The Decoy Date

Chapter Eighteen

Oh God! Please leave me alone! Imogen wanted to scream as her mother was suddenly invading every aspect of her personal life and there was no escape. It had only been one night and she was already tearing her hair out, Charlie had stayed for dinner and until nine o’clock but he had marking to do for the next day and she didn’t want to keep him hostage with her mother; she’d just been so grateful he’d stayed for as long as he had.

They were sat at the breakfast bar in Imogen’s kitchen that ‘really wasn’t good enough for eating at’, drinking filter coffee that was ‘too strong’ for her mother’s taste. She was waiting for Jess to arrive so they could go and meet Daisy for the hen do, but Jess had chosen to be late on the worst possible day leaving her to babysit her mother while her father went for lunch with an old friend. Her mother was supposed to be going for lunch as well but not until later on. Leaving the morning free to torment Imogen.

“Sorry I’m late.” Jess bustled through the door and stopped short when she saw Carole sat on a stool holding a china mug.

“Tardiness was always a problem for you Jessica, I see it hasn’t improved much since you were sixteen.” Jess scowled and opened her mouth to reply but Imogen jumped up and pushed her friend out of the door saying a hurried goodbye to her mother before anything unscrupulous came out of her friend’s mouth.

“Hey, I was just about to tell her where she could shove her tardiness.” Jess whined as they stomped down the stairs.

“Exactly. You’re not the one who has to live with her and deal with the aftermath of a comment like that.”

“Where are we going anyway?” They walked onto the street and were met with a freezing gust of wind and a threatening grey sky, they would definitely be getting snow at some point.

“Daisy texted to meet her at Regent’s Park but didn’t say anything else.” They walked up the road towards the park as Imogen detailed what had happened the night before when her mother had made herself at home in the spare bedroom.

Approaching the park, they heard the sounds of lots of people chatting and laughing, along with whooshes and bangs and music blasting out of speakers. When they got through the treeline they were met by the sights and sounds of a funfair and hundreds of people enjoying the rides. Daisy was in the middle of a large group and ran over to the two of them when she saw them.

“Hey! You made it! No Charlie?” She was bubbling with excitement, bouncing around on her heels as her hair and dress were caught in a gust of wind swirling around her.

“He had to work.”

“Of course, the schools haven’t broken up yet! He’s coming later isn’t he?” Imogen nodded as Daisy dragged the two of them over towards the rest of the group, she recognised some of her sister’s friends from school and waved at Sam who was chatting to his own friends.

“Okay guys, now we can go on the rides, remember just show your wrist band and you’ll get on the rides for free, but you still have to pay for food and the smaller games. We’re here until about six unless it gets too cold then we’ll tell you what we’re moving on to.” Daisy handed Imogen and Jess a bright orange wristband each and spares for Charlie and Matt for when they showed up and grabbed Sam’s hand to pull him towards the Ferris wheel.

Jess looked at Imogen and grinned. “This is f*****g awesome. Daisy seriously knows how to organise a do, what do you think first? Dodgems?” Imogen smiled back and walked in the direction of the dodgems, she hadn’t been to a funfair since she was a teenager. The two of them enjoyed the dodgems, the ghost train, the Ferris wheel and the waltz as if they were teenagers once again, all their worries and cares were forgotten for the few hours they enjoyed at the fair.

                             *

Charlie turned up at Regent’s Park at half past four amazed at the spectacle before him, in the 29 years he’d lived in North London he’d never seen a funfair on the fields in the park and it was absolutely amazing. He smiled when he saw Imogen, she was stood at the candyfloss stall laughing at something Jess said, looking carefree and happy. He walked up behind her and put his arms around her waist, she froze in fear then relaxed when she realised it was him.

“Hey, how was school?”

“Not too bad. I see you’re having fun at the fair.” He moved his right hand and pulled a piece of candyfloss from the stick Imogen was cradling from the wind and let it melt on his tongue; he hadn’t had candyfloss since he was a little kid, he’d forgotten how good it tasted.

“Hey, that’s mine! Get your own!” Her voice started out annoyed but the smile that spread across her lips said she really didn’t mind. “Here you need this wristband on so you can go on the rides. I’ve got my eye on one of those minions from Despicable Me on the ring toss game but I can’t get it right. I’ve won five identical dolphin keyrings so far.”

