Chapter 18: Memories

From where Jennifer was seating a group of their newly-arrived neighbours on one of the tables, she glanced over to see Bob and that handsome boy Brick happily sharing a joke between them.

She couldn’t help thinking that although it had only been a couple of weeks and a few days since Bob had come home, things had gone quite well so far. OK, Bob hadn’t got any his memory back. Certainly nothing that he had admitted to her anyway. Bob had even gradually become more affectionate as time passed, although they still hadn’t made love yet. Jennifer was appreciative of the warm cuddling up they were enjoying during evenings on the settee and in bed at nighttime. And they were holding hands during the day while they walked as Bob gradually built his strength up again. Surely it was only a matter of time before things got back to normal between the pair of them.

Jennifer was prepared to be patient but only up to a point. Before much longer she would have to jump him!

They had even spent a couple of evenings as a foursome with Richard and Emma, without any adverse reactions, even though Richard had acted like a complete jerk each time they got together. What had she ever seen in that selfish idiot in the first place? The reason had completely escaped her. If anything all Richard did was annoy her and she could sense how annoyed Bob was with him, too. Richard blithely carried on being Richard without noticing that he was rubbing everyone up the wrong way.

Bob was still signed off sick by their general practitioner for another week. After that his company had agreed to put him through a period of on-job training again for a week or two until he was able to do his job again. Things were really going well, Jennifer thought.

More guests came through the door, but they were more new friends, not yet the ones Jennifer was expecting, dreading even. She had received a phone call two days earlier while Bob was out lightly jogging down to the park and back. It was Brett Barlow who was calling, in his thick (well, to Jennifer’s unaccustomed ears it sounded very thick) Australian accent to say he was at Melbourne airport awaiting departure and would be flying over to see his father for the first time. He had said that he should arrive from London by train in the late afternoon. He wasn’t sure how long it would take to get through immigration, get into and across London before catching the train. His intention was to check into a local hotel, freshen up and get to the house mid-evening tonight.

Jennifer had told Brett about the barbecue party tonight, which he laughed about. Brett said that over in Melbourne the barbecue season was in full swing and, checking the UK forecasts, he had packed plenty of warm clothing. He found it highly amusing that his Dad and Step-Mum were entertaining with a barbecue at the same time as frost was forecast. Jennifer laughed back and told him that we were hardy souls at this end of the planet. Brett admitted that Melbourne had very changeable weather too, with extremes of hot and cold. Jennifer agreed to Brett’s off-the-cuff request that she keep his arrival under wraps as a surprise for his Dad.

Jennifer was very much award that Brett was Bob’s son from his first marriage, a son that Bob had never met, never even spoken to on the phone. Bob had even discussed with the Jennifer the possibility of taking a winter holiday to Melbourne in a couple of years’ time once the youngest, Tigger, had left to go to college.

However, Brett represented that previous life, a life that Jennifer feared. It threatened to take away from her the perfect life she had built from the first time she had set her cap at securing Bob as a husband. A life that was in jeopardy through her own stupidity.

No, the next guests to arrive were a couple, which included that young woman detective that was involved in Bob’s case, Rachel Webster, who had called here before. Her escort was clearly her boyfriend, a tall, handsome and distinguished-looking gentleman aged about 40. Very fit, confident, commanding, she thought, obviously another copper.

There was also just arriving, she could see, walking over to welcome them, that ghastly woman Marcia Knight and her fat daughter Hannah. Who would want to attack that, she thought, unless it was to strap her to a liposuction machine?

One of the early pair of guests to arrived had been the Bisters, Sharon and Helen. Jennifer had judged that Sharon, whilst quite attractive, was too old to be considered a rival for Bob’s affections. However, fit and lovely Helen, despite her youth, seemed unattached and openly flirted with Bob, insisting on continuing to call him ‘Tommy’, which annoyed Jennifer no end. Every since she had got Bob back home, the Bisters seemed to call around every other day during the week, with Helen having the effrontery to come over without her mother both days last weekend.

The barbecue party was in full swing now and Tommy, Brick and JJ were cooking up a storm and delivering food to the guests’ grateful approval. Tommy could hardly say he knew what he was doing, it was as if he was on auto pilot.

It was getting quite late in the evening and they had piled on the rest of the chicken and sausages, keeping back a few steaks in reserve. Once he had loaded up the grill, Tommy told Brick and JJ to get out of the barbecue area and do some mingling, dancing even. Someone, probably Suzannah, had put some dance music on the player. He assured JJ that he was confident enough to cope with the rest and the guests could come up for seconds themselves if they were still hungry rather than wait for food to be delivered to them.