Billie Jo (26 page)

Lifting DJ onto her lap, Billie squeezed him tightly.
Holding him with one arm she snatched her drink off the
coffee table and knocked it back. Her hands were shaking
uncontrollably. She needed to sort herself out and try to
act normal, for the sake of her child, if nothing else.
Giving him a reassuring smile, Billie spoke in the calmest
voice she could muster.

'How about Mummy get us that nice bowl of ice cream
we were gonna have earlier?'

'Not hungry now,' came her son's lifeless reply.

'You look tired, darling. Shall Mummy take you up
and read you a story?'

Shaking his head miserably, DJ laid himself across her
lap. 'Wanna sleep with Mummy.'

Billie could sense that he was very tired, but extremely
unnerved. 'Of course you can, darling.' Minutes later, DJ
was snoring softly in her arms.

Gently moving him off her lap she placed him comfortably
on the sofa and went to the kitchen. The smashed
glass all over the kitchen floor brought Billie back to reality
and she sank to her knees and sobbed. Needing a friend
more than ever before, she scrolled through her phone and
rang Jamie.

'Danny's smashed his way in. Oh, Jamie, I was so
scared. He reckons he's coming to pick the baby up on
Saturday morning.'

'Is he fuck! Give us ten minutes, Billie. I'm on me way.'

Half an hour later Billie sat with Jamie's arm protectively
slung over her shoulder and had tearfully related the
whole sorry story. 'What the hell am I gonna do? I can't
let him trot off with my baby, I just can't. In fact I don't
want him anywhere near him.'

Jamie sighed, deep in thought. 'I'll help you out at the
weekend, Bill. My mum's off to Spain on Friday with her
friend, so you and little 'un can come and stay with me.
But the thing is, in the long run, you're gonna have to
sort something out. Just because you and Danny have
split up won't be enough to stop him from getting visiting
rights. It's a shame you never went to the Old Bill when
he beat you up, 'cause then you would have a reason for
him not to get access. As it stands, you probably ain't got
a leg to stand on. I'm no judge, but that's the way I see
it. The only hope you've got is deny him access, let him
take you to court and then stand up and tell the judge
what he's done to you. He's been inside for drugs, that'll
definitely help your case.'

'Yeah, you're right. How can I stop him taking DJ until
it goes to court though?'

Jamie squeezed her hand. 'Don't you worry, I'll help
you with that. I'll throw a sickie at work till next week
and help you get things sorted. First thing tomorrow, we'll
find you a good solicitor and then priority number one,
we've gotta find you somewhere to live. You can't stay
here any more, you've got to make a clean break, girl.'

Billie nodded. She knew Jamie was spot on, but where
was she going to live? Lifting DJ off the sofa, she smiled
at him.

'I'm just gonna put my little bruiser to bed. I'll be down
in a minute and I'll sort us out some drinks and something
to eat.' Billie straightened herself out while she was upstairs.
She looked terrible, but after combing her hair, applying
some lipstick and spraying herself with perfume, she felt
more like her old self. With all the earlier goings-on, she'd
kind of forgotten about the misunderstanding she'd had
with Jamie earlier in the week and decided it was best now
to let bygones be bygones and carry on as normal.

Jamie had other ideas though. Seeing Billie walk back
into the room looking so vulnerable, his feelings went into
overdrive. His voice sounded nervous as he spoke. 'Billie,
I've bought you a present and there's something I need to
say to you.'

Jamie held out a Tiffany bag. Inside was a box
containing an exquisite pair of earrings. Billie gasped.
'Oh Jamie, they're beautiful. I can't take them off you.
They must have cost a fortune. Why ever did you buy
them for me?'

Taking her hands in his, Jamie looked into her eyes.
It was now or never. He had to tell her the truth. 'I bought
them for two reasons. One is to say sorry for the other
night. I must have been mad. And secondly because I
love you, Billie. I always have and I always will. I want
us to be together, properly. I'll look after you and DJ and
I swear, I'll never let you down.'

Billie looked into his eyes and saw the sincerity leaping
out of them. 'What about Lucy?'

