Lust or Love

Chapter 3

Evie waited for the plane to clear before she decided to gather her belongings.

This is not what she needed, in less than 24 hours ago she found her mum and husband having an affair behind her back, she’d hooked up with a complete stranger (which is something she had never done before!) and had travelled half way across the world to London with zero plans on where she was going to stay. It was safe to say that she was going through a full mental breakdown.

After speaking to some extremely pleasant staff at Gatwick airport, Evie headed to a Hilton hotel, which was just across the road. Upon arriving, Evie made her way in as to the main reception. She smiled at the neutral decor as she walked through, agreeing with the glossy cream marble floors, It was just right; she thought to herself.

“Hello, welcome to the Hilton hotel!” Smiled a young attractive male “how can I help you today beautiful?” And with that Evie let out a small smile “hi, everyone is full of compliments in London” she said.

The receptionist shook his head in disagreement “no, not everyone. Only the stunning ladies and men get our attention!” He winked.

Hearing this, Evie let out a little chuckle “ah well, they must need to go to specsavers?” She half joked “I saw it on a poster in the airport” and the receptionist laughed “haha yes that’s a joke we Brits make. So where are you from? I am getting an American accent?”

Nodding her head Evie said “Yes, I’m from Chicago” lifting his finger above his head and waving it slightly “ah yes, the Windy City!” He said as Evie smiled “yep! born and raised. I’m just here for a getaway, to clear my head and figure out my next chapter” she sighed. “Oh well, you’ve come to the right place! My name is Ben” he bowed. “Have you been to London before? Because if not, there is plenty to do! You will never get bored!” He stated.

Evie shook her head “nope, never been here before. I didn’t travel much before this.”

Typing away on his keyboard, Ben asked how long Evie would be staying, whilst taking to her about all the local tourist attractions she should visit and the best places to eat at, and where to avoid! “Erm, I’m not sure how long I’m staying yet. I didn’t think that far ahead to be honest.” Evie stated with a hint of shame and embarrassment. “Well no worries, we can give you a room for 1 week at a time. Just come to me so I can extend the stay for you!” He smiled “so we’ve only got suites left, which are a tad pricier but much better comfort” he exclaimed, selling this to Evie “I’ll take it!” She said slamming her hands down on the counter gently.

Evie wasn’t rich but she was comfortable, as her small business made good turnover and she kept a lot of it in her savings as she had planned to move to a bigger house and wanted to make sure that when the time was right, she could provide for her children and pay tuition fees without worrying. Her childhood had taught her from an early age to save and never to waste money on junk, like her mother did which left them struggling most of the time.

“Good job! So you will be in room 804, you can head into the lifts to your right to get there. If you need anything, just give us a call.” Ben smiled as he gave over the keycard.

Evie headed up to her room, as soon as she opened the door, she breathed in fresh linen aroma in and let out a sigh. Again, the decor was neutral in colour with a few greys and turquoise here and there. It was dark now outside and Evie felt the heaviness of her eyes. She slumped onto the king size bed and closed her eyes.

The sun was shining through the windows directly on Evie’s face. She opened her eyes and sat up in somewhat of a shock as she looked around the room. Then the memories flooded her again, so she laid back and let out a deep sigh and covered her face with a pillow. After sobbing quietly to herself, she realised she was still in her clothes from the day before and hadn’t even taken her shoes off.

After some debate, Evie got showered and into some fresh clothes. She headed down to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast, not feeling too hungry, she ordered a small fruit salad consisting of strawberries, berries, grapefruit and watermelon and ordered herself a latte.

Looking around the room, she watched the families laughing together, couples looking loved up and the businessmen typing away on their laptops or taking calls. ‘I need a phone!’ Evie thought to herself and with that, she got up and walked to the main reception desk. Ben wasn’t there this morning, a small petit red haired lady took his place “good morning, how can I help you?” She asked.

“Hi, good morning. I need to buy a phone, could you tell me the best place to go please?”Said Evie.

