Chapter 11

By the time I was showered and dressed the girls were ready to leave, an earlier start today, so they quickly kissed me then ran out of the door.

I put a fresh pot of coffee on, filled a flask, grabbed a mug and went up to my office to type up my notes.

The doorbell rang, I checked the clock and it was a little after noon, I’d been working for over three hours without stopping, I still had a few pages of notes to type but was grateful for the interruption.

I opened the front door and walked down to the gates, which Helen had locked as she left, the postman was waiting with a couple of parcels, I signed for them and was walking back to the house as my phone rang.

I checked the screen, Kelly, so I sat down on the front step and took the call.

“Hey Kelly, how are you getting on?”

“Surprisingly well, Lady Anastasia, that’s the minor royal, she’s Prince Harry’s second cousin or something, anyway, she’s not as simple as she looks, she’s really bright, she knows what she’s doing, I feel happy that she’ll be able to do the job, and I’m annoyed at myself for profiling her as dim just from looking at her photo.”

“Will you be down there much longer?”

“Why, are you missing me? Or are you planning your escapades,” she laughed.

“You’ve trapped me there. I’m going to answer that by saying I’m waiting for you to come back so I can start my new life as a couple, I have these ideas for stuff then I pause and realise I need to speak to you to make sure you’d be happy with it. I’m not talking mundane things, I’m thinking about major things like remodelling the loft into a couple of offices, and swapping my car for something a bit bigger.”

“Oh honey, really, you don’t need to feel the need to wait for my input on things like this. It’s your house, and your car.”

“If we’re going to be together isn’t it important that we make decisions together?’

“Well yes, I guess, I suppose I’ve been alone so long. Anyway, to answer your question, I’ll be home tomorrow evening, I’ll let you know what time my train gets in and maybe we could get a nice meal in Manchester, just the two of us. Naomi will be fine on her own for a few hours.”

“I’m sure Helen will babysit.”

“Ahh, is the Helen thing serious?”

“Oh god, Naomi’s libido has taken on a life of its own, and it’s made things very complicated.”

“Shit, what’s happened?”

“She’s got herself a girlfriend.”

“As well as Helen?”

“Yep.”

“Do I know her?”

“I doubt it, she lives with her dad and nan in the flats behind Tesco.”

“Oh right, what’s she like, will I like her?”

“She’s a lovely girl, very shy, a bit emo, she’s really polite and an aspiring writer, I’ve offered to mentor her if she wants.”

I heard the gate rattle and looked up to see Pixie trying to figure out how to get in.

“And speak of the devil, here she is.”

“Who, Naomi?”

“No, Pixie.”

“Who’s Pixie?”

“Naomi’s girlfriend, hang on a sec, I’ll unlock the gate for her.”

I let Pixie in then showed her the gate code, “I’m just on the phone to Naomi’s mum, I’ll be with you in a minute.”

I picked the phone up and heard Kelly speaking to someone, she came back, “you back yet?”

“Yep, I’m here.”

“Great, thought I was going to have to cut you off without saying goodbye, Lady Anastasia has arrived so I’ve got to go. I’ll send you and Naomi a photo of her later, she’s very pretty. Speak later honey.”

“Bye Kelly, see you tomorrow.”

I stood up and slipped the phone in my pocket, Pixie was sitting on the step next to me.

“You could have gone straight in,” I said as I helped Pixie to her feet.

“Oh no, that wouldn’t have been right.”

“In you come then, I’ll make us a coffee.”

Ten minutes later we were sitting at the patio table drinking mugs of coffee in the sunshine.

“Is Naomi’s mum Kelly Sharpe?”

“Yes, didn’t you know?”

“We didn’t exchange surnames yesterday, mine’s Turner by the way.”

We sipped our hot coffee, then Pixie put her mug down, “so, she’s Kelly Sharpe, the model.”

“Yes, that Kelly Sharpe.”

“She’s so beautiful isn’t she, Kelly I mean, well Naomi as well, but Kelly, she’s so elegant. I see her pictures all the time, I have some magazines at home with her pictures in, I look at them when I’m feeling sad and she cheers me up. I didn’t connect Naomi with her, but it’s obvious really isn’t it. I think Naomi is even prettier than Kelly was.”

“I totally agree.”

Pixie sipped her coffee then she reached for her bag, she pulled out the MacBook and a notepad.

“Oh, dad was totally impressed with the signed books, I’m not sure he really believed I was coming round to your house, when I showed him the new hardback replacements he smiled properly for the first time in ages, both he and nan are fine with me having a sleepover with Naomi.”

She flipped the book open, “so, I’m not so good at typing, I think quicker than I can type, so I’ve written down one of my stories. I wanted you to look at it before I type it up.”

