Dancing in the Dark Pt. 06

"I would like to think you will get jail time and I suggest you might want to start using butt-plugs to stretch that tight little arse of yours because Big Ruby from Brixton is going use a strap-on that will dwarf my cock. Now fuck off before I beat the crap of you."

She looked at me in shock with her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. Eventually, it turned to a sneer which was bravado more than anything as I could see the fear in her eyes.

"You piece of shit! Bum fucking a bloke with tits, you faggot..."

She seemed to run out of things to say as the realisation of what had happened continued to dawn on her. I filled the gap for her.

"She's more of a woman than you any day and I guess that makes me more of a man because I love the fact that she is trans. If that makes me a faggot in the eyes of people like you then I'm happy to wear that title as a badge of honour. Now I TOLD YOU TO FUCK OFF!"

I stood up as I raised my voice and the whole of the pub fell silent. Sophie scurried away and there were still blokes going 'phwoar!' but this time they added 'stupid bastard!'.

I thought 'what a cunt!'.

The landlord came round into my part of the bar because of the noise and saw that everyone was looking at me.

"You're barred! Get out of my pub and don't come back!"

It had to happen. Just didn't expect it to be this way.

I sat in the square in the centre of town and saved the recording that I had made of the conversation. On a whim I sent it to Jenna. With a message.

"I now know what happened and can explain it to her if she'll listen to me. If not, please listen to the recording and hopefully you can understand what it's all about and explain it to her when she's ready to listen. Tell her I love her. If she's interested in taking it to the police then she should talk to Greg who knows where the bodies are buried. I'll text you his number."

I went back to the flat and packed some things because I needed to get away. A nice minibreak in Rome or Paris should do the trick!

Chapter 52

In the end I went to Lisbon because apparently it's a happening place and the Portuguese like the Brits, which is not something one can say about all the nations of the world. The beer is a bit shit but the wine is excellent.

I emailed all of my associates that I was thinking of quitting as my heart wasn't in the job any more and they should find other agencies to get alongside, as I didn't want them to be left looking for work if... when I did pull the plug. To be fair my heart wasn't 'in' anything any more so the job was just another part of living my life without Georgie.

I did a tour around the area like a good tourist, out to Sintra, Cascais and Setubal, up to Porto and along the Douro and had to stop at several vineyards along the way just to confirm that the wines were as good as they first appeared. When I asked why we never see them in the UK I was told that the Portuguese drink them all.

Sensible people!

I'd left my phone off the whole trip because I was afraid I would sit there looking at it hoping that Georgie would ring but fearing that she probably wouldn't; it was only on arrival at Heathrow that I turned it back on.

There were surprisingly few voicemails or messages, lots of emails about work but also one from Greg titled 'Evidence Folder' in which he had documented all the 'legal' work that he had done to analyse the metadata of whom had done what and when as well as the stuff from PornHub which seemed to have been obtained legitimately which surprised me.

I dropped him a quick thank you and he rang me straight back.

"JC, where have you been hiding? Things have started to get tasty. Plod are now investigating which is why I needed to get the PornHub stuff done properly so Jenna got Wendy to fill in the required information."

"Oh, good, Jenna got in touch then?"

"Yeah, Tuesday morning and then Wendy got involved and was like a Rottweiler and wouldn't let go. Jesus, she can be fearsome, is that the future mother-in-law? I don't envy your chances."

I laughed hollowly.

"I think she's the ex-future-mother-in-law. So what's happening?"

"Well, as far as I know the lovely Sophie and her idiot accomplice, Mitch, have both been interviewed by the police and released on police bail. I'm not a lawyer but my experience tells me that the video of Georgie will fall under the law against revenge porn, the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, section 33 and they could get 2 years in the nick for that. I have no idea about what will happen about the video of you but it will show they were targetting the pair of you and should provide additional evidence for a conspiracy charge. That can mean more time in prison than the original offence."