Jamie answered as honestly as he could. 'I shouldn't
think she'll be that bothered, Bill. It's no big love affair and
I've only been seeing her a couple of months. She's a nice
girl and all that, but to be honest, we haven't really got a
great deal in common. We don't really connect, if you know
what I mean.'

Still looking pensive, Billie wriggled her hands free
from his. 'You're not just saying and doing all this because
you feel sorry for me, are you?'

Tilting her chin, Jamie moved his face inches from
hers. 'Billie, I don't feel sorry for you. I love you, and if
things work out between us, I would like to spend the
rest of my life with you.' The passionate kiss that followed
was all the proof that Billie needed.

Prising herself away from him, Billie gently stroked
his cheek and smiled. 'OK, Jamie, you win. I would be
honoured to be your girlfriend.'

Jamie hugged her, feeling as if he'd won the lottery.
He had never experienced such strong emotions before,
and the warmth of Billie's small frame pressed tightly
against his chest made him feel like the luckiest man
alive. Jamie looked down at her with a humorous glint
in his eye. 'Right, now you've agreed to be my girl, ain't
it about time you cooked me some bloody dinner?'

Billie laughed at his cheekiness and gently punched
his arm. 'Don't start all that her indoors bit with me,
you cheeky sod.'

Jamie held his hands up, shying away from her. 'I'm
only joking. I'd take you out for a meal if the little man
weren't asleep, so the next best thing I can offer is a
Chinese takeaway.'

Billie flung her arms round his neck. She felt totally
at ease with him. 'Chinese sounds just fine, but first I
want another one of them kisses that I just had.'

Ten minutes later, the happy couple finally let one
another go.

'Come on, missus,' Jamie said, kissing her on the tip
of her nose. 'At this rate, we're never gonna eat and we'll
both end up anorexics.'

Billie smiled happily. 'Don't bother going out to get it,'
she said as she saw him put his coat on. 'I've got a menu
here, we can get something delivered.'

Jamie picked up his keys. 'Nah, I've got to go to the
cashpoint anyway, so I might as well go and get it. What
do you want?'

Billie placed her order, watched him drive off and sat
on the sofa to catch her breath. For the first time since
her dad had died, she felt loved and protected. Picking up
the earrings Jamie had bought her, she took her old ones
out and put them in. Smiling to herself, she admired them
in the mirror. Billie thought that they were the nicest present
she'd ever had. It wasn't the fact he'd got them from
Tiffany's. She wished he hadn't spent all that money, as
she wouldn't have given a shit if he'd purchased them from
Warren James. It was the way he'd given them to her and
the thought that had probably gone into choosing them.
It had been so romantic, just like something out of one of
the movies that she loved so much.

Jamie sat outside the Chinese takeaway and ended his
phone call. He'd just finished with Lucy and it had been
much worse than he had expected. He thought she'd take
it with a pinch of salt; they weren't exactly Romeo and
Juliet. You could count the times they'd slept together on
one hand, so the tears, screaming abdabs and abuse he'd
just had hurled at him came as a bit of a shock. Driving
home, he decided not to say anything to Billie Jo. He
knew she was soft and didn't want to make her feel guilty.

Ringing the bell, Jamie handed Billie the takeaway.

'I bought us a bottle of champagne to go with it. I
thought we should celebrate. Oh, and by the way, I rang
Lucy and told her I wanted to call it a day. I didn't tell
her about us, I just told her I needed to concentrate on
work and stuff.'

Billie pecked him on the lips as she took the champagne
off of him. 'I'm glad you've told her, I'd feel bad
otherwise. How did she take it?'

'Oh, she weren't bothered,' Jamie lied. Quickly changing
the subject, he held out his glass. 'To us and our future.'

Billie Jo sipped her champagne. 'To our happiness.'

A couple of miles away in Hornchurch, Michelle's evening
was turning out to be anything but happy. 'Come on, love,
out you go,' the big doorman said to her.

'You silly big cunt,' Chelle shouted, before collapsing
onto the pavement. Michelle had gone out on her own
for the night as all of her friends were busy. Three
places she'd been slung out of and she didn't have a
clue what she'd done wrong. She was a bit drunk, but
so what? That's what pubs and wine bars were for,
weren't they?

