He's the One (2 page)

She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d gone to a party. Well, one that wasn’t a children’s party, that didn’t involve Pass the Parcel, Musical Bumps, and at least two toddler tantrums plus all of the guests having a major sugar rush. Her mum would be cool with her staying out, Brooke was better and Liberty wasn’t due back at work until twelve the following day. Why not go to the party? She never did anything impulsive any more, her whole life revolved around her daughter and work.

‘I’d really like it if you came,’ Cory repeated. ‘Who am I kidding? I’d love it.’

She smiled at him. How could she resist that? ‘Okay, sure.’

She got a smile right back. ‘You’ve just made my night.’ He took a piece of paper out of his wallet and scribbled down the address and his phone number.

‘Liberty! Can you go and sort out table six? They’re saying they didn’t order the Puttanesca … one of them is allergic to anchovies apparently,’ Marco cut across their conversation. And just like that the moment was gone. Cory returned to his table and Liberty went back to work, but she felt a spark of excitement at the thought of seeing him later. She hadn’t felt like this for ages, and though the customers at table six were grumpy, her good mood seemed to calm them down.

Her friend Em, who also worked at the restaurant, insisted that Liberty come round to her place later on to borrow something to wear for the party. Liberty had known her since the age of three when they’d gone to the same nursery school. Em wanted to be a photographer and lived with her boyfriend Noah, an Aussie doing the travelling thing. Liberty kept dreading that Em was going to say she was moving to Australia with him. Em was her best, best friend; she had been such an incredible support when Liberty had found out she was pregnant with Brooke, and had always been there for her. Life without her was unimaginable.

While Em rifled through her wardrobe, pulling out various garments, Liberty sat cross-legged on the bed and looked at the note from Cory again. ‘The party’s on Portland Place. That’s one of those really posh roads off Marine Drive, isn’t it? Those houses are massive. They’ll probably think I’m staff when I turn up and expect that I’m going to do the washing up.’

An eye roll from Em. ‘No, they won’t, not by the time I’ve finished with you. Right, I reckon it’s got to be between these two.’

Liberty looked at the dresses Em was holding up. She lived in combats, jeans and trainers, and couldn’t wait to dress up for a change. Before she’d had Brooke she’d loved getting dressed up for a night out, but nowadays she never really had the chance. This night was already turning into the best she’d had in ages and she hadn’t even got to the party yet.

Em chucked both dresses on the bed. ‘Go on, girl. I know you can’t wait to get them on.’

Grinning, Liberty pulled off her waitress uniform of black trousers and white shirt. Thank God she had shaved her legs yesterday. She picked up the first dress – a tight red Lycra off-the-shoulder mini dress.
She slipped it on and looked in the mirror. The colour suited her dark brown hair and green eyes, and her figure didn’t look too bad either.

Em came back into the room holding two glasses, one of which she handed to Liberty. ‘Vodka and Coke, get that down you.’

She took a sip, and instantly felt a warm glow envelop her.

‘Liking that dress,’ Em said, casting a critical eye over it. ‘Classy
and
sexy. They definitely won’t mistake you for staff in that. Let’s see you in the other one.’

It was a baby pink halterneck that suited Em with her blonde hair but made Liberty look washed out, so the red it was, along with a pair of gold strappy sandals that killed her feet, but what the heck! A bit of make up, a spritz of Em’s Obsession perfume, her hair out of the ponytail, and she was ready. It had to be the quickest-ever makeover … but seeing as she usually got dressed in five minutes flat, she felt like she’d had a full on pamper session.

Getting ready had been fun, but now as she stood outside Em’s flat waiting for the taxi to turn up, Liberty felt jittery with nerves.

‘Can’t you come with me?’ she asked her friend, who had joined her to smoke a sneaky roll up – Noah strongly disapproved of her smoking and Em was supposed to have given up. Liberty shivered in the thin party dress. It was a cool June night and she regretted not having a jacket.

‘Nope, he didn’t ask me. Stop stressing, this is meant to be a bit of fun. Remember what that was?’ She smiled at her friend. ‘That guy is gorgeous. And he obviously really likes you.’

Liberty fiddled with her hair. ‘I think I’ve lost my flirting mojo.’

‘I’m not surprised – it’s been so long since Eddie.’