“Well I guess we’ll have to do something about that then.” He grudgingly pulled his arms from Imogen’s midriff and took her hand in his instead as she pulled him towards the ring toss game; he glanced at Jess on her other side, she didn’t look happy but he couldn’t care less. They stopped at a stall with a red and white striped canopy, there were a couple of kids throwing the plastic rings at empty glass Coca-Cola bottles but none of them were hitting their target.

Charlie stopped in the middle and looked at the tiers of shelves holding the bottles, the one that was needed to win a minion was on the top shelf and was the furthest away. The man brought him three rings over in exchange for his pound coin. He sized up the ring, the distance and the projection angle he thought he would need, this was where his maths degree would come in to use. Throwing the first ring, he was too soft and it fell well short onto the shelf below his target. His second was too hard and hit the material covering the back of the wall, his final one was the right power and length but the ring hit the bottle top and fell to the side.

Annoyed at how close he had come he dug in his pocket for a second pound and took the three new rings the man offered. This s**t just got real! He readied his action stance, really taking the game seriously ignoring the giggles that came from the two women standing next to him. The first ring bounced off the top of the bottle again and he began to think it might be a con and the stall holder had made it impossible to win anything from the top tier. However the next ring found it’s target and Imogen cheered as the man pulled down a yellow cuddly toy about a foot tall and passed it to him.

Turning round he offered it to Imogen, who threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you! That was awesome, I thought you might have to spend a few more pounds before you won.” She grabbed hold of his hand as the three of them walked away from the stall and back towards some of the other rides.

“Hey babe.” Matt crept up behind Jess and put his hands over her eyes, she smiled and turned around in his arms to kiss him on the lips. Charlie and Imogen left the two of them to try out the waltz again before heading to the Ferris wheel. Charlie closed his eyes and gulped down his fear as they joined the small queue, he didn’t really do heights – he’d avoided any school trips to the Eye or anything that involved buildings higher than three storeys - but Imogen really wanted to go to the top and see across the city.

He tried to hide the shaking in his body as the two of them climbed into the next available seat, when the bar was put into place he grabbed onto it and held on for dear life. His eyes shot closed as they gradually moved upwards, all he could was listen to the oohs and aahs Imogen made as she looked at the view. Each time the wheel stopped he thought it had broken down with the two of them nowhere near the ground.

“Hey, why have you got your eyes closed? You’re missing out on an amazing view!” He felt Imogen turn towards him and their carriage rocked slightly, he grabbed the handrail tighter sure his knuckles were already shocking white.

“I don’t do heights.” He squeezed the words out of the tiniest hole in the side of his mouth, sure he would be sick if he opened it any more.

“Why didn’t you say anything before we got on?” He couldn’t get the words out so ended up shrugging, how could he tell her he didn’t want to ruin her evening or that he would do anything, face any of his fears for her; he wouldn’t be able to do it even if he was on flat ground and able to speak. “Well we just need to take your mind off of it.” He felt her hand on the side of his face pulling it round towards hers, he opened his eyes slightly and took in her smile and the look of concern and caring in her eyes before she moved her lips to his.

She kissed him gently, her hands holding both sides of his face. He managed to release the cold metal bar with one hand and cupped her cheek with it, her skin was warm where he thought it would be cold from the winter wind. She deepened the kiss and moved one of her arms around the back of his neck and into his hair, he sighed at the way she stroked the back of his head and the tingles she left in her wake.

After a few minutes their carriage came to a stop and the bar was yanked out of his hand, pulling away from Imogen he floundered for the metal protection before realising they were back at ground level. Relief spread warm through his body as his feet struck the grass again, Imogen’s hand found its way into his again and he looked down at her smiling, almost giddy with the fact he was safe again.

“See, it wasn’t that bad was it.” He scowled at her but the smile broke through when she giggled at him.

“Are you guys ready to go?” Daisy rounded the two of them up and they joined the rest of the group which was now about fifty people large, she moved to the front of the group to stand by Sam. “Okay, well I think everybody’s had fun here, so now we are going to move onto the more adult section of the evening. And yes there’ll be alcohol involved!” There was cheering and whooping from half the members of the group and peals of laughter from the other half.

The two of them led the way with everyone else following, they made their way from the park into Camden Town and ended up at Chinese Elvis’ Karaoke Bar; normally a place he wouldn’t be seen dead in and judging by Imogen’s reaction next to him, she’d rather be anywhere else as well. “Oh God! I had this horrible feeling Daisy would fit karaoke in somewhere but hoped I was wrong.” He looked down at her smiling, she shook her head back. “She used to drag me to these places because she loved it but I refused to get up and sing.”

