Chapter 7

Next morning, she came down to breakfast in a loose pair of silk pyjamas, the top of which hung from her sharp breasts, outlining her nipples, and the bottoms of which clung to the crease in her bottom leaving little to the imagination. The girl just couldn’t help being sexy!

What did we do that day? Well, I showed her my utter devotion by – going shopping for Christmas presents with her. She gaily told me how much she loved us shopping together.

From my side it wasn’t so bad, she held hands or tucked her arm in mine all the time, chatting away about the relative appropriateness of each present we bought, and asking my advice! All presents were to be from both of us, a sign we were now firmly a couple.

It brought up the whole question of our families. We had both returned to our home town to work here, and so our families were local, indeed both were walking distance from my flat. Rachel was an only child, and Cassie was my only sister, indeed my only sibling.

That evening, as I changed for our appointment, I mused over my own family’s likely responses to Rachel.

When I was with Rachel in the summer, we were seen, and my mother was all agog to learn about my new ‘girlfriend’. I had to disappoint her yet again – I was doing a married friend a favour, and there was nothing in the relationship. Cassie had backed me up on that.

Now, however, there was a development, I was meeting her parents that night, and I knew we would have to see mine.

The trouble was I didn’t know how my parents would take it. I knew they thought divorce was a serious failure, and that divorced women were bad news. If a woman had ditched her previous husband, the chances were she’d ditch the new one in due course. Cassie once again was very good, and had not mentioned anything about our new situation.

My thoughts about my parents’ reaction to my divorcing girlfriend were broken off as we set off to meet Rachel’s parents. We walked.

The house was a medium sized four bedroom detached house, one of a row, all identical apart from the cosmetic alterations made to attempt some individuality. Rachel’s house had no such adornments, which actually gave it the individuality the others sought! It was immaculate inside, keeping its original Art Deco features.

Rachel let us in and shouted “Hello?” which brought her mother out of the living room. Now I had seen her mother at school functions as a youth and had admired her mature beauty. It was obvious whence Rachel had her looks.

She swiftly moved to embrace her daughter, then turned to me with a broad smile.

“Mum, this is Rod,” Rachel said.

“Pleased to meet you Roderick,” she said holding out a hand to shake.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Mrs Grantham,” I replied taking her hand and shaking briefly.

“Come through,” she invited, leading us into the living room.

Mr Grantham rose to his feet. He was my height, and he wore a wide smile.

“This is Roderick Mason, Daddy.”

“Welcome Roderick, or do you prefer Rod?”

“Rod will be fine.”

“I’m Gordon, and my wife is Crystal, less formal than Mr and Mrs Graham.”

I was offered a G & T before dinner and had to tell him my job and explain what it involved. He seemed impressed. Rachel meanwhile had disappeared with her mother to the kitchen, where metallic clattering gave the correct impression that dinner was to be served forthwith.

“So how do you know Rachel?” he asked me over the delicious leek and potato soup.

“We were at school together, though we were in different friendship groups. I was a mate of Gary’s. I used to go drinking with him when I returned here with my company, so I saw something of Rachel when I picked him up.”

The humour had evaporated and the atmosphere turned cold.

“You’ll appreciate Gary is not our favourite person,” explained Crystal.

“Nor mine either,” I echoed. “We’ve had a serious disagreement, and there’s never going to be a way back.”

Relief crossed her parents’ faces.

“I assume, Rachel, you turned to Rod for support in the divorce,” Gordon said. It was really a question.

Rachel sighed. She looked at me asking the question, I nodded.

“Mummy, Daddy, I’ve never told you why Gary and I have parted.”

“No darling,” said Crystal, “and really it’s not our business, just a puzzle. You’ve only been married four years.”

“I want to tell you, and Rod has just agreed I should.”

The parents looked surprised since no words passed between us. I smiled.

“Really,” Rachel began, “I was a fool to marry him at all. He was good looking, he did care about me, and he loved me in his way, but we had very little in common.”

“You remember–” began Crystal.

“Yes, Mummy,” Rachel replied doggedly. “I remember you told me that. I’ve just said I was a fool, haven’t I? Anyway, he...” she hesitated uncertain how to put it.

I came to her rescue. “What Rachel wants to say is that Gary’s sexual demands got rather out of line. He actually wanted Rachel to sleep with another man to excite him.”

“What!“ exclaimed her father, “You mean–?”

“Yes,” I said with an air of disgust. “He wanted to be cuckolded – experience jealousy, uncertainty – some such rubbish.”

Crystal looked shocked.

“Yes,” I said to her. “He’s twisted.”

I drew a breath and looked at Rachel, who looked gratefully at me and nodded. This time the communication was not lost on the parents.

“You were the other man,” said Gordon, beginning to look annoyed.

“Yes and no,” I replied. “He conned Rachel and me into meeting. Neither of us wanted to do that, but we reckoned if I refused, he would find someone else and keep badgering her.

“So we came up with a cunning plan worthy of Baldrick in Blackadder, but without the turnip.”

They laughed: everyone knew about Blackadder. I continued.

“Gary would think I was sleeping with Rachel, but in fact we would do platonic things – we went to concerts, theatre, restaurants, etc. She went home and lied to him that we’d had riotous sex. At first he loved it.”

The parents’ faces! Stupefied initially, then grins appeared and Crystal cackled, then Gordon guffawed.

“That’s rich!” he laughed loud and long. Rachel and I allowed a smile.

“Of course,” I said, “eventually Gary got tired of the arrangement, and we were happy to stop our deception. From then on I didn’t see or communicate with Rachel and she didn’t correspond with me either.”

“So, what happened?” asked Crystal of Rachel, as if my narration gave her permission to know everything.

“Mummy, after all the things Rod and I did together, and the fact we talked and talked about everything, I realised that all there was with Gary was ... well ... sex, and it wasn’t enough.

“I had no life at all. He went out drinking with his mates and if I went as well I was a spare part. He went to football matches, but would only take me to the pub, never to the things I liked doing. We had nothing to talk about and I felt lonely.

“I tried and tried Mummy. We hardly spoke at home, he watched TV most of the time and he’d hardly talk about that. We just talked about practicalities. He just didn’t understand; as long as there was sex, what more could I want? I begged him to do some of the things I liked to do. He wouldn’t do it. I begged him to go to counselling. That was out as well. So after three or four attempts I told him I’d had enough. We just didn’t have anything but bed in common.”

There was a pause. I sensed this was the first time they had discussed her divorce. I felt vaguely uncomfortable being there with this soul baring. Rachel was bright red with embarrassment.

“So you told him,” asked Gordon, “you were divorcing him?”

“Yes.”

“And?”

“He didn’t believe me. So I went ahead. Then he took notice.”

“And he blamed you and Rod?” asked Crystal, perceptively.

“Then I broke a promise to Rod, and told Gary that we had never slept together. He was so angry, he went to Rod’s work and attacked him. Made a fool of himself, didn’t he, Roddy?”