Chapter 7

Starting a lifetime together?

TIM USED the bathroom to freshen up, clean his teeth and strip down to his boxers. He usually slept as naked as nature originally intended but he could certainly live with a little minor discomfort from his boxers for one night’s sleep. Or rather a day’s catch-up snooze, he smiled. When he emerged from the bathroom, he found that Michelle had already fully drawn the curtains to reduce the amount of bright sunny daylight creeping in from the east but had left the bedside light on over the unoccupied bed. Tim got under the covers and switched out that light.

“Pleasant dreams, dear,” he chuckled.

“Don’t let the bed bugs bite, sweetheart,” she replied lightly.

“I’ve set my alarm for 4pm, hope that’s all right?” he asked, “It’s only about six hours.”

“Sounds perfect, I can barely keep my eyes open. Night-night, Tim.”

“Night, Chelle.”

He turned away from her and tried to go to sleep on his side. He heard Michelle turn over a couple of times over the next few minutes. He also turned over, and then back again, but sleep refused to come easily to him. Tim was physically tired but his thoughts were too full of visions of the beautiful woman lying so close to him in another bed in the same room. Impossible to get her out of his mind and relax enough to sleep at the same time. Then there followed another deep sigh from Michelle.

“You asleep, Tim?” she whispered.

“No,” he replied in his normal voice as he turned again to face her direction, “I can’t seem to get the picture of you out of my head ... images both real and imagined.”

Tim could hear her covers being thrown back, he looked up as her shadowy figure covered the gap between the beds in two graceful steps, pulled his own covers back and was about to dive in next to him.

“Budge up,” she instructed.

“OK.” Tim edged back a little and Michelle squeezed into the single bed, burying her head into his chest just under the shoulder. He put a protective arm around her and pulled the cover back over them up to her neck.

“Oooh, you’re lovely and warm,” she commented.

“You’re warm and ... lovely,” he responded, with one hand resting lightly on the warm bare skin in the small of her back between her bra and panties, describing gentle little circles with his fingertips. With the other he stroked the top of her shoulder with all the weight of a fluffy chick’s feather. Then he lightly kissed the top of her head.

“Behave,” she breathed, nuzzling her head deeper into his chest and hooking one knee over his thigh.

“I will,” he said quietly, “Sleep easy, Chelle.”

“Mmmm,” she hummed softly. Almost immediately her breathing settled into a regular relaxed rhythm and her body softly melted into his. Tim smiled to himself. He felt comfortable and heavenly relaxed too, any residual tension in his shoulders ebbing away like the outgoing tide that they had earlier spent time together watching. He must have dropped off into a peaceful dreamless sleep within a few moments of his gorgeous bed-companion.

He awoke a couple of minutes before the alarm went off. Michelle had turned over at some point without disturbing him while he slept and now had her back to him but still tucked in close to his body. Tim had a morning wood tenting his underpants, pressed firmly against his stomach by her lovely bum. His nose was buried in her fragrant silken hair and he didn’t want to move a muscle and risk disturbing her but he could feel his bladder sending his brain urgent signals of alarm. The curtains were drawn fully closed but the room was only semi-dark. Her bare arm was resting outside the bed cover; he moved his hand up and lightly stroked the fine soft fair hairs on her slender forearm.

When the alarm on his mobile phone went off, Michelle twitched as if she didn’t quite know where she was. Tim slowly and deliberately stretched away from her and switched off the alarm, while she sat up and turned around to look at him blinking.

“It’s all right Chelle,” he whispered reassuringly, “You’re safe and well.”

“I’m fine, Tim. Just lost my bearings there for a few milliseconds.” She faced him and then rested her head back on half of his chest over his pounding heart and stroked the downy-haired surface of the other half of his chest with the very tips of her fingers. He put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed gently.

“Chelle, I need to get up,” he whispered, “I should never have had that second cup of coffee at breakfast.”

She giggled, “Me too!” She pushed against his chest with both hands, laughing, threw off the covers and dashed for the bathroom. Tim could just about make out her shapely bottom in the gloom, covered by quite generous and no doubt comfortable panties, as she entered the bathroom and the automatic light came on.

“Don’t be too long, honey,” he shouted after her, “My need is great too!”

