Dolphin-san: Yay, updating so soon, I love the holidays. Too bad that I only have a week of free time left.

Chapter 24

Max had an appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound scan on Friday afternoon. He was wondering how to break this unhappy news to Bruce – unhappy for Bruce, that is, not for Max – when he burst into the shop on Wednesday morning with news of his own.

'Well, we're finally being allowed to meet him.'

Bruce's chins wobbled with disapproval, his chest was puffed out like a penguin's. Time to get down to Argos and pick up one of their is-it-or-isn't-it? diamond rings, thought Max.

Aloud, he said, 'Meet who?'

'The gigolo, who else? On Friday.'

'You mean Orlando?' Max's eyes lit up with pleasure. 'Oh, you'll like him, he's great!'

Bruce swivelled round en route to his office, his mouth clamped in a tight line.

'You what? You mean you've met him already?'

'He was there on Sunday.'

'You didn't tell me any of this.' Bruce shook his head in disbelief.



'You didn't ask.' Max put on a bewildered look. 'I'm sorry, was I supposed to tell you?'

'For crying out loud, he's a con man,' Bruce bellowed. 'As soon as he's finished bleeding my mother dry – of my inheritance – he'll move on to the next wealthy widow . . . of course I want you to tell me about him!'

'Well, I thought he was really nice,' said Max. 'Charming, friendly . . . and he and Florence get along tremendously well together.'

'Hah, I'll bet they do.'

'He does seem very fond of her.'

Bruce shot Max a dark look.

'He's a gigolo, for Christ's sake. It's his job to seem fond of her.'

'But the thing is,' Max protested, 'he was lovely to me too. And it's not as if I've got money coming out of my ears, is it? I'm hardly likely to buy him a Porsche –' He broke off mid-sentence and looked away.

'A Porsche,' Bruce exploded, 'a bloody Porsche, is that what my stupid senile mother has gone and bought him?'

'Not yet.' Max flapped his hands apologetically. 'She's only thinking about it.'

'Right. I'll have a few words with her about that.'

'But you might be mistaken about him. Like I said just now, he seems to really like Florence, and he was so nice to me.'

'He probably fancied you.' Bruce sounded irritated. 'My mother's business, you were pleasure.' Abruptly a thought struck him. 'Hey now, there's an idea! This could be just what we need. You can lure him away from Florence –'

'Me! Oh, fine, easy, no problem,' Max spluttered. 'I'll just be upfront about it , shall I? Ask him why he's wasting his time jetting around the world with some millionaires when he could be buggering off to Bognor instead with a penniless shop assistant who can't even spell Porsche and who, by the way, just happens to be three months regnant.'

'I'm not saying you have to run off with him into the sunset.' Bruce dismissed the suggestion with the scorn it deserved. 'Up to the bedroom will do the trick. We just need to catch him out,' he went on, warming to his theme. 'Show my mother what he's really like. And you could do that, no problem. You're moving in next weekend, he's already showing a bit of interest . . . what could be simpler? That'll bring Florence to her senses in no time. She might be stupid but she still has her pride. As soon as she finds out he's been cheating on her, she'll kick him out,' Bruce concluded triumphantly. 'End of problem. Fantastic.'

Max inwardly marvelled at his smugness.

'I couldn't do that to Florence, I just couldn't.'

'Cruel to be kind,' said Bruce, rubbing his hands.

'But I'm pregnant. Don't you think that might . . . um, bother him?'

'For pity's sake, the man's a gigolo! He wouldn't know a scruple if it jumped up and head-butted him! You're pretty, Max. That's all men like him care about.'

'Florence might blame me. She might kick me out,' Max protested.

Bruce considered this. Finally he spoke.

'Look, if you can manage to get rid of this . . . this Orlando,' his lip curled as he pronounced the ludicrous name, 'I'll give you two thousand pounds.'

'What?'

'All right, three.'

'Hang on a second,' began Max.

'Okay, okay, five thousand.'

Bruce heaved a sigh. It was a lot of money, but what the hell, it would be worth it. And five grand was a small price to pay if it meant saving his inheritance.

'I'm not sleeping with him,' Max said flatly.

Bruce looked resigned; somehow he knew Max wouldn't.

