The Gigolo by Isabella King

her heart was pounding in her throat as it rang. She waited anxiously for him to answer but his phone went straight to answer phone and what Kara had to say couldn’t really be left on a machine so she hung up, grabbed a bottle of vodka from the cupboard and took it up to bed with her.
    Kara stripped off her work clothes and was about to pull on a comfy old cotton nightdress when she caught sight of the ring between her l egs. She stormed back down to the cupboard under the stairs and rummaged through the tool box her father had given her for Christmas last year until she found a pair of bolt cutters. Kara opened her legs and snapped the ring in two. It felt as if she’d sliced into her heart with a knife and she was crying as she removed the ring and threw it down the toilet.
    I’m never going to look at another man as long as I live.
    Kara climbed into bed and turned on day time TV. Her bed was her haven; the place she sought out when things went wrong but not even a freshly laundered quilt and fluffed up pillows could comfort her today. She swigged from the bottle staring at the TV screen but seeing nothing.
     
    ***
     
    The phone beside her bed woke her and Kara picked up the receiver instinctively, before she was fully conscious and with no idea if it was day or night.
    ‘Hello.’ Her voice was slurred. She blinked in an effort to regain her vision.
    ‘I hear you have a little problem at work.’ Fuck! It was Jack Finnegan.
    Kara was suddenly stone cold sober and stuttered and stammered in an attempt to justify the fact that she’d just taken the day off.
    ‘I’m not bothered if you take a whole month off. What I am bothered about is you losing control of the reins of my business.’
    ‘It’s not a problem, Jack,’ she slurred into the phone. ‘ Everything’s under control.’ He couldn’t possibly know what was going on, she figured through the fuzz of her vodka pickled brain.
    ‘ Kara, I understand that you’re reluctant to admit to your…a…little weakness but I have to tell you that I saw the security video from the conference room today.’
    Kara was speechless. She stared into the receiver open mouthed, unable to form a single word. It was Jack who spoke first.
    ‘I’m coming over. You need help and I wouldn’t dream of leaving you out there on your own.’
    Kara pulled on a robe and made a pot of coffee. She had accepted her fate now. She was finished in this town. Jack would sack her and she’d still have to pay those bastards to save her reputation. Her life was over but she’d come to terms with it and no one could hurt her any more. It almost felt good to be able to tell someone else. The weight of it was bearing too heavy on her shoulders. She felt as if she was about to break down.
    Jack arrived half an hour later and she showed him into the kitchen and poured him a large measure of whisky.
    ‘I’m sorry Jack. I’ll have Julie clear my desk first thing in the morning.’
    ‘Tell me what happened – from the beginning, and don’t try hiding anything from me or I won’t be able to help you.’
    ‘Help me?’ Kara couldn’t believe that he’d come here to do anything other than gloat at her monumental fuck up and was sure he was only searching for damage limitation before he cut her loose, but she poured out the whole sordid affair, only omitting the fact that she had enjoyed any part of it, and Jack listened without interrupting.
    ‘Let me tell you this right now, child,’ Jack took her into his arms and pulled her close. ‘You needn’t worry your pretty little head about Luke Granger. I promise you the bastard will never bother you again.’
    Kara broke down and sobbed into Jack’s chest. He rubbed her back and rocked her gently until she’d finally cried herself out.
    K ara thought she might have misjudged Jack. Perhaps he did have a heart after all – and morals, and possibly even a little bit of integrity. She was grateful but then he went and spoilt it all.
    ‘ We