Chapter 10

Addie made breakfast for all three of them, smiling while Holly sat on Ricky’s lap, still dressed in just the sheet while they related their story of meeting last night, how her car had broken down and their journey back. The injury on Ricky’s head was to the right and behind the eye socket, and while it had stopped bleeding long ago, a definite bruise had formed. With each glance at him, Holly’s delight from their love-making was tempered by the memory of Rob, his anger, his accusations and language towards her. She smiled however, knowing that she would never have sat in the kitchen on Rob’s lap, or just worn a sheet to cover her nakedness around the house. Even Addie limited herself to two pieces of underwear.

After breakfast, Ricky excused himself, went upstairs to dress before returning and calling his father. The car had been fixed and he wanted to invite Holly for lunch if that worked for her. She nodded happily at the suggestion and Addie smiled at her in her obvious success with the Millsum family. But it was when Ricky explained to his father about the gash on his head that Holly’s heart simply melted. She kissed his neck so very gently when he said he had walked into a lamppost while escorting her to her front door. Addie glanced over, saw the look of bliss on Holly’s face and her perfect right breast where the sheet had fallen away and quietly excused herself from the room.

With Ricky installed in the lounge in front of the TV, Holly crept back upstairs and into her room, dropped the sheet to the floor and glanced over to the bed. The duvet and bottom sheet lay crumpled on the mattress, the latter stained in several places. She breathed in deeply, trying to capture the essence of the previous night, their cuddles, her sound sleep with him right there next to her. She wrapped her arms around herself and thought wistfully of the morning, her eyes opening to see her bedroom door, then the sense that she was not alone. She had rolled over slowly and moved closer to him as her body fit the contours of his. He faced the wall and was breathing slowly, quietly and didn’t move when she placed her hand on his warm hip and nuzzled into his hair.

Holly breathed out at the thought and walked over the window, standing to the left to get the benefit of the sun which was creeping around to its three o’clock position. She retrieved the envelope and pulled out four or five sheets of paper. It was formally written, addressed to her at Foley Road. It included a job title of “Event Executive”, a formal place of work at Millsum’s offices in the city, a blank starting date and further down, some terms and conditions that she had seen on employment offer templates many times. It was section thirty-five though that she was really looking for, on page four. Starting salary was to be eighty-five thousand, payable in arrears bi-weekly. She grabbed her chair, then sank to her knees. The sun lit her pussy which was quickly covered by her hand as she lay flat out on the floor. “Are they crazy?” said Holly to the empty room. She did the simple maths, thinking that with tax deducted she would take home just under two thousand every two weeks. “That’s crazy!” she said, although she slid a finger a little way inside herself at the thought of the number. It was a lot more than she had expected, and certainly more than her friends had announced when they got job offers. She thought back to the interview and realised too that John Millsum had typed only two or three words at his keyboard before printing the offer. That could have been the offer date, or the sum but not both. She looked again and saw that the sum was in figures and words, so he had most probably just typed the date. It then dawned on her that it was already there on his screen when they entered the room and the interview had been one of confirmation rather than initial selection. She grinned, shut her eyes and tasted her finger, careful to avoid smearing the signature page.

They made a very quick detour to the Millsum apartment downtown, retrieving some letters from the lobby mailbox so that Ricky could say he had spent the night there then took Forge Drive north, past her wonderful car dealership and onwards to lunch. They were greeted by both John and Penny and shown into the kitchen which, despite the enormity of the property, was where everyone seemed to hang out. She offered the envelope back to him when Ricky and his mother had disappeared to tend to his bruised face and thanked him genuinely for the offer. She looked embarrassed when she confirmed that she had accepted, and John seemed to pick up on her concern.