The Decoy Date

Chapter Thirteen

“How was the party last night?” Jess handed Imogen a cup of coffee as they sat at the counter in the shop. It had been a quiet morning, not unusual considering the rain was pelting against the windows and that November was well underway; it was still a couple of weeks before the Christmas shoppers would be around.

“It was really great actually, normally I hate those type of things but last night was good. I, uh, met a guy.” Imogen smiled at the memory of meeting Jack last night, when she had been talking to him she thought he was exactly the man she would be looking for. He was articulate and funny, he was good-looking but not so stunning people would wonder what he was doing with her and he’d seemed genuinely interested in her until Charlie had disturbed him. Her mind wandered to that kiss, it had took her by surprise, the passion and force behind it, like he was actually her jealous boyfriend. She didn’t want to admit it but it was really hot, she flushed at the memory and took a sip from her cup to hide the pinkness that had blossomed across her face.

“Please tell me his name was not Charlie Ramsey.”

“No, Jack Livesey. He works for the museum. He came up to me when Charlie went to help Adam with something and we just chatted for a while. He was really nice and funny and gorgeous.”

“Well, good for you, did you get his number?” Imogen nodded and fished around in the back pocket of her jeans for the business card Jack had given her last night, she pulled out the small card and handed it to Jess. Taking it she raised her eyebrows, impressed at her best friend. “This is a nice business card, thick, quality; I bet he’s got some money. You should give him a call.”

Imogen laughed and shook her head at her friend, whenever Imogen met a guy she only needed to know two things about him: whether he was hot and whether he had money. Yet she wasn’t bothered about either of these in her own relationships. She’d been dating Matt for a year now and they’d moved in together a few months ago, he was a painter and decorator from Barnes but they’d moved into a flat just round the corner from the shop.

“Maybe I will but he’s going to China for a month for the museum, so I’ll have to wait until then.” She saw the disappointment on Jess’ face and smiled, when he’d told her last night about the trip she’d been disappointed as well, but then she thought it worked out better with Charlie. They had planned to stay together until after the wedding anyway and she didn’t want to just throw him aside now she’d found someone else. Her stomach lurched at the thought of throwing Charlie aside, he’d been great since they’d been in their “relationship” and she really didn’t want him out of her life completely; they’d become sort of friends now.

The rest of the morning was quiet and she jumped when her phone started to ring, she’d been nodding off as Jess was playing Angry Birds on her phone. Reaching into her pocket she saw the picture of Charlie she’d taken when they’d gone for lunch at Alberto’s last week. She smiled at the memory, they’d talked about food the whole time; their likes and dislikes. He loved Italian like her but couldn’t stand restaurants that gave you a few pieces of food on a giant plate, whilst she had revealed her hatred of Thai food, there was just too much coconut and lemongrass in the world for her.

“Hello.” She put the phone to her ear and felt herself grin as she heard him reply.

“Hi, I just wanted to check in after last night, I had a really good time.”

“Me too, it was a lot better than I was expecting. Thank Adam for the tickets.”

“I will do. I also called to ask if you were doing anything tomorrow night?”

“No, I’m free after four. We’re closing the shop early because Jess has got to be somewhere.” At the sound of her name Jess looked up from the game she was playing, she pressed paused and listened into the conversation.

“Great! How’d you fancy meeting up at five?”

“Okay, sounds good. Where do you want to meet?” She was more than a little intrigued to see what he had planned, every time they met up something fun was involved even if she had expected it to be awful.

“Come round to mine tomorrow at five. There’s no need to dress up, but wear something warm. I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that he hung up on her, she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at Jess. She was pouting obviously disappointed that she’d organized another date with Charlie, but they had to keep up appearances for the people who thought they were dating. Besides she was looking forward to seeing what he had planned, he hadn’t given anything away and now she was fascinated to see what they would be doing. Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.

                                  *

Charlie checked his watch, ten to five, he really needed to get home Imogen would be there waiting for him if he didn’t hurry up. He practically ran out of school and jumped in his car; there was too much traffic, he had no chance of getting home in ten minutes. It was all Chantelle Watson and Demi-Leigh Holmes’ fault, the two of them had decided to start a full-out cat fight in the playground just as he was leaving to go home. No other members of staff were around so he’d had to step between the two warring girls.

An hour and a half and a three page report later he was finally on his way home with a horrendously deep scratch as a thank you for pulling the girls apart. One of them had stuck her nail into his arm and drawn blood, the scratch was so deep the nail was still there when she moved her hand away; why the school let the girls wear false nails like that he didn’t know. To top it all off he was now stuck in the rush-hour traffic when he could have been spending his evening with Imogen.

When the traffic finally cleared he had to use all his control to not break the speed limit, he couldn’t afford the fine or the points on his license. He pulled up in front of his house and found Imogen sat on the doorstep, she looked up and his heart lurched at the look of concern in her eyes. She put her arms around him and squeezed, he checked his watch and saw he was twenty minutes late realizing he probably should have texted her to say he was stuck in traffic.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to break up a fight, then I got stuck in traffic. I should have called to let you know.” He pulled her tighter to him and loved the way her body fit perfectly with his; she was wearing the woolly jumper she’d had on the other day and it felt warm and soft in his hands, matching the owner perfectly. He leaned back and smiled at her, watching her relax in his arms.

He led her into the house and hurried off to change out of his work clothes, shoving on a pair of jeans and his own thick, knitted sweatshirt; it was a Christmas present from his mother the year before last and he’d grown to love it. Grabbing a hat and scarf he trotted back downstairs to the living room, where Imogen was looking at the film posters on his wall.

“Is this really signed by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost?” She was standing by his Shaun of the Dead poster, it was one of his favourite films and when his sister got the chance to meet the stars for an interview; he’d tagged along and got the poster signed by them.

