And now, Phil was standing in his ill-fitting suit, trying to feel anything but awkward. He patted himself down as if wiping away dust, then fixed his hair a little.
He heard some movement from the top of the stairs and then turned to see if Sadie were coming back. But it wasn’t her at all. Instead, Kiara was coming down, her hand trailing the banister as she walked, looking at him, the merest hint of a smug smile playing over her lips.
“I’m ready,” she says, her voice possessing a strength he’d almost forgotten it possessed. His eyes scanned over her in perfect silence. He wasn’t the only one brushing up especially for this night out. She wore a mid-length, flowing white dress, decorated with small plastic diamonds on the netted skirt and around the chest. Her hair was curled and her face showed signs of subtle make-up, accentuating her beauty more than usual. She took each step carefully, with her pair of three inch silver heels on her feet. Personally, Phil found her attractive even when she was naked, or just in her tomboyish clothes, but this was something else.
He knew precisely why she’d done this. It wasn’t just her teenage feminine desire to look pretty on a night out. It wasn’t just to upstage her mum. It was to flaunt herself. An outfit of triumph over him. An outfit that would flaunt her beauty right under his nose, happy in the thought that he would never get to have her again.
That was indeed the reason she’d done it, though in her head it was of little consolation really. He’d taken far too much from her to just have it recompensed by a pretty dress and sparkly shoes. But it was still something. It was still a sign of triumph over him, and she had to live that out before she’d never see him again. A symbol of her victory, to be getting her mum, and more importantly her life, back to herself.
“Very nice,” he offered her glibly and turned around to put on his own shoes. They were respectable black slip-ons, the only vaguely decent pair he had. “Any sign of your mum?” he said, just wanting now to get out and to the restaurant.
Kiara pulled out her phone from her bag and checked it, deliberately taking a long time to answer him. “Kiara?” he asked again. “I said is your mother-“
She looked up and cut him off rudely, trying to dismiss his questioning to get back to her important texting. “She’s coming,” she said impatiently. Her phone tapped noisily as they waited, and Kiara laughed at a message that she hadn’t received.
“You won’t be having that out at the table I hope,” commented Phil, floundering around for any kind of authority at all.
She raised her eyes from the screen, then lowered them immediately, not saying a word.
“Sadie! Come on! We’ll be late!” he shouted impatiently up the stairs,.
When Sadie finally did arrive, Phil gave her a cursory glance, then opened the door. “Right finally. Come on. I booked a taxi before. Let’s go and wait.” He wrenched the door open and hurriedly stepped outside, still pulling and pushing at his awkward suit jacket as he walked down the path.
Sadie tried not to be too miffed at Phil’s dismissal of her outfit, then checked her bag one last time. She looked at Kiara to check she’d heard it was time to go, then walked ahead of her out of the door. As Phil waited at the edge of the kerb down below, Sadie talked in hurried tones back to her daughter. “Do you know what this is about?” she asked curiously, her hair now tied up in a bun. The black dress she’d spotted now hugged her waist and she instantly rubbed her hands together against the evening chill. She slid her greasy laid lips over each other as she waited for an answer. Kiara just shrugged though and slipped her phone into her bag, then clicked down off the doorstep to walk down behind her mother.
“Just a meal out I guess,” she said, acting as clueless as she could.
By the time the girls reached the bottom of the path, Phil was already tapping his foot impatiently at the kerbside, trying his best to look down the road for their approaching taxi. “They did say five minutes, but you know what that place is like.” The hulking white van laid close to them in the driveway, but Phil decided it wouldn’t be that apposite for them to all bundle in their in their nice clothes, and have to park it amongst the other, much more flashy vehicles in the car park.
Kiara stood stock still as she waited, her eyes not moving from ahead of her, not even shivering against the cool wind that whipped past them all. Eventually, they heard an engine coming, then the sight of a car followed.
“Can I sit in the front?” Kiara asked, easily deciding that was the best bet.
The restaurant was warm and airy, pleasant piano music tinkling out from the numerous speakers dotted about. The carpets made for a quieter atmosphere, the gentle hum of people’s conversation accompanying the music. A refined looking gentleman smiled at the three as they entered, Phil deliberately holding Sadie’s hand as they came in. “Good evening,” he said, his accent holding a twang of deliberate Italian.
“Hi,” Phil said curtly, quickly glancing back to make sure Kiara was still with them. “I booked a table for three. Turner?” The man spent little time checking his notes before ushering them through. Phil let go of Sadie’s hand and sat himself down, noticing Kiara’s deliberate movements as she stepped around and sat on the other side, opposite her mother. He tried not to stare too hard at the curve of her breasts, peeking out from the sparkly pattern of fake jewels lining them. He shifted his chair slightly more under the table, and then grabbed for the menus, handing out the other two, and opening his to peruse it.
“Have anything you want, tonight is on me.”
His chirpy mood was not lost on Kiara, and she felt a little uneasy about it. Knowing him, it was probably just covering up for his obvious anger and disappointment at her for forcing his hand like this.
Phil skimmed his eyes along the lines, trying not to look past the pound sign each time. Feeling a little enclosed, he pulled at his sleeves to get the suit jacket off and put it over the back of his chair.
“It is a bit posh in here isn’t it?” Sadie whispered, just loud enough for them all to hear her. “If you’ve won the lottery Phil, can you just tell us?” She giggled and then sneakily laid a hand on his knee under the table.
If he’d done that, he’d be buying Kiara and himself a huge house to live in, and negotiating a price with her to live as his mistress whore for the rest of her life. Like the thousands of times before, he turned a deaf ear to his girlfriend’s fatuous attempt at comedy and read on.
Kiara held her menu up to hide herself and leafed through it carefully. “I think I’ll have the…” She took a breath to brace herself for the pronunciation. “Lobster fettuccini al carbonara.”
Sadie skipped a page to find the one she’d mentioned, then looked sharply up at her daughter. “Really? Are you sure you want that one sweetheart? It’s the most expensive one on there.”
Phil had noticed it himself, but chose not to give Kiara the satisfaction of showing his irritation. She could spend his money if she wanted to, he really didn’t care about that right now. “It’s ok. I did say choose what you want.”