Tim got up and pulled opened the curtains. It was bright and everything glowed in a reddish light outside but it looked cold and he could see the impressive vista of the grey seas extending out to the far horizon. There was sunshine still but the shadows were long and the light was failing fast.

“Finished!” she announced cheerfully as she skipped across to her bed and put on her bathrobe. “I haven’t got a change of clothing with me, so I thought I’d shower when I got home.”

“Me too, I’ll need a shave too before we go out tonight with Simon and Sarah,” Tim said, “I always feel quite scruffy if I don’t shave every day, I’m too old for fashionable stubble!”

“I like the neat fresh-shaved look on you,” she offered, “I think it suits you.”

They didn’t have anything to pack, so Michelle was fully dressed by the time Tim had finished in the bathroom. She watched him as he got dressed, allowing a giggle to escape her lips as he made a pantomime out of putting one of his thick long socks on, before he eventually perched on the end of the bed and made a better fist of it. Tim was grateful that his morning wood had faded away; he had been quite self-conscious about it on his way to the bathroom under Michelle’s full glare and delicious giggles.

“You could have a nice long soak in my tub, you know, if we collect your clothes from your flat,” Tim offered, as he pulled his shirt back on, “It makes bubbles and is very relaxing. There is an extremely secure lock on the bathroom door, of course. Not that I have ever had much occasion to use it.”

“I’ll think seriously about that on the journey back, Mr Smith,” she said demurely and then burst into laughter with her hand in front of her mouth, “Oh my God! What did the receptionist say when you booked this double room just for a few hours as Mr Smith, turning up without any luggage and with a young woman in tow with no wedding rings on her finger?” Tim could swear she went quite as red as anyone he’d ever seen before.

“Not a lot she could say,” Tim laughed, “Mr T Smith’ is exactly what it says on my credit card. Besides, you just can’t hire these rooms by the hour, I had to book through to noon tomorrow.”

“Tim, you must let me pay for my half of the room,” she protested seriously, “It was as much my idea to stop and have a sleep as yours. I really didn’t want to force you to drive back to Halifax after we had been up and awake for so long. And I should contribute to your fuel, too.”

“Don’t worry about the fuel, Chelle, it’s a company car,” he said as he put on his boots and tied up the laces, “Tell you what, though. You can pay next time we stay in a hotel together.”

“I can afford it, you know,” she pouted, “I am a professional schoolteacher and get well paid. All right not well paid but I do get enough to get by. Not that I ever seem to have much left over after paying the mortgage and petrol for the Micra.”

“Well, I can afford to pay the hotel bill, as I do get paid quite well, too.”

“But aren’t you on sales commission, Tim? And you’ve missed working all day today. Mum said you couldn’t come to her barbecue because Saturday must usually be a busy day for you.”

“I can easily afford to take the odd Saturday off, As I don’t get commission, only the sales staff do,” Tim chuckled, “Going to your Mum’s barbecue was a complication at the time ... where I felt I needed an excuse to decline without hurting her feelings. The team do most of the selling today and, earlier in the week, I had asked my Girl Friday to cover for me today. She even knows the paperwork better than I do.” Tim was taking a final look around the room to make sure they didn’t miss anything, while Michelle retied her hair into a ponytail using her lemon yellow scrunchy.

“Behind every successful man... ?” she started.

“There’s always a fantastically under-appreciated woman in the background who could do the job better than me. I know she has already been doing it for far longer than I have!” Tim opened the door and ushered her out.

“So, do I need to worry about this girl as a rival for your affection?”

“You don’t need to worry about anyone at all, sweetheart, you are completely unrivalled as far as my affections go.”

“You say that now, immediately after we have just slept together all day,” she teased. “What about next week when I’m busy prepping lessons or marking homework or exam papers and can’t see you for a few days, will you be back in the dependable arms of your Girl Friday?”

“Of course not, I’ll have you know I am a determinedly one-woman man.” Michelle held his hand as they left the room.

“Yeah, one woman at a time, maybe, I’ve heard about you salesman-types. I even think my Mum has warned me about such men in the past.”

They reached the end of the corridor and made their way down the single flight of stairs to Reception.

“Not warned you off me specifically, I hope.”