“Yeah, my sister interviewed them for a magazine she was working for and knew I was a huge fan so took me along as her “assistant”. They’re really nice people, completely down to earth. So are you ready to go?” he turned towards the stairs and felt her follow close behind him.

“Where are we going exactly?”

“Ah, that’s for me to know and for you to find out!” He grinned back at the worried expression she was giving him and took her hand in his as they walked out of the house and up the street. There was still plenty of traffic and people making their way home from work as they made their way through Regent’s Park. The final destination of their journey finally dawned on Imogen when they reached the other side of the park and the entrance to the zoo.

“I thought the zoo would be closed by now.”

“It is to everyone but us and Toby.” He smiled as his best friend held the gate open for the two of them to walk through. “He’s going to give us a private tour.” Charlie clapped a hand on Toby’s shoulder and squeezed a massive thank you, he must have gone through a hell of a lot of trouble to  sort this out for Charlie; but he wanted to make sure Imogen had the time of her life and forgot all about that slimeball Jack Livesey from Saturday night’s party.

                                      *

Imogen followed Charlie and Toby through the gate and wondered how they’d organized this, they must have been planning it for a while; you’d have to go through a lot of people to get permission for something like this. Charlie was still holding her hand and looking at her and smiling, making sure she was enjoying herself and she most definitely planned to with this once in a lifetime opportunity.

“Where do you want to go first?” Charlie handed her a map and she couldn’t decide, there were too many animals to choose between. Studying the map, she decided to rule out the things that she wasn’t bothered about; bugs, reptiles and the aquarium weren’t at the top of her list of things to see.

“How about the lions and the tigers?” Charlie smiled and nodded at Toby to take them in that direction first, he led them past enclosures of sleeping lemurs and reindeers before taking them into the tiger exhibit that was brand new. They went into the house and found three big cats sleeping on the other side of the glass, she walked straight up to it and simply stood and watched their chests move in and out with each breath.

Charlie came up behind her and put his arms around her waist, she tensed in surprise but relaxed into his warmth and leant back against him. She wasn’t really a touchy-feely person, her mother wasn’t into hugs and she’d carried that through herself; but Charlie was definitely showing her how nice being in another person’s arms could be. Sighing, she moved her hands to rest on top of his and watched the tigers continue to sleep peacefully.

They moved onto the lion house and found they were a little more lively than the tigers, they had just been fed huge chunks of meat and a set of two cubs were play fighting together. All the time Charlie kept in close contact with her, he was holding her hand or had his head leaning on her shoulder; it was beginning to feel normal to have him wrapped around her and she actually began to enjoy the warmth he brought with him.

Following on from the lions, they visited Penguin Beach where the birds were just being fed. Instead of watching from the sidelines, Toby allowed them into the enclosure and his fellow keeper Hannah invited them to help with feeding time. When she’d handed out a few fish she went to stand with Toby and watch Charlie have his turn.

“Does he give all his girlfriends a private tour of the zoo?” She looked at Toby who was laughing at the penguins who were literally mobbing Charlie trying to get the fish he was holding.

“What girlfriends? Charlie doesn’t really date, he asks women out but it never turns into anything serious. Only Sarah recently, but we don’t mention her, she was a little crazy.”

“Um, yes, I met her. She was definitely something else.” He laughed and smiled at her before nodding in agreement.

“You could say that. It’s not that he’s scared of commitment – that’s what his sister’s think – he’s willing to fall in love, he just wants the person who’s perfect for him; the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with. After what happened with his dad he just wants to find the right person. He’s kind of a perfectionist in that respect.”

Imogen smiled and watched as Charlie dangled another fish for the penguins to jump at, Toby’s side was a completely different idea to the one Molly had portrayed at dinner last week. She had made Charlie out to be a womanizer, hopping from one girl to the next; but Toby made it sound completely different, almost romantic.

“What happened with his dad? If you don’t mind me asking, I know he died but that’s all Charlie has told me.”

“Well he doesn’t like to talk about it, he won’t admit it but it shook him up pretty badly. His dad was cycling home from work and was hit by a lorry that ran a red light, everyone was devastated especially his mum. The two of them were deeply in love with each other, married for over thirty years and then he was just gone from their lives, taken way too early. I think that’s part of the reason he’s so picky about dating, he wants what his parents had and he doesn’t want to waste his time dating women he wouldn’t want to take home to meet his mother.”

Imogen’s heartstrings drew tighter as she watched Charlie, this threw a whole new light on him. He was willing to help her and be her fake boyfriend when he could be out there searching for his ideal partner. She was now even more grateful to Charlie for doing this. Dinner at his mum’s house played into sharper focus in her mind, it was a lot more significant than she’d thought it was at the time.

“That’s my theory anyway, but maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic.” Imogen smiled at Toby, but guilt began to make her heart heavy; all of Charlie’s friends and relatives thought they were dating and that the two of them were in love with each other. However in a month’s time she’d be dumping him and moving on to someone else like Jack and they’d probably all hate her like they did Sarah. It had been his idea but she’d agreed to it and played along. I am a horrible, horrible person.

Charlie walked towards her smiling and happy, giddy from playing with the penguins. She pulled him into a tight hug and whispered in his ear.

“Thank you, for everything.” She wasn’t sure if he understood that she meant being in a fake relationship as well as for the trip to the zoo. When he pulled back, she knew he had comprehended her meaning and smiled gratefully at her.

“Don’t worry about it.” He whispered back and moved in to kiss her gently on the lips. They worked their way around the rest of the enclosures before leaving Toby to finish off his jobs. Imogen took Charlie to Alberto’s for dinner as another way of saying thank you for all he had done and began to see him in a different way; enjoying the time they spent together and the feelings he instilled in her when she was with him.