Chapter 6

Tide and time together

OF COURSE, Patty was keen to go with Rod for the rest of the night’s entertainment, why wouldn’t she? He seemed a nice lad, thought Tim. The boy himself was hovering in the background while Tim checked with Patty her plans for the rest of the evening and ensured she had enough cash on her for cab fare home. He always kept a twenty folded up in the recesses of his wallet for emergencies and had it ready to press into her hand. Then Tim took Rod off to one side and the pair came to a clear understanding that the parameters for the evening’s entertainment were severely limited and if Tim heard anything to the contrary he would personally track him down and bury him alive where no one would ever find him. With round eyes and hushed tones, Rod professed his good intentions towards Tim’s precious niece, and so they parted with clearly agreed terms of engagement.

Michelle and Patty were standing by together locked arm in arm, both of them looking at Tim and Rod, smiling and laughing. The objects of their mirth walked over to them to collect their now-swapped partners.

“What are you finding so funny?” Tim enquired of the chuckling pair of women.

“You, my very dear uncle,” declared Patty, reaching out to him and putting her hands around his neck before kissing him very tenderly on the cheek. “I bet you didn’t know that Michelle is an expert lip-reader, did you?” she giggled.

“No, I didn’t, but I appreciate the warning for any future conversations I might want to keep to myself.”

“Planning on keeping secrets from me already then ... Honey?” enquired Michelle, tucking a slender arm in his, as Patty released him from her own clutches and left the party with Rod and a handful of other noisy, excited youngsters.

“Some secrets may lead to nice surprises ... Sweetheart,” Tim replied smiling, delighted to have the woman he had only just met swopping endearments and agreeing to spend more time with him, “You do like nice surprises, don’t you?”

“Everybody likes nice surprises,” she replied, brushing her lips lightly against his other cheek, “As far as I am concerned you were the nicest surprise tonight, although Mum and Abbey were not at all surprised that I find you ... attractive.”

There wasn’t much else Tim could do other than kiss her hand. ‘Me? Attractive?’ he thought, ‘this beautiful young woman can’t possibly think that, surely?’ Thank goodness, he sent up a silent prayer, for having her mother and sister on his side.

“It appears that your Mum and Abbey seem to be hell bent on pushing us together.”

“Yes, I had noticed there has been some pressure,” she laughed, “But I am not at all adverse to their intentions on that score ... are you?”

“No, it would be churlish to disappoint them when they appear to be so determined.”

Michelle laughed; this was music to Tim’s ear. He wanted to know everything about this girl.

“How did you become so good at lip reading?” he asked.

“When I was a very young child and living with my grandmother I had trouble with my hearing. It might be hereditary, as my grandmother has worn a hearing aid for years, certainly for as long as I can remember. My hearing loss came on so gradually that I didn’t really realise that everybody didn’t have the same problem. It didn’t become noticed by anyone else either for such a long while because I disguised my loss of hearing by reading lips and understanding what people were saying.” She laughed at that point. “Once the problem was discovered a simple operation put it right, when I was about six, I think, but I never lost the ability to lip read. It comes in really handy when kids are talking at the back of the class!”

Tim and Michelle said their goodbyes to the rest of the Jones’ clan and Tim’s new friend Finn. Jenny squeezed Tim tightly and with a whisper implored him once again not to hurt Michelle’s feelings. She said she had been watching both of them when they were together and was sure that her daughter had immediately become infatuated with him. Tim assured Jenny once more that he would be a perfect gentleman and that he didn’t think any infatuation she may have detected between them was simply one-sided.

“Come to us for our Christmas Day lunch,” Jenny said, “it is for family and their other halves and Michelle would certainly be there.” Tim replied, “I had planned on spending Christmas Day with my youngest sister, her fiancé, who’s one of my best friends, and niece Tina. I would have to go there first thing on Christmas morning for the opening of Tina’s presents in any case.”

“Do they live locally?”

“Yes, ten minutes’ drive away.”

“You could still do that, and afterwards come on to us before lunch, we usually aim to sit down about 2pm,” Jenny suggested.

“I’ll give your invitation some serious thought as well as talk it over with Michelle in the meantime and let you know.”