Eddie was a friend of Noah’s, and Liberty had gone out with him for five months, a year ago. He had been the first guy she had seen since Luke – Brooke’s dad. Nice enough, fit enough, she had almost begun to fantasise about them falling in love and creating a happy family for her daughter, when he had said he wasn’t ready for that commitment – even though she hadn’t mentioned it – and buggered off back to Australia. Liberty wasn’t so much heart-broken as extremely wary of getting involved with anyone again, for her daughter’s sake.

Her heart had been broken once before by Luke, who hadn’t wanted to know when she fell pregnant at eighteen. He’d harboured his own ambitions of being an actor, and fathering a child at the age of nineteen didn’t figure in them. He had seen Brooke twice since she was born and didn’t give Liberty any money for her maintenance. She dreaded her daughter asking questions about him as she got older. What did you say? How could she soften the blow when she had to reveal the fact that her dad was never interested in her and didn’t want to see her?

Em blew out a perfect smoke ring. ‘Libs, you’ll be fine. It’s like riding a bike. It’ll come back.’

And then there was no more time to worry as the taxi drew up and Em gave her a quick hug. By now it was half-past twelve and a big part of Liberty wanted to go home, to tiptoe into her daughter’s bedroom and watch her sleeping, to kiss her goodnight and shut out the rest of the world. But then she thought of Cory’s blue eyes, the way he had looked at her, the way he’d smiled at her. She couldn’t deny to herself how much she wanted to see him again.

Chapter 2

Liberty doubted that whoever lived at the house on Portland Place had ever worked as a waitress. No, they would be more used to people waiting on them. When she stepped out of the taxi she froze for a moment looking up at the grand four-storey Regency-style house, painted cream and with huge bow windows. She was tempted to get back in the car but at that moment the front door swung open and Cory stepped out. He was holding two champagne flutes and raised one towards her invitingly.

She walked up the stone steps, feeling awkward and slightly shy. Cory kissed her lightly on the cheek. She caught the scent of some delicious spicy aftershave and again felt that spark of excitement.

‘You came. I wasn’t sure that you would. I’ve been looking out for you.’ He handed her the glass and clinked his against hers. ‘Sorry, does that make me sound desperate? I should warn you now, I’m no good at playing it cool.’

She took a sip and felt the bubbles explode and fizz in her mouth. This was the real deal, not the supermarket Cava she and Em would occasionally
treat themselves to when it was on special offer.

‘I wasn’t sure I would come either.’

He was gazing at her with his blue eyes, and that combined with the champagne made Liberty feel reckless. Her flirting mojo had definitely reawakened …

‘But then I thought, what the hell?’

A stunning girl in a gold dress appeared in the doorway. ‘Cory, come in and shut the door, for God’s sake! It’s fucking freezing and I don’t want to piss the neighbours off with the noise. Daddy will go ape if I do.’ She was slurring her words, which made her posh voice into even more of a drawl. Liberty had to swallow back a grin. The drunk girl looked her up and down. ‘And you are?’

At least that was what Liberty thought she asked – her words all ran into one another.

‘This is Liberty, the friend I told you about. Liberty, this is Olivia.’

‘Hiya,’ Liberty said politely. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

‘Hi. Is that a Gucci dress?’

Not unless Gucci dresses retailed for £15.99 … ‘No, it’s House of River Island.’

Olivia wrinkled her nose. ‘Don’t know it.’

‘Oh, it’s very exclusive.’ Liberty couldn’t resist coming out with that.

One of the guests called for Olivia then and she swept away.

Cory grinned. ‘Come on, we’d better go inside, we don’t want Daddy to go ape.’

He took Liberty’s hand and led her in. She felt overwhelmed by the size of the house and its luxurious interior. The vast hallway that was large enough to have a sofa in it where several guests lounged; the glittering chandeliers; the abstract art on the walls; the designer clothes everyone else was wearing; the
upper-class accents cutting through the music; the air that was heady with expensive perfume and scented candles. There was a bar in one of the huge living rooms, a DJ set up in the other. Chill-out music was playing, which gave the party a dreamy, late-night club feel, and revolving lights turned the rooms alternating shades of midnight blue and mauve. How the other half lived …

They sat down on one of the black velvet sofas. It was after one a.m. now but Liberty felt wide awake.

‘Do you always go to parties like this?’ she asked, sipping her champagne – it was going down very quickly, probably too quickly, she would slow down in a minute.

Cory smiled. ‘No, but Olivia is going out with one of my best friends so that’s why I’m here. She’s nicer than she sounds, by the way. She can’t help being so incredibly filthy rich that she doesn’t actually bother to speak properly.’

