Page 5 of Catching a Con Man

“I’ll lead,” I reassured him, taking his hand and guiding him from his chair to the dance floor. “Just…put your hand on my waist, yes, like that, and then I’ll put my hand here. It’s just one big step and then two little ones, I’ll guide us around the floor.”

As I took my first step, Tyler stepped the opposite way and almost tripped us, but I kept a firm grip on him and corrected the action. After just a few steps he was keeping pace, but I still kept a hand firmly around his slender waist and pulled him perhaps a little too close for a traditional waltz. “There we go, you’re a natural,” I said, looking down at him. We were close enough that I could lean in and kiss him if I wanted to.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he blushed, but we were flying around the dance floor as other couples joined us. I spotted Gloria and Derek amongst the early crowd. A few of the crowd were new money. Some had learned to dance to keep up with tradition and to ingratiate themselves, but some just watched appreciatively.

Tyler smelled fresh, and the gel he’d used in his hair was lemony. If I’d had any doubts as to his wealth before though, I could smell the faint smell of detergent on his suit as we spun. No rich man washed his own suit without a dry cleaner. But at this moment, I didn’t care. If neither of us was speaking, we couldn’t lie to one another. And with how he clung to me as I led, there was total honesty in our body language.

We wanted to have each other, and in any other situation I’d have had him. Even just for the night. But there was danger in his lies. I could tell the band was slowing in preparation to switch songs, and I moved my one hand up from his waist to brush against his cheek, watching as it turned pink under my touch. He smiled, a brilliant, imperfect smile that made that urge to kiss him even stronger.

The waltz ended, and I reluctantly separated from Tyler as the band geared up for another.

“May I have this dance?” asked a woman I vaguely recognised from one of my father’s galas, cutting in and taking me away from Tyler. I nodded, though I really would have rather kept a grip on him. As she spun me away from my mystery man, I watched him melt back into the crowd.

And then he was gone. And the busy ballroom suddenly felt like an empty void without his smile.

Tyler

When I woke up, I could still feel the touch of his big, soft hand on my cheek. That moment where I thought he might kiss me, the billionaire prince with the face of an angel.

And then we’d been pushed apart, and the dream had soured. I’d gone to the ballroom to extort money from his father, and suddenly I was dancing in his arms and dreaming of our life together? The second something distracted him, I’d run out of the place and come straight home. I didn’t belong in those places. I didn’t want to belong in those places. I hated everything that they stood for.

Instead, my place was…here. A messy bedroom in a flat-share with mould on the walls and a window that let in a draft whenever it got windy. I looked around the room. The carpet was fraying, my bed sheets could really do with a wash, and I’d left my clothes from the night before on the floor. Had Ade —Addison Crane Junior —seen how I lived, he’d have run a country mile. But I’d convinced him I was one of them as successfully as I could, in a charity shop jacket and a shirt I’d borrowed from my flatmate.

And now it was time to go back to the real world.

I swung my legs out of bed and pulled on my tatty old dressing gown. I raked my fingers through my hair, which stuck up in all kinds of weird angles because I’d not showered the gel out the night before. I looked at myself in the mirror. Puffy eyes, messy hair, old dressing gown. It was a wonder Ade hadn’t run a mile.

I kicked my shirt and jacket out of the way and opened the door, and the smell of frying bacon woke me up immediately. Living with a chef had its benefits.

I walked across the hallway to the kitchen, where Amanda was already awake and stood over the stove. “Bacon would be lovely,” I said. “And a cup of coffee whilst you’re there.”

“You make the coffee — the good stuff — and I might treat you to some bacon,” said Amanda, pointing to the cupboard. I opened it up and put the coffee into the coffee maker. I couldn’t often afford the expensive things, but Amanda got so many food items for free from work that it was insane. It made me feel like I was living lifemiddle class.

“How did last night go?” asked Amanda. “Just kidding, you don’t need to answer. It’s all the wait staff could talk about in between kitchen runs. Addison Crane dancing with a young, handsome man who disappeared after one dance like Cinderella.”

I felt my cheeks heat, and it had nothing to do with the warmth of the steam from the kettle. “That wasn’t what I was there for,” I muttered.

“Then whatwereyou there for?” Amanda asked.

“Hey, you didn’t want to know,” I said. “Didn’t want to be incriminated.”

“Well, I’m curious. And I have no fears about throwing you under the bus in court. Or lying to protect you, depending on the size of the bribe you can give.” Amanda put the bacon onto a plate and carried it and another plate of soft white bread over to the table. I brought the jug of coffee over and grabbed a couple of chipped mugs from the draining board. “So spill.”

“I…had an idea, for a business,” I said. “A good one, to redistribute money from the rich to the poor. Voluntarily, not like Robin Hood,” I said. “But no billionaire wants to do that. And they’re not going to give the time of day to some part-time shop boy from a little city in a little country hardly anyone has ever heard of.”

“Right. So you broke into a big event venue to…what, lie to a billionaire with a business pitch? That might be the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. What were you doing, pretending to be rich or something?”

“Well…” I hesitated. “…it was more, pretend to be rich, fake a business idea, tell them they’ll get their money back, and then run off with the money. Give it to the poor.”

“Ah, soactuallylike Robin Hood. Got it. Your stupid idea has officially surpassed all my ridiculously stupid expectations.” Amanda took a sip of her coffee. “You’d be arrested.”

“I know,” I said. “But it’d be very hard for them to get the moneyback.If I’m poor for the rest of my life, that’s fine. But I’d have given the money away to the people who deserve it most.”

“I think I need a lie down,” said Amanda. “It’s one thing doing what you usually do; using rich people’s restaurant reservations, pilfering a Rolex… but this is ridiculous. I don’t think you realise the consequences you’re getting yourself into here. You piss these people off, and your life will be ruined.”

I gestured around the kitchen. “It’s already ruined! This is the best I will ever be, and all I can do is make sure that other people have the chance to get out of this situation. If I end up punished by it, then so be it. But I’ve already been fucked over by the system.”

Amanda laughed. “The system? You think the system has fucked you up? You think those people in their ivory towers give a shit if you fall from a great height or join them up there? No, they don’t. You could strive for millions, or billions. Or you could keep conning rich men out of their money. Which is it going to be?”

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