Bachelor Boys by Kate Saunders Page A

moment if I would ever be able to eat again. I did my best to keep my voice light, for the sake of my old Cotton House companion. “I’m sure it does her good, though. You know how she loves to hear you play.”
    Ben smiled. “I’ll never have a better audience.”
    â€œFritz said you were both single,” I said. “Does that mean you’ve done something about Mrs. Appleton?”
    â€œIs that what he told you?” Ben was nettled. Points of color appeared in his pale cheeks. “I didn’t do anything, actually. It’s just that our understanding has—changed.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œShe—she wanted to sleep with me,” Ben muttered crossly. “I had to tell her we didn’t have that kind of relationship. Not on my side, anyway. I thought it was purely friendship, you know. In the platonic sense. A meeting of minds.”
    I had to bite the inside of my cheeks not to laugh at this. Good grief,
I had done Ben a terrible injustice. Incredibly, he had been telling the truth about his relationship with the aging music lover.
    I asked, “Was she angry when you turned her down?”
    â€œFurious,” Ben said morosely, wincing over the memory. I didn’t expect him to elaborate, and was all ready to change the subject, but he was in confessional mood. “I was round at her place, and we were literally in the middle of a Haydn flute sonata, and all of a sudden she was trying to snog me and get her hand down my jeans. I barely got out of there alive.”
    â€œPoor you.” I reached across the table to squeeze his hand.
    â€œSo you see, I certainly wasn’t having sex with Vinnie. God, no. I haven’t had any sex since I split up with Karen.”
    â€œKaren? Did I ever meet her?”
    â€œNo. It didn’t last long enough.” Ben sighed heavily, and took a huge mouthful of lasagne. “You know me, Cass. I never can make these things last. I’m still looking for the right person. I’m not like Fritz. He dumps his women, and I get dumped.”
    â€œThat’s not entirely true,” I couldn’t help saying. “They only dump you because they can’t get any sort of commitment out of you and you never pay for anything. That’s why Phoebe’s so particularly anxious to see you settled.”
    â€œI’d love to be settled,” Ben said seriously. “I need to fall in love properly. Especially now.”
    â€œLeave it to me,” I said, determined to be as bullish as possible. “I’m coming round tonight with a list of hand-picked brides.”
    He smiled wryly. “I don’t know. I don’t seem to have Fritz’s pulling power.”
    â€œNonsense—you’ve been beating them off with a stick since you were twelve. Quite frankly, now you’ve got a job, you’re more marriageable than that brother of yours.”
    â€œYou reckon?” Ben brightened. “That’d be one in the eye for him, wouldn’t it? If I got there first for once.”
    A waiter removed our plates—mine still full, Ben’s wiped clean—and Ben cheerfully ordered cheesecake for pudding.
    Before it arrived, he suddenly pointed to the door of the restaurant. “Hey—look who it is!”

    I glanced over my shoulder at the tall, striking dark-haired woman. “Do you know her?”
    â€œNot as well as you do,” Ben said. “Don’t you recognize her? It’s your friend Honor. The one who was going to buy me concert tickets, until you ruined it.”
    â€œWhat?” I swiveled round in my chair to take a closer look.
    Yes, it was Honor Chappell. But what had she done to herself? The terrible mousy crew cut had been replaced by a neat cap of dark hair that showed off an unexpectedly well-shaped head and the luminosity of those great gray eyes. She had also visited a decent clothes shop—possibly for the first time in her