‘But this isn’t in person. This is a phone call.’
‘You’re very cheeky, aren’t you, for a girl I’ve fucked with a whip handle?’
That shut me up.
He seized his advantage and spoke into the stunned silence.
‘I’ve been thinking about you, Keris. What I saw of you last weekend impressed me very much. I want to take you and train you and make you mine. But I don’t know much about you, or even whether it would be possible. I think we should meet and talk.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘When and where?’
‘Where do you live?’
‘Portsmouth.’
‘Not too far. Can you make it up to town tomorrow?’
I pondered. I was supposed to be conducting the choir and helping at the school Christmas Fayre. I couldn’t very well let them down.
‘I can’t. I have a work thing to do.’
‘What about the evening? What if you book a restaurant and I meet you there? I’ll pay.’
‘Oh well, all right. What kind of place do you want? Upmarket, downmarket?’
He tutted down the phone at me.
‘I’m sure you could work that one out for yourself.’
Brasserie Boizot then. If there was a free table.
‘I’ll try and book the best place in town then.’
‘I’d recommend that.’
‘What time? Eight?’
‘Eight sounds fine.’
He gave me his number in case of emergency cancellations and rung off without further comment.
I stuffed my knuckles into my mouth and bit down on them, hard.
What the hell was I getting myself into?
Interestingly, Lou asked me the very same question the next day while I gave her a hand on her Glühwein and Lebkuchen stall at the Christmas fayre. The choir had managed an angelic rendition of Mary’s Boychildand I was feeling quite accomplished, so her sudden introduction of the subject fazed me a little.
‘I hardly see you these days,’ she said, making up another bowl of hot herbal-smelling brew. ‘How’s the online dating thing going?’
‘It’s going,’ I said non-committally, then I emboldened myself to add, ‘I have a date tonight.’
‘Oh? A first date? Or second or third? I feel a bit weird that you never tell me any of this stuff. I thought we were friends.’
‘Sorry, I just …
You know.’ I shrugged.
She shook her head. She didn’t know.