“No, actually she has only said nice things about you, Tim, very nice things in fact. Almost too good to be true things, so maybe that’s why I’m worried!”

“You don’t actually sound very worried.”

“Then maybe I’m really not!” she laughed and Tim laughed with her.

They had reached Reception by this time, so they held up their conversation until completing checking out. Tim quickly settled the balance and they took the stairway down to the car park before settling themselves back in the car.

“All set?” Tim asked, as soon as they belted up.

“Ready whenever you are.”

They pulled out of the underground car park and Tim keyed in “home” on the Navigator to find the best way out of town. Tim thought he better get one thing out of the way that he didn’t want to leave until too late.

“I think I better give you the low-down on my assistant Lily, as you will meet her on Monday when we take your car into the garage.”

“Lily is your Girl Friday?”

“Yes, she uses the office next to mine and is principally supposed to look after the leasing side of the business, but she has sort of appointed herself as my personal secretary as well. Lily screens my visitors, keeps my appointments diary, helps out on the paperwork, and covers the odd Saturday that I have off and holidays of course.”

“Sounds like she’s worth her weight in gold.”

“She is and I am very fond of her. Lily has been working at Monroe’s ever since she left school, off and on as she had time off for her three teenage girls. I’m godfather to Janie, the middle one of the three, who is fifteen and every bit as cute as her Mum. All three have adopted me as a surrogate uncle, of course. Lily’s very happily married to Mike, who is another very good friend of mine. They are almost family...” Tim paused for a moment before continuing. He knew what he wanted to say; he just needed to sort out the how.

“And... ?” she asked.

“Well, Lily and I used to be a couple, but that was twenty-odd years or so ago.”

“Tell me more.” She sounded intrigued and she appeared to be smiling serenely in the last of the fading sunlight when Tim stole a brief glance at her.

“I was working at Mac’s full-time at the time and when I first got my driving licence, one of my regular almost daily jobs was to be dropped off at Monroe’s to pick up any cars taken in part-exchange that were destined for radical refurb or scrap. Lily was the main receptionist then and she’s always been very cute so, after talking to her for a few weeks, I summoned up the courage and asked her out for the evening.”

“Was Lily your first girl-friend?” Michelle asked.

“She was, my first ... my first everything in fact, you know?”

“I know.”

“We went out for getting on for eighteen months to a couple of years, but our relationship was never going anywhere. I couldn’t commit long term then; she was a few years older than me and was keen to settle down long before I was ready to do so. Well, the upshot of it was that she wasn’t prepared to wait on me, so we split pretty amicably and not long after she married Mike.”

“So what does Mike think about Lily working so close to her old flame?”

Tim grinned, “I guess he’s happy about it, he works with his father and brother as electrical contractors. They do all the electrical work at Monroe’s and even rewired my own house when I added on the kitchen and garage extension. Lily acts like she’s another big sister to me most of the time. You’ll love her when you get to know her. You may actually already know her kids from school.”

“I went to an all-girls’ school, so I lost my cherry at university, but to nobody memorable. Tell me about your family, Patty told me you have several brothers and sisters.”

“Patty’s mum Babs is the oldest sister, she’s been a single mum now for ten years or so. Her idiot ex-husband had a number of affairs until he got caught, was thrown out on his ear and has since remarried, to one of his old girlfriends. He’s a successful businessman, owns Messenger Management Services and used to do work for Monroe’s but not any more.”

“I take it you don’t approve of such behaviour.”

“Absolutely not! Marriage is about family and broken families are no good for anyone, everyone suffers, especially the children. Patty has an older brother, Alan, who is in the Navy and a younger brother, Callum, who is a labourer on a building site, actually working with his Uncle Ned, my own younger brother. Ned’s a freelance chippie married to Manda, with two children still at primary school. You might have seen his pick-up truck as he does a lot of maintenance work in schools for the county.

“I think I’ve seen him working at school, ‘Edward Smith Carpentry’. To be honest, he gives me the creeps, because he seems to leer at all the girls and female teachers. I’m surprised he got the security clearance to work in schools.”