Once Tim and Michelle had exited out into the chilly winter outdoors, they saw that while they had luxuriated in the warmth enjoying themselves building up a sweat on the dance floor, a severe hoar frost, which had previously been forecast, had descended on the neighbourhood, giving the trees surrounding the path leading away from the hotel entrance a very festive pre-Christmas appearance. However attractive it may have appeared though, it was bitterly cold and the path underfoot crunched with the rock salt recently scattered by the hotel staff to prevent patrons slipping up.

“Sorry, Chelle,” Tim said, “I hadn’t realised how frosty it was, we are hardly suitably dressed for a walk in this.” He regarded her long satin dress, fragile heels and thin wrap covering her bare arms and shoulders as he removed his dinner jacket and draped it over her shoulders and putting a protective arm around her.

“I was so looking forward to a long walk,” she said, “I feel that I have been cooped up in school for weeks and only finished for the Christmas holidays very late this afternoon.”

“School?” Tim queried, realising he had never asked, and they had not discussed, how each of them earned their respective livings. “I thought you left school, oooh, probably two or three years ago, but I’m terrible at estimating young girls’ ages.”

“I am a school teacher, silly,” she smiled, “English Lit and Drama mainly to Years 7 and 8. It’s been rather hectic this term, what with putting on the Christmas show for the Lower School and cramming everything else in. And Mum kept on pestering me for the last few days to come to this party. I really didn’t want to commit to going until I was completely finished at work.” She laughed and added, “Even then, I only agreed to come during a weak moment as late as lunchtime today. It really was an unintentional moment of weakness because all I really wanted to do today was lie down and go to sleep as soon as I got home. Mum followed me home direct from school, waited while I showered, bought me this wonderful dress and dropped me off at the hairdressers’ salon where she had already booked me in. Rod had to collect me from there and bring me straight to the ball. I’d never even met Rod before tonight!”

“Well, you’d never met me before tonight and here we are walking across to my car and I could be about to whisk you off onto God knows where!”

“I know, I must be in a state of shock. I never do anything as carelessly unplanned as this. I must be stir crazy. The autumn to Christmas term is a frantic one, especially since half-term in October.”

“So, if we change our attire, have you still got the energy for a long walk, after all you’ve been dancing all night?”

“I think I’ve got my second wind in, and my adrenaline levels must be off the chart. Besides I really don’t want this night to end.” She looked at him, “Sorry, I’m assuming too much, what about you? What do you want to do?”

Tim chuckled at the frown on her face and kissed her forehead. “I’m pretty hyper tonight too. I would walk with you to the end of the horizon, I just can’t believe that someone as beautiful as you would even consider walking around at this time of night with an ugly old guy like me.” He laughed and added, “Perhaps it helps that it’s nice and dark out!”

“You’re not an old guy and you look pretty good in whatever light I’ve see you so far,” she said, as they approached the far edge of the car park, where Tim’s Jaguar stood in splendid isolation, most of the cars in this area having long since departed, it was just after 1am by now. “What are you, Tim, 35? I’m 29.”

“I’m 38 and will be 39 in April.”

“Not April the first?” she giggled.

“No, I must’ve been born three weeks overdue, my birthday is on the 22nd. What are you going to get me for my birthday, then?”

“Well, if you are very good I might cook and serve you a home-cooked meal. Actually I might do that even if you are bad. How strong is your stomach, anyway?” Michelle laughed.

“Cast iron.”

“Good.” she laughed, “Then you can cook me a meal on my birthday, it’s slap bang in the middle of the barbecue season, 29th July, I think it’s on a Friday next year.”

“Great, we could make a nice long weekend of it!”

“In your dreams, Tim!” she giggled as she reached out with her other hand and squeezed his arm.

“I think I am going to be blessed with some very pleasant dreams from now on. Ah, here we are. Your chariot awaits, Ma’am.” They stopped next to his car and Tim released his hold on her arm while he felt to find the lock in the dark with one hand and carefully inserted his key in the passenger side, opening the door for her. The inside courtesy light came on and he held her arm again to support her as she stooped down to lower herself into the tan leather bucket seat. Tim made sure the hem of her lovely dress was tucked in safely before closing the door with a soft click. Then he scooted round the other side, unlocked his door and climbed in. The leather seat felt cold to the touch through his thin shirt.

