Last Voyage of the Valentina(105)

Fitz recognized her bashfulness as a sign she fancied him “I had a girlfriend, but she broke my heart,” he said with a sigh, conscious of the devious game he was now playing.

Her face crumpled with sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’ll mend.”

There are some things women like Louise find irresistible: a man with a broken heart, a child, or a dog. In Fitz’s case he had two of the three. Louise stopped looking around for her friend.

Fitz poured out the contents of his heart, finding comfort in the fact that she was a stranger and knew nothing of his life. She listened, intrigued, and the more she listened, the more she was drawn to him, like a person on the edge of a volcano who cannot resist the temptation to peer over and watch the red and gold bubbling of lava. He bought more drinks and then ordered dinner. Her friend failed to turn up, which was a relief, for the more beer Fitz drank, the more appealing Louise became. He felt better for having off-loaded his mind. It felt lighter now that Alba wasn’t in it.

At ten o’clock it was almost dark. “What do you do, Louise?” he asked, realizing that he hadn’t asked her anything about herself all evening.

“I work for an advertising company,” she said.

“How exciting,” he replied, feigning interest.

“Not really. I’m a secretary, but I hope to be promoted to an account executive shortly. I have a brain. I’d like to use it.”

“And you should. Where do you work?”

“In Oxford Street. This pub’s almost my local too!”

“Stay with me tonight?” he suggested, suddenly serious. “You can walk to work in the morning. Much better for you than sitting on a bus in the traffic.”

“I’d love to,” she replied and Fitz was astounded at how easily she had yielded. He hadn’t lost his touch, then.

“Sprout will be pleased,” he said with a smile. “He hasn’t been this close to a pretty girl for a very long time.”

They walked back to his house. The air was heavy and humid; it would rain soon. He took her hand and it felt nice to have it there, in his. She giggled nervously and toyed with the hair that fell over her shoulder.

“I don’t do this often,” she said. “Go home with strange men.”

“I’m not strange. We know each other now. Besides, you can always trust a man with a dog.”

“I just don’t want you to think that I’m loose. I’ve slept with very few men. I’m not one of those girls who has many lovers.”

Fitz thought of Alba and his heart suddenly felt heavy again. When he’d met her she had had an army of lovers. The gangplank to her door was worn thin with all the coming and going of suitors. His footprints were now lost beneath theirs.

“I don’t think you’re loose and I wouldn’t think less of you if you were.”

“They all say that.”

“Maybe, but I mean it.” He shrugged. “Why shouldn’t women sleep around just like men?”

“Because we’re not like men. We should be paragons of virtue. Settle with one man and bear his children. Does a man really want to marry a woman who has had lots of men?”

“I don’t see why not. If I loved her it wouldn’t matter how many men she’d slept with.”

“You’re very open-minded,” she said, looking across at him with her eyes full of admiration. “Most men I know want to marry virgins.”

“How very selfish of them. I don’t imagine they’re doing much to keep girls in that state, do you?”

At his house he poured two glasses of wine and showed her upstairs to the sitting room. It was small, masculine, decorated in beige and black, with wooden floorboards and white walls. He put on a record and sat beside her on the sofa. The walk back had depressed him. He wished he had not asked her home. Even Sprout knew that this wasn’t a good idea.

Still, better get on with it. He knocked back his glass and kissed her. She responded enthusiastically. The novelty of kissing someone new aroused him a little. He undid her blouse and slipped it over her shoulders. Her breasts were restrained in a large white bra. Then her hand was unzipping his trousers and sliding in and he was quickly recharged, forgetting about the oversized breasts in the pleasure of her touch.

They lay back on the sofa, which was deep and comfortable. Louise withdrew her hand, disappearing from view to take him in her mouth. He closed his eyes and let the warm, tingling sensation of arousal wash over him, emptying his mind once more of Alba. Louise might not have slept with many men but she was certainly experienced. Fitz had found an old box of condoms in his bathroom cupboard, dreadful things they were, robbing him of practically all sensation, but in this instance he knew it was right to use one. Louise opened the packet with her teeth, looking up at him flirtatiously from beneath her brown lashes, then fitted it over his penis as if she were putting on a sock.