Adele Harrison checked her watch.
Steve was standing her up, even though his football match had finished long ago. Still, he could appear at any moment. She took a deep breath, gulped, blushed, leaned in what she hoped was a languid manner against the lamp-post behind her, and thrust her shoulders back and her breasts out, ready for him to come up to her and proposition her.
A couple were staring at her. She lowered her eyes to avoid their stare, and saw that her tight leopard-pattern top had ridden up. She smoothed it down with brisk, nervous fingers, disclosing an extra inch-and-a-half of milk-white cleavage below her tan line, Then she looked around for Steve. But her only reward was an admiring glance from a burly young market stallholder wheeling his stall away.
Actually, the stall-holder was quite attractive.
It was her and Steve's wedding anniversary, and she had thought up a way to celebrate. A little adventure. A sexy adventure, because she thought their sex lives needed jazzing up. Steve had surprised her by not being reluctant -- he had even proposed that they travel down to London for it. He had booked the hotel, then remembered that his team was playing in London that day, so they might as well travel early so he could watch the game beforehand.
She didn't expect any surprises when Steve took her back to the hotel bedroom, but she liked the idea of Steve seeing her as an object of lust. Speaking of which, here was the stallholder again, smiling and openly eyeing her up. She gave him a tiny smile in return, lost her nerve, cleared her throat, and inspected the red polish on her fingernails.
Anticipation was having an effect on her. Or perhaps it was the stallholder's look. Dessi, her friend at work, who was always a bit over-the-top, would have said 'she wanted cock, she wanted it massive, and she wanted it pronto'. Dessi made her laugh.
Adele frowned. Where the hell was Steve? It would be fun if the stallholder came back again. She could pose with her feet a bit apart -- like this -- and show a lacy stocking-top through the slit in the miniskirt. Serve Steve right if he saw the stallholder proposition her.
All the same, she jumped when an unfamiliar male voice spoke cautiously from below her left ear.
'You don't happen to be waiting for anyone, darling?'
A short, shapeless man in a bow tie and a wrinkled blue suit had appeared by her left elbow. His diffidence calmed her. 'Well, yes. I'm waiting for someone called Steve, actually.'
'Steve?' The man looked oddly relieved. 'He's already here. Been waiting a while, in fact. Follow me.' He immediately set off down the side-street at a rapid waddle, with Adele and her smart little white suitcase following uncertainly behind.
The side-street was more as she'd expected Soho to be. One of the several bars was below street-level, with an old-fashioned neon sign that showed alternately a cocktail glass and a woman in a bikini. Possibly Steve had arrived much too early and popped into a bar to wait, and then he had asked the bar staff to keep an eye out for her.
The man in the suit said over his shoulder, 'The name's Michael.' He abruptly swerved into a narrow alley. 'Girls often can't find the place. Follow me, follow me.' He turned right through a dark doorway.
The wheels of the white suitcase rumbled hollowly on uneven floorboards. It was all starting to feel like a misunderstanding. Adele spoke uneasily towards the man's bald patch. 'Is this the staff entrance?'
'That's right. Just follow me, follow me.' They went down stairs to the basement and another grubby passage. At its end the man opened a door. 'And here,' he declared, 'is Steve. Steve, here's your six-thirty.' He turned to Adele. 'I'll let you two get on with it.' And with that he slipped past her, leaving her staring into the eyes of an older man who was distinctly not her husband.
After a moment's hesitation -- her uncertainty made him uncertain -- the man reached out a strong hand and shook hers, saying, 'Steve,' in a deep, warm voice.
'I'm Adele.'
The wrong Steve said, 'I get the impression you're new to this, Adele.'
Whatever 'this' was, it was certainly new to her. So she confusedly said, 'Yes,' to the tall, broad-shouldered, well-groomed patrician smiling at her -- the faintly devilish older gentleman in a grey dressing-gown of figured silk, who was clearly intrigued by what he saw.
She should phone her husband. Her phone was in her coat pocket. Where was her coat?
Steve saw her glance down anxiously at her suitcase. 'Oh, you're worried about your... Shall I...?' He lifted the suitcase.
Thinking that he was going to put it on the table for her to delve inside -- behind him was a dressing-room table, with a mirror surrounded by lights -- she nodded. But instead Steve slipped past her, opened a door in one side of the passage, said something she didn't catch to someone she couldn't see, and handed the suitcase to the hidden person. Then he closed the door and returned.
'It'll be perfectly safe with Michael,' he said.
The suitcase seemed to have taken the last vestiges of Adele's presence of mind with it.
'Now,' said Steve, 'after you.'
Adele stepped forward into the room. It was small with a low ceiling, and was divided into three by cheap Chinese paper screens to left and right.
Steve said, 'You won't see the audience, so you really won't find it terribly different from what you're used to.' His tone was friendly, reassuring. 'Actually, you'll hardly have to speak if you don't feel like it. If you can trust me to lead, you should find it's all rather fun. OK?'
Adele turned and smiled back at Steve. 'I get it,' she said, despite not getting anything at all. He was not handsome in a clichΓ© way, but there was something commanding -- the iron-grey hair gave him distinction -- and there was an energy about him -- and though there was something raffish in his grin, he was obviously a gentleman, so he was bound to be considerate. She had come to London for an adventure. This might be the adventure.
'The theme is younger and older,' Steve explained. 'As you may have guessed when you saw me. Look, Michael's always fussing about the time, but we do genuinely need to get a move on. If you'll just go behind that screen,' he pointed to the screen on the left, 'you'll find a lot of costumes. Pick anything that fits the theme.'
Adele went behind the screen, where she found two clothes rails hung with garments.
Younger and older. She wasn't that young any more, but there was certainly an age difference. Presumably she was to take part in some type of experimental improvised theatre. Very London.
She said apologetically, 'I haven't done any sort of acting since my Drama GCSE exam.'
'The ability to act is desirable but not essential.'
The first costume was a Dutch milkmaid's outfit. Then came riding kit, complete with boots and spurs -- an air hostess uniform, but PVC -- a black leather corset-like thing made largely of straps and buckles -- something made of red latex, tubular and stretchy.
And a hooker's skirt and top exactly like what she was wearing.
She gasped, and her face turned scalding red. She'd been so confused that her brain had slipped completely out of gear.
Steve's deep voice came from beyond the screen. 'I'll explain the setup. We do the sex in a circular room, with twenty or so peepholes round the walls. There's a low stage. Everything's painted black and the scale is, you might say, intimate. The stage slowly revolves -- Michael's just had the wiring seen to, so tonight we can be fairly sure it will actually revolve -- and on it is a high ottoman of scarlet leather. A sort of couch without a back or arms. And next to it is a bar stool with a clear moulded seat.'
Adele went on mechanically leafing through the costumes, barely seeing them. The wire hooks of the hangers scraped and squealed on the rails. She had to choose a way forward, and quickly. What would Dessi do?
'See something you like, Adele?'