'Are you all right, love? Do you wanna hand?' asked
a teenage lad.

'Yeah. Help me find me car. I can't remember where
I parked it,' Chelle slurred.

'You can't drive home, love. You can't even stand up.'

'Oh, fuck off then if you ain't gonna help.'

The boy looked at his two mates. 'Nutter,' he mumbled,
shrugging his shoulders.

Laughing, the three lads wandered off eating their
chips.

After a struggle, Chelle lifted herself off the pavement.
Remembering there was a car park behind the
nearby Weatherspoon's, she tried to remember if she'd
parked there. Staggering towards it she finally made her
destination and leant against the wall. Fishing through
her handbag, she found her keys. She could barely see,
so decided to wave her alarm at each and every car.
There it is, she thought, as she noticed the back lights
flashing at her. Sliding into the driver's seat, it took
Chelle a minute or two to remember how to start the
engine.

'Here we go,' she said, as her car finally flicked into
life.

Reversing, she clipped a parked car. Fuck 'em. Shouldn't
have parked there, she thought as she changed gear. Hitting
the main road, she put her foot down, cranked up the
music and headed towards her luxurious home.

Danny O'Leary knocked on the door of the Cross Keys.

It was only 9 a.m., but he knew the landlord would be
welcoming. He, the Fish and their cronies kept the boozer
going, so he was hardly liable to get arsey. 'Morning,
guv. I'll 'ave the usual and whatever these girls want.'

Ushering the girls into the pub, Danny ordered the
guvnor to stick the jukebox on. Heading to the toilet, he
shoved a line up his hooter and smiled to himself. He'd
had a great night last night, fucking brilliant, and it weren't
over yet. Pissing Billie off had put him on a high. After
leaving hers, he'd rung Leon and gone on a bender round
his way. He'd visited a titty bar in Hackney, where he'd
had a blinding blow-job. He'd then headed to an illegal
underground bar in Dalston which had been open all night.

The couver had kept him awake. He'd snorted tons of
it and he'd carry on snorting it if it meant he didn't have
to go home to that whinging bitch Debbie. All night
she'd been ringing him. He'd ignored her calls, of course.
He'd been tempted to answer the phone while he was
getting his knob sucked by the Chinese bird, but it was
in his jacket pocket and he hadn't been able to reach it.

Returning to the bar, he put a couple of quid into the
jukebox and demanded it be turned up.

'I can't, Dan. It's too early, mate. I ain't meant to be
open.'

'Boring cunt,' Danny said as the guvnor walked away.

'So where did you say you lived? I've forgotten,' Danny
asked the girls. He didn't know the two birds from Adam,
he'd only met them the night before.

'We told you twice. She lives with her mum and I live
in a flat in Upney,' the pretty dark one replied.

'How about I shout us up some more gear, get us some
booze and we go back to yours for a bit of a party?'

The girls giggled. They loved a bit of gear and this
geezer provided mounds of it.

Danny said goodbye to the landlord and sauntered out
of the pub. Slinging an arm round each girl, he smiled
to himself. He had a beautiful son, loads of money, plenty
of drugs and birds coming out of his earholes. His life
was the bollocks and he was determined it was gonna
stay that way.

Jamie turned up early at Billie's the next morning. He'd
have liked to have stayed there the previous night, but
was worried about Danny returning.

'Good morning, my precious one,' he said cheekily.

'Do me a favour, Jamie. Keep an eye on DJ, he's just
finishing his breakfast. I want to pop upstairs to get
changed, I'll only be ten minutes.' Billie walked upstairs,
smiling to herself. It was so nice to have a man in her
life who was actually there for her. Her relationship with
Danny had been total crap. She realised that now and
wished she'd had the guts to finish it earlier.

Completing her outfit with a grey pinstriped suit jacket,
Billie snapped her thoughts back to the day ahead. She
was going to see a solicitor and was determined to look
smart and sophisticated.

The actual meeting went well. Billie was over the moon
with the lawyer that Jamie had found her. Marsha
Huntingdon was an ex-victim of domestic violence herself.
At forty-six years old, she was now celibate, wealthy, and
extremely happy.

