In the closing bars of the song, Max loosened his hold on Millie and pulled back slightly. It was enough to make her look up at him, still subdued but no longer visibly upset. "This is ridiculous. Tonight is meant to be about you and your family, not me and mine," he murmured. As the band members took a moment to rearrange their line up on stage, he stepped away and shrugged his jacket off his shoulders, flinging it carelessly at the nearest table then rolling up his shirtsleeves.
"But … what are you doing?"
"We're here to have a great time tonight and that is what we're going to do. I'm going to make sure of it," he pulled her by the hand to the middle of the dance floor.
"I don't understand, you don't dance. I've never known you to dance."
"So? You don't think I can?" he teased.
"I don't know. Can you?" the very beginnings of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.
"My moves do extend to beyond the horizontal," pretending to be wounded by her lack of faith.
"Well, that I do know," she laughed as she chewed a fingernail, bemused by his sudden flamboyancy.
Max stood in front of her, hands on hips. "Look, here I am prepared to make a complete tit of myself in front of all these people for you. The least that you can do is try to make me look less of an idiot."
She wanted to stay angry, she still felt hurt, but he was watching her with a degree of vulnerability that belied the humour in his words and her feet carried her forward before her mind even knew it had been made up. As if on cue, the moment their hands met the band launched into Aretha Franklin's 'Freedom' and that was it. To Millie's astonishment, he whirled and twirled her relentlessly, spinning all thoughts of family and friction out of her head until all that was left was him, her and the music. They laughed and danced and laughed through several song changes. From time to time they would pair off with other partners who came close enough to break into their world but it would never be long before they came back together, unable to stay apart. Only Ben, who made good on his promise to make Max jealous, kept her away for more than one song and it earned him a narrow-eyed suspicious stare from Max as he reclaimed her possessively. Finally, gasping for breath, they staggered away from the dance floor while the band also took a break.
"I had no idea you had that in you!" Millie exclaimed when she was able to speak again. She cupped his face with her hands and kissed him excitedly. "Why have you been hiding that you can dance?"
For a moment it stabbed at him that his dancing ability was the least of his secrets, but he recovered quickly and shrugged. "Doesn't suit my image. Wouldn't want anyone to think I'm fun, would I?"
"You can be so silly."
"Much as I would like to stay here and be mocked by you, I really must take a leak. And then a drink before we do it all over again."
"Can't wait," she let him go this time with a broad smile. She felt energised and strong, she didn't care that Ola was watching with that foul expression tshe always seemed to wear when Millie was around. In fact Millie made a point of strutting straight past her towards the bar, tossing back her hair with defiance.
******
Millie was almost delirious at shaking off Ola's projected sourness, so much so that she didn't notice who was standing at the bar initially obscured by a group of Tara's friends. They nodded amiably at Millie but wandered off presumably to join Tara elsewhere and she was momentarily shocked to find herself standing beside the subject of her earlier search. Seeing the woman in profile close up knocked the edge off her own confidence.
"Hi, are you Katya?" asked Millie shyly, intimidated by the other woman's elegantly cool poise in a room full of strangers. Of course, she knew exactly who the woman was, but it seemed the easiest way to open the conversation. The woman turned to face Millie and smiled enigmatically.
"Are you Millie?" she responded without answering the question, holding out her hand which Millie found herself automatically shaking. "Katya Pelczynska-Helmsley. I'm pleased to meet you, at last." Millie wondered which of the Carter family had been talking to Katya about her. Seeing her confusion, Katya continued, "Ola and Barry told me you've been seeing Max for quite a while now."
"Oh, yeah. We live together now."
"I know," Katya drained her drink and placed it on the bar. A barman immediately appeared and without even looking at him, Katya dismissively asked for another vodka and tonic, indicating to Millie with a wave of her professionally manicured hand to add her order.
"Gin and tonic, slimline please. Thanks." She turned back to Katya. "So, Max said you are his foster sister."
"Did he? Well, yes, I suppose I am. I went to live with the Carters as a teenager, after my parents died. They're my only family, in this country anyway."
"You're Polish origin as well then?"
"My mother and Ola grew up together, came to this country together but went their separate ways when my mother married and she went up north with my father."
"You don't sound very northern."