I sighed in relief at this because I had spent a long time mulling over what, if anything, they could be charged with while in Portugal.

"Thank fuck that they will get put away!" Thanks Greg, you've been a star."

"You sound a bit down mate. The trip obviously didn't lift your spirits. Mike tells me you are thinking of closing the consultancy down, which is a mistake because you are bloody good at it. What will you do instead."

I sighed again.

"No, idea but I need to get out of the flat. Too many memories even if was over a short period. Anyway, I've got a train to catch. I'll talk to you soon... and thanks for the help."

"No worries."

I was dreading going to the flat as I felt sure that Georgie would have come and taken all of the rest of her stuff and it would be even lonelier there than it had been the previous weekend. It was with trepidation that I opened the flat and looked around. Everything seemed to be the same so I went to the main bedroom and looked in Georgie's drawers, which were still as full as they were when I left. That didn't make sense to me as what was she wearing for a whole week? I looked in the kitchen but the fridge hadn't been restocked so she wasn't back living there and that little flame of hope was snuffed out.

I got ready for bed and went into the bathroom for my nightly ablutions and stood looking in the mirror at my face which seemed to have aged 10 years in the last week. I was no longer the 'hot' older guy, I was just the older guy. It was as I was bending down to rinse the toothpaste out of my mouth that I noticed Georgie's prep kit sitting on the shelf in its' usual position.

I giggled at it.

"You caused a hell of lot of problems, you did!"

I then started to think about what its' presence meant. Obviously she, or possibly Jenna had brought it back but what was the significance of doing so? Was she saying 'I am not having sex with other men' or was it something as mundane as 'this is cluttering up the place, let's get rid of it'... I was now conditioned to believe the worst so went for the latter and went to bed and tried to sleep.

In Portugal I had put away a bottle of wine each night as well as port and the local brandy, maciera, which had helped me sleep but there was nothing in the flat to drink so I was still awake at midnight when I heard the front door open. I guessed it was Georgie as she was the only one with a key and was tempted to rush out to her but as she could have given it to anyone, I stayed where I was, especially as the lights stayed off.

I could hear someone coming towards the bedroom and the door slowly opened and I could see a figure outlined against the dull glow of street lights.

Her voice was quiet and despondent.

"I've been coming over every night since you left to see if you were back but then Greg told Jenna you were back and I wasn't sure whether to come or not. I waited for you to call but you didn't."

I lay there in silence not really knowing what to say to that.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't sure you wanted to talk to me... you were pretty adamant that I should leave you alone and not come back the last time we spoke. I hope things are clearer about how it all happened and you now know that you were deceived... that we were both deceived."

I cleared my throat because I had been thinking about what I was going to say to her all week and wanted it to come out right.

"One of the reasons I haven't tried to call was that I wasn't sure whether I wanted to talk to you. Sophie's deception caused you to believe I'm capable of cheating on you... not sexually in this instance, but if you believed I could dump you as a dance partner this time, it can't be too long before you start worrying that I will cheat on you sexually. I'm not sure I want you to keep breaking my heart like that."

She didn't say anything for a long time and I could hear her sniffling as quiet tears fell.

"May I sit on the bed please."

"Yes, of course you can, it's your bed just as much as mine."

I moved over from the centre of the bed and she sat with her back against the headboard and her feet up. I was so conflicted because I wanted to hold and cuddle her and make all her fears go away but I didn't want ever to go through this again. Her voice was accusatory.

"You thought I was having sex with someone else. Jenna told me about the prep kit, it's why I put it back so you would see that I'm not... having sex, that is."

The last was said with a hiccup as I think she tried to giggle and cry at the same time. I chuckled quietly myself.

"Yes I did think that it at first, sweetie, but I wanted to ask you about it and the video to try and clear it up, but you wouldn't talk to me because of what Sophie sent you. As a result I couldn't get to the bottom of the prep kit and it just sat there in my head as something I didn't understand and actually led me down the wrong path. You could have confronted me about the video but Jenna said that was what you didn't want... a confrontation... "

"Yes because I was frightened to actually hear you say it was true, the messages and the video broke my heart and I didn't want to have it broken all over again when... if you confirmed they were genuine."

