Chasing Daisy

so Indecent Proposal !’
    ‘I’m hardly Demi Moore and he’s hardly Robert Redford. And anyway! I’m not shagging him!’
    ‘You added that almost as an afterthought.’ She gives me an amused look.
    ‘Stop teasing me.’
    ‘I’m just going to the loo. Wait for me.’
    She goes inside a cubicle and I turn to stare at my reflection. I’d almost forgotten I was wearing this dress, this beautiful dress. Nerves flicker through me at the thought of Luis.
    ‘Look at you, checking yourself out,’ Holly jokes as she reemerges.
    I turn to her and lean up against a basin. ‘Do you think it’s strange that he bought me a dress?’
    ‘No,’ she replies. ‘He obviously wants to get you into bed.’
    ‘Holly!’
    ‘It’s true! Any idiot can see it.’
    I don’t say anything.
    ‘You fancy him, don’t you?’ She nudges me. ‘I knew you did!’
    ‘Holly, no, stop it, don’t say that,’ I plead.
    ‘Why not? It’s true. Just shag him and get it over with. Move on.’
    ‘What do you mean, move on?’
    ‘Well, he’s hardly marriage material, is he?’ She rolls her eyes and giggles.
    I try to laugh. ‘No, I guess not.’
    ‘But he’s supposedly brilliant in bed, so I’d get your kicks and be done with it, if I were you.’
    I have a sinking feeling she’s right. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if Luis were outside in the bar, trying to pull a woman at this very minute. Saying that, I haven’t seen that side of him since Silverstone. He seems different these days. More responsible. Maybe he’s changed. . .
    ‘What’s up?’ Holly asks, frowning.
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘Oh my God,’ she says worriedly. ‘You don’t really like him, do you?’
    ‘No!’
    ‘Seriously, Daisy, that’s a bad idea.’
    ‘I know!’ I snap. ‘You don’t have to tell me that, I know it already!’
    ‘Good.’ She gives me a wary look. ‘Because I don’t want to see you get hurt.’
    I stop short of telling her she can talk.
    I follow her back outside to the bar. Luis is squashed into a curved booth with Dan, Pete and a few of the lads. He pats the space beside him. After what Holly said, I’m reluctant to sit next to him, but my friend goes to the other side of the booth and there’s no room anywhere else for me, so I don’t have a choice. He immediately wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me affectionately back into him. I tense up, but don’t think he notices.
    ‘Hey! It’s Dan’s song!’ Pete shouts, as the big screen opposite starts to show the words to Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’.
    ‘WOOHOO!’ Dan shouts, before throwing himself into the song with great gusto. As the chorus kicks in, he climbs up onto the table and starts playing air guitar. Holly and I scream with laughter as the boys cheer and Luis takes his arm from around my waist to clap. Seconds later, a petite Japanese woman with her hair tied up in a bun pads over to ask Dan, very politely, to sit back down.
    My waist feels cold . . .
    He’s just like Johnny! Stay away from him!
    But then he puts his arm back around me and a feeling of warmth floods my entire body. I tell the annoying little voice inside my head to go away.
    ‘Daisy, this one’s ours!’ Holly screams.
    ‘What?’ I ask in alarm as she passes me a microphone. ‘I can’t sing!’
    ‘That’s the point,’ Luis says, grinning.
    ‘Right, well you’d better do the next one.’ I smack him on his chest and take the mic as Holly and I launch into ‘Heaven On Earth’ by Belinda Carlisle.
    An hour and a couple of glasses of whisky and Coke later, we’ve all made complete tits of ourselves, including Luis who pulled off a ridiculous rendition of Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice, Ice Baby’.
    I’ve never laughed so much in my life. We’re all in high spirits and even Holly is having a blast, which is a relief after all her moping about.
    Pete launches into Wham’s ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go Go’, but my mind is elsewhere because Luis’s thumb has just started to stroke the curve of my waist. I’m quite drunk now, and this is beginning to feel dangerous. I lean into him as Holly, across from me, grins. Her eyes flit towards Luis and back again. I know she’s encouraging me to do the dirty deed, and right now, I don’t think I’d be able to resist.
    ‘I’m going to have to go back to the hotel and get some sleep before the race tomorrow,’ Luis says to me. My stomach crashes downwards until he says in my ear, ‘Want to come with me?’
    I glance at