“Ah yes. So you will need to head to curry’s and in there they have a car phone warehouse that can deal with your enquiry” said the new receptionist “would you like me to call you a taxi?” Answering with a nod and a smiled “please!” Said Evie, before heading outside to wait for her taxi.

After a short ride, Evie was looking around the shop browsing phones and whilst doing so, a young male came over offering help. He was dressed in black jeans, a uniformed shirt and wearing glasses. After comparing iPhones and Samsungs, Evie chose an iPhone 13 pro max. She was used to iPhone as she had, very recently, thrown her iPhone 11 at her mums head… or had attempted to throw it towards her mums head.

With no plans ahead, Evie decided to head to the nearest coffee shop, which happened to be a costa, for a coffee and to set up her new phone. Once it was done, she thought she best browse through her emails. One email stood out to Evie, it was from her lawyer, hesitantly she opened the email and read through the documents. Her husband, David, had applied for a divorce!

Gasping, Evie let the tears flow, she was so hurt. It had been a day and a half since she had found out about the affair, they had not yet had a chance to talk about their situation let alone decide what she wanted to do. Wiping her tears away before anyone had noticed her crying, Evie decided to ignore the email for now and to make the most of her time away.

As she was in county mall shopping centre, she decided some retail therapy could cheer her up, so off she went.

Making her way round the shopping centre, she had a half a dozen bags on her arms and in her hands, she accidentally bumped into someone as she exited a shop, dropping her bags.

“Oh I’m so sorry! I’m such a Klutz!” Apologised Evie, as she bent down to gather her distraction shopping.

“Ah it’s ok, like I said yesterday, we are only nice to those we find attractive” winked Ben, bending down to help.

Evie smiled in relief for two reasons, 1 being that it was a friendly face and 2 because she didn’t hurt either of them or ruin any of her new belongings.

“Retail therapy?” Questioned Ben in a cheerful manner. “Uh yes! I had some news today that I wanted to forget, so I thought I would make the most of the mall!” Claimed Evie. “It’s nice to see you here. I half expected to see you this morning at the front desk” said Evie, laughing.

“Ah, don’t worry, I’m on tonight! So you can come see me anytime you feel a bit lonely!” Hinted Ben, making Evie blush and smile.

She did find Ben attractive and it was flattering that he flirted with her, especially since all her self confidence went out the window the day before when Charlie left without saying much!

“Are you done here? I can drop you back at the hotel if you like?” Offered Ben, thinking that maybe she should stop spending her money, Evie agreed “um, yes I should head back before I get too carried away!”

Ben laughed “ok cool, I will just let my friend know.” As he headed off into the shop Evie came out of. Within a minute or two, Ben came back out and directed Evie to his car.

On the way back to the hotel, Ben had made some small talk making them both laugh and Evie felt relaxed with him, until they arrived in the staff car park at the hotel. There weren’t many cars around as it was heading towards 6pm and most the staff had left for day.

Ben placed his hands on Evie’s knee, gently rubbing up and down towards her thigh. This made Evie tense up as she was not expecting it and had felt the atmosphere change suddenly

“w..well, umm thanks for the lift. May..maybe I will see you in a bit” she said before attempting to leave the car, gripping her thigh hard, Evie winced knowing there may be a bruise there later.

She looked over at Ben, who had an almost evil look in his eyes which sent fear through Evie.

“No no, you aren’t just going to give me bedroom eyes and be all over me and not put out!!” He hissed, grabbing Evie’s neck and pulling her towards him, kissing her and biting at her lips whilst groping her at the same time.

Trying to push him away and turning her head to dodge him “no Ben, please don’t! I’m sorry if you think I lead you on! Ben.. BEN.. please don’t! No! NO!!” Begged Evie but Ben only pulled her harder, which made Evie fight him more.

Suddenly he slapped her hard across the face causing Evie to go dizzy. Whilst she was recovering from the slap, Ben started to unbuckle his belt and jeans. Evie touched her lip with her hands and saw blood, her cheek stinging and red, it brought tears to her already swollen eyes. She was terrified when she saw he was unbuckling his belt and jeans, Evie prepared herself to fight him off again.