"But you should have had more trust in me. I thought we had got past your trust issues."

"You didn't have enough trust in me to believe that I wouldn't have sex with someone else."

"Touché... but... no, you are right. When I saw the still at the beginning of video I wanted to vomit but I'm an idiot because if I had looked at the video there and then I would have seen it wasn't you. The girl had much bigger tits than you and bad implant scars, a skanky arse..."

"Sounds like you had a good look!"

Georgie's voice was jokey and I tried to maintain the same vein.

"Didn't need to because it was bloody obvious it wasn't you, because she had a huge cock!. If I'd done it earlier I wouldn't have worried so much about the prep kit."

Georgie sighed and slithered down the bed to lie flat.

"I hope you don't mind me laying down it's just that my ribs still hurt."

"No worries, as I said, it's our bed so you have as much right to lie on it as me. How are your owiees by the way. Jenna said you were worried that you may have broken your nose."

"No, it's fine."

"Good, it's a lovely nose. Any idea who did it, because they need to be taught the error of their ways?"

"None at all, I was quite wasted at the end of the evening so don't remember."

"Jenna said you thought you might have been drugged and penetrated."

"Jenna talks too much but, yes, that's what I thought at the time. I'd rather not dwell on it as I think I'm lucky I escaped something worse."

"That's understandable.

Georgie was silent for a while and I didn't rush to fill the silence. She eventually asked the question that we both had on our minds but her voice was very unsure.

"So, if this 'our' bed, is there an 'us' to sleep in it?"

I rolled onto my side and propped myself on my elbow as she turned her head and looked towards me. She looked so sad, so unsure, so lost... that I did what came naturally, what I had wanted to do for the last 10 days.

I leaned over and kissed her and we wrapped ourselves in each other's loving embrace.

Epilogue

12 months later.

Georgie pushed my legs up and away from her into a 'V' as I lay on my back with my head on the pillows. Another pillow was beneath my arse and she was kneeling so that her knees supported my buttocks.

We were going to do it! After months of possibly... maybe... she was going to top me as an anniversary present. The anniversary of our getting back together.

I knew she was reluctant to do it as she did not want to change the dynamic in our relationship and had agreed to do it one time and one time only. She was my wife and wives didn't peg their husbands as far she was concerned, whatever members of the royal family are alleged to think.

I had proposed to her in the full glare of the TV cameras and photographer's after Sophie had been sentenced to 2 years in prison for the 'revenge porn' video and a further 4 years for conspiracy, to be served concurrently, unfortunately. Mitch was more fortunate and only got half those sentences because he played the 'dupe' card. Unfortunately they were likely to only serve half the time but we did have the satisfaction of seeing a scared looking Sophie led away from the dock.

Georgie asked me to speak to the assembled press but hung on to my arm, looking lovingly up at me while I spoke without notes.

"... so in summary, we are glad that British justice has prevailed on this occasion and would encourage anyone who feels that they have suffered in a similar manner to go to the police and report it. We understand that the UK government is going to strengthen the law regarding the use of deep-fake videos and we can only applaud that initiative.

"We would like to ask for privacy as we resume our lives and dancing careers and hope that any future appearances in the media are due to success in the ballroom and nothing else. However, I would like to take the opportunity of your presence to ask Georgie one question..."

She looked shocked and then delighted as I got down on one knee and produced the ring box from my pocket as delighted murmurs erupted from the crowd of journos and media people around us.

I didn't even get the question out before she was throwing herself down in front of me and saying 'Yes! Yes! Yes!'.

We kissed as the cameras flashed but we only had eyes for each other and the excited noise of the crowd melted away. We broke apart and her smile was full-on Georgie.

"Much better babe, much better!"