The Grand Scheme of Things

Hello there, this is quite a long story which I have been working on for a while. I would really really appreciate all feedback and votes so please take the time to leave a comment and vote, I can only learn from any constructive criticism which I may receive. Many thanks didix

*

Angelina

It's Saturday night and I am sitting at home as everyone has plans. Delphine has gone out with Max, my niece and nephew are being babysat by my parents and Gabriella, my best friend is currently holed up in a swanky hotel somewhere, sipping champagne from her boyfriend's belly button, given that he has just returned from a world tour with his band Sphere. Ergo, I am curled up very happily on my sofa reading Vogue and my telephone is ringing. After watching numerous episodes of Sex and the City, I know that it is acceptable to be sitting in on a Saturday night and screening my calls, I am just not so sure I'm supposed to be doing it in my pyjamas, eating a huge bowl of ice cream and finishing off a half bottle of wine. So anyway, the phone has stopped ringing and my answer machine has kicked in and I hear a familiar yet almost forgotten voice,

"Lee, you there?"

I lift my head from the shoes in the magazine over which I am currently drooling and give my full attention to the machine, which is bringing a very distant voice from the past right into my living room..

"Lee, I know you're there, I just saw Delphine and she told me; just pick up the phone I'm dying to hear your voice."

I am incensed. I will kill Delphine when I see her, I am willing to bet money that she is in some posh wine bar with her husband and she has had a bottle of wine too many and has now started on the Slippery Nipple shots (very ugly) which turn her into the whore of Babylon, much to her husband's delight, and makes her tongue so loose that she reveal the location of King Solomon's Mine! You know how there are some people who just shouldn't drink? She is one of them. Alcohol makes her lose that veneer of poise that makes her the sophisticated ice queen and turns her into a raging harpy. So amidst curses of my sister, I continue to listen to the message,

"Ok, so it seems like you don't want to talk to me, but I just thought that as your birthday is coming up, it would be quite nice to take you out somewhere as a gift, and I remember you saying how much you loved Christie's so thought maybe we could go there? Anyway, I don't much like talking to machines so I'll leave you my number, and you can give me a call if you wish. Take care; I hope to hear from you soon."

With that, he reels off a mobile number and a work number and clicks off. I find that I am perched on the edge of the sofa, dream shoes forgotten, staring at the machine in some kind of wonderment. That voice was familiar, its tones smooth as chocolate which still manage to send shivers down my spine.

I find myself spirited back to the last time I had seen the owner of the voice, or rather, had been supposed to see it, which had been two years earlier. It was a Friday night in October and we had been due to meet at 5.00pm. We were supposed to be going to Christie's for my birthday dinner. As you can probably guess, we didn't make it to Christie's, in fact; I didn't make it to Paris at all

* * * * *

Three years earlier

"Please please please let me borrow them, I promise I'll be careful with them, it's just that they are so beautiful and you're always telling me how I need to be more adventurous and athletic in bed, and how I should treat sex as an art form and how it would be best for me to broaden my horizons, well I am planning on broadening them, in Paris, in the Georges V hotel, around the corner from the Champs Elysees in beautiful satin red La Perla lingerie and the best thing to set them off would be your Prada ballet pumps with the fuck me heel."

Gabby raised an eyebrow at Angelina and sat down on her now very messy bed where Angelina had been writhing, begging to borrow the shoes. Gabby began her time worn speech gently.

"Now, you and I both know how you are with shoes, and we both know that you tend to have issues with my designer wear and we had a talk the last time I let you borrow my white silk Armani dress and you put it in the wash with your cheap pink knickers from the market and it came out the strangest colour with a big hole in the back, and," She held up her hand to stop her friend from interrupting, "And, rather than you not being my friend any more, which I have to admit I was really tempted to do, we decided together," she emphasised the last word, "We decided that you wouldn't borrow any more of my stuff so that we could preserve the beautiful relationship that we have."

Angelina felt herself severely chastised and realising that Gabby really wasn't going to let her borrow the shoes, was feeling a little cheesed off with the fact. She decided to give it one last try,

"Gabby, please, you know how things are with Marcus..."

