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I’m fucking lame, I am.
I don’t allow that strange ‘episode’ to spoil my night. I’ve always known that something is wrong, but I also know that it is neither of our faults. I’ll just live for the moment, and let the future take care of itself.
The party is already in full swing when we arrive. Dom parks the car, and we walk toward the house. He doesn’t hold my hand, or anything like that, but he keeps my body close to his so that it’s clear to anybody looking that I’m with him.
The smell of a barbecue is coming from the garden, and Justin’s living room has been turned into a giant disco with flashing lights. As we enter the room the DJ spins ‘Feel This Moment’ by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera, and it’s as if they’re singing to me.
‘Ask for money and get advice,’ Pitbull raps.
I turn toward Dom. ‘I love Pitbull.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah. You wanna dance?’ I ask.
He looks down at me and suddenly grins. ‘Why the fuck not?’
He pulls me to the middle of the floor, and, man, can he jive. I look into his sexy eyes and just for that moment I’m the luckiest girl alive. I laugh, feeling so happy. Oh, if only this moment could last and last …
Justin is wearing a thick gold chain with a medallion and his shirt open down to his waist, and a couple of gangsta type gold rings, but he’s cool. He raises his eyebrow at me. ‘Now, why didn’t I think of that?’ he says. ‘Wanna reduce your tax bill? Just get yourself a hot tax collector girlfriend!’
I just smile. This is a thin ice lake he’s trying to get me to skate on.
‘So, how much of a rebate are you givin’ him?’
I shrug. ‘Nothing.’
‘Why not?’
‘Tax cheats annoy her,’ Dom says dryly.
‘No kidding? Why?’
I shrug casually. ‘I don’t know. I guess it started when I was a kid. Some of the women on the estate sold Avon cosmetics in their spare time and never bothered to declare their earnings, so they always had extra to spend on nice things, and my mum and dad had everything taxed at source so we never, ever had enough.’
‘Shouldn’t that have made you decide to become an Avon lady?’ Justin asks with a humorless laugh.
I search desperately for some kind of argument that will justify my views, but I can’t find one, because within Justin’s little joke gleams the real truth. A thing that has been polished by years of denial. My views about taxes have been shaped almost entirely by resentment and jealousy. I was jealous because my friends’ mothers could afford better things for their families, and my mum couldn’t.
Now, when I think about it, I realize, ‘Good luck to them.’ It wasn’t as though they walked away with millions. They were just trying to make their families’ lives a little better. If the government can afford a trillion to bail out banks, the little amounts they ferreted away couldn’t have made any difference at all.
Unexpectedly, Dom comes to my rescue. He slips his hand around my waist. ‘Ella couldn’t be an Avon lady because she embodies a life of simple dignity, sacrifice and service.’
I stare at him, surprised.
Dom’s cheeks slowly start to expand with a warm, radiant smile.
And I let out a long, inward sigh. He understands me.
Afterwards, we drink lots of cocktails, dance, and watch a fire-eater perform while we eat grilled jumbo prawns with a lime and garlic dressing. It’s late when a fantastically handsome guy turns up. The photos I’ve seen of him on the net haven’t done him a shred of justice. He’s obviously very popular with the girls, because immediately there’s a bevy of them around him. He looks over to us, catches my gaze, and a strange expression crosses his eyes. It passes in a flash. He comes up to us.
‘When did the Inland Revenue start hiring ex-beauty queens to collect their taxes for them?’ he asks with an irresistible sparkle in his laughing blue eyes.
Dom sighs heavily. ‘Ella, meet my brother, Shane. Shane, Ella Savage.’
I hold out my hand, but he grabs it, and, pulling me toward him, envelops me in a bear hug. I’m so startled by his infectious warmth that I burst out laughing. He holds me around my waist and whispers into my ear, ‘Has my brother managed to bring you over to the dark side?’
I giggle.
