Dolphin-san: Well, I hope that I can keep up this nice little flow I've got going for this fic.

Chapter 28

Hiro met up with Adrian in the bar of the Prince of Wales for an early-evening drink.

'You've asked him to move in with you?' Adrian spluttered into his pint. 'Bloody hell, you're a sucker for punishment, aren't you? Out with one guy, in with the next! What have you got in that new flat of yours, revolving doors?'

Hiro had expected nothing less from Adrian, who spent all his time slagging off guys but who was secretly miserable and desperate – like most divorced men – to meet the right person and settle down.

'I never expected it to happen like this. It's not the kind of thing you plan,' he said with a shrug. 'But it's happened and we want to be together. So why shouldn't he move in?'

Adrian tried not to look envious. How could he blame Hiro, anyway, when he'd fancied Ray himself?

'He isn't bothered about the business with Max and the baby, then?'

Hiro took a careful gulp of his lager.

'That's the great thing about Ray, he hates kids too. You should have heard him the other day, going on about his landlady's grandson. Complete monster, apparently, kicks like a mule. Ray can't stand him.

Adrian raised his eyebrows.



'So you still haven't told him about Max and the baby.'

'Oh come on.' Hiro sounded irritated. 'How could I?'

'He should know,' said Adrian.

'Why?'

'Why? Because he'll go bloody ballistic if he finds out and you haven't told him.'

Hiro gave him a pitying look.

'He won't, though, will he? There's no reason why he should find out. I can trust you to keep your mouth shut, can't I?'

'Well, yes, but –'

'Look,' Hiro said brusquely, 'what happened with Max wasn't my fault, was it? So why should I suffer now? Why should I be the one to get all the grief?'

'I know that. I'm just saying, why don't you tell Ray, then he'll know it too?' Adrian took a grst slurp of beer, marvelling at the situation he found himself in; the moral high ground was unfamiliar territory for him. Blimey, he'd been taking up counselling next!

But Hiro was less amused.

'Oh, that's great. I'm getting a lecture from the bloke who's own husband left him because he spent his spare time drinking for England and screwed half the bar hands in Battersea.'



'Fine,' said Adrian, offended. 'You don't have to take my advice.'

'Thank Christ for that.' Hiro relaxed and grinned at him, signalling to the barman for refills. 'Come on, Ade, you don't need to worry about me. The situation's under control. Telling Ray about Max,' he gestured and-the-rest with his free arm , 'isn't going to make him happy, is it? I know what Ray's like, it's the kind of thing he'd just fret about.'

'I suppose.' Adrian shrugged, losing interest. He preferred talking about football.

'I don't need the hassle, that's all.' Hiro pushed his fingers through his hair. 'You know what they're like. What Ray doesn't know can't hurt him.' He gave Adrian a cheer- up nudge. 'Isn't that right?'

Adrian lit a cigarette.

'Yeah.'

Ray, singing noisily and spectacularly off-key in the bath the following Sunday, wondered how old you had to be before you stopped getting excited about your birthday. How much longer did he have before the novelty wore off, boredom set in and he began telling people in a blasé fashion, 'Oh no, nothing planned, it's just like any other day.'

'Twenty-four today, twenty-four today, Ray yodelled, twiddling the hot tap with his toes and sending a gush of scalding water over his ultra-cool, RayBan-wearing yellow plastic duck. 'Oh, I've got the key to the door, never been twenty-four before.'

'Any more caterwauling,' Bev's voice filtered through from the other side of the bathroom door, 'and I'll be the one with the key, locking you in there.'

'You're early!' Ray splashed into a sitting position. 'Is Takao here as well?'



Takao had volunteered to drive them to the restaurant on Soho, but not yet, surely? It was still only eleven o'clock.

'He's dropping James at Heathrow.' James, yet another model, was Takao's latest boyfriend. 'I came early because I want you to wear your present from me.'

A present you could wear! Ray brightened at once.

'Is it a pair of fake bosoms?'

'Not telling you.' Bev sounded pleased with herself. 'You'll have to come downstairs and find out.'