"And you know how I feel about Marcus" Gabby retorted sharply.

"Let me finish." Angelina interrupted, wringing her hands.

"As my friend, you can let me make my own choices, and if you find that he makes me happy then surely that should be the best thing in the world, no?"

Angelina raised her eyebrows hoping that Gabby would fall for the act. It didn't work.

"No! Because you simply won't see sense and that's another reason that you shouldn't borrow my shoes,"

She threw up her hands with renewed vigour as if to slam home her point,

"You shouldn't give him that much of a treat and besides, you have plenty of beautiful shoes of your own, why don't you wear one of those?"

Gabby gestured wildly at the hand stitched Italian pumps that Angelina had fasted for a week to buy, which she had kicked off and which currently lay on the floor, abandoned in Angelina's hope of replacing them with Gabby's Prada heels.

Angelina sighed dramatically, "Because he's seen them all and I want to surprise him with something different. He did surprise me with Paris after all!"

Gabby rolled her eyes and harrumphed under her breath.

"Well it's just not happening so let's change the subject."

Gabby finished the conversation with a nod of the head and locked the wardrobe which contained the beautiful shoes which Angelina had been pining after. Angelina felt like Gabby was turning the key on her heart, that was how desperately she wanted, no needed the shoes.

She looked around the room in frustration and fell back on the bed in resignation clenching her fists and contemplating throwing a tantrum. She could never get over just how beautiful Gabby's house was, everything matched, her crockery, her sheets, the cushions were plumped just so and sat at a 70 degree angle and no matter how much Angelina tried to mirror the effect at home, somehow, it was never the same. But that was Gabby all over.

Gabby was one of those people that you saw on the train and wondered what her life was like, the kind of person you envied and wondered where she got her shoes, her coat, and bet that somewhere she had a gorgeous boyfriend who adored her, when in reality, Gabby was a trollop. She would sleep with anyone and was forthright about what she wanted, who she wanted and when she wanted it. Max, Angelina's brother in law, always got a little scared when Gabby was near. She would find it hilarious to flirt with him and loved to watch the panic on his face as she approached. Max, who adored his wife and couldn't imagine being with anyone else regardless of their beauty, found Gabby's behaviour a little difficult to comprehend and therefore gave her a wide berth.

To the men who met her, Gabby was something of a conundrum, she was this vision of loveliness who oozed complexity and who really didn't give a monkey's arse (her words) about whether or not she found anyone permanently. The men in her life were never boyfriends, simply 'friends with benefits' or 'fuck buddies' (again, her words).

They and their friend Pippa had been the most notorious set on the singles scene, noted for their astoundingly bad behaviour, the numerous broken hearts that they left in their wake, and the astonishingly high bar bills, but since Pippa had had Tom, and Angelina had gotten together with Marcus, single life was not as eventful as it had previously been. Gabby sometimes wondered to herself if maybe all of this was worth it, or if maybe she should be thinking about settling down herself.

As Angelina watched her friend getting ready for yet another evening out with the girls and without her, she felt a frisson of jealousy of their freedom; she loved being with Marcus but sometimes she just wanted to be with the girls but this was something that Marcus wasn't really a fan of.

To distract herself from the sudden loneliness that she seemed to be experiencing, she turned to Gabby,

"I had a great time last night."

Angelina, in the mirror trying not to pick the spot that was threatening to protrude through her flawless skin, looked to Gabby's reflection in the mirror for a response.

The night before had been an evening of astounding proportions; as Angelina's birthday was approaching on Saturday and Marcus was taking her away for the weekend, the girls had decided that they would need to take Angelina out, as they did every year, just a little earlier. This year's sojourn had been particularly legendary.

Gabby caused a fight by ignoring the man she had been sleeping with for the past two months, in favour of the beautiful and very muscled specimen who had attracted her attention from the beginning of the night, Mai (Angelina's friend from work) had spotted her married boyfriend having a candlelit dinner with his wife and her burgeoning bump, a bump Mai never knew existed, and a bump which shouldn't have existed given that he was no longer sleeping with his wife and they were just together for the sake of the kids. Delphine, who had had a fight with her husband, had started drinking before the girls had met and had excelled herself by hogging the karaoke and singing Big Spender fifty times and then muttering into the microphone about how she wished she had married a fucking Big Spender!

