elusive comic.
She took Buster on her travels around Brighton, choosing to walk today rather than cycle. The day was perfect, and going to the party was the last thing I wanted to do tonight.
I waited for Adaline in my flat. We were running late. I think that was a more conscious thing than I was willing to admit. I still didn’t want to go. The only reason I was going, was to show my old school friends I had a beautiful girlfriend. I had a business created by my own hard work and a roof over my head that I paid for. I needed their validation, it was shallow but true.
The school reunion organisers had themed the party as a 1950s throwback. I looked like an extra from a James Dean movie, complete with greased back quiff. It was a small one as my hair was still growing back. To complete the look, I needed a cigarette hanging from my lips and a sultry stance. I tried practising my Elvis lip quiver when Adaline came through the doors. Her deep purple dress showed her cleavage. My eyes were out on stalks as she came closer. Her impossibly tiny waist was accentuated in this dress. The petticoats were barely visible as she moved. When she twirled for me, she spun so fast I glimpsed her white frilly knickers. My mouth dropped open.
“I wore sensible girl knickers in case you knew how to dance the lindy hop and threw me up in the air,” she said and grabbed the labels of my leather jacket to kiss me. “Give me a kiss before I apply my lipstick,” she murmured against my mouth.
“I think we should stay in, I can assess these sensible knickers in more detail. I’ll cook you spaghetti and apple pie.” I said, trying to persuade her that going to the party was a bad idea.
“We’re going. You will face your school tormentors and give them a friendly two-finger salute. I will stand there looking stupid as I try to decipher what the posh people say at parties.”
“They use the same words as you, and I do, you’re smarter than anyone in that room. Don’t sweat it.”
“They annunciate differently, posh people I mean, they talk like they are practising for their ventriloquist’s exam.”
“Seriously?” I hadn’t thought about different people speaking in any other way than me.
“Think about Prince Charles and how he speaks or the Queen, they hardly move their lips. I avoid them like the plague.”
“Posh people?”
“Yeah, well except you, of course, I’ve got used to how you speak. Plus, you have a deep enough voice that I get clues every tenth word or so. Shame you are a man of few words.”
“You’re unbelievable, you know that? How you adapt and make life work for you, I’m in awe,” I said. I pulled her close to kiss her one last time.
She shoved me away with a defensive smirk. Adaline hadn’t been able to accept any compliments I gave her about how she copes with her hearing. She changed the subject, walked away or in this case eyed me carefully in the reflection of the mirror while she applied her plum coloured lipstick. I watched as she swept the stick across her bottom lip and then shaped over her top lip. She pressed her lips between a tissue and then declared herself ready to rock n roll.
“I’d borrowed my mum’s driver for the night, I hope you don’t mind. The country club we’re going to is in the middle of nowhere. If we need to make a quick get away after I punch someone for reminding me about my school humiliations I’d rather not wait outside for a taxi.”
“I understand. The minimum time we’ll be there is an hour, so set your watch because you need to do this. It’ll be good for you.”
Adaline had lectured and cajoled me about the importance of moving on from those who humiliate us. Especially in our school days. She doesn’t practice what she preaches, but I didn’t point out that fact. Each time we visited her parents, she spent the first half an hour tidying up. At some point, I would talk to her about facing her parents and whatever they did that has her hating them so much.
“Understood, now let’s get going so we can come home,” I said and took her hand. My mum’s driver, Haydn, parked in the side street next to the shop.
He drove us to the venue far too quickly for my liking. When I got out the car, I made him promise me he wouldn’t be far away and that his phone battery was fully charged. He’d know me my whole life and solemnly promised that he would be ready to go the moment I wanted to. He had spent many hours talking to me when he drove me home from boarding school. I sat up front rather than in the back. My mum was disappointed that she couldn’t come and pick me up when school broke for the holidays. I found it easier to speak to Haydn, getting all my frustrations out of my system before I saw my parents. The last thing I wanted to do was to let them know how unhappy I was in the school that cost them a fortune. I had a privileged education, and I wasn’t about to throw that in their faces.
Haydn parked the car a few hundred yards away from the entrance to the Mansion. It was a country club for the super rich. Fitting for my school friends. My family was as wealthy as any of them, but I still feel like I didn’t fit in. The club was an Edwardian mansion in a hundred acre grounds. The building was imposing. It should have a warning to those who enter that they might be in the presence of heightened pretentiousness. Adaline was far more relaxed than I was on the drive up, chatting merrily away about her plans for Hong Kong. I tuned out, concentrating on not being the shy fat kid I was when I had seen them last.
When I stepped out of the car, Gabby was waiting at the entrance to the club. I had a sense of pride when I saw Gabby in the same colour dress that Adaline was wearing. Adaline’s figure leant more to the fifties style dress, where Gabby’s did not.
Gabby sashayed over, but I left my spot to go to the other side of the car to open Adaline’s door. When Adaline stepped out, Gabby’s face turned to thunder, if it were possible, Gabby would have shot lightning from her eyes at Adaline. Thankfully the car shielded us.
“The invitation didn’t say you could bring a plus one,” Gabby called over the roof of the car.
“I called the committee and asked them if we could bring our significant others, and they said it was expected. They were confused by the wording on my invitation.” I said.
Tilting my head just slightly to show she was busted, I hoped she’d walk away. Sadly, we were dealing with Gabby, and she didn’t give up without a fight.
“Oh, I didn’t know, I came alone. You must chaperone the two of us. You wouldn’t want me to be lonely would you?”
She played coy well, even lifting her hand to her mouth when she spoke.
