When she looked up from her desk to scan the showroom for customers who may need her attention, Sarah Hardy saw a man who made her think today just couldn’t get any worse. It had started off badly and it had now taken another turn south. The rot had set in when she’d missed her mouth while taking a drink of orange juice. The liquid had splashed not just her crisp white blouse but had also soaked her skirt making it stick to her thigh.

That had necessitated a last-minute outfit change. Instead of the tight burgundy skirt which clung to her hips, she now wore a flared one. While inches longer, this one had a habit of riding up when she wasn’t paying attention. To exacerbate the problem, she’d put a fingernail through her last pair of tights and hadn’t had time to replace them.

She could accept flashing a little extra thigh for a handsome man with money, but for the older guy who was ambling across the showroom, it was a different matter. He may think he was being discreet when he looked at her, but it was obvious where his gaze was landing.

The blouse was another mistake. Where the first one had been loose and billowy, this one was tight across her bust and she knew that it often gaped enough to show her bra when she put her shoulders back.

The man came nearer and nearer, and it was then she remembered that he was here for a test drive. She’d forgotten to put the appointment in her diary and now she’d have to take him out and spend at least half an hour in his unsettling company.

She looked around for a colleague to offload the man to, and to heck with the commission she’d lose, but she saw they were all busy. With nothing left to do but accept the situation, Sarah rose to her feet and applied a fake smile.

‘Good morning. Are you here for your test drive?’

‘I am indeed, my dear.’

Sarah knew the ‘my dear’ was a generational thing but it still rankled her. As did sweetheart, love and a thousand other terms of address which demeaned women.

‘If you just give me five minutes, I’ll get the car ready for you.’

As she walked across to speak to the Dealer Principal to find out which car to take, she could sense the customer’s eyes caressing her bare legs. She almost hoped the right model wasn’t available. As she’d neglected to log the test drive, there was every possibility of that being the case, but that wouldn’t help her in the end. She’d either lose the sale, or worse, he’d come back another time. Her luck wasn’t in today though.

As she walked across the forecourt with him, she took the precaution of positioning herself in a way that hid any possible gapes in her blouse from his prying eyes. Sarah led the man – she was at a loss as to his name, and didn’t dare to mentally christen him with a nickname in case she called him Larry the Lech, or some other insult to his face – across to the car. She got him into the driver’s seat and showed him the controls to adjust it to suit his preferred driving position.

When she slid into the passenger seat, she made sure that her skirt was tucked beneath her bottom and that there wasn’t a hand lying in wait for her. With her seatbelt on, she told him to proceed in his own time.

A mile down the road she’d exhausted her small talk about the car. The man had listened to her spiel with only the odd word or nod as acknowledgement of what she was saying.

‘This is a very beautiful car.’

It took all of Sarah’s self-control not to shudder at the way he drew out the word ‘beautiful’. His inflection made the concept of beauty appear seedy.

A junction appeared ahead of them, and when the man pulled to a halt he checked both ways several times before drawing out. Sarah knew it was so he could spend a few seconds looking her way.

They were on a straight piece of road now and he drove at a low speed with regular glances at the mirrors. When they pulled up behind a car waiting to turn across oncoming traffic, he looked around the car then dropped his gaze to her legs.

‘There’s plenty of room in here. I mean, you’re quite tall and you appear to have more than enough room for those long legs of yours.’

‘Yes, it’s very spacious.’

Even as the words left her mouth, Sarah was sickened by what she was putting up with to make a sale, yet there was no way of changing the narrative.

Except there was.

At the first opportunity, she’d tell the lie and watch him pull back. She’d learned years ago that the best way to deal with unwelcome advances was to pretend to have a boyfriend.

They reached another junction and this time she turned her head and gave him a report on the oncoming traffic, or rather, the lack of it.

He pulled away after a sizeable delay, but at least she hadn’t had to endure his gaze. Rather than wait for the opportunity to slip the lie into conversation, she decided to create it.

‘This is a very nice car. My boyfriend has the same model. He loves it.’

‘As well he should. It’s a lovely car he can use to drive a lovely lady.’ The man gave a contented smile. ‘He’s a very lucky man.’

Sarah wasn’t sure if the man meant her fictitious boyfriend was lucky because of his car or girlfriend, but she suspected the latter and had to fight not to pull a face.

‘He is.’ She pointed at a sign indicating an approaching junction. ‘If you take that road it’ll bring us back towards the dealership.’

‘You certainly know your way around. Feel free to say no, my dear, but how do you feel about stopping for a bite of lunch before we return?’

This was too much for Sarah to tolerate without laying down a marker. ‘I’m sorry, but I have a very busy schedule today, and if my boss was to find out I was fraternising with a customer, I would get the sack. And I have to warn you, my boyfriend is a very jealous man.’

‘Of course, my dear. I was only trying to be kind. I was feeling hungry and thought you might be too.’

The lack of rebuke in the man’s voice combined with his polite, even tone made Sarah feel as though she’d been too harsh with her reply. Maybe the old guy was just lonely.

She’d have left her thoughts there had he not snuck a look at her legs when reaching down to fiddle with the controls for the air conditioning.

He drove her back to the showroom without further comment. When he pulled into the forecourt, she saw her boss chatting to one of the sales team.

Now was the hard part for her; after all his leers and sly looks, she had to turn her charm on full to see if she could close the deal. With her boss hovering around, she’d have to give her very best sales pitch; otherwise she’d find herself standing like a schoolchild in the headmaster’s office, as he delivered another version of his infamous ‘101 ways to make a sale’ lecture.

The car came to a halt and the man turned off the ignition.

‘So, now you’ve had a chance to drive this wonderful car, what do you think? Could you see yourself driving one every day? Perhaps taking your lady friend for a nice drive?’

She’d picked her words with care. Used ‘wonderful’ instead of a word that could be used to describe looks, hinted that she thought he was attached as a way to remind him that she was.

‘That is a capital idea. However, I do have appointments to test drive an Audi later today and a Mercedes tomorrow. Once I’ve tried them, I’ll drop by and let you know my decision.’

The handshake he gave her went on a beat too long and his eyes met hers then slid down her body.

She bade him farewell and took a step backwards, as much to distance herself as dismiss him. Her plan was that she would watch him leave rather than offer him the chance to ogle her as she walked away.

A quick check of her watch told her she had half an hour to finish typing the email she’d been working on when he’d interrupted her, grab a bite of lunch and fix her make-up before the man she actually wanted to meet was due.

The experience with the older man had almost put her off the idea of letting the dashing younger man know she was interested in him. It was hard for her to feel attractive after being ogled so openly. She turned and strode to her desk. Perhaps seeing the man again would give her seductiveness the kick up the backside it needed.