**** Saturday afternoon
"Damn it Faisal!"
Jesus, I wished she wouldn't shout like that. I almost had a bloody heart attack!
"We need those slides perfect today! What have you been up to since I was away?!"
Poor old Faisal. Well, 'poor''s probably not the right word, given he works at the same hedge fund as Claire. Still, he had my sympathies. I couldn't see his face on her laptop, but I could imagine him desperately trying to disconnect his camera and blame it on a 'tech problem'.
My wife was sat in our kitchen, on a stool at the big breakfast bar in the middle of the spacious room (like I said; hedge fund). There was this funny disco feel to the place, the autumnal sun blasting in through the glass panel doors, hitting the copper pans on the walls, little beams of sunshine reflecting off them to make odd spotlights.
Claire was staring intently at the laptop's screen, her headphones on, scowling. Not good.
"No. No. Yeah... that's a no too. Look, I'll see you in the office next week. Just make sure you have it put together better by then."
She clicked off, sighing.
"You were giving him a bit of a hard time, no?"
I handed her a coffee, realising suddenly caffeine and annoyed wife might not be the best of combos.
"Thanks. Maybe. But we have a big client coming in next week - we really need to be ready for this. Done right, we win. I make partner. So the stakes are pretty high!"
I think I remember listening. A bit. But my mind was already focused on the night's party.
"Don't worry about that for now, you have to see our costumes!"
"Oh, you've got them already? Thank you sweetie! And they're good?"
I'm pretty sure I was grinning my stupid grin again; they were fucking awesome.
"Oh, they are brilliant! You're going to love them! Come on, I'll show you!"
****
**** Saturday night
I hated that car. Small, tree-lined suburban street, plus narrow bays, plus whacking great Land Rover equals parallel parking hell.
"I've told you before," I scowled, looking over myself, left-arm across Claire's headrest, halfway through a one-hundred point turn, "this machine is not practical for around here!"
"Hey, I pay, I choose."
She had a point. Still...
"Fine," I harrumphed, "you can park it next time."
To be fair to her, even my parking grump wasn't going to dampen her mood. She leaned over to me, giving me one of her delightful little kisses.
"Come on, this is a party night! Let's not argue."
I finally got the beast parked up. We got out, looking down the street at the large house, hidden behind imposing gates, where the party was audibly going on.
We'd been to a few of Kate's legendary fancy-dress parties before, but not one with quite such a risquΓ© theme - 'Kink' was all the invite card had said, the small thing covered in pictures of whips, riding crops, handcuffs and the like.
Kate was one of Claire's friends from UCL, where they'd both studied. They'd continued their friendship over the years, Kate getting married the same year that Claire and I had. Both she and her husband, Ralph, had worked at the same hedge fund, the one Claire was a budding partner-in-the-making at. I thought my salary as a Cloud Architect was pretty good, but it was small beer in comparison. As you walked up the gates, you could see just what that sort of cash bought you - a plush Edwardian townhouse in one of the nicest post codes in London.
Claire clicked the buzzer, pulling her large black coat tighter around her, protecting herself from the breeze. Fancy dress can be an extreme sport with UK weather.
My collar was bugging me. "This thing chafes," I complained, one finger poking down the side of it, trying to loosen its scratchy grip around my neck.
"You won't even notice it once you've had a drink or two. Or three. Besides, I think you look very sexy."
She gave me the hottest little wink.
Fuck, "I look sexy? Then what the hell does that make you?!"
I could see she was trying to look stern; she failed.
"Your Goddess! And don't you forget it, slave!"
I shivered a little under his coat, and not just because of the cold.
"Yes Goddess!" I laughed, clicking my heels together, mock-saluting her.
"Passcode?" came the voice on the intercom.
They did like to go a bit far with these things. "For God's sake."
"Dirty," rasped Claire, putting on her best husky voice, leaning into the grille. The mechanism clicked, a whirring sound as the powered double-gates slowly swung open.
"Oh God!" she cried, looking down the path to the house, "I forgot it was gravelled!"