“This car is beautiful Tim, absolutely beautiful,” she said, “What make is it? The smell of this leather is wonderful evocative ... intoxicating.”

“Well, I could say exactly the same about your scent,” Tim countered, before moving swiftly on as he turned the ignition key and the engine roared instantly into life with a throaty roar that always lifted Tim’s spirits; tonight though he thought his spirits couldn’t possibly get any higher.

“It’s a vintage car, a Jaguar E-Type 4.2 litre sports coupe painted in British racing green and finished in tan leather upholstery.” Once the engine was started and the heaters put on blowing full blast onto the windows, Tim got out again and removed the old blanket protecting the windscreen from the frost. He folded it neatly and put it into the boot, extracted his ice-scraper and started scraping the thin layer of frost from all the side and rear windows. While he cleared the car windows he could see Michelle sitting calmly in this car. As he moved around he could observe her from every angle and thought that she looked so beautiful from every viewpoint. ‘Don’t bugger this up, Tim my boy,’ he thought, ‘this woman is definitely the one you’ve been looking for all your life; if only you are what she wants.’ He dropped the scraper back where it belonged and slammed the boot shut. He had reversed into the parking space, in line with his usual habit, and he drove out smoothly and slowly towards the exit, careful of any other drivers who may have been more cavalier than he had in his alcohol consumption during the evening. By this time the car heater had warmed up and he adjusted the control to fan some of the welcome heat onto the driver and passenger.

“I have a soft top for this car too, which I usually fit on from spring to autumn. If you are very nice to me I could always take you on day trips to the coast or tour the moors once the weather turns nice.”

“I think I’d love that.”

“Where do you want to go for our walk tonight?”

“If you could take me home first, I’m less than ten minutes away, I’ll change into something warmer and with better footwear. As for where to go, I’m happy to go anywhere you’re prepared to drive to. It’s a lovely clear night to watch the stars. Any suggestions?”

“Well, do you think you would be able to stay up for the rest of the night, Michelle, and see in the sun rise with me?”

“I think so, School is out for me now until January, also it is Saturday so I can sleep in all day come the morning. Where do you have in mind?”

“It’s gone 1 o’clock now, by the time we both get changed into more appropriate clothing, it’ll be between 2 and 3am. We could get to Scarborough on the coast by 5 or 5.30 and walk along the seafront and star gaze for a couple of hours or so and watch the sun appear to rise up out of the eastern sea about 8. What do you think?”

“That sounds like fun!” Michelle replied.

“We could stop there for breakfast and still get back by mid-morning at the latest so you can catch up on your sleep until late afternoon or early evening. Now, Chelle, I have a dinner engagement with a couple of very close friends on Saturday night and I wondered if you will agree to accompany me as my date?”

Michelle made her decision very quickly, “OK to everything,” she breathed, “I am quite excited, it’s like an adventure tonight, a perfect way to round off a wonderful evening. I only hope I can keep going all night. I suspect I might well fall asleep in the car either going or coming back, probably even both ways and not be very good company for you.” She laughed.

“Let me worry about whether you’re good company or not, you’ve been nothing short of perfect so far,” Tim grinned, “Now, guide me to your place, is it left or right at the gates?”

“Left.”

“Left it is.”

Michelle had a tiny one-bed flat in a rather square, ugly-looking 1970s building. It looked to Tim like it had been designed by an émigré from the Soviet bloc, intimately familiar with the barely-rendered concrete architecture of the 1950s. Michelle said the school had built the depressing, weatherworn block to house teaching staff. The school was rapidly expanding at that time and experiencing a quick turnover of newly qualified staff, unable to find affordable accommodation in the immediate area. The individual flats were now all privately owned.

She pointed out a frost-covered silver Nissan Micra, about ten years old, parked out front. “That’s my little car.”