As ever, Pippa was at home (again) as Tom's father had let her down (again) at the last minute (again); but she had done her bit by calling the girls every hour to find out what was going on, who was doing who, and who had done what. And finally, when the last girl had been unable to knock back any more tequila, or shimmy what were her now arthritic hips in the hope of looking sexy, the quartet had trooped back to Pippa's flat where she had been waiting with coffee, hot chocolate, tequila, croissants, oven chips and copious amounts of chocolate. It turned out that more often than not, for Pippa, this was her night out which she enjoyed with as much gusto as if she had been raving in the nightclub with the girls all night.

When they had all finally got to bed, and Tom woke up the next morning, he had grumpily climbed into her bed moaning that he couldn't watch Tweenies because Auntie Angelina and Auntie Gabby were snoring all over the sofa, and she had laughed delightedly, feeling just as hung-over, tired and crabby as the rest of the girls and therefore as though she hadn't missed anything.

For Angelina, that evening had opened her eyes. She realised just how much she loved her girls, and how horrible life would be without them, but she was finding that this may be a choice that she may have to make fairly soon. She knew that the girls didn't really like Marcus; Gabby in particular hated him with a violent passion that she hid very badly. Angelina was certain it was because of the way Gabby felt he treated her, the way he would let her down occasionally, the way he would flirt with her friends despite Angelina knowing this was harmless, (she knew the girls were not comfortable with it), the way he would talk about himself and his achievements and the way he would comment on Angelina's dress, appearance or weight.

But what the girls didn't know or didn't see was the way he was with her when they were alone together, the tenderness, and the laughs and the sex (which frankly was fantastic) and if she was honest with herself, she still wanted him as much now as she had when she had first set eyes on him. It struck her that this was going to have to be the one time when she would put the indisputable advice from the girls to the back of her mind and go along with what her heart was telling her.

Gabby's voice interrupted her thoughts,

"You know I had a great time, it's just such a shame that shit face had to spring Christie's on you or we could have made this a bumper weekend."

Angelina made a face at Gabby, feeling she had to defend Marcus,

"Oh Gab! He wasn't to know that you lot had something planned, and how often can we say that Marcus pulls something like this out of the bag?"

She turned away to admire herself in Gabby's mirror and turned back as an afterthought, "Hey, don't call him shit face!"

Gabby laughed and shook her head. She did not agree with her friend on this matter, aware that Delphine, Angelina's sister, had let it slip to Marcus earlier in the week, that the girls wanted to take Angelina away for her birthday.

Gabby was also aware that soon after this, the son of a bitch had managed to spring this surprise on Angelina, by taking her to her favourite city, to a restaurant that she had always wanted to eat at, and staying in one of the best hotels. Yes, Gabby thought ruefully, he sure knew how to pull his surprises out of the bag all right!

Gabby had been delighted for Angelina when she and Marcus had gotten together, he had seemed perfect for her; he had a good job, seemed to dote on her, made her laugh and was so handsome he turned heads wherever he went. However, her good opinion of him had vanished sharply when at Tai's, Angelina's nephew, christening, Marcus had sidled over, his gleaming white teeth shining against his smooth mahogany skin and had placed a hand on her shoulder,

"You look fantastic" he had said, and Gabby had turned and smiled prettily, she gave a mock curtsey and said, "Thank you kind sir" finding nothing strange in Marcus giving her a compliment.

Marcus frowned and stepped a little closer so that what he said could only be heard between the two of them.

"But today you look especially pretty, and I imagine that you look even better in that pink thong you're wearing, see, I don't know if anyone told you but your dress is see through and I have just spent the last hour, in a church, nursing the biggest hard on. It's your fault so I think it would only be polite if you did something about it for me."

Gabby took an incredulous step back and looked at him as though he had landed from the Alpha Beta solar system on his winged horse and carrying a spear of fire.