“Yeah, Ned and I rarely see eye to eye, I avoid him, to be honest. My second sister is Sharon, who is still happily married to Rob Sedgewick, with twin girls about the same age as Patty. The twins are two very stupid girls who work at one of the large department stores in town that keeps threatening to shut up shop.”

“I’ve definitely seen the twin girls before, on the make-up counter. They are very pretty.”

“That’s them, all right. Not to be too uncharitable, the beauty is only skin-deep, I’ve never really cared for them much and they were very manipulative children. I think Sharon and Rob spoiled them rotten. Now Jeff is my youngest brother, he’s a truck driver, works at the big distribution centre outside town. He’s in a partnership, with June, and they have three young children, one of them from June’s previous relationship.”

“I guess you have become everyone’s favourite uncle, huh, Tim, even if not a favourite brother?”

“I guess so. I get on fine with my three sisters, but have been at loggerheads with my brothers since our early childhood.”

“Why is that?”

“They disrespected all my toys which I always tried to keep nice, like turn over the corners of my books, even ripped out pages. When our father was behind bars, money was extremely tight, so when the boys wore out or smashed their own toys, new toys weren’t possible, so Mum asked me to share my toys, like my model cars with the boys. I had kept my cars in showroom condition, but they kept crashing and chipping them; then they smashed my Scalextric racing car track by jumping on it. My model car collection slowly disappeared, car by car, as the boys either stole them or were lost playing in the garden or outside on the public pavement. The final straw came when Dad finally came home one day and asked me tidy up the garden, specifically to dig up the compost heap made of lawn clippings into our wheelbarrow and dump it down the road at some waste ground. I found my pride and joy collection of model cars rusting away inside the compost.”

“Oh, honey, I’m sorry,” she said. “Wait, did you say you had three sisters?”

“Yes, Pat, Sharon and Becky. My favourite niece isn’t Patty, but the daughter of my favourite sister Rebecca ... Becky, she’s the youngest. Becky’s the only sibling who I think could be described as sweet, I love her to bits. Her sweetheart Jim, a building society savings adviser, has been her boyfriend since they were both at school. Their child, cute redheaded niece Christina, universally known as ‘Tina’, is three years old and she has me totally wrapped around her pudgy little fingers!”

“Tina’s the niece you’re spending Christmas morning with?”

“How?—”

“I called Mum, at breakfast, while you were booking the room. She raised the subject of us coming round to Mum and Pop’s for Christmas lunch.”

“Of course she did.”

“She was quite happy that we stayed up together all night to see in the spectacular dawn, but I didn’t tell her we were sharing the same room—”

“Or the same bed.”

“Or the bed!” she laughed, prettily turning crimson at the thought, “Although you were the perfect gentleman, Tim, I love you for that.”

“Really?” he said, “Love me that much, huh?”

“Oh God! Did I really say the ‘L’ word? That just slipped out, Tim, honestly. I do that all the time and it gets me into trouble sometimes.”

“That’s all right, Chelle, it won’t hold up in court, although I might try and make a test case out of your Freudian slip if push comes to shove!”

“You know, Tim, I’m really not sure what love is, I have never really been in love before, certainly with previous boys I’ve dated. However, I have never felt so comfortable with anyone so soon after meeting before, until now. This is soooo surreal. Here we are teasing each other like we are in a long-established relationship. It should all be a joke but—”

“I know, it is both challenging yet comfortable, odd, funny but completely natural, like we are being quite honest with each other but unsure how to admit to ourselves how we really feel towards the other.”

“That’s right. I am so relaxed with you that I can’t believe I have slept in your bed without any reservation or embarrassment on my part, and I feel so safe with you, too. I am never like that, never. I am always naturally nervous with strangers but you don’t really feel like a stranger at all. I don’t know if what I am feeling for you is true love or not, if this is a physical attraction only or something much deeper. I know what I am hoping for.”

“Don’t try to analyse how we feel about each other too much at this stage, I have never felt this way about anyone either. If it helps, Chelle, I’ve been thinking about the ‘L’ word too, ever since in fact I first saw you approaching me at the bar. So let’s just take it slowly and see where we go from here,” Tim said, “In the meantime I’ll just keep my fingers crossed that we are building something special and lasting between us.”