Tim was surprised that Michelle’s car was so dated, causing him to wonder why she was driving what looked like an old wreck? OK, that was an exaggeration on his part; it wasn’t that bad, but her father had been prepared to spend almost a six-figure sum on her youngest sister only a couple of months earlier. Something didn’t seem quite right. Tim wasn’t sure how to broach the subject, when he hardly knew her, so he changed tack.

“Does the car run all right?” he asked as they walked down her path to the block’s entrance.

“It’s fine, except the engine doesn’t like starting on these cold, frosty mornings,” she replied, as she entered the outer door code into the keypad, and pulled open the door, adding with a laugh, “Or when it rains, either!”

Michelle lived on the second floor of the block and as they climbed up the steps he said to her:

“Bring the car into the shop on Monday morning and we’ll give it a look over, I can let you have a replacement courtesy car for the day if you can’t spare a couple of hours or so to wait for it.”

“Well, it only had a service two or three months ago, actually just before the term started in September, and isn’t due another service until next August. I only budget to do it once a year at the most, as I don’t do much motoring to be honest, except to and from school, the shops and the gym.” Michelle didn’t ask where the ‘shop’ was, so Tim guessed that Jenny or Abbey had already informed her what he did for a living and where he worked.

“It’s worthwhile getting it looked at, to sort the starting problem, no charge, Chelle. Brian, our Nissan mechanic, doesn’t get many Micras of that vintage to look at, so we’ll chalk it up as a training exercise for him.” Tim grinned.

“I don’t want to be responsible for you getting into trouble with your boss.”

“You won’t, don’t worry about that.”

“OK,” she smiled with those dimples again.

Tim once more thought he would do anything to make those dimples appear and could happily look at them all night. Michelle unlocked her front door and he followed her into her flat.

“I’m sorry it is so messy in here,” she said apologetically, as soon she switched the light on, “I wasn’t expecting to bring anyone back here and ... my usual cleaning day is Saturday.” She cleared a pile of text books and exercise books plus other loose papers from the sofa and indicated that Tim sit and wait for her there, before she bolted red-faced into the bedroom.

Tim looked around. The flat was tiny, a breakfast bar separating the galley kitchen from the living room. She had a small television set in the corner, but one of the walls was completely covered in shelves packed full of books. He got up and idly looked through them; lots of classics and plays and shelves of education books and teaching aids. Michelle obviously took her subject seriously. She was clearly not one of the light, fluffy females that he tended to meet at places like the nightclub; how would she regard him, he thought? He was anything but cultured.

“Almost ready,” she announced as she bounced back into the room, in what Tim thought was a surprisingly short amount of time in his experience of women changing their apparel for a date; like Patty earlier this evening, which seemed a long time ago now. She had tied up her long brown hair in a pony tail, held by a yellow scrunchy, her slender frame enveloped in a cream polo-neck jumper, thick brown corduroy jeans and thick woolly socks.

They proceeded to the door, where she put on some chunky, well-broken-in hiking boots, and grabbed a thick coat, scarf, woolly hat and gloves.

“Ready,” she smiled warmly, and opened the door.

She lived only ten minutes’ drive away from Tim’s house in the light, almost non-existent traffic at that time of night. Very soon they were going up his short drive while he operated the remote garage door and drove smoothly into his double-width garage. He got out of the car and scooted around the front to let her out of the passenger door. Then Tim flicked on the bright garage lights while the door of the garage closed automatically to keep the cold weather out.

Michelle stood back and admired the car, now gleaming under the powerful lights, clearly designed for working on the vehicles at night or with the doors closed.

“It looks classically beautiful and very old,” she observed.

“Forty-seven years old,” he said, “It’s definitely a classic. In that green dress you wore earlier, you complimented each other perfectly.”

“How long have you had it, Tim?”

“Oh, about ten years or so. It wasn’t too bad mechanically when I bought it but I did need to put in a little bit of body and paintwork to get it up to showroom quality.”

“Do you use it much? I see you have a brand-new saloon parked next to it.”

“That’s my company car, and I use that one most of the time. The E-Type is my own and only comes out for special occasions and very rarely used in the winter. I wanted Patty to feel special when I took her out to the party tonight. It seems to have worked.”

