Stars and Stripes

I told Mario that Niki wanted to be whipped, but only if I did it. He grunted that he didn't see why not, then told me he would be in Barcelona for a few days, anyway.

'When are you going,' I asked him.

'Early tomorrow morning,' he said, 'I'll need to get a good night's sleep.'

I knew that meant I was consigned to my own room that night, but decided to get up early and see him off.

I slept fitfully, trying to get comfortable after my whipping, but also feeling a bit put out that Mario hadn't offered to take me with him. I got up at around 7.30, knowng that Mario wouldn't be leaving any earlier. I dressed and walked down the corridor to the courtyard. Just inside the door, I paused. What I saw out in the courtyard shook me to the core. Just at that very moment, Mario was opening the rear door of a taxi for Inger, elegant in a blue business suit. My mouth fell open as he walked around and got into the back seat beside her -- he was taking the aloof Swede with him! I knew he wasn't exactly faithful to me, and didn't expect him to be, but this was treachery of a different order. Back in my room, I wept, more in anger than anything else -- anger that he could do such a thing to me, and after telling me that he loved me. The bastard! Right then, I'd have cheerfully cut off his balls. I shut myself into my room, and went without breakfast and lunch, so that just before dinner, Niki was knocking on my door.

'Alright, so what the fuck is it?' she said, when I opened the door to her, and I told her.

She looked at me, at my red-rimmed eyes and messy hair.

'Men are complete shits,' she said, 'as if you didn't know.'

She insisted I dress for dinner, and helped me skilfully with my hair and make-up, so that by the time I had slipped into a silky gold-coloured gown, and stepped into matching heels, I felt renewed.

Ahmed, who had taken charge in Mario's absence, told me that I should be whipping Niki in a few days time. He seemed to enjoy telling me, and his face carried a sort of sneer. I looked a question at Niki, sat across from me, cute as a bunny in an Indian cotton dress, and she nodded. 'I've already been briefed,' she said, 'it just needed your agreement, darling.'

'If it's what you want,' I said.

After dinner, Nicky and I sat in silence, with a brandy apiece, then, as so often happens between friends, both started to speak at once.

'I've been thinki...........' I started.

She might have been about to say the same thing I was.

'No, you,' I said.

'I was wondering if we should.....er..go away?' she spoke hesitantly, as if unsure of my reaction.

'Where to?' I asked -- it was the sole consideration, as I knew I'd go anywhere with Niki.

'Oh, I don't know, but not back to England. I guess we could find something to do. But would you come?'

'Of course, my love.'

'Oh Lisa, we'd be so happy together, wouldn't we?'

'Yes, darling, we will.' I had changed the tense, and found myself excited by the idea of being with Niki.

So it was that, having dug out the mobile phone I never used, charged it up, and phoned a taxi, the two of us, with only a grip each, stood on the platform of Cáceres station, at seven o'clock on a fresh morning, hand-in-hand, ready to go anywhere, just so long as we were together. My stripes were healing, a lot of the stars were left behind, but, hell, we two were the real stars, weren't we?