It might be a bash over the head with something heavy, thought Ray, when Bev heard what he had to tell her.

Oh, crikey, it was scary but it had to be done. Lying back in the bath, he took a deep breath and began psyching himself up for the ordeal ahead.

But really, there couldn't be a better time, could there?

It's my birthday, Ray reminded himself, clutching this fact to him like a security blanket. Nobody was allowed to be horrid to you on your birthday, oh no, that would be too mean for words. Bev couldn't – wouldn't – spoil his special day.

Ducking down under the surface of the water, Ray exhaled a stream of bubbles and began counting. If he reached thirty without coming up for air, Bev would forgive him.

Probably.

And if I don't reach thirty, thought Ray, I'll have drowned.

Which might actually be safer in the long run.

Florence remained discreetly in the kitchen while Ray took Bev out into the walled back garden.

'I've left your present inside,' Bev protested, teetering down the wheelchair friendly slope in her four inch spike heels.

All the better to hit me over the head with, thought Ray.

Aloud he said, 'There's something I have to tell you first. It might make you hate me.'

'What?' Bev eyed him with suspicion. 'If your Walkman's chewed up my Celine Dion tape –'

'It didn't,' Ray put in hurriedly, glad that no one was around to overhear. Borrowing a Cline Dion tape – phew, now that was embarrassing.

'Okay, so it isn't it?' Bev visibly relaxed. 'What is it then?'

'Hiro.'

'Hiro who?'

Oh, for heavens sake . . .

Hiro Granger.' Agitatedly, Ray twisted the silver bangle on his wrist. 'Remember? The bloke you met at Elizabeth Turnbull's party and haven't stopped talking about for the last two months?'



'Oh, right.' Bev nodded. 'That Hiro.' She frowned. 'I don't get it. What about him?'

Ray felt himself going red.

'Um . . . he's who I've been seeing.'

He went redder.

And redder still, under Bev's incredulous gaze.

'You mean . . . ?'

'Yes! He's the one,' Ray blurted out. 'Oh God, I'm so sorry!'

'Well?' said Florence said when Ray finally reappeared in the kitchen doorway. 'Want me to call the riot police? Did she go for you with the garden spade and call you terrible names?'

'She did, actually.' Ray eyed the long tray of smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels. 'Well, not the spade thing, but she called me a berk.'

'Is that all? Help yourself, by the way.' Florence nodded at the bagels. 'They're for you.'

'A prize berk. A big wally. And a plonker,' said Ray through a mouthful of smoked salmon. 'She couldn't believe that I'd been so scared of telling her.'

'All that fuss for nothing, then.' Florence reached for the tray and balanced it across her lap. 'What did I tell you? That might be him now,' she went on as the doorbell rang out in the hall.



Ray shook his head.

'It won't be, I'm not seeing him until tonight.' In deference to the Bev situation, this was what they had agreed.

Except, Ray realised frustratedly, now that everything had been sorted out, Hiro could have come along after all . . .

'You're right, it isn't,' said Florence, who had scooted across the kitchen and was peering out of the window. 'It's that good-looking boss of yours.' She smiled across at Ray. 'So why have you never made a play for him?' Florence's eyes glittered with mischief. 'Rich, handsom, successful fellow like that – you could do a lot worse.'

Ray found this idea comical in the extreme. It had simply never occurred to him to find Takao attractive, or to have a crush on him. He was his employer and he was the lowly salon junior regarded – quite unfairly – by Takao as a hopeless case.

Apart from anything else, it was hard to lust after someone who spent his life telling you off.

'Like I've said to you before, he goes for models,' he patiently informed Florence. 'If I was six foot tall and well built, I might stand a chance. At the moment,' he added as a way of explanation, 'he's going out with James Thompson.'

Florence cocked an eyebrow as she wheeled herself through to the hall to answer the door.

'Ah, but what if he wasn't?'

Once a meddler, always a meddler, thought Ray.

'If he wasn't,' he raised his voice to make sure Florence heard, 'I'd still be going out with Hiro.'

Dolphin-san: I still adore Florence, she's just so happy about everything, and always looking for a chance to meddle in someone's life!