'Okay, just so long as you do enough to make my mother realise he's a waste of space.'

'If he is,' Max reminded him. 'He may not be.'

'That's your trouble, you're too trusting.' What Bruce actually meant was gullible. Jesus, was it any wonder why his husband had run off?

'You shouldn't judge people until you've met them,' Max persisted. 'You might like Orlando.'

'Hmm.'

Maybe it was the pregnancy, thought Bruce, doing bizarre things to Max's brain.

'Well, we'll find out on Friday,' Max went on brightly. 'That's when I'm moving in.'

Bruce perked up. This could be interesting.

'I'll be able to see how he behaves towards you.'

'Oh, that would have been brilliant. But I'll still be upstairs, ploughing through all my unpacking. Unless . . .' Max glanced hopefully across at him, 'you could let me have that afternoon off?'

'You look lovely.' Ray was full of admiration. 'Nice and sleazy.'

'But subtle sleaze,' said Kai, standing back from Ray's bedroom mirror and letting Ray blast away with the hairspray.

'There, done.'

Ray bounced off the bed, admiring his own handiwork.

They had settled on slicked-back hair and fake tan for that Latin-lover look, teamed with a navy blazer over a white polo shirt and precision-ironed jeans. The overall effect, together with the jewellery and aftershave, was just right.

'Smile at me,' Ray ordered.

Kai smiled, gigolo-style, oozing charm and sincerity and playful flirtation.

Somewhere in the depths of Ray's ribcage, something went zinnggg. He shook his head, marvelling at the effect.

'Damn, you're good.'

'I know. Scary, isn't it?' Reaching for Ray's hand, Kai pressed a warm, lingering kiss on the tips of his fingers.

'Oh dear,' Ray murmured. 'You could live to regret that.'

'Why? Oh God –!'

Kia pulled a face as the terrible taste belatedly reached his tongue.

'What did I just plaster all over your head?' Gleefully Ray waved his hands at Kai, Al Jolson-style. 'Hair gel.'

Kai watched him run a comb through his own gel-free hair. It was almost eight o'clock – Bruce and verity would be here at any minute.

'Not seeing the boyfriend this evening?'

The boyfriend. Honestly, how derogatory was that?

'He's away.' Ray vigorously rubbed a bit of blusher onto his cheeks, hoping he looked like a guy who could take separations in his stride. Since Hiro had left for Birmingham on Wednesday Ray had missed him dreadfully, had practically been counting the minutes, but tonight was the last night. By lunchtime tomorrow Hiro would be back, hooray!



'He's at an important sale's conference,' he explained airily over his shoulder. 'In Birmingham.'

Kai sounded amused.

'You hope.'

'What are you talking about? Of course he's at a sale's conference.' Ray swung around and glared at Kai.

'How do you know? He could have another boyfriend tucked away somewhere.' Kai shrugged. 'I'm not saying he has. It's possible, that's all.'

'Why are you doing this?' Ray demanded. 'Does it give you some kind of thrill?'

Kai feigned ignorance.

'Not at all. I was just thinking of a piece I did in one of the Sundays last year, about bigamists. It just amazed me the way their spouse had absolutely no idea what was going on.'

Ray almost felt sorry for him. It couldn't be fun having a nasty suspicious mind.

'Look, just because you're a journalist you don't always have to think the worst of people,' he told Kai patiently. 'Not everyone's a liar and a cheat, you know. I'm not, Florence isn't . . . and Hiro isn't, either. He's honest and trustworthy and when he tells me he has to go to a sale's conference in Birmingham, I believe him. So just shut up about it, okay?'

'Okay. I'm sorry.' Kai flashed him an apologetic – well, fairly apologetic – smile. 'I must not cast aspersions on Ray's perfect boyfriend, I must not cast aspersions on Ray's –'

'Stop it!' Ray howled, blushing and hurling the comb at him.

'Must be true love.' Kai eyed Ray's pink cheeks with enjoyment. 'Bet you wish you hadn't put all that blusher on now.'

'It's eight o'clock.' Ray pushed him towards the door. 'We'd better get a move on. Bruce and Verity aren't going to be wildly impressed if they arrive to find you locked away upstairs with me.'

Dolphin-san: Sorry about that short chapter. I'll make it up to all of you later, okay?