In her younger days, Marsha had been one for the
men and had had numerous live-in boyfriends. Donny
Parker had changed all that, and after suffering years
of domestic abuse with the no-good bastard Marsha had
packed her bags, fled with her daughter Melissa and
moved from Yorkshire down to London. Starting off at
a safe house for battered wives, things hadn't been
easy for Marsha. But after securing a job early in
her stay, she had rented a place, gone to college, and
eight years ago had passed her law degree with flying
colours.

Marsha now hated men with a passion and swore that
if she ever saw a cock again, she'd chop the bastard
thing off!

Towards the end of her meeting, Marsha leant across
her desk and gently squeezed Billie's hand. 'Now don't
you worry about anything, darling. You make sure you
do everything I said and you'll be just fine. Ring the
police and report every little incident, OK?'

Billie was mesmerised by the strong northern woman
sitting in front of her. She had thought all solicitors were
blokes and was amazed to find a female one, especially
one whose ex was so exactly like her own.

'Thanks for everything, Marsha,' Billie said gratefully.
'I'll call you as soon as I have any grief from him. It's
bound to be this weekend, as he thinks he's picking the
baby up.'

Marsha stood up to see Billie out. 'If you're still there
Saturday, do exactly as I said. Stay in the house, have as
many people there as you can as witnesses and as soon
as the bastard breaks in, ring the police. Remember,
though, Billie, you must contact Danny beforehand, to
say that he can't have the child after all.'

Billie thanked Marsha again, said goodbye and left her
office feeling confident. Jamie had insisted that she went
in alone, so she could chat woman to woman.

'How did it go?'

Billie sat on the seat next to him. 'Brilliant. She really
knows her stuff. I felt so comfortable with her.'

'What advice did she give you?' Jamie said, putting
the frantically giggling DJ over his shoulder.

Billie relayed the meeting word for word on the
journey home in the car. 'So she said the one thing I
must do immediately is find my own place. She said if
he breaks in where I am now, there's not much I can do,
as his partner owns the property. Once I get a place on
my own, and he breaks in, I can get him arrested. I've
got to get out of there and preferably before Saturday,
when he's coming to pick the baby up. Marsha said, even
if all you can find is a shithole, just take it for the time
being.'

'Well, I'll tell you what we'll do now then. We'll head
straight to Romford and pop into a couple of estate agents.
If we don't get any joy, we'll get all the local papers. I'll
take you to lunch, we'll go through them and I'll ring up
the ads for you.'

'Thanks, Jamie, but don't say nothing about me having
grief with an ex. No one is going to want me as a tenant
if they think I've got a nutty bloke in tow.'

Jamie glanced sideways at her. 'I know what to say,
leave it to me. I'll tell them you're my girlfriend and your
mum's kicked you out to move in her new boyfriend, or
something. They'll feel so sorry for you by the time I've
finished that they'll be throwing properties at you left,
right and centre!'

Billie laughed. He had a way with words did Jamie.
He was a typical market trader with a cockney sense of
humour. Despite his Irish origins, her dad had been like
that too. When Billie had first met Danny, some of his
sayings and expressions had reminded her of her dad. The
more she'd got to know him though, the more she had
realised that he was nothing like her father. Jamie was
much more like her dad. He'd lived in Canning Town
before he'd moved to Romford and he had a real East
End way about him. How could she have chosen Danny
instead of Jamie? She must have been bloody mad.

'Penny for your thoughts,' Jamie said, turning off the
engine.

Squeezing his hand, Billie looked at him lovingly. 'I
was just wondering how I ever looked at Danny and not
you.'

Jamie took off his seat belt and held her tightly. 'Forget
the past, Billie. We're together now and that's all that
matters. You weren't the only girl to fall for Danny's
charms, they all did. I loved you from day one but Danny
chose you, so I was left with your mate. That's history
now, let's just concentrate on the future. It's all about me,
you and DJ now, girl.'

Billie kissed him gently on the lips. 'You're right, but
we're going to have to tell Carly about us at some point.'

