Chapter 3: Double Date

Junior picked up Stephanie from her Dad’s on Friday evening and she “directed” him to Shane’s place. Of course Junior knows exactly where Shane lives and knows all there is to know about him.

Look, I know the privacy of individuals is very important for liberty and human rights etc but Junior has this natural ability to really know how nice (or not nice) somebody really is. He doesn’t have to physically check a list or some kind of “Naughty Book”, I really don’t think the Naughty List or Book actually physically exists other than in the myth that we have built around Christmas. Junior, my apprentice Santa husband, just naturally ‘knows’ how naughty or nice a person is.

Unfair advantage in business to have this ability, I hear you say, but would you willingly work with someone who you definitely knew was untrustworthy? The knowledge provided by the Magic of Christmas to Junior cannot be ignored, so our business relationships are excellent and with that trust in place means we have a much more honest and relaxed relationship with customers, partners and suppliers that is more like friendships than simply working relationships. Working for our whole lives and getting pleasure out of doing a great job and having rewarding interaction and friendly relationships with a wide range of really nice people, is much better than the money that our relationships generate, a whole lot better.

After working in the toxic atmosphere of telesales for so long, working at my Dad’s haulage firm, and helping to get people’s beautifully crafted, grown or manufactured goods to market or supplying raw materials to other equally hard working people to turn such basic materials into beautiful worthwhile products, is what gets me wanting to go to work every day.

I was just finishing up in the kitchen with everything running to schedule when Junior brought our guests for the evening through the front door and I quickly left my apron on the counter and went to join them in the sun lounge at the back of our newly-constructed house.

‘Hi Sis,” I said, giving lovely Stephanie a warm hug, then turned to shake hands for the first time with Shane, her new beau.

He was stood tall and solidly well-built, with blond hair, long on top and fashionably cropped almost to the skin at the sides for about two inches above his ears all around his head. He looked like a Viking that had just stepped off his longship and about to carry off Steph as his prize. He was holding Stephanie close to him with his hand closed around her upper arm.

“And you must be Shane,” I added.

“Yes, Mrs Nixon,” he replied, looking straight at me in the eye, “I’m Shane Deakin, pleasure to meet you.”

“Please call me Jen or Jenny, Shane, I’ve been looking forward to this evening. If you will excuse me, I must attend to the dinner, which will only be about ten minutes to get ready. Junior will organise some drinks. Steph, would you like to join me in the kitchen, I just need a hand with something.”

Shane relinquished his hold on Stephanie’s arm and she joined me as we left for the kitchen. Once there. I turned to her.

“Wow! Steph, he looks like a Norse God!”

“I know. Do you think he looks too good to be true? I mean, all the other students think he’s buff, and not just the girls, and they keep asking me what does he see in me?”

“What? What does he see in you? Steph, you are simply gorgeous, that’s what he sees in you and any girlfriend that says different is not your girlfriend.”

“Yeah, but I’ve only known him since the students first public meet-up in early October and he seemed to latch onto me straight away.”

“Well. What’s wrong with that?”

“He’s very possessive, Jen, he holds me all the time like he thinks I’m going to run away or someone else is going to grab me or something.”

“Some men like to keep touching their girls, just on the arm and a hand on the back before going through doorways, holding hands as you walk along. PDA stuff is actually quite nice. Touching each other subtly and lightly is normal healthy relationship building stuff, so long as it is not blatantly mauling or inappropriate in public.”

“Like bum-grabbing on a night club dance floor for instance?”

“He does that?”

“He did that, once, on our first sort of date three weeks ago and I pulled him up on it, there and then,” Stephanie said indignantly.

“And has he done that since on other dates?”

“No, not since that night, and it wasn’t really a date, just a group of students getting together. I warned him that I would slap him hard if he did that once more and he wouldn’t see me again. When I’m ready to be touched there, I told him, I’ll say so and only when I indicate clearly that I want him to touch me there. I will give him permission to, you know, touch me there when I’m comfortable with it but it will never be on a club dance floor in front of my new friends who I’ve only just met at Uni.”

“If he’s stopped grabbing your arse, well, maybe he was just nervous on his first chance to dance with a very beautiful girl and unsure of what your boundaries were, Steph. If he now knows and has accepted what your boundaries are and he continues to respect them, well, maybe he’s really a good kid who was just nervous and lost the plot for a moment.”

“Yeah, maybe. He just so confident rather than nervous ... well, he makes me nervous.”

“Fearful nervous, apprehensive nervous, keeping you on edge nervous?”

“Yes, on edge. I mean, not really fearful, Jen. I’m not afraid of him, you know, like thinking that he might attack me or hurt me or something like that, but I do feel that he has a plan, you know, that he is working to an agenda of his own making.”

I laughed, “Well, I guess his plan is the same as any red-bloodied teenage male in his first weeks away from home at college, to get down and dirty with the hottest girl in the class of 2020.”

“Yeah, that’s his plan, I suppose. So far we have only gone out in groups and l’ve avoided going on single dates with him. This is our first real date. Going away is another issue.”

“But you are dating, even if you’re in groups?”

“Yes, and he tells me he regards us as exclusive, says he’s not interested in dating anyone else and agreed that I would net be seeing anyone else. All, and I mean literally all, the girls in my dorm and class group agree he’s a hunk and he’s told any girls expressing an interest in him that he’s exclusively mine. Now that we’re in second lockdown, all the college lectures, not just most of them, will now be online, although the college library remains open, the public library, pubs, cinemas, restaurants and clubs are all closed, so we can’t go anywhere, especially not taking him home to Mum and Dad’s and I’m not really ready to be alone with him at Shane’s apartment.”

“Only you can judge when you’re ready to be alone with him Sis. Just play it by ear, explain your reasons for your precautions to him if he gets impatient, that you are not yet ready to move your relationship on another notch until you know you’re ready. If he respects you, he will respect your wishes. Anyway, we have six cabins, you will have your own lockable bedroom in a three-bed with your Dad and Mum and Shane will have the third bedroom on his own.”

I served up the plates for our meal, putting the pots and pans on the side for clean up later and carefully checked that the oven and all the burners were off before Stephanie and I carried the food through to the dining room, calling out for Junior to join us.

Junior had anticipated the dinner being ready when I said it might be and was already there, pouring a glass of wine for Steph and I. Shane had a bottle of lager with the top off and Junior poured himself a glass of sparkling water, because he never drinks and drives, and he needed to be able to take the youngsters home at the end of the long evening.