The show wasn't to start for another two hours and they meandered their way towards a small restaurant. “You know, I hardly ever ate out before I met you,” Grace admitted and Terry chortled.
“Well. We could get an Indian if you like. Or maybe some bread and beans from a Paki shop. Toast it over some matches by the Thames.”
Grace giggled and touched Terry on the arm. “We'll do whatever you want us to do.”
“I want to kiss you under the moonlight after the show.”
Grace looked away. “Maybe. We'll see.”
Grace ate heartily at the small restaurant before they walked back over the road, to the show. Evita, by Andrew Lloyd Webber, was not ever going to be Grace's play, but Terry enjoyed it and the theatre was packed. They had very good seats and she tried to follow it, but would have preferred him to take her to the cinema instead, musicals were simply not her thing.
“Now we have had our date, am I allowed to ask you out properly?” Terry asked and Grace smiled.
“That's a question.”
“I'll look after you, I promise!”
Grace grinned and put her arm around him. “Depends what you had in mind.”
“How about a wine tasting? Or a restaurant? What do you want to do?”
Grace smiled and put her head on Terry's shoulder. “I'd love to go out on a date with you,” she admitted. “A proper date, with just one condition.”
“What?”
“You stop the gifts trying to win my affections. You've won them.”
“I promise,” Terry replied immediately and they kissed under the street light at the end of the road. She produced a piece of paper and asked Terry to write his address and phone number on it, which he did.
He looked at her expecting to get her details in return and she pulled out a naked photo of herself, on the back was written an address.
“Sorry I don't have a phone number, 'cause we don't have a phone,” Grace said.
“Can I come down next Friday,” he asked and Grace nodded in approval.
“Yeah, I'd like that,” she said softly and kissed him on the lips.
Sandy had been surprised but happy for Grace when she told her that Terry and her were now an item. A few things were still worrying her, especially her choice of profession and how Terry would deal with this, but she liked him, he made her happy and only Sandy had managed that before she had met her new boyfriend.
Sandy had been working hard at the casino for the last couple of weeks and Grace had spent little time with her. She had forced her into ensuring that she was not working on her twentieth birthday, the following week, so they could go to the cinema.
That said, Sandy had been unusually quiet of late, and this worried Grace slightly. She wasn't sure if Sandy thought Terry was such a good idea now that they were actually going out, and if she was worried Terry would take Grace from her.
“No I am not jealous,” Sandy said in an annoyed tone as they ate their fish and chips in front of the black and white television. “I am happy for you. I am just a bit tired.” Grace didn't believe her and shovelled a piece of battered cod in her mouth and stared at the Danish girl. “What?”
“I can tell when you are lying,” Grace warned her. “I've known you for too long.”
Sandy sighed and put a chip in her mouth. “It's nothing.”
“Well it's something. Tell me.”
Sandy wiped her face and took a deep breath. “It's just the casino.”
“What about it?” Grace asked and put the remains of her tea on the tired and worn carpet.
Sandy sucked in her lips. “They've rigged the tables. All of the games, the cards, they are all fixed. No-one wins anything.”
“You are joking, aren't you.”
“Nope. All that money he makes is just theft.”
Grace bit her lip and sighed. “Well, it is illegal gambling. I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised.”
“No. I suppose we shouldn't, but Neville threatened me when he saw that I knew. I just don't like it.”
Grace put her arm around her friend and cuddled her. “Well as long as you don't tell anyone, he won't care, right?”
“Yeah. But…”
“Do you want to move again?”
Sandy took a deep breath and shook her head. “No. I'll be fine. I am just worrying about nothing, aren't I?”
“No. If you want to move on then we will. We could even look for that business now.”
Sandy shook her head. “No, I'm fine.”
Chapter V
The last Friday in June saw the first “proper date”, and Terry had driven down from Cheshire in his brown Ford Cortina. It was a couple of years old but it blended in with some of the nicer cars at the end of the street and he parked outside their flat. Grace bounded out to meet him and grinned widely.
“Is that your man?” Ethel asked. She had been watering her hanging baskets when Terry had arrived although she had not noticed Grace's lack of attire.
She resisted the urge to throw her arms around Terry and as she was only wearing a thin dressing gown when she walked, her shaven crotch was on display.
“Yes,” Grace admitted.
“He is very smart,” Ethel complimented her. Grace noticed his immediate erection he seemed to have acquired as he crossed the road and she showed him to her room.
Grace only had a single bed but this would be sufficient for a couple of nights. If the date went well, then she was certain that they would probably end up having sex anyhow; it seemed churlish in the circumstances to withhold it given that sex with her was priced and he was spending far more money than what she would normally charge anyway.
Of course, he wasn't doing it for that reason, but she still didn't see much point in “holding out,” as he had already experienced her delights anyway and she enjoyed it when they had done so.
Grace went into the kitchen and made a pot of tea while Terry used the toilet. Sandy was working, the flat was empty and he came up to her and put his arms around her.
“You do look very sexy,” he mused glancing down at her open gown. “I am going to be a very lucky man if you keep going out with me,” he muttered and she smiled.
Terry took Grace to a small restaurant in the centre of London. Grace was beginning to see Terry as someone quite special and he made her laugh and enjoy herself more than she had done in months. They kissed and shared food, Grace felt as though she had a proper boyfriend but the doubts about her choice of occupation were still eating away at her.
She decided to bring it up as they walked back towards the Underground station and he smiled. “I can't deny it wouldn't be my first choice for my girlfriend to do, but it comes as part of the package, and I very much like the package,” he told her pragmatically. “If I told you I didn't want you to do it, you wouldn't want anything to do with me.”
Grace nodded and chuckled. “Well, isn't it going to be a problem at some point?”
Terry sucked in his lips. “Maybe, but I doubt it. I really don't mind. I will just enjoy the time we spend with each other.” Grace hummed, she had her doubts but Terry stopped her and kissed her. “Please stop trying to find obstacles, Grace,” he pleaded with her as they broke their kiss and she sighed.
“I'm not. I am just worried.”
“Well don't be. It's not a problem.”
Grace opened the door to their flat and they both trundled in.
