Free One In A Billion by Anne-Marie Hart Page A

eye-liner to bring out the blue in my eyes, a beautiful pendant my grandmother had left me in her will, and my hair up, tied off and styled by Sophia.
    We had the practice run four hours before my lift was due to show up, so even though I was ready, and happy with the way I looked, I had to take it all off again and find something to do for the rest of the afternoon, to stop myself getting nervous. It didn't entirely work.
    I hated not having anything to do but worry about how a date was going to go. I returned my room to its normal state, cleaned up the rest of the house, showered and then sat down in front of the TV, and it was still only 6 o'clock. Sophia had been watching me buzz about, full of nervous energy for most of the afternoon.
    'Don't worry about it', she said. 'You weren't this nervous with Marth.'
    'I know', I said.
    'Is it the book thing?'
    'I don't know', I said, trying to stop myself biting my nails. 'It could be that. It could be that he's hot as well, super hot.'
    'And rich', Sophia added.
    'Yeah', I said. 'And I'm super poor.'
    'It works on TV', Sophia said encouragingly.
    'And in books', I added.
    'I suppose if it's meant to be, then nothing else matters does it?'
    'I guess not', I said.
    'So what if he has a million pounds in the bank.'
    'A billion', I corrected her.
    'An English billion or an American billion?'
    'I don't know', I said. 'I can ask him that tonight for you.'
    'What I mean', Sophia said, 'is that you don't need to feel inadequate. He obviously likes you, or he wouldn't be doing this. He doesn't know you haven't got any money.'
    'He might do soon', I said.
    'Yeah well, if that's the case, make sure you get as much out of him while you can!'
    Sophia had such a different attitude to relationships. She could quite happily have a different man in her bed every day, fall in love with several different people all at once, and let those people quite happily carry on in open relationships with other woman, men too sometimes, while she just carried on with her life as normal. I wondered if the British in general were much more sexually repressed than the Americans, and we just couldn't take a risk to enjoy ourselves for fear of getting hurt. Sophia had told me she'd fallen in love several times before, but each one of those relationships had been open, and while supposedly in love with her boyfriend at the time, she'd slept with other people. I couldn't imagine a relationship of mine working that way.
    'Do you want a drink before you go?' Sophia said. 'There's a Tesco own brand, super strength lager in the fridge if you want it.'
    'I kind of do', I said, 'but I better not. Might ruin the look if I turn up smelling of petrol.'
    'Fair enough', Sophia said.
    'What are you doing tonight?'
    'Tad knows some animal rights activists so I think we're going to join them on a raid somewhere. It sounds cool.'
    'Sophia that's pretty serious.'
    'I know, It's a subject I feel passionate about. You know how long I've been a vegetarian.'
    'Yeah, two weeks.'
    'I'd been thinking about it for a lot longer than that.'
    'Just be careful', I said.
    I had no idea where Sophia found these people. For some reason, they just sort of gravitated towards her.
    'I'm going to get ready', I said.
    'It's 6:15', Sophia reminded me.
    'He might be early', I said. 'I'm going to run a bath and sit in it a while.'
    'Don't play with yourself', Sophia said. 'Unless you want me to join you.'
    'Do you ever stop thinking about sex?'
    'Not often', Sophia said.
     
    Finally, 8 o'clock rolled around. It rolled around and it rolled past, and I began to worry. At five past eight, I sat down, cursing myself for being so punctual. I could already feel myself beginning to sweat, so I reapplied perfume and deodorant. I paced up and down and then I sat down. First at the kitchen table, then at the sofa, then on the arm chair by the window that looked out onto the street.
    'Maybe he's caught in traffic', I said hopefully, my left leg jiggling