Bang Gang (10 page)

“You look like a princess, Mum!”

“That lipstick looks super cool!”

“Oh, Jodie, that colour really does suit you. What a lovely top!”

Seeing the shock on their faces cemented the fact that my late night shopping splurge had been the right call. Oh the wonder of a top that actually fitted properly and a splash of
Autumn Berry
lippy. My choices hadn’t even been that extreme, not really. I could have picked
Mystic Plum
or
Scarlet Harlot.
Maybe I would one day. Never say never.

I made the school run with more confidence than I’d felt in a long time, head high as I stood amongst the other mothers – despite all the whispers that were clearly circulating post gigolo-gate. Today I felt strangely immune, my own entity of just Jodie, separate from Trent and his
bang-ganging
ways. My hair was freshly washed and straightened, my skin glowing through the wonderful illusion of decent foundation. I looked better and I knew it, and maybe it was a far cry away from the glitz and glamour of Porsche-bitch and her ilk, but it was good enough for me.

It was good enough.

Lorraine gave me a
twit-twoo
as I stepped into the cafe for the beginning of my shift.

“Get you!” she said. “You look fantastic. Have you dyed your hair?” She ran a section of my straightened hair through her fingers, held it up to the light.

“Not yet,” I said with a smile.

I was so concerned with how good I felt that I barely noticed the change in demeanour of those around me. Yesterday’s scorn had turned into curiosity, and further still into this strange ripple of interest that was whispering through the female village populous.

Hannah Bowen never usually gives me the time of day. She comes into the cafe at least three mornings a week, and besides a polite smile she gives me nothing. Not even a half-arsed
how are you?
Hannah Bowen has a reputation for being stand-offish, but it seemed that today was the day that all changed.

She leaned over the counter as I prepped her coffee, and she had bright pink lipstick on, foundation so thick she looked slightly orange.

“Hi, Jodie. Wow. Nice top.” Her smile was fake and bright, but I appreciated the compliment all the same. “How are you?” she said. “How are the girls?”

You could have knocked me down with a feather.

I spooned out the milk froth for her cappuccino and gave her a paper smile. “I’m good, thanks. We’re all good. And yourself?”

She flashed a look around the cafe, and then her smile grew brighter. “I’m great, yeah. Really great.”

“Pleased to hear it.” I placed her cup on the side, put a biscuit on her plate.

She didn’t even pick it up, made no effort to leave at all. She cleared her throat, and smiled some more, then she twisted a stray wisp of blonde hair around her fingers. “Say, Jodie, have you, um… have you seen Trent lately? I mean… is he, um…”

“Is he, um…?” I met her eyes and held her stare.

“Is he, um… you know…” Her eyes widened. “Is he really a…
gigolo
?”

I felt my cheeks warming beneath the foundation. “You’ll have
to ask him yourself,” I said.

She laughed, just a little. “Well, I would, but…” She leaned in further. “We don’t really know each other…” Her eyes twinkled. “I just heard he was offering…
group activities.
If you know what I mean.”

“Like I said, you’ll really have to ask him.”

Another clear of the throat. “Is that his thing?
Gangbangs
?”

Not that I ever knew.

“I’m really not the person to ask.” I pushed her cup in her direction. “We were together a long time ago. I’m really not qualified to give you the lowdown on Trent’s current sexual preferences.”

I watched her deflate in front of me, huffing out at least a little disappointment. “Let me know, if you hear anything. I mean, if he has a website…”

Like he has a fucking website. Bang Gang - orgies on demand.

I forced a smile. “I’ll be sure to let you know.”

Hannah Bowen may have been the first to ask directly about Trent’s little moonlighting project, but she sure as hell wasn’t the last. Women who’d seemed as impartial to a full face of makeup as I’d been were suddenly rocking up with beautician-perfect smoky eyes and glossy lipstick. Must be something in the air.

Sweet little Amy Tanner from Elm Grove stuttered her way through questions about
Trent’s services
. Rita Powell laughed her way through a monologue on how she fancied
living wild
and did I know anything about five hot mechanics out for a good time? Sarah Kelly came right out with it and asked if she could book Trent and Buck through me, and that really did make me blush, foundation or no.

Lorraine handed me an espresso as a break in the queue came around. Her eyes were sympathetic, like they always are when it’s shit about Trent. She gestured to the packed out cafe and raised her eyebrows.

“I’m guessing the horny females of our lovely village haven’t all just taken a sudden liking to Tuesday morning coffee,” she whispered.

“Sorry,” I said.

“Don’t be, all business is good business, I just hope this isn’t too hard on you.” Her look was so pointed. That
Trent’s-an-asshole-and-you’re-better-off-without-him
look I’d come to know so well. She put a hand on my shoulder. “Best thing you ever did splitting up. He’s so…” She groaned. “Troublesome.”

