Acquired Tastes by Simone Mondesir

still alive,' drawled Hugo, 'whatever happened to her?'
    'Gabriella has her own very successful satellite chat show in Italy,' said Philip defensively.
    'Ah, so she's gone to the great TV personality graveyard in the sky,' Hugo grinned.
    'But she's so
passé,'
protested Vanessa. 'I think we should go for someone new and fresh.'
    'I disagree,' Hugo interrupted. 'If we're going Hollywood Babylon, then Gabriella, with all that cleavage and those eyelashes, fits the image perfectly: kitschy
and
trashy.'
    Philip looked pained.
    'Well, I always thought Gabriella was rather nice when she used to read the news,' Rosie ventured, 'and my mother never missed her chat show. She always used to have her supper on a tray so she could watch it.'
    'There's our audience for you,' Philip said triumphantly. 'Gabriella it is then. Now, I want a more detailed proposal by … where are we now?'
    He checked his desk calendar. 'Let's say by the beginning of next week. We've got to move fast on this one.'
    Vanessa started to protest again about Gabriella, but Philip held up his hand.
    'I have taken an executive decision Vanessa, let's just get this show on the road, shall we?'
    The meeting was over.

Four
    Jeremy sat hunched up on Vanessa's front door step. He had been waiting for nearly three hours. He knew he was not meant to be there until six o'clock but he had nowhere else to go. He stared dully down at the suitcase and two overstuffed plastic carrier bags which threatened to spew their contents onto the pavement on the step beside him. They contained all the possessions he owned in the world. Not much for a man who would be forty this year.
    Why was he sitting here waiting for Vanessa, of all people? If anyone was to blame for his problems it was her. He had been disinherited by his father, disowned by his mother, he was unemployed, homeless and broke and all because of Vanessa.
    If only he'd married Chloe. His mother had said he should.
Everyone
said he should. She would have been such a suitable wife and would have done all the things that wives are meant to do, like have children and cook meals. Not like Vanessa. But if he was being absolutely honest with himself - and he liked to think he could be - that wasn’t that why he had wanted to marry Vanessa? She was different and dangerous, and his mother hadn't liked her.
    He was not a natural rebel. In fact, he rather liked things to be in their place. It made him feel comfortable. He had been quite willing to choose his wife out of the suitable girls his mother made sure he met, by inviting them to house parties or suggesting he play tennis doubles with them. He chose Chloe because she seemed fragile and he enjoyed feeling protective towards her. Most of the other girls who moved in his circle were a little too hearty for his tastes. They seemed to be able to deliver a foal, cook a five-course dinner for ten and drive a Land Rover all at the same time. Chloe had been the perfect antidote to all that until he met Vanessa.
    It had been a particularly good day for him, or so he thought at the time. It was the first day of the cricket season, and something of a grudge match against the opposing team led by that idiot Gavin. They were at school together, but he had avoided Gavin and his like-minded flashy friends who only talked about money like the plague. So it had been rather galling to discover, years later, that their respective cricket teams played in the same minor league. The competition between them was fanatical, and Jeremy had sworn revenge on Gavin after his team had won the league trophy the season before - but only because the last match was washed out. To win the first match of the new season by bowling out Gavin had made victory even sweeter.
    He had been walking back to the pavilion when he first saw Vanessa. She strode towards him like some burnished Amazon and within moments had taken command of both him and the situation.
    If only Chloe had been there that day instead of away on