“I am very comfortable with doing just that,” Michelle smiled, “And ‘Yes’ to your offer earlier by the way.” She looked at him demurely with a sweet smile on her face. Tim took his eyes off the road for a moment to look.

“Yes?” he said hesitantly, trying to think what he had asked her earlier, so much had been exchanged between them. He was sure he hadn’t actually proposed marriage yet, had he?

“Yes ... to using your hot bubble bath before we go out tonight,” she said, “I do need to pick up some cosmetics, bath salts and a change of clothes from my flat on the way, though.”

“Pick up enough clothes for the weekend as well as your car and you can stay at my place until Monday,” he said, “No funny business, I promise, I just can’t bear to let you out of my sight for a moment yet.”

“OK! I can live with that until you get fed up with me. What’s planned for Sunday?”

“Sunday I usually go for a long run very first thing—”

“Snap!” she interrupted, “So do I! I hate running in the evening after a long hard day during the week. I run later in the day over the weekend, so I go out at the crack of dawn just about every other day during the week and go for a longer run every Sunday morning.”

“Great! We’ll do that early. Then I need to wash and dry off the E-Type to get all the road salt off—”

“Naturally, as up to now she seems to be the main female that you dote on!” Michelle laughed.

“Can you bear the competition?”

“I might have to fight dirty.”

“Well, if you do, remember, the E-Type gets a separate entry in the pre-nup!”

“Damn! That’s not fair!” she squealed, “If that is the case, I will insist we exempt my sweet Micra, it’s much, much newer than your old car. And it’s reliably unreliable, which is conveniently consistent.”

“Well, Brian can definitely do something about that.”

“Mmm, Brian may turn out to be a better prospect for me in the long run. What’s he like?”

“Well, he’s happily married and ... actually, he could be your window cleaner’s slightly younger brother.”

“OK, Tim, you’re still in the running then, honey.”

“I give up, already,” Tim conceded.

“Give up what?” Michelle asked concerned.

“We’ll just have to share the cars jointly and do away with any pre-nup.”

“So, you are able to compromise, then?” she said, “Or do you just give in far too easily?”

“I’m a born negotiator and I’m far from easy,” Tim said, “I know when to go for the jugular but also recognise when the best outcome would come from conceding minor points that really don’t amount to anything significant in the long run.”

“Well, if we’re not going to have a pre-nup at least you’ll be pleased to hear that I only have about three years left on my mortgage,” Michelle said, “I could only get a fifteen-year term and have been paying a little over the top over the years so I should finish paying the mortgage off a couple of years early. Then it would be all mine, or all ours, if what we have here works out.”

“I hope it does work out between us, Chelle,” Tim said determinedly, “I have never wanted anything so much before. Anyway, we could always keep your place as a rental just in case you get fed up with me one fine day when you realise I’ve become far too old for you and you need a fall-back home.”

“The rental income could help pay off your mortgage,” she smiled sweetly.

“It would if I had one,” Tim replied with a smile.

“You rent your place? But you’ve spent so much improving it?”

“No rent, no mortgage, it’s all paid for,” he said, “I settled up about four years ago when I finished the kitchen and garage extension.”

“Oh!” she sat quietly in her bucket seat for a while.

“We can go through all our finances, insurances, pension plans, etc one of these days, honey,” Tim said, “No hurry, especially if we are not going to be bothering with a pre-nup. No secrets, but I believe the last thing we as a couple would ever need to worry about is money.”

“OK,” she said, “As we are being so honest with each other, will it offend you if I say that although I want to continue sleeping with you, I’d like you to know that I am not quite ready for sex yet?”

“If you know me at all after our short acquaintance, Chelle,” Tim grinned, “You should know that I have absolutely no wish to make love until you are every bit as ready to as I am.”

“Does that mean you are ready now and getting anxious?”

“No,” he said gently, thinking before continuing, “At the moment I am very comfortable with you because I don’t feel I have to prove anything to you. I know that once we do decide to take whatever relationship we are building together here to another level I would start to feel nervous, at least initially. But funnily enough I feel quite comfortable with that sense of uneasiness, too. Does that strange or what?”

“It may be considered odd by some people, but we are not at all bothered by what other people think, are we Tim?”

“No, honey,” Tim said, “We are not.”