And really hot in a tux.
I forced the thought from my mind, pissed to find the same flutters in my belly that I’d felt the night before. A bodywand session should have sorted it.
Did
sort it. Or so I thought. It hadn’t meant anything, just fantasy gone mad. The shock of seeing Darren so… toned… the thought of some rich bitch being fucked by him and Buck, the others, too. I mean, that could never be me… I’d never take five guys… even if I’d had the orgasm of the century at the thought of it. It meant nothing.

Totally nothing.

I definitely wouldn’t want that.

That’s for women like Mandy Taylor and Hannah Bowen. Women who are… brash.

Confident.

Horny.

Sexy.

I checked out my reflection in the side of the coffee machine. Was
I
horny and sexy? The thought made me laugh out loud. A couple of dabs of eyeliner did not make a sex kitten, that’s for sure.

Not yet, anyway.

Tonya came in at the end of lunch, puffing and sweaty and midway through an apparent jog around the village.

She gripped a section of belly and wiggled it at me over the counter. “Keeping fit, need to tone up a little. Then I might hit the online dating. Again.”

“You look great as you are,” I said. She did, too.

Her eyes met mine and widened. “Not as fine as you! Jesus, Jodie, what the hell happened? Did someone break in and commit
armed makeover
? If they did then please send them my way, I’ll leave the window open and won’t call the cops.”

“It’s just a bit of foundation…” I mumbled, but I was smiling.

“Like fuck it is! That top’s new.” She pointed straight at my chest. “Those babies are definitely in a decent push-up, and…” She leaned over the counter to check out the rest of me. “New jeans. Definitely new. So, what’s going on, pussycat?”

“Just thought I could smarten myself up a little.” I handed her a mug of tea. “Seems I’m not the only one around here. World’s gone crazy.”

“The Trent effect.” She rolled her eyes. “Mention a five-mechanic gangbang and the whole village goes makeup crazy, go figure.”

I leaned over the counter. “That’s not why I’m doing this.”

“Oh, I know,” she said. “You’re doing this because it’s about time you put some effort into being
you
again.”

“It is?”

“Oh yes,” she smirked. “It really is. Which is exactly why you’re taking a day off to come shopping with me. Girls’ day. Don’t say no.”

“But…”

Lorraine’s hands appeared on my shoulders. Her voice was loud in my ear. “Yes, you
are
having a shopping day. You haven’t taken time off since Easter.”

“Exactly!” Tonya exclaimed.

“Definitely,” Lorraine insisted. “This Friday. I’ll get Emma to cover.”

“Friday,” Tonya confirmed. “Spa, lunch and shopping.”

Spa, lunch and shopping sounded expensive. I said as much.

Tonya just scoffed at me. “Get Trent to help out, now you know about his lucrative little side-line, I’m sure he won’t mind dishing out a bit so you can have some downtime.”

I shook my head. “This has nothing to do with Darren. He does enough. We do alright.”

I could feel Lorraine’s scorn at the back of me, but she didn’t say a word. That was something she’d never been right on, truth be told. You can say a lot of things about Darren Trent, but the accusation that he doesn’t do his bit to look after the girls was way off the mark.

Tonya didn’t even try to argue with me, she knew as much, too.

I let out a sigh. “I could come, maybe get my nails done, just the cheap ones…”

Tonya clapped her hands. “Get in!”

“But!” I added. “I’m not going to be going shopping crazy, I’ll just be there for the company. I’ll be your personal shopper.”

“It’s a start.” She downed her tea in one and started jogging on the spot. “In that case I better keep up with the keep fit, see if I can drop a dress size in the next few days. Laters.”

I watched Lorraine chalk my day off on the rota and couldn’t help but smile.

Petey shrugged at me, hung up the phone. “Another service to book in,” he began, but I waved him quiet.

We’d had ten new service bookings today already. Ten.

None of them due, all of them female.

Mandy fucking Taylor had a lot to answer for.

Buck grinned at me, tugged at his beard. “Think we should open the books up? Take on some new clients?”

I shook my head. “Fuck that. Not locals. Got enough shit going on already.”

I dived back in to the air-con job I’d been working on and only surfaced again when a chorus of wolf whistles started up. My gut dropped at the prospect of another Eleanor Hartley drive-by, but the figure approaching our shutter doors wasn’t anyone after a Bang Gang special.

I’ve known Tonya since we were kids. She was already Jodie’s best mate by the time we started up. I don’t think they ever weren’t. She was jogging today, in some pale grey leggings that showed enough to get the guys whooping.

“Knock it off, lads,” I grunted, tossing a roll of tape in Jimmy’s direction to get him to quit with the hip thrusting.

Tonya came bounding straight up, her dark ponytail bouncing around her shoulders as she jogged on the spot, her tits bobbing up and down. I smiled, but it wasn’t in
that
way. I’d never seen Tonya in
that
way, pretty though she was. Her
cheeks were flushed pink and her breath was heavy. I knew exactly what the guys were thinking, but she seemed oblivious. Oblivious or totally disinterested. It made a change around here lately.