Dinner Party (part two)

It was a delightful evening and even though she had met the hosts many times, she could never separate them from their public selves. He was the bumbling romantic hero who had won a million hearts and she was the glamour puss who all the women envied. But there were no airs and graces in this house; not once the front door was closed and the paps were left on the kerbside. Tonight, these celebrities had cooked a roast dinner for their guests and it was delicious.

As everyone sat back after the main course, to savour the rest of the wine, she excused herself from the table. Stepping into the corridor and seeing the stairs which led into the basement brought everything back: those long nights she would spend with her American lover, listening to Crosby Stills Nash and lost in their cocoon of emotional bliss.

She had met him in the Billiards room upstairs of the Cadogan Arms on the King’s Road. It was a Friday night three years ago. At the time, she had been going out with Charlie for six months but was already feeling stifled by the controlled way he lived his life.

Her American lover was everything Charlie wasn’t. He was tall, dark and a modern day hippy. He played the guitar but he wasn’t perfect. He loved games of every kind and he started messing with her mind.

Suddenly, she snapped out of her reverie. She was grateful that Charlie had decided to love her again and she knew she needed to forget about the past. But as she stepped back into the dining room, sat down and composed herself, one of her kind hosts asked, “how did you know where to go?”

To be continued ...