'I'm sure Carly'll be pleased for us. Anyway, now she's
jacked her job in and is larging it in Tenerife, I'm sure
she's pulling plenty of blokes. She'll be enjoying herself
too much to be bothered about me and you, that's for
sure.'

'I suppose you're right.' Billie opened her car door and
lifted a sleeping DJ out of his seat and into his buggy.

The trip to the estate agents turned out to be a total
waste of time. The snooty cow who sat opposite them
told them that housing benefit payment wasn't accepted
for any of their properties and that they'd be better off
trying the council. Billie had just been about to pull the
girl on her stroppy attitude, when DJ, who was running
about like a blue-arsed fly, knocked a big tray of papers
onto the floor. Laughing all the way to Pizza Hut, Jamie
and Billie ordered lunch and scanned through the local
papers.

Half an hour later, Jamie had rung all the suitable properties.
'Right, three are no good, Bill. One's in Barking,
that's a shithole, you don't want to live there. One you
can't move into for another six weeks and the other one
won't accept housing benefit. We've got three to go and
view, one in Romford, one in Dagenham and one in Collier
Row.'

After viewing the first two, Billie's good mood had
vanished. The flat in Dagenham was at the top of a tower
block and the one in Romford was on an awful-looking
council estate. Pulling up at the address they'd been given
in Collier Row, Billie felt her spirits lift slightly. The area
looked a far better one than the previous two they'd just
visited.

Billie took a good look around inside the two-bedroom
flat she was shown. It was nothing special, but it was
clean, tidy and looked a damn sight better than the other
two she had seen. 'I'll take it, on condition that I can
move in tomorrow,' Billie said, looking expectantly at the
man who was showing them around.

Peter Fuller dug his hands deep into his trouser pockets
and pondered the proposal. He prided himself on being
a good judge of character and he'd liked the look of these
two immediately. The fact that the girl was so keen to
move in the next day unnerved him slightly. The last girl
who had been in a rush to move into one of his flats had
turned out to be a heroin addict who had done a runner
and sold all his furniture.

'Look, you can move in tomorrow, but I need a grand
deposit off you first.'

'No problem,' Billie said confidently. 'I'll meet you
here at eleven o'clock tomorrow morning. I'll bring the
cash and you bring the keys.' A handshake later and
the deal was done.

Billie and Jamie spent the whole evening packing. Billie
was pleased that the place they'd found was part-furnished
because she was only taking her personal belongings and
the odd few bits she'd bought and paid for herself. By
midnight everything was boxed up, bagged up and ready
to go.

Billie flopped down on the sofa next to Jamie. 'Please
don't go home tonight. Stay here with me?'

Jamie smiled at her and put his arm around her shoulder.
'I've no intention of going anywhere, Billie. I'm so knackered,
I can't even move.'

'Don't stay down here on the sofa, cuddle up to me
in my bed.' Taking him by the hand, Billie led him up
the stairs. The events that followed were some of the best
moments of Billie's young life. Making love with Jamie
was entirely different to the rough, horrible sex she'd
experienced with Danny. Jamie was kind, tender, loving,
soft and gentle with her. Danny had been the total opposite
of all those things.

Jamie held Billie, cuddling her long into the night.
Finally, he drifted off to sleep and Billie lay awake listening
to his gentle snores. Tonight had been a real eye-opener
for her. In the past, she had wondered if there was something
wrong with her. Danny had told her time and time
again that she was frigid and useless in bed. Whenever
they had rowed he'd brought up the subject of their sex
life. Now she knew that it wasn't her after all. There was
something wrong with him, not her. Danny was disgusting,
dirty and kinky. Making love with Jamie had been
wonderful and idyllic. A gentleman, Jamie had treated
her with the utmost respect and Billie had enjoyed every
single minute of it.

Lying in the dark, Billie thought of her dad. She knew
he would have approved of Jamie and she hoped he
knew that she'd at last found happiness. Billie wasn't
overly religious but she was a believer and had often
prayed for a better life. That night she actually believed
that she had been listened to. God must have heard her
and had felt sorry for her.

Finally, He had answered her prayers.