She reached out for his hand, held it in one hand resting it on her lap and stroked it with the other, while she thought about something that was on her mind for a minute or so.

“Would you pull over and stop for a minute at the next lay-by?” she asked, adding, “Please?”

“OK.”

A couple of minutes later Tim steered off the dual carriageway into the next lay-by and parked up behind a large truck. As he pulled up the handbrake, she un-clicked her seatbelt, held his head in both hands and pulled him into a long and passionate kiss. He wrapped his hands around her waist and shoulders and responded to her blistering kiss with his lips and tongue. She broke off the kiss gasping for breath and stroked his cheek, as she looked him in the face. It was quite dark outside by now and their faces were alternately lit and plunged into darkness again by the headlights of passing cars.

“Sorry,” she breathed, “It occurred to me that we have enjoyed each others company for the last twenty hours or so, have held hands, strolled, danced and dined, have shared a single bed wonderfully spooning together, even exchanged the odd peck, but we hadn’t even really kissed each other properly yet.”

“I am very glad you put that omission right,” Tim grinned, “That was without doubt the best French kiss I have ever had.”

“Me too,” she chuckled.

“Just need to practice a little more to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.” So they did practice for another couple or maybe ten minutes or so. Then, by mutual agreement they were ready to continue their journey. Tim put the gears into automatic mode so he could continue holding Michelle’s hands in his, nestling comfortably in her warm lap.

“Tim, honey,” she said following a long comfortable silence. “I am going to be staying with you in your bed tonight and I am looking forward to doing so. Would you do me the honour of staying with me at my flat tomorrow night?”

“Of course, Chelle,” Tim answered without hesitation, “We can leave your car at your flat in that case and drive in directly into the garage workshop on Monday. Would that be ok?”

“Perfect,” she said, “I’ve been so busy I need an evening at home to catch up on housework.”

“I’ll give you a hand, you’ve seen how spotless my place is. Mind you, I do have a woman who comes in three mornings a week!”

“Cheat!” They both laughed.

“Actually, she is not very good, she’s my sister-in-law Manda—”

“Is that Ned’s wife?”

“Yes, she lost her job a few months ago and they were finding it hard to manage, so I gave her a part-time job doing my housekeeping work, cleaning, ironing, that kind of stuff. Ned too, has done a little bit of work around the house or garden while I have been out. I spend more time clearing up after the pair of them than they’re worth, to be honest. And they eat all my biscuits!”

“Hobnobs?”

“Rich tea, I daren’t have Hobnobs in the house, they’re too addictive.”

“Tell me about it. They have them in the staffroom, that’s why I have to go jogging every day!”

They were running a little late by the time they got to Michelle’s flat. She quickly packed a bag while Tim washed up her breakfast things from Friday. The flat’s galley kitchen was too tiny to accommodate a dishwasher. Then they drove around to Tim’s house. There turned out to be too little time for Michelle to have a long soak in the tub, so she settled for a swift shower in the en suite while Tim did likewise in the family bathroom down the hall. Tim dressed casually in one of the smaller bedrooms, leaving Michelle to put on a casual blouse and skirt, thick jumper and bomber jacket in the main bedroom.

After locking up the house, exiting as usual through the garage, Tim briefly showed her that the back wall of the garage, of painted plasterboard on a timber frame, was just a screen with a large gym behind. It would be a simple job to remove half that screen and re-erect it, reducing the gym by half and making room to accommodate three cars in the garage. Tim promised to show her the gym in the morning, which had a running machine installed which she could use at times whenever she felt inhibited to run alone on the road.

The evening out with Sarah and Simon was fun for all four of them. Tim had arranged to collect the couple from their respective homes so he self-appointed himself as the designated driver for the evening. They all got along well, Sarah and Michelle had met briefly a couple of times before through her sister and, of course, Simon was put completely at his ease and charmed by Tim’s new girlfriend. The Italian meal was delicious, followed by a trip to the movies. Girls’ choice, as it should be, the girls declared with giggles. Cuddling with this lovely girl in the dark, Tim thought he would have enjoyed the movie even if it had been North Korean propaganda about the infinitely detailed workings of their politburo. Disco dancing at Crystal’s followed, where Mel had made sure they had a reserved table, followed the movie.