Chapter 4

Cassie and Ged both graduated with First Class Honours Degrees and celebrated with their families and friends at their graduation.

Cassie's younger siblings, brother Mike and sister Marie came for the degree ceremony along with her parents. The family, with Ged included, celebrated afterwards with a meal at the hotel at which the family were staying.

Two days later, Cassie and Ged celebrated with his parents at his favourite restaurant in Chinatown. He was an only child and thus there was no one else.

Cheryl and Brian threw a party for them and for Cheryl who had graduated with a Second Class Upper Division, known as a 2:1. The small house was packed with people, many of whom had also graduated.

The house, though it only had two bedrooms on the first floor and an attic on the second, also had a cellar which Brian had made into a series of interconnecting rooms. The bedrooms were locked, since one belonged to the couple and the other to Cassie. The ground floor was full of people circulating and talking, and the cellars had music for dancing.

As usual Ged got into deep discussions with Vivienne, Fred and Hetty from his song group and Cassie smiled. He was so predictable; once turned to the subject of music, he was lost to her. She did not mind, for it was exactly this characteristic which led to his best songs. She could hear the music from below and loved to dance, so she descended in the hope of finding a partner.

She met Wendy, another of her English group, and the two took to the floor. It was after the third dance, all of them fast, that a slow song came on, and someone tapped Cassie on the shoulder, and asked to cut in. With a start, she recognised the voice. It was Zak. He took her in his arms and was pulling her closer, but she pushed him away.

They danced to the slow song at arm's length.

"I miss you," mumbled Zak plaintively. "Any chance?..."

"Sorry Zak," she said. "You blew it. She wasn't the only one, was she?"

He had the grace to look guilty.

"I've learned my lesson, Cassie," he said. "I don't do that sort of thing any more. Wouldn't you give me a chance to prove it?"

"You're too late," she said, "I'm with someone else now – have been for a year. We're moving in together this summer. So no."

"We were good together," he said.

"Not good enough," she said. "I think I'll go back upstairs. Goodbye, Zak."

"A kiss before I go?" he asked.

She was tempted, very tempted. He was a good kisser and a wonderful lover, though Ged was as skilful and much more loving and considerate. Ged was already her soulmate as Zak had never been. She realised that she had spent her relationship with Zak desperately trying to keep his interest. With Ged, she was comfortable and relaxed. No comparison.

"No, Zak," she said. "Kisses are for friends, and that's something we'll never be now."

With that she broke from him and returned to Ged and the group, with whom she stayed for the rest of the night. She did not see Zak watching from the doorway to the room. He was angry and jealous, as she saw his ex-girl cuddling up to another man.

Later, much later, Cassie and Ged made their way from Cheryl's house to his shared house. She was preoccupied and it showed.

Notwithstanding Cassie's dismissal of Zak, she nevertheless couldn't help coming back to their dance in her mind. There was still that attraction. It was an animal thing, a biological urge; Zak was a good mating partner, and she was physically strongly attracted to him even now. It was her body pushing her at a very basic level to have children by him.

However, the hurt of what he had done and said when in that blond's arms, and his infidelity had left a permanent emotional scar, and it was at that level than she was able to repulse him. She would not let him hurt her again.

Then there was Ged, and she was by now so deeply in love with him, so much a part of him and he of her that there was never going to be any rival to him in her affections. He filled every one of her needs; he was sensitive, creative, thoughtful and always self-giving.

Ged broke into her thoughts.

"Cassie, darling," he said tenderly, "Is there a problem? You seem preoccupied. Someone upset you?"

She felt fear. How could she tell him?

"Nothing really." she said, deciding to come clean. She must not hide anything from him. "I went down to dance – you were buried with the group as usual," she laughed briefly. "I was dancing and an ex-boyfriend cut in and danced with me. Wanted me to go back to him. I told him I was spoken for, and he pleaded with me. It unsettled me, that's all."

"You ok now?" he asked solicitously.

"Yeah," she said with as much conviction as she could muster. "It was the suddenness of it; took me by surprise. We were very close once and I felt bad putting him down."

"He the one who cheated on you?"

"Yeah. It broke me up at the time, but you came along and everything's so much better than ever it was with him. I'm a very lucky girl." She squeezed his hand, and he put his arm round her, hugging her close as they walked. It broke her mood and she once more felt at ease.

So the vacation began with flat hunting. Ged had started work, and so Cassie was the one to do the searching. She visited flat after flat, all ready furnished, but nothing took her fancy. Ged left it to her. She knew what they needed, and she discussed it with him each evening.

Then she saw a flat for sale in an estate agent's window. It looked good but was unfurnished and was not for rent, which was really what they were looking for. She made an appointment and viewed it. It was perfect. It was close enough for her to walk or cycle to university, and on a direct bus route to his work, which meant he could leave his recently acquired used car at home.

She took Ged to see it and he agreed it was exactly right. There followed a search for a mortgage. Thankfully he had saved all his royalties and they came to a quarter of the price of the flat, so he had a sizeable deposit. He was careful to make the deposit as small as he could, realising that the flat would need to be furnished.

Ged had to buy the flat in his name since Cassie was not earning, but Cassie saw no problem with that. Once they had possession, there were more weeks having fun furnishing the place as cheaply as possible, consistent with a certain aesthetic quality. By the middle of August the kingsize bed had been delivered and the flat was fully furnished. They moved in.

Ged set up current accounts. Into the first, in his name, he paid enough from his royalties to cover the mortgage and utilities with some left over, and the second, a joint account into which went his salary and Cassie's contribution for everyday expenses.

They Christened the flat by having sex in every room, how else? They did it with him standing in the kitchen as she sat on the worktop. They did it with her on the dining room table and on the rug in the living room, on the bed, taking her from behind in the office-cum-music room, which they thought an apt name! Then they coupled in the shower and also the bath of the large bathroom, and finally leaning against the wall in the narrow hallway.