She slipped the notebook across the table, it was graph paper, I looked at the front cover, “your Maths teacher will be a bit confused when they see this,” I laughed.

“It was the only book I could find with enough blank pages,” she answered, her head down, ashamed she was too poor to buy stationery.

“I often work the same way, in fact I was up until 2am hand writing notes for the story I’m working on. Remind me before you go, I’ve got loads of notebooks you can have, and some pens.”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t have to, no, but I want to.”

“Thank you, that’s very kind.”

I checked my watch, “Have you had lunch yet?”

“I had breakfast.”

“Listen, I was going to grab a sandwich at the Royal Arms, I’ll treat you to some lunch.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to be a burden.”

“It would be my pleasure, I would have just been sitting in a corner on my own like Billy No Mates, now I’ll have a pretty girl to light up the room. If you don’t want to go to the pub, we could go to the cafe in the deer park, Naomi and I had a really good wild mushroom soup there on Sunday.”

“Now you’re making me decide, I’m no good at making decisions!”

Pixie looked genuinely terrified at the prospect of deciding where to have lunch, so I took pity on her.

“I’ll tell you what, we’ll do the pub today, because it’s closest, then the next time you come round we’ll go to the deer park for soup, with the added bonus that Kelly will be here, you can meet her and have a chat.”

“Really, oh wow, I hadn’t thought about that. I’d be too embarrassed, how could I talk to her, I’ve seen her nude. It would be just too weird.”

“Don’t be silly, Kelly’s fully aware that half the village have seen her photos, she’s not bothered about it.”

Just then my phone pinged with a WhatsApp message, I looked at it and showed it to Pixie.

“Look, it’s Kelly with some princess or something, oh yeah, Lady Anastasia she’s called.”

‘Why’s she with the princess?”

“Kelly’s stepped down from a charity, and Lady Anastasia is taking over her role, so she’s having a few days of handover meetings.”

I had an idea, “come sit with me for a minute, I’ll send Kelly a photo to tell her she’s not the only one meeting with a beautiful girl.”

“Now you’re being silly, I’m not beautiful like that lady!”

“Beauty comes in all forms, she’s well bred like a racehorse, you are naturally beautiful especially when you smile, so come round here, the light’s better for a photo on this side.”

Pixie squatted by my side, I held out my phone and made sure we were both properly in the frame and took a few photos. I let Pixie choose the best one, then sent it to Kelly with a quick note.

With that done I picked up Pixie’s notebook and we walked down to the pub.

As we approached the Royal Arms Pixie took my hand, pulling me to a stop.

“What’s the matter?”

“There’s people go in there who know my nan, I don’t want to go inside, can we sit outside please?”

“Of course we can, we can sit at the bottom of the garden, near the play area, that’s about as far from the pub as we can get.”

Pixie let out a sigh, “thanks, it’s just, some of nan’s friends are real bitches, they’ll tell nan all sorts of stories about seeing me in the pub with a strange man, and well, I could do without that kind of hassle right now.”

“If it’s a problem, we can go to the deer park, or we could walk into town and go to Pizza Express.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t put you out like that, it’s a nice day, we can sit outside and watch the kiddies play on the climbing frame.”

We started walking again, and as we entered the pub garden I collected a couple of menus from the box by the door and took them down to the bottom of the garden.

Pixie read both sides of the menu, then she put it down looking sad.

“What’s the matter?”

“It’s all so expensive, I couldn’t ever imagine paying so much for a sandwich. There’s no way I could ever pay you back for this meal.”

“Firstly, I would never expect you to pay me back, didn’t I say I was treating you. I’ll be eternally happy just watching you enjoy eating the food, so choose whatever you want to eat, and whatever you want to drink.”

“Really? Naomi said you were kind, she’s right.”

With that she picked the menu up again and started to read it properly.

“I really, really love cheese, can I have the cheese board please?”

“Of course, I normally have the roast beef sandwich, but if you’re having the cheese board I’ll go with the ploughman’s lunch. What would you like to drink?”

“Mmm, could I be naughty and have a glass of white wine please?”

“You can have a bottle if you like.”

“Oh gosh no! Just a glass.”

“Do you have a preference?”

“Errr, no, I just like a glass of nan’s wine, she gets the cheapest from Tesco.”

“Hahaha, I’ll see what they’ve got open in the fridge.”

After a chat with George and the chef we decided that the Villa Maria Chardonnay from New Zealand was probably the best match for the cheese. My decision was much easier, they’d just put a barrel of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord on tap.

As I carried our drinks back to the table I noticed Pixie had removed her baggy t-shirt, revealing a pink crop