A Cat Called Kat

Chapter Twenty - The Party

It was on the Thursday afternoon, after my siesta, that Guillia appeared with a new dress for me. It was even shorter than the other one... and even more stylish and elegant. I mean... Slimeball might have the tact and sophistication of a bucket of dog poo but he had someone advising him who knew their dresses.

"Mr Andretti says you have to come to a party tonight," she told me, "and you must wear this beautiful dress."

I had a moment of panic when I wondered whether Slimeball had got bored and decided to get on and announce our engagement anyway.

But then I worked out I didn't have any choice and was just going to have to go with it.

"Thank you for telling me," I said to Guillia. "But, just so you know, next time you should say that he has invited me to the party... and that he asked me to wear the dress. It's a bit more... diplomatic."

She thought about this for a bit then we shared a smile when she worked out what I was going on about.

"Even if the other one is probably more accurate," I added. At least I made her grin.

"A beauty lady is coming at five o'clock to help you to get ready."

"A beautician," I corrected her. "Then I'd better go for my swim straight away so I'm ready for her when she arrives.

When Slimeball came to collect me, I was all shiny and beautiful. And I couldn't deny that he was looking pretty smart himself in a suit with a white, open necked shirt. But, as he guided me up through the gardens, I noticed there was something a bit odd about him and, by the time we reached the top terrace, I'd managed to work out that he was already pretty drunk.

There were already dozens of people out on the terrace including a few I vaguely recognised, including a couple of his favoured guard captains. The atmosphere was already pretty loud and unpleasant and plenty of the others were already noticeably drunk too.

There was a strange gang of women hanging around who didn't really seem to fit in and were basically throwing themselves at anything wearing trousers... and it took me an embarrassingly long time to work out that they'd probably been paid to be here. I mean... how was I supposed to know... it's not as if I'd ever been to anything like this before.

When the people noticed Slimeball they started crowding round, desperate to congratulate him. Of course he loved it... just loved it... loved being the centre of attention... basically bathing in the whole adoration thing.

At last he broke free of the crowd and marched across to a bar that had been set up in one corner of the terrace. And, even though there were heaps of people crowding around it, they all hurried to let him through and within seconds I'd had a Belini thrust into my hands and he was pouring whisky down his throat.

"What's this all about?" I asked him, as much to slow down his drinking as for any real interest in small talk.

"Ah! You don't know!" I could tell he was ridiculously smug about the whole thing. "Tonight we are celebrating the two month anniversary of my rise to Head of the Family."

OK... at that point I was as close as I ever got to totally losing it. I was being forced to celebrate the fact that he'd brutally murdered my Nonno... brutally murdered my Nonno and then handed over control of the Family to a gang of Chinese gangsters.

Luckily, one of the loose women chose that moment to throw herself on him so he didn't notice my reaction. By the time I recovered, she was standing close enough to rub herself against him and had a hand inside his shirt. When he saw me looking, he reluctantly disentangled himself and sent her on her way with a slap on the bottom.