breasts.
The sudden, overt sexual contact jolted Jo, and she moved her body violently in an attempt to get away from Frank’s rough
hands. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she yelped.
Frank turned Jo on his lap and started kissing her to stop her talking. For a moment Jo froze, and she could feel Frank’s
garlicky, smoke-flavoured tongue force itself into her mouth. With a surge of strength Jo pushed herself off Frank’s lap and
when she was free she ran to the door. She had forgotten that Frank had already locked it.
‘Joanna, little Joanna, you love your Frank, yes?’
Jo was outraged. ‘No! Not like that!’
Frank walked towards Jo, undoing his apron and then unzipping his trousers. ‘Oh, but I think you do, Joanna,’ he said in a
whisper, as Jo’s eyes darted around the café for the keys to the door. When she spotted them on a hook by the pay-phone she
pushed past Frank, grabbed them, and then fumbled with the lock until the door opened freely.
Jo stared incredulously at Frank with his trousers around his ankles and she realised she could never come back to the café
again. A feeling of sad inevitability washed over her, but before Jo could linger on yet another notch in her run of bad luck,
the pile of bank notes on the counter caught her eye. With as much courage as she could muster, Jo walked over to them, nervously
put them in her pocket, and turned to look at Frank for one final time. His erection had gone limp in his hands, and he no
longer looked threatening, but pathetic. Jo threw the door keys at him, and they hit Frank hard on his chest. As he doubled
up in pain, Jo pulled the door open and felt fresh air on her face.
‘Fuck you, Frank.’
‘He actually got his dick out? Are you serious?’ Ameliayelped down the phone in disbelief. ‘He offered you a “management” position in his shitty café and then thought you’d want
to have sex with him? Are you kidding me?’
Jo bit her lip and tried not to smile. ‘Don’t make it sound so funny,’ she said with a shudder, as she recounted the tale
to her best friend and shifted in her seat. Her arm was aching from holding the phone up to her ear, and once again she was
grateful that Amelia always phoned her back. At least her mother couldn’t yell at her about the phone bill along with everything
else.
‘Look, you must be feeling pretty lousy, but why don’t you come down here for a couple of days?’ Amelia stared at her toenails
– wet with Chanel polish – and tried not to move her feet. ‘The holiday that Daddy promised me for passing my exams is on
hold – Granny fell over and broke her hip and Mummy’s at home nursing herself with vodka over the price of the hospital bills.
I’m dying for a bit of girlie fun.’
‘Won’t I be in the way of you and Charlie?’ Jo asked, feeling awkward. Apart from revelling in Jo’s clumsy first kiss with
Frank, Amelia’s favourite subject at the moment was her new boyfriend, and the various different sexual positions he introduced
her to. Every time she started to talk about her love life, Jo felt incredibly uncomfortable.
Gloss
magazine may have provided a detailed guide on how to help him make you come, but Jo felt out of her depth talking about
real sex with real people. She smiled to herself: she’d stick to the stuff of trashy novels for now.
Amelia snorted. ‘Don’t be stupid. Besides, Charlie’s bar is having a party and it would be the best time for you to come over.
Sounds like you could do with a laugh.’
‘But …’ Jo was momentarily floored by the thought of socialising. ‘But what would I wear?’
Amelia smiled sneakily as she imagined making Jo over. ‘Don’t worry about that … Just leave it to me.’
Chapter Three
When Amelia pulled into her sweeping circular driveway the next day, Jo’s wariness about fitting in intensified. Throughout
the train ride from Waterloo to Winchester Jo had lost herself in a new