Don't Call Me Baby

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Lola Receives a Shocking Proposal

When I got home mum was out, which was just as well. I rushed into my bedroom, quickly unpacked, ripped off labels, and packed all the rubbish into a bag, which I went into the hallway to stuff down the rubbish shoot. Hopefully it would be a while before she noticed and grilled me about where I got all the clothes from. I put the water on for a long bath. I was stuffed and tonight I was going to have to eat more at my meeting - was it a date? - with Steve. It would undoubtedly involve food as he was picking me up at 7:30pm.

As I soaked in the bath I pondered on which of my new outfits I would wear tonight. I was looking forward to testing my new image out on Steve. Most of the clothes were strictly office type clothes, mostly separates that I could mix and match, but there was one dress, a red wool jersey dress. It had long sleeves and a full skirt with a V-neck which, if I wore a push up bra, would show some cleavage. Not that I had a push up bra so actually I couldn't guarantee that I would have a cleavage unless I crossed my arms and leant forward. I bet Pam never had to worry about having a cleavage. Oh Lola Hussey, I thought to myself, I really do have to learn to take more care of my looks.

I took the dress off the hanger and slid it on over my head. It fit wonderfully. I could see why Julian had insisted on buying it for me. I looked, well, I looked hot. The doorbell rang. It was Emm. "Fuck, girl you look hot," were the first words out of her mouth. I could hear my mum coming down the corridor so ran into my bedroom and pulled Emm in with me. While I sat on my bed applying my new makeup I told her about my afternoon shopping with Julian. "Maybe his mum never gave him cuddles," she said. "Posh people are like that you know. They don't love their kids they give them to nannies to bring up."

"Don't be silly Emm of course they love their kids," I argued

"Just because you and I love Barney doesn't mean every parent loves their kid. Look at your dad pissing off when you were little. Look at Marley, he never even waited for Barney to be born," at this thought her eyes started to tear up.

Oh Lordy, please Emm, pull yourself together, I prayed silently, deliberately omitting to remind her of the fact neither my dad nor Marley were rich and had nannies to abandon their kids to. They just abandoned them. As if she heard me she cheered up immediately opening my wardrobe and pulling out the outfits one by one.

"Emm I have to get some underwear, I can't be wearing this nice stuff and still have my grey baggy knickers on underneath."

"What?! He didn't buy you underwear?" she exclaimed.

"Emm he's not a boyfriend. Of course he didn't buy underwear. Or perfume. Or grown up bedroom slippers to replace my pink bunnies," I didn't miss the opportunity to get that hint in, "just work clothes." Emma looked at me curiously I wasn't sure if she was wondering about the pink bunny slipper comment, or musing over why he never stretched to purchasing new underwear for me.

"That dress is a bit OTT for work though isn't it?" she asked. Obviously she had not seen Ms. Pneumatic.

"It's called smart casual Emm," I corrected her. The hemline came to mid-calf and it covered most of my body how could it be OTT?

"Smarty tarty more like," she giggled. I was worried though.

"Do I look like a tart?" I asked her frowning.

"No," she hugged me, "I was only joking. You look lovely. Really stunning, actually. I'm jealous. You have a lovely figure Lola - you should definitely show it off more." She said this in a totally un-jealous way. We didn't have a long mirror at home the only one we had had was on the door of my wardrobe and that got smashed during an argument between mum and my dad when I was little. So I had to guess what I looked like full length and take Emma's word for it.