And really hot in a tux. I forced the thought from my mind, pissed to find the same flutters in my belly that I’d felt the night before. A bodywand session should have sorted it. Did sort it. Or so I thought. It hadn’t meant anything, just fantasy gone mad. The shock of seeing Darren so… toned… the thought of some rich bitch being fucked by him and Buck, the others, too. I mean, that could never be me… I’d never take five guys… even if I’d had the orgasm of the century at the thought of it. It meant nothing.
Totally nothing.
I definitely wouldn’t want that.
That’s for women like Mandy Taylor and Hannah Bowen. Women who are… brash.
Confident.
Horny.
Sexy.
I checked out my reflection in the side of the coffee machine. Was I horny and sexy? The thought made me laugh out loud. A couple of dabs of eyeliner did not make a sex kitten, that’s for sure.
Not yet, anyway.
Tonya came in at the end of lunch, puffing and sweaty and midway through an apparent jog around the village.
She gripped a section of belly and wiggled it at me over the counter. “Keeping fit, need to tone up a little. Then I might hit the online dating. Again.”
“You look great as you are,” I said. She did, too.
Her eyes met mine and widened. “Not as fine as you! Jesus, Jodie, what the hell happened? Did someone break in and commit armed makeover? If they did then please send them my way, I’ll leave the window open and won’t call the cops.”
“It’s just a bit of foundation…” I mumbled, but I was smiling.
“Like fuck it is! That top’s new.” She pointed straight at my chest. “Those babies are definitely in a decent push-up, and…” She leaned over the counter to check out the rest of me. “New jeans. Definitely new. So, what’s going on, pussycat?”
“Just thought I could smarten myself up a little.” I handed her a mug of tea. “Seems I’m not the only one around here. World’s gone crazy.”
“The Trent effect.” She rolled her eyes. “Mention a five-mechanic gangbang and the whole village goes makeup crazy, go figure.”
I leaned over the counter. “That’s not why I’m doing this.”
“Oh, I know,” she said. “You’re doing this because it’s about time you put some effort into being you again.”
“It is?”
“Oh yes,” she smirked. “It really is. Which is exactly why you’re taking a day off to come shopping with me. Girls’ day. Don’t say no.”
“But…”
Lorraine’s hands appeared on my shoulders. Her voice was loud in my ear. “Yes, you are having a shopping day. You haven’t taken time off since Easter.”
“Exactly!” Tonya exclaimed.
“Definitely,” Lorraine insisted. “This Friday. I’ll get Emma to cover.”
“Friday,” Tonya confirmed. “Spa, lunch and shopping.”
Spa, lunch and shopping sounded expensive. I said as much.
Tonya just scoffed at me. “Get Trent to help out, now you know about his lucrative little side-line, I’m sure he won’t mind dishing out a bit so you can have some downtime.”
I shook my head. “This has nothing to do with Darren. He does enough. We do alright.”
I could feel Lorraine’s scorn at the back of me, but she didn’t say a word. That was something she’d never been right on, truth be told. You can say a lot of things about Darren Trent, but the accusation that he doesn’t do his bit to look after the girls was way off the mark.
Tonya didn’t even try to argue with me, she knew as much, too.
I let out a sigh. “I could come, maybe get my nails done, just the cheap ones…”
Tonya clapped her hands. “Get in!”
“But!” I added. “I’m not going to be going shopping crazy, I’ll just be there for the company. I’ll be your personal shopper.”
“It’s a start.” She downed her tea in one and started jogging on the spot. “In that case I better keep up with the keep fit, see if I can drop a dress size in the next few days. Laters.”
I watched Lorraine chalk my day off on the rota and couldn’t help but smile.
Petey shrugged at me, hung up the phone. “Another service to book in,” he began, but I waved him quiet.
We’d had ten new service bookings today already. Ten.
None of them due, all of them female.
Mandy fucking Taylor had a lot to answer for.
Buck grinned at me, tugged at his beard. “Think we should open the books up? Take on some new clients?”
I shook my head. “Fuck that. Not locals. Got enough shit going on already.”
I dived back in to the air-con job I’d been working on and only surfaced again when a chorus of wolf whistles started up. My gut dropped at the prospect of another Eleanor Hartley drive-by, but the figure approaching our shutter doors wasn’t anyone after a Bang Gang special.
I’ve known Tonya since we were kids. She was already Jodie’s best mate by the time we started up. I don’t think they ever weren’t. She was jogging today, in some pale grey leggings that showed enough to get the guys whooping.