‘Poor her, what a tragedy.’

‘I really don’t care about her. It’s you, with your mesmerising green eyes, I want to know about,’ he said, moving closer.

She was aware of his arm behind her on the sofa, his thigh inches away from hers.

Liberty shrugged. ‘There’s not much to tell that you don’t already know – I live in Brighton, I want to be an actress, I work as a waitress.’ She didn’t want to talk about Brooke – not because she was in any way ashamed of being a single mum, but because she wanted to be an irresponsible twenty-one-year-old just for tonight, and if she mentioned her daughter that would change everything.

‘See, not very exciting. What about you? You’re American, right?’

‘Yep, I’m from San Francisco originally. I’m taking time out from college to travel.’

‘And what do you want to do eventually?’

‘It might sound pretentious but I want to be a painter.’ He reached out and lightly ran a finger along her jawline. ‘In fact, I’d love to paint you.’

There was a beat while they gazed at each other in silence.

‘So are you at art school?’ she asked.

A shadow seemed to fall across Cory’s face as he replied, ‘No, I’m studying law. My parents weren’t keen on me going to art school … not academic enough for them. Too risky a future. But I just passed the first year at law school and the deal was that I could have a year out before going back.’

‘It doesn’t exactly sound as if your heart’s in it.’

‘Yep, well, we’ll see.’

He clearly came from a very different background from hers, with his wealthy friends and a mummy and daddy who wanted him to study law. Liberty’s mum and dad had divorced when she was eight – her dad now lived in Manchester and had remarried and had two more children. Her mum had just started going to college because she wanted to be a counsellor, and meanwhile worked part-time as a hairdresser. Neither of them had ever held strong views about what Liberty should or shouldn’t do with her life; they just wanted her to be happy.

‘So where have you been travelling?’ she asked Cory.

‘India, Thailand, Australia, various parts of Europe. I’m in the UK for the summer and then I’m supposed to go back to college in the States. But we’ll see. At the moment I’m loving Brighton. I’ve got a flat just along the road from here.’ He grinned. ‘Who knows? I might stay here for ever. It’s got everything
I love … the sea, an artistic vibe, a beautiful girl.’

She groaned, ‘Please, that was
so
cheesy.’

‘I’m sorry, there’s something about you that makes me come out with these things. You know, like when I stopped you in the restaurant? I never normally do stuff like that – I’m a shy and reclusive artist. I hardly dare to talk to women. But I think you could be my muse, the woman I’ve been waiting for.’

‘I really think you’re taking the piss now.’ But Liberty wasn’t annoyed – on the contrary she was enjoying, the banter, which had been very much missing from her life recently. She’d thought she’d had an easygoing, fun relationship with Eddie, but then he’d left …

‘Okay, sorry, I can’t help it. I’m fantastically happy that you came to the party. And now you’re here I just can’t stop looking at you, especially in that House of River Island dress. You’re so beautiful, Liberty, and I don’t think you realise it, which makes you even more special.’

He was so open and direct about his feelings, it gave her an incredible buzz just to be with him. So far she felt as if she had been stumbling through her life, making the best of things, trying to be a good mum, but always aware that something was missing. Meeting Cory made her feel as if a light had been switched on inside her.

She forgot all about how late it was as they talked, flirted and drank champagne; forgot about being in this wildly expensive house; forgot about how she had work the next day. She was oblivious to everything except Cory. Something drew her to him, she couldn’t keep her eyes off him. He made her feel so alive, fizzing with excitement and joy. She felt some of the weight of these last three years fall away from her: the worry, the loneliness, the feeling that she was never going to get
a break as an actress, that she’d be a waitress for ever, that she would never be able to give her daughter the sort of life she wanted for her. They covered exes – well, Liberty did a bit of careful censoring – and Cory had apparently ended a two-year relationship with a girl just before he went travelling. Zara, the blonde girl from the restaurant, had been a three-month rebound. Then music – he was into Massive Attack and U2, she liked Robbie Williams and Madonna – and films. He was into movies like
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
, while she admitted she loved
Titanic
, that she and Em had been to see it twice at the cinema when it came out the year before and watched it on video at least three times since. They thought it was the most romantic film they had ever seen. He teased her about this. She felt as if they were cramming a month’s worth of dates into one night. She wanted to drink it all in. Relish every single second. If this night was going to be all they had, then she wanted to make it one to remember …