Chapter 12

How I wished we'd had a daughter! I didn't think I was doing badly with Morag but that extra bit of experience might have come in handy. On Tuesday and Wednesday I mulled things over without reaching anything concrete about how to help Morag achieve the aim I had set her. As usual I would need Mary's common sense and innate feeling for other people. The more I thought about it the more I longed for Mary's return and our life together. I guess it was part of her wisdom that had persuaded her to leave me for five weeks while she went to the States. Certainly I was never again going to take her fore-granted in any way. I don't think I ever had but this separation had certainly wound me up.

So deep was I in this train of thought that Morag's call on Wednesday evening caught me on the hop. I hadn't actually forgotten about it but it was far from the forefront of my mind. In retrospect that was probably a good thing. I'd got my priorities right.

"Hello?"

"Hello, James darling! I've taken you at your word. How are you, my man?"

"I'm fine, Princess, and all the better for hearing you. All well?"

"Yeah, not half!"

"Go on. Tell me."

"Well, there's been a guy at work who's been coming on at me ever since I arrived."

"Don't blame him."

"Oh, hush up, James! He's ghastly but he thinks himself a bit of good news with the girls. Up to now I've just scuttled away from him but yesterday I thought: "Why don't I fix him, bloody twerp?" "

"Look out!"

She giggled.

"Anyway, he came on at me today again saying that I'd got great boobs and oughtn't to wear a bra. I'd just had enough. So I went for him.

"If I need your advice on anything I shall ask you. Until that happens don't even speak to me. Now, leave me alone."

"Blimey!" he said moving in front of me. "What's turned you into a little pussy cat?"

"Go away, Charlie. I mean what I said."

"Oh! I like girls with a bit of spirit."

With that he pushed me up against the wall and groped my boob. Luckily, a friend called Samantha came round the corner and almost barged into us.

"What do you think your up to, Charlie?" she asked.

"Oh! Er! Um! Nothing!" he said.

"Then why was your hand in Morag's blouse?"

"She'd asked me to."

"What?"

"She'd asked me to show her how special her boobs were."

"Oh, come on! Did you really, Morag?"

"No! He told me he'd show me how special they were and started groping me."

"Right, Charlie! You're in big trouble. Sexual harassment! Court hearings! National Sex Offenders Register! What are you going to do about it?"

"I dunno. She led me on."