Katya laughed, "well, I used to. But when my sixth form teachers told Ola that I should apply for Oxford, she was determined to knock the north out of me so I had elocution lessons, and et voila! She was right and I took my place at Christchurch college to read law."
"Oh, I see," nodded Millie, not knowing what to make of any of this.
"Shall we sit? Get to know each other a little?"
"Um, yes. I'd like that," I think, thought Millie.
******
"So, what do you do?"
"I'm in corporate law, in the City. It's very dull, but incredibly well paid, so I guess it's not all bad. The Louboutins alone make it worth it." She took a sip of her drink, eying Millie over the rim of the glass. "I understand you work with Max."
"I used to, that's how we met, but I'm at a different station now. It got really hard to work in the same place and keep being together a secret. We didn't want to deal with all the comments and jokes until we were really sure about, you know … us."
"You didn't or he didn't?" asked Katya with barely raised eyebrows. Her forehead doesn't crease, thought Millie with guilty pleasure. Botox!
"Oh, both of us. He always said that he wasn't worried if it all came out, but I think that's only because he can be too arrogant to care what anyone else thinks."
"Now that I can believe of our Max," she replied, slipping into broad Burnley with a laugh.
Millie giggled, they were really getting on well. Surely Ola would have to look favourably on her now. "Tell me, what was he like as a boy? You must have some great stories."
************
Max was on a high. At least he was until he was cornered by Richard Brown, keen to introduce him to Millie's aunt and uncle from New Zealand in London for the party and then a caravan tour of Scotland afterwards. Please no, not another caravan holiday, he thought to himself. But he did his best to feign interest in their plans, nodding at the appropriate places and murmuring words of encouragement for their imminent adventure yet inwardly cursing Richard as he made the quick escape that he had clearly planned all along. As his attention wandered, Max saw Millie seated at the far end of the room laughing with someone hidden behind a group of girls. As they shifted away, his heart chilled. It was Katya and all he could do was watch. If he went over and pulled Millie away, she would harangue him until everything came out. He could only pray that for once in her life Katya would be merciful.
************
"So what made you decide to go to New York?" Katya sobered noticeably and Millie kicked herself for dampening the easy atmosphere that had developed between them.
"Oh, things. I had a great offer, big step up the ladder, amazing money. None of those were the real reasons though." She took a deep breath and paused. "I was in a bad relationship, a really, really bad relationship and had been for years and years, since I was a teenager actually. I couldn't get out of it. Each time I tried, he'd reel me back in with another excuse or promise and I'd believe him, I'd believe that he loved me. But then I fell pregnant. It was an accident. I got confused with my pill having just flown back from an overnight work trip to the States, stupid of me. He didn't want the baby, so he forced me to have a termination. He told me I'd be on my own if I went ahead with having it, that my family, the Carter's that is, would disown me and he would never see the child. So I had an abortion, I've never regretted anything more than that decision. I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive myself, or him. But it was the catalyst I needed, then the job came up and I ran, ran for the hill so the phrase goes."
Millie listened to Katya's monologue, full of sympathy for her truly appalling ordeal. She couldn't ever imagine being in such a situation. "Oh my God. That's awful," her words felt terribly insufficient, but she really didn't know what else to say.
"I haven't seen him since that day at the clinic. Not that he came with me, but came to see me afterwards, to make sure I'd really done it."
"Bastard. He made you do that and let you go through it on your own. What kind of man would do that? Wasn't there anyone else you could turn to? I don't suppose Ola would have been much good."
"No, she is rather too Catholic for that sort of thing and it's hard to keep up with real friends in my line of work. The hours are just too long for a social life that doesn't involve drinks with clients. But anyway, here I am and it's all in the past, or so I thought." Katya looked away in sadly.
"Katya? What is it?" Millie reached out to touch Katya's arm reassuringly.
"When Ola asked me to join her here this evening, she didn't say whose party it was or who would be here. I certainly didn't expect to see … him."
"Him? He's here?" asked Millie with wide eyes brimming with concern. "Who is it? Tell me who he is and I'll … I'll make him leave."
Katya looked back at Millie steadily. "That's very sweet of you. Very … sweet. But it's not going to be as simple as that. You see, the man who got me pregnant, then forced me and left me to terminate our baby alone," she paused, "that man is your boyfriend."
A/N Just for the record, Katya's & Ola's opinions in no way represent my own … except with regard to Louboutin.