"Marcus, are you crazy? Have you forgotten who you're talking to?" Marcus looked at her still smiling that smile that she had once found so charming but was now starting to find a little creepy,

"I know babe, but what Angelina doesn't know won't kill her, and I know you want me so I figure we could do something about it." The cogs in Gabby's mind had turned and turned, trying rapidly to find a way to teach this bastard a lesson without Angelina finding out.

She knew how much Marcus meant to Angelina and also knew that although Angelina would never question her if Gabby told her the truth, all the same, there would still be this unspeakable chasm that would form between them, and Gabby was far too fond of her friend to let her go so easily.

In that split second of contemplation, Gabby made a decision and took Marcus's hand, she leaned forward and whispered sultrily in his ear,

"I'm so glad you noticed; it's been killing me these past few months watching you with Angelina. Come with me, we can go upstairs where no one will see us."

Gabby's heart sank for her friend as she saw the speed with which Marcus drained the glass he was holding and set it on the table, and the enthusiasm with which he followed her as she led him up the stairs, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one saw them.

As Gabby was leading him up the stairs, her temper began to stir. Gabby was notorious for her temper, it was a simmering volcano that once stirred and erupted became an incredible force of nature. It normally took a great deal to get her going, but once roused became the scariest spectacle. Gabby had been known to quell men bigger and stronger than her on the strength of her words; her tongue was as sharp as a sabre, and she didn't suffer fools gladly. That temper had been dormant for a while as life had been treating her quite well, but seeing Marcus eager to fuck her and fuck her friend over, stirred something so deep in Gabby that she couldn't see straight. Angelina deserved better than this, and for some reason, some unknown, unexplainable, unfathomable and frankly stupid reason, she just couldn't see it. Well Gabby would make Marcus see it, if it was the last thing on this earth that she did.

She looked back at him as they reached the landing smiling through gritted teeth, then turned back to scour the hallway in order to make sure there was no one who may see them. Her mind was whirling, what could she do that wouldn't implicate her, but would teach him a lesson? As she was thinking, she realised Marcus was studying her with a smug grin on his face and realised that this grin was looming closer and getting larger, Oh my God, she thought in panic, he's going to kiss me right in the middle of the hallway where anyone could see. Gabby looked out of the corner of her eye and realised that the door closest to her was ajar, hoping that this had to be a gift from God, she winked naughtily at Marcus and whispered,

"Follow me, we don't want anyone to see us do we?" and pulling him by his tie, she lead him into the closest bedroom and told him to close the door.

Not aware of the room she had entered, her heart sank when she realised they were in Tai's room and was even more upset when she realised that Tai was sleeping in his cot. Marcus, it would seem, didn't have any such reservations. He came to her and grasped her by the waist, his thumbs stroking her hip bones gently, speaking softly and huskily,

"God, I've been dying to touch you since I first met you, Angelina always said you were gorgeous but I didn't realise quite how much, I just can't stop thinking about you."

Gabby, who had been distracted by the sight of Tai sleeping, turned towards him sickened to her stomach to hear what Marcus was saying. She knew that Angelina made a big deal of her looks and she also knew that Angelina often portrayed her in a light, which wasn't quite realistic, but for some reason that was something Angelina never seemed to grasp.

Gabby sat down on the bed in the nursery, surrounded by flying elephants and cotton wool clouds and thinking that maybe this could be her way out,

"Marcus, if that's the way you feel about Angelina, then surely you are in a position to finish things with her? If you don't want her, or love her, then what is the point in you being together?"

Marcus took a step back and looked at her as though she were stupid.

"Angelina is fantastic, I don't want to lose her, I just want you as well and you seem to be up for it. Who said you can't have your cake and eat it?"

He advanced towards her during his little speech, licking his lips in a manner in which she presumed she should have and if he had been anyone else, probably would have found seductive.

Gabby lifted her hand to stop him in his tracks. She supposed that she couldn't really argue with him as there were women who were willing to let Marcus have his way with them if he managed to say the right things, show them a good time and make them cum. Apart from that, they didn't care who else they affected really!