‘Solves our problem,’ said Tilda, with an edge of triumph in her voice that wound me right up.
I stared at her. ‘Is that all you can say? He was trying to do something for the good of this city and you’re just pleased you don’t have to face him ever again? That’s really…I’m disappointed in you, Tilda!’
‘Oh, please,’ she said. ‘Spare me the caped crusader stuff. He’s only chasing that councillor because he wants to win. He hates being proved wrong. And Ed thinks he’s wrong, so that’s all there is to it.’
‘Oh, come on, we all know there’s a lot more to it than that,’ I exclaimed. ‘First and foremost being the fact that Ed’s in Judd Keane’s pocket.’
Tilda and Jodie made no reply, and it was a moment before I worked out that this was because Ed had opened his office door and was standing there looking out at us.
‘Anyway,’ I said hurriedly. ‘Drinkies.’
But Tilda and I sniped at each other so much over the first drink that I decided to go home instead. My head was whirling with the enormity of what had happened. Tom had sacrificed his job to his principles. Whatever else it meant, I had to admire him for it. And I had to talk to him.
His phone was switched off, though, and he remained incommunicado throughout the evening. I threw myself on my bed and tried to think. Perhaps he had left town. Perhaps I would never see him again. Perhaps Judd Keane would continue his corrupt regime until this city was on its knees. The more I thought about it, the more enraged I was, until I sat up, at half past eleven, with wild hair and sleepy eyes, and spoke into the darkness.
‘Fuck them all. I’m going to do this for Tom.’
I met Katie in the John Lewis coffee shop – an incongruously suburban meeting place, given our common ground, but there was something pleasing about discussing leather and flogging while all around tucked into their middle-class repasts.
‘So I heard that you and the new boy hit it off,’ said Katie, licking some errant blobs of cream from the edge of her chocolate eclair.
‘Tom? No.’ I dipped a spoon into my cappuccino, stirring up the froth. ‘I don’t think there’s a future in that.’
‘Really? Maria seemed to think…’
‘Yeah, that night with Maria was great, but it didn’t go any further than that.’
‘Shame.’ She paused to chew the choux. ‘So you wouldn’t mind if I…?’
‘Oh, my God, aren’t you already inundated?’ The idea of Katie and Tom gave me the worst stomach-plummet imaginable.
Katie chuckled. ‘Well, yeah, but…Tom’s kind of hot, isn’t he? Don’t you think?’
‘He’s good-looking,’ I said stonily.
‘He’s sexy as hell!’ She eyed me shrewdly. ‘Are you sure you don’t want him? I’m getting a vibe off you.’
‘Honestly?’ I sighed. ‘I like him, yes. But I don’t think he likes me. OK?’
Katie clicked her tongue in sympathy. ‘Oh, no. That sucks. But there are plenty more Dom-fish in the sea.’
‘Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. I was wondering if you could introduce me to somebody.’
Katie leaned forward, her eyes wide. ‘Oh? You’ve got your eye on someone? If it’s Ryan, he –’
‘No, it isn’t Ryan.’
‘Oh, then who? Surely not Joel?’
‘No, not him either. Nobody from the munch. I’m thinking of a man I saw with Maria
at the Valmont the other day. A man in his late forties or early fifties, very well dressed.’
‘You like a daddy?’
‘A daddy? You mean, like a sugar daddy?’
‘No, I mean like a Daddy Dom. Are you into age play?’