London Blue

Chapter 5. Nick, The Player.

The story continues ...

In the published book (London with Love), a new chapter here was put in called Savoy Grill, which features a BDSM scene. It showed why Scott did BDSM.

The following scene, however, was left out of the book.

The Becks tasted good. Scott held the cold bottle of beer, leaned on the bar and watched Nick take a handful of KP roasted peanuts from the packet. They talked about the currency market and how Nick made money trading between the US Dollar and UK Sterling. He still couldn't figure out how Nick earned enough money to afford his luxurious penthouse apartment, his second property somewhere in Switzerland and his expensive cars.

It was a typical City of London pub, old, dark and busy during the week with office workers, and virtually empty at weekends. Dirty Dicks in Bishopsgate had the added attraction of atmosphere, being a historic pub built in 1745. The bar filled up with the after-six crowd from local offices. As more people came in and the noise level went up, Scott could see Nick's roving eyes scanning the room every two minutes. After a while, his eyes focused on a point behind Scott.

'I can tell you've spotted someone behind me you like the look of,' said Scott.

'Long black hair, Asian, small breasts. Very nice.' Nick picked up his beer glass and took a sip. 'She's with a friend. You could take the friend.' In Nick's language, ''friend'' meant a person of the same sex.

'I don't think so. I want to relax, not go and chat up a couple of girls.' He watched Nick. It always surprised Scott how determined his friend became whenever he spied an attractive female. Nick would keep his gaze on his prey to get eye contact, thus to make it obvious to the woman he was interested.

'Trouble is,' said Nick, 'I need to score which means I have to take every opportunity. Unlike you.'

'I'm just naturally cautious about relationships.'

'What I meant was, women flock to you. Directly they find out you're a hot cosmetic surgeon, they get all interested in you,' Nick focused again on the girl. 'Whereas, I have to use all my skills to get them into bed.'

'I don't like the commitment that comes with sex.' Scott thought of past experiences where having sex came with a message. 'It doesn't take long, Nick, to have a girl assume ''exclusivity''. In other words, they start to fall in love and they begin to make plans. I would rather not get into that.'

'You have commitment-phobia, Scott. Tell me the real reason you don't like to commit.'

Scott played for time, time to think. He took a slow drink of his beer. He admitted it may not be as simple as sex equals commitment. 'We all get a bit delusional in those first few months, when good sex makes everything rosy. I don't think I'm running away. I just want to be sure that when I take out the sex element, there's a woman I want to give everything to. At which point I would see her as THE commitment, if that makes sense.'

'I commit to sex. Women want to be chased and that's what I do. You're missing out on a lot of fun.' Nick paused. 'The Asian fancies me.'

'You're on your own tonight.' He occasionally helped Nick out by talking to the ''friend'' while Nick chatted up the girl he wanted.

Nick laughed. 'I can't get enough.' He raised his eyebrows. 'Hey. You know the crumpet you dragged in to the Dorc? I have a date with her.'

'What? You mean Emily? How the heck did you manage that?' A fleck of irritation swept through him. He presumed it was because of Nick's off-hand way of describing her.

'I gave her my number.'

'You sly old bastard. Are you saying she phoned you?'

Nick joked. 'I always wait for them to phone me. It gives me the upper hand.' He sipped his beer. 'She's gagging for it, the Emily girl.'

A slow burn indignation went through Scott's mind. 'How do you know she wants sex? She hardly knows you. You're lying aren't you and she hasn't phoned you.'

'Okay, she texted. Said thanks for the tea. Now I have her number.'

Scott ignore the small point he had paid for tea. Nor did he mention his ruined tie, which would simply cause Nick to roar with laughter.

Nick continued. 'I can tell she's keen. I'll text her back.'

'And?' He hid the anger he felt, although he hadn't worked out why he should get all steamed up with the usual mind workings of Nick the player.

'And she'll agree to meet me. I'll take her out and we'll end up in the sack.' He looked at the Asian girl again and changed the conversation. 'Watch me,' he said, as he went over to introduce himself.

Scott swore. He wondered if he cared if Emily got fucked by Nick.