Original Sin

‘I couldn’t have put it better myself,’ said Sean. ‘Worth the journey into darkest Surrey?’ said Sean.

‘Absolutely,’ she grinned.

He touched her arm and led her through the crowd. There must have been six hundred people packed into the grand entrance hall, each groomed to within an inch of their lives. Tess was suddenly glad she had worn the red dress.

‘No! Tell me that’s not who I think it is?’ she gasped. She was staring through an open archway into what looked like a grand ballroom. On a stage at one end, just about to begin playing, were Duran Duran.

‘I thought I’d better not mention that,’ smiled Sean. ‘You might not have come.’

‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’ protested Tess. ‘I love Duran Duran!’

‘Ah–ha! The daahrling Sean Asgill,’ shrieked a voice, making them both turn. Sean was bear–hugged by a tall woman with blonde hair dropping down her back. She had wide feline eyes and around her waist was a sparkling band of diamonds that Tess felt sure were real.

‘Nina,’ said Sean, ‘what a wonderful party.’

‘Why wouldn’t it be, dahrling? I’m forty and fabulous,’ she purred. ‘I thought “you can’t stay thirty–seven forever”, so why not flaunt it?’

Tess laughed. ‘Happy birthday. I’m Tess.’

Nina looked at Tess, then gave Sean a slow wink. ‘What are you doing bringing gorgeous girls to my party?’ she teased. ‘I thought I was the only one for you.’

‘I didn’t think you were available, Nina,’ smiled Sean.

‘When you look this good,’ she said, striking a dramatic pose, ‘I think it’s cruel to keep it to one man.’

Wiggling her fingers in the air, Nina drifted off on the arm of a male model.

‘Thirty seven,’ whispered Sean when she had gone, ‘She’s nearer fifty seven.’

Tess laughed. ‘Well, I don’t know about you,’ she said, ‘but after that, I need a drink.’

He looked in the direction of the crowded vodka bar. ‘Actually, I’d better go,’ he smiled. ‘I think we need someone with broad shoulders to get to the front – it’ll be good to test my resolve too.’

‘Okay, I’m going to see if there’s anywhere to get rid of my coat.’

Sean touched her shoulder. ‘Don’t go far.’

She glanced back at him and, in the low light, she noticed wh

at a sexy smile he had and just how pale green his eyes were. Tess hoped that it wasn’t sexual tension she was feeling in the air. Whatever it was, it was glorious and nerve–tingling. This is what happens when your boyfriend lives three thousand miles away and you don’t get enough sex, she told herself firmly.

She looked away as in the distance she could hear Simon Le Bon’s gravelly voice telling the crowd that this was no ‘Ordinary Day’, followed by the familiar chiming melody of a song she had played a thousand times over on the stereo.

For a split second, she was so wrapped up in the music, she did not recognize the good–looking man standing a little way off to her left. Wearing a sharply tailored suit, he was turned away from her, but he was obviously having the time of his life talking to a slim blonde to his left. Tess gaped at him. It couldn’t be, it shouldn’t be. But it was. Dom.

Her shock and pleasure at seeing him curdled into a sense of dread and foreboding as she watched his hand sliding casually up and down the blonde’s bare back. The girl leaned in and whispered something into Dom’s ear, and he laughed – a flirtatious, happy, relaxed laugh that seemed so different from how he behaved with her. She stood fixed to the spot, unable to move or speak, when another couple came over to Dom and his new friend. Deeply tanned and rich looking, Tess didn’t recognize either of them, but Dom spoke to them as if they had been close for years. Strangely, it was that tiny observation that shocked Tess the most. Somehow, that felt like a bigger betrayal to her; somehow it made their life together an even bigger lie.

She was still standing there staring at Dom, when Sean arrived with a glass of champagne.

‘You’ll never believe the bar over there, it’s covered with … ’ He trailed off as he followed the direction of her stare.

She barely turned to look at him, and just handed him her coat.

‘Excuse me for one moment,’ she said flatly as she walked straight over to Dom. The moment he turned and saw her, the relaxed confidence she had observed from a distance crumpled.

‘Tess,’ he spluttered. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

‘I was just going to ask you the same thing,’ she said evenly.