Feeling reckless and in a way kind of sexually empowered, I pull on the knickers and then clip the bra in place. It stops a couple of inches down my ribs and pushes my boobs right up. Well, well, well. I finish by zipping on my dress and rummaging my black peep-toe heels out of the wardrobe.
“Lana, are you almost ready?” Sasha calls from her room. “The limo’s just arrived.”
“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” I call back, shoving a few necessities into my clutch bag.
I find Robert waiting at the foot of the stairs, dressed in his black-on-black-on-black ensemble. Sasha was right, it does make him look like the devil – in the most attractive way possible. I suddenly realise that we match.
He smiles wickedly when he sees me, taking my hand into his, turning it over and giving the inside of my wrist a tender kiss.
“Are you wearing them?” he whispers.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” I whisper back flirtatiously.
His grin is strangely approving. “That dress makes the colour of your hair stand out like crazy,” he comments, just as Sasha leaves her room and comes downstairs.
She’s wearing the silvery satin dress she picked out today with matching flats, and her short hair is gelled and clipped over to the side.
“Wow, Sasha, you look like a runway model,” I exclaim.
“Yeah, Sash, you scrub up well. Who’d have guessed,” says Robert.
“Oh, shut up, the both of you,” she replies nervously.
Sasha feigns smacking Robert on the head with her bag and saunters past us to the door. Robert offers me his arm, but I ignore it and follow Sasha. I’m not ready for her to know what’s going on just yet. That will require some alone time and an empty room where she can yell at me about how I’m being an idiot for trusting her brother.
We get inside the black limo, and the driver pulls away from the house. Robert sits close beside me while Sasha sits on the other side and opens up the drinks cabinet. Their dad and his girlfriend Melanie are coming with us, so we’re on our way to his house on Hampstead Heath.
“Did you remember the watch?” Robert asks Sasha, referring to the present they bought for their dad. I didn’t buy him anything, because there really isn’t anything I could afford that a man like Alan Phillips would want. Sasha said he wouldn’t notice even if I bought him a brand-new Ferrari anyway, he’s so jaded.
I stare out the tinted windows as we approach his home in all its regal Georgian glory. It’s strange to think that this is where Robert and Sasha spent all their summer holidays growing up. The driver gets out to knock on the front door, and a couple of minutes later Alan and Melanie emerge.
“Ah, my children, how are you both this fine evening?” Alan asks merrily as he climbs inside the vehicle. By the looks of it, he’s already had a few.
Melanie gets in wearing a gold dress that she proclaims was designed by Vivienne Westwood, even though nobody asked, and her caramel hair is pulled up in an intricate style.
“It’s very pretty,” I tell her, referring to the dress, since she quite obviously wanted a compliment and neither Robert nor Sasha spoke up to give her one. She clearly has it in her mind that she’s going to be their new mother (and by the way she’s eating Robert up with her eyes, I’m thinking she wants it to be an oedipal sort of relationship). Ugh.
“Thank you,” she replies with a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t quite get your name?”
“This is Lana,” Robert interrupts, placing his hand momentarily on my shoulder.
“Oh, well, thank you, Lana.”
“Sasha, you look marvellous,” says Alan. “You should dress up more often.”
Sasha grimaces and hands her father his birthday present. “Happy Birthday, Dad. This is from me and Robert,” she says, leaning over to give him a quick peck on the cheek.
He takes the small bag and shoves it to the side. “Oh, lovely. I’ll have Henry put it with the rest of the gifts when we arrive at the hotel.” His eyes move to Robert. “Now, son, I heard it through the grapevine that you moved out of the penthouse. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Robert gets a little tense. “Oh, yeah, and what grapevine would that be?”
“It was Eleanor Wallace, if you must know the details.”
“Kara’s mother needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut,” says Robert under his breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Yes, I moved out. Kara and I have ended things.”
Alan starts laughing and shaking his head. “She did you, mate. She’s a crafty one, that Kara. I would have had her out on her ear before she could get her claws into the place. Instead you run off with your tail between your legs and let her keep it.”
Robert gives his dad an irritated look. “It was a rental. It’s not like I gave her an apartment that was bought and paid for, Dad. Besides, I was getting tired of living there anyway.”
“Of course you were,” says Alan, looking pleased. “Women will try to take you for everything, son. You’ve got to start being wise to that now, or else you’ll find yourself in ten years’ time divorced and giving half of everything you own to some old bitch you got pregnant and who wormed her way into convincing you to marry her.”
“Jesus, who exactly are we talking about now?” Robert asks. “Because it sounds like you’re going on one of your bitter rants about Mum again.”
“He always rants about Mum when he’s drunk,” Sasha explains to me in a quiet whisper.
My mouth forms a round “oh” of acknowledgment. I’ve only ever witnessed Alan speak fondly of Liz in the past.
“Speaking of that old sow,” Alan slurs. “Do you know I invited her over for my party and she said no? She thinks she’s bloody better than me, living over there in her quaint little cottage. Ha! Don’t make me laugh.”
“Alan, honey, let’s talk about something else, yeah?” says Melanie, placing her arm around his shoulders. He becomes distracted by her cleavage, and Sasha rolls her eyes in disgust. I turn to Robert to see he’s staring out the window. He glances down at me then and rubs his thumb along my wrist. I close my eyes for a moment before pulling my hand away. He gives me a confused look but doesn’t try to touch me again.