Men are like buses

I made my excuses and left as soon as it was light outside, Willie called me a cab. His gardener had arrived unexpectedly early and we made a lame excuse about me being a writer friend of his. The brown tobacco plants in the flower-bed glared as if they knew our secret and the gardener noticed me staring at a plant.

“Would you like one? They are quite easy to grow…”

”Oh yes, I’d love one, I’ll get a cutting next time.” He looked a bit puzzled, probably unable to fathom why I was leaving in such a hurry if I had just arrived. My Jimmy Choo purple sandals with lizard straps that shone with an opalescent glaze, the light purple chiffon dress which was a little crumpled and the cashmere cardigan I wore, all screamed out. It was obvious I had stayed the night. But men who cheat on their wives are accomplished actors and as Willie waved me off in the minicab, I saw him turn towards the gardener and lean into the flowerbed to confer upon some floral conundrum he had just conjured up. He lived by thinking on his feet…..

I learned one thing from Allan Jenkins: media, the one who has the voice we hear or who holds the pen firmly in his grasp, the elusive one with his thumb on the print button, that one, is, by definition, power. I was often approached by people who wanted to publish or write something in the magazine or who wanted us to cover this event or that book launch and I played the game.

Allan was a gentleman, he built up to the sexual conquest by courting me, with cards and gifts. The cards depicted sexy 50s style college students, in push up bras and short skirts, with captions like Teachers Pet. Or they were intricate reproductions of Indian goddesses. Inevitably, he wrote something thoughtful inside them and finished the thought off with a flourish of his signature initials, AJ x. I was deeply drawn to him but in an addictive sort of way.

He was going to be 50 soon but he was still very sexual, he was a purveyor of the finer things in life. I was another pretty toy to add to his collection, but for a while at least I was a favourite toy. Allan had cheated on his wife...

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