Last Chance Saloon - Marian Keyes [160]
There were lots of men in London. Lots and lots of men. Tara and Fintan had rolled up their sleeves and set about working their way through them, but Katherine had kept her distance. It was no hardship for her. But her lack of interest wasn’t always reciprocated. Though she wasn’t exactly fighting them off with sticks, she was occasionally asked out. Without it costing her a thought she always said no, as unpleasantly as she could. No one asked a second time.
Until one Friday night, fourteen months after her arrival in London, Katherine went to the pub with Tara’s workmates. Among the people she was introduced to was a man called Simon Armstrong, the official office heart-throb. Confident, charming, well-built, good-looking and blond, he enjoyed great success with women. But Katherine barely noticed him. It was as if she had a blind spot. With his acute antennae, Simon picked up on her genuine lack of interest in him – you can’t fake these things. He could have had any of the women present, but contrarily he wanted Katherine, intrigued and maddened by her unavailability, his ego telling him he’d be the man to get behind her mask – that he had to be.
Katherine wasn’t as sleek and beautiful as the women he usually dated but, somehow, that made it even more important to win her. He found himself going after her, blocking her way, and grinning. ‘Resistance is futile.’
The other girls there looked on in disbelief, scorning Katherine’s neat hair and her ordered, unremarkable appearance. ‘Maybe she reminds him of his mother,’ they concluded.
Simon got her work number from Tara and rang and asked her out. She said no. So he rang again. Again she said no. He told her he didn’t take no for an answer.
Katherine was initially alarmed by his attention. And then she was flattered. And then she was excited. The bombardment of Simon’s attentions managed to break through her protective walls and old, buried desires came bobbing to the surface. She wanted to be loved. And if she could make things work with this Simon Armstrong, her life would get back on the right track. All’s well that ends well.
So she went on a date with him. Then another. Then another. After three weeks she slept with him. As she left his bed he said he’d call her that evening, but he didn’t. So she called him early – too early – the following day. And, trying to keep the tremor from her voice, suggested that they go out that night. When Simon gave an evasive answer, she begged, her eyes clenched shut, ‘Please don’t do this to me.’ Which, of course, had Simon running for the hills.
He’d lost interest, anyway. She was too young and inexperienced, not tough enough, and he’d hung on merely for the notch-on-the-bedpost bonk. All he’d really liked about her was her unavailability and once he’d slept with her that had disappeared immediately. Though slim and pretty, she was no stunna and Simon Armstrong liked stunnas. Not to mention that he was picking up very needy signals from her, which made him itchy and uncomfortable.
He knew an obsessive when he facilitated one.
In the weeks and months that followed, Katherine was like a shell-shock victim. She couldn’t believe she’d been dumped again. It seemed that her ability to handle men had worsened, if anything, and she felt more out of control than ever.
That was the last time she’d ever go out with a man, she swore to herself. She’d really learnt her lesson this time.
Over the next couple of years her life came together for her. She worked hard, passed accountancy exams, lived with Fintan and Tara, watched their romantic exploits with a wry smile, but steered well clear of any liaisons herself. Not that you’d know she’d opted out of love: she still bought trendy – though not too trendy – clothes, spent a lot of money on her hair, talked to men in a light-hearted, distant way and went partying every time her flatmates did. The only difference was that she always went home alone.
Until she met Alex Hoist.
It was almost four years since she