They followed everyone through the door and sat at a table towards the back with Jess and Matt, before they could go and get a drink Daisy was up on stage with a microphone. The feedback cut through the noise of the bar and chatter from the hen/stag do guests. “We’ve hired out the whole place so make sure you buy lots of drink, I’ve also been told the foods pretty good. The place also has a rule that everybody has to get on stage and sing a song, that means you as well Sis, there’s no escape!” She burst out laughing and jumped off the stage to look through the song book.

He and Matt went to the bar to get the girls a drink, on the way back he wrote his and Imogen’s name down for a duet; hoping she’d be grateful to be singing with him rather than by herself, besides he didn’t want to do it by himself either. They sat at the back enjoying their drinks and a basket of French Fries, passing comments on all the singers as they performed; Jess got up and did an incredible version of Katy Perry’s firework that led to a standing ovation and lots of drunken cheering.

Charlie sat in silence knowing their names would be called any moment and waited for Imogen’s reaction, hoping she wouldn’t hate him too much and wouldn’t hate the song he’d chosen. “Next up we have Charlie and Imogen.” He cautioned a glance at her and saw her sat frozen and in shock, he stood up and took her hand, but all she did was shake her head and open and close her mouth like a goldfish. “Go on Immie, it’s your turn!” Jess was pushing her up off the seat while she tried not to laugh too hard.

“Charlie and Imogen, oh here they come. They are singing one of THE classic duets of all time and one of my favourite songs: Islands in the Stream!” As he neared the brightly lit stage the announcer – who was Chinese and dressed in a perfect Elvis Presley costume - handed him two microphones, he then handed one to Imogen. She looked annoyed and he caught her whispering under her breath: “Big Dolly fan are you?” He smiled and stopped in the middle of the stage.

“Who isn’t? Besides everyone should be treated your voice before the wedding, it really is beautiful.” Even under the bright, hot lights he could tell she was blushing from his comment rather than from the heat of the lamps.

The music started and the two of them began singing, they took it in turns following the autocue off the screen at the front of the stage. When they finished everybody in the room were on their feet clapping and cheering, Charlie bowed and watched as Imogen laughed at him. They went back to their table at the rear of the room, collecting complements and high-fives on their way through. “That was amazing Im! I didn’t know you could sing like that, I’d have dragged you to karaoke to sing with me as well if I’d have known.” Jess gave Imogen a hug and they laughed and joked about the song while the next act began to sing. The rest of night was filled with off-key singing, plenty of laughing and Elvis-themed cocktails including Jailhouse on the Rocks, All Shook Up and Blue Suede Shooter.

When they got outside of the dark room they were surprised to find it was snowing heavily and there was a healthy white coating on the roads and pavements. Charlie walked Imogen home and the two soon found themselves in a snowy flurry and struggling to see two foot in front of themselves, let alone see where they were supposed to be going. Eventually they made it to the shop, where Imogen invited him in while they waited for it to abate a little.

It was well after midnight when they were drinking coffee and listening to the soft snores of her parents in the bedroom above, when they both decided it wouldn’t be safe for Charlie to leave. “I could sleep on the sofa.” Imogen looked at the sofa then at the ceiling before taking another sip of coffee.

“That’s not going to work, if my parents find you on the sofa tomorrow they’ll think we got into a fight or something. We could always share my bed, it’s only for one night until the snow's stopped.” He looked at her and his heart started racing, he’d only ever shared a bed with a woman when he was actually dating them and although this made sense for their fake relationship, he was still a little tentative at the thought. He’d love nothing more than to sleep in the same bed as her but he didn’t want to do something stupid in his sleep and ruin their friendship, especially not now they had grown so close.

“That is, if you don’t snore!” She grinned at him and put her empty coffee cup down on the table.

“No,I may talk a little though. I don’t mind sleeping on your floor if you’re not comfortable sharing a bed.” He was secretly hoping she wouldn’t leave him to the floor but understood if she did. Imogen smiled and chuckled as she looked at her floors.

“I wouldn’t want you to sleep on the floor, for your sake. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to sleep on my floors, they’re incredibly dirty honestly it’s worse than those sticky ones in pubs and night clubs.” She stood up and led the way to her bedroom, where he would now be spending the night.