“I think so, Patty’s a lovely girl and Rod seemed to be quite taken with her,” Michelle said with a grin, “Provided he gets over your dire warning.”

“Well, I was his age once upon a time,” Tim grinned back at her sheepishly, recalling her lip-reading expertise demonstrated earlier, “I’m pretty sure if her father was about he would have said the same thing.”

“Well, you took your father-figure role very seriously; you seemed to have mellowed since your youth, right?”

“Absolutely,” he said, with his hand on his chest, “You are the first young lady I have invited back here in a couple of years, at least. Anyway, come on through to the house while I get out of my monkey suit and dress as comfortably as you now are, ready for our walk.”

He unlocked the door through to the kitchen, leaving the light on in the garage and flicking on the kitchen light switch. He believed that his kitchen was one of the most impressive features of his remodelled house that definitely had that ‘wow!’ factor. The original house had been designed with a small kitchen at the back of the house. When Tim moved in about five years earlier he built on this side extension, which filled in the gap between the house and the enlarged detached double garage. This enabled Tim to create a large kitchen with modern storage units and state of the art ovens around the walls, a food prep island in the middle, all with dark granite worktops, and included a walk-in pantry at one end and a breakfast area at the front end of the room. The original kitchen had been gutted and turned into a formal dining room, leading through to an added sunroom along the back wall of the house.

“Wow!” she exclaimed, “I know at least a dozen women who would kill you for this kitchen, including my Mum.” She examined his face, which must have looked somewhat smug at her reaction to his pride and joy. “Earlier you hinted that you cook. Does this mean that you cook a lot, or is all this for show?”

“I cook everything,” Tim admitted, “And I hope to do be able to produce something a little better than a barbecue for your birthday, by which time I expect to have learned exactly where your tastes lie.”

“If it’s home-cooked I will probably eat anything you serve up. These pots and pans do look as though they have been well used.” She pointed to the cast-iron pots hanging up over the island.

“They are, although I do enjoy eating out regularly once or twice a week, too.” he said, “And still bring the occasional home take-away when I am too tired to cook or cooking just for one.”

“Is the rest of the house as tidy as the kitchen? I feel even more of a slouch knowing you have seen my place at its very worst.”

“Oh dear! Yes, I’m afraid I’m very organised in business and that translates to being tidy domestically, too. Do you want the six-penny guided tour?”

“Why not?” she grinned, “I do love looking at people’s houses.” She admitted to herself, of being keen to look over a man’s bachelor pad, which was definitely a new experience for her; she certainly hadn’t expected this when she allowed her mum to collect her for the Christmas party earlier in the evening!

Michelle had noticed Tim had kicked off his shoes as soon as he entered the kitchen and, without him saying anything, she had pulled off her hiking boots and walked around the kitchen in her thick woollen socks. The house was well insulated and quite warm. Tim smiled at her in appreciation of her respect for his home, with the delicious thought tickling his subconscious that this could be her home, maybe one day. If she had left her boots on he probably wouldn’t have said anything, but it was very nice to see her take note of his own actions and care enough to respond in like fashion.

“I had my builder install under-floor heating beneath the tiled floor in both the kitchen and dining room.” Tim explained, “so walking around on bare feet in the winter is a pleasant experience.” Tim held out his hand and she took it in hers with a heart-warming display of her flashing smile. He led her through the house, turning on the lights as they progressed room by room. Downstairs there was the kitchen, of course, then the dining room and the sitting room beyond that. Along the whole length of the back of the house was the triple-glazed sunroom, comfortably fitted out with bamboo furniture and cotton-print soft covers. There were blinds pulled all around the sunroom and inside the glass roof. Tim operated the electric blind retractor and switched on the lights in the garden. It wasn’t an overly large garden, but there was a good-sized deck with a sheltered built-in barbecue to one side and the garden laid out to lawns and scrub beds, with a greenhouse and shed in the corner. She could see that the garage went back a long way and she mentioned that to Tim.

“The garage is double length as well as double width and there’s a fully fitted gym built into the back half of the garage. When there’s time I’ll show you that too.” He hoped above hope that there would be an opportunity in the near future to show her his gym and the gardens in more detail. The garden was quite secluded and she could sunbathe in the summer to her delight if she wished; his delight too.

Tim switched the garden lights off and closed the blinds. At the front of the sitting room there was a hallway with a door to a toilet on the right-hand side and a small office where he kept a computer and his own shelves of books. Michelle ran an index finger down the titles, some guidebooks but mostly hardback autobiographies and modern fiction, consisting of adventure, spy thrillers and mystery crime novels. There were a few other textbooks on management, accounting and salesmanship plus a whole shelf full of colourful cookery books, which made Michelle smile. Upstairs there were the two original double-sized bedrooms, both fitted out nicely as guest bedrooms plus a family bathroom. Tim saved the best until last, the master bedroom, which was an additional build onto the original house and had the same large footprint as the kitchen below. The original third bedroom had been turned into a large en suite bathroom with circular bath and huge walk-in shower big enough for two. In the bedroom there were plenty of fitted wardrobes and drawers for clothes and a king-size bed.

“Mmm,” she said with her tongue in cheek, “I expected a four-poster bed in here at the very least, plus wall and ceiling mirrors.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” he replied gently, opening a wardrobe where he kept his suits and pulling out a hanger with a suit pouch on it, “I only use this room for sleeping in, not for entertaining. There’s a full-length mirror in the door of one of the wardrobes on that side of the room, though.”

“Oh, I’m not disappointed at all, Tim, I am very impressed. I assume the wardrobes on the side where you are, are ‘his’, and those are ‘hers’?”

“The room was designed that way,” Tim agreed nodding, “Those ones are still largely empty.”

Michelle smiled beautifully, coyly adding, “Did you want me to go downstairs while you change or ... do you trust me to simply turn my back?”

“You can just stay right where you are if you like, I’m not going to reveal anything likely to be embarrassing to either of us, but if you feel at all uncomfortable...”

“No, no, I’ve seen lots of boys get changed before,” she smiled back at him, while she slipped off his jacket from her shoulders and handed it to him before she took a step back and stood her ground.

Tim proceeded to unzip the suit hanger and inserted his jacket into the hanger. He looked out a pair of denim jeans from another wardrobe and a thermal vest and thick cotton shirt from a couple of drawers. Then he removed his bow tie and tossed it on the bed, before unbuttoning and unzipping his dress trousers and taking them off revealing his silk boxer shorts underneath. He was about to toss the pair of trousers onto the bed, but Michelle stepped forward.

“I’ll take those,” she smiled, took them from his hand and, while he pulled on his jeans, she folded the trousers and hooked them onto the bar of the hanger, leaving the outer zip of the suit pouch open and hanging it up outside the wardrobe to air for him.

“I’d love to have the clothes space that you have,” she said quietly, with a degree of envy.

Tim grinned, “You might just have to move in with me then, won’t you?”

“Mmm,” was the only response Tim could hear but the low hum was accompanied by her cute smile. “Mum and Abbey do seem to be pushing me that way...”

“Pushing both of us,” he agreed, “But we’re each capable of individual thought and action, aren’t we?”

“Of course we are,” she smiled, “So, I suggest, for appearances sake, that we defer the decision on which one of us moves in with whom for at least a day or two, then.”

“Think we might have to put in a bid to add the flat next door if I move into your place,” Tim observed.

“Or I could just scrunch up a bit if you like.”

“True,” he nodded with a grin, “We’ll have to carefully weigh up the options, first. It might be prudent for each of us to check through our address books so we are organised as far as sending out our change of address cards is concerned.”

“Naturally,” she laughed, “It’s certainly fun thinking about it, although I would be loath to lose my present window cleaner, he does such a good job.”

“That may just swing the decision in your direction then,” Tim commented, “Unless your window cleaner is too cute for my comfort.”

“Damned shame, that could be a real deal breaker; he is soooo cute,” she said, with a deeply-dimpled smile, “I’m such a sucker for sweet white-haired happily-married grandfathers.”

“I’ll stop plucking my stray grey hairs with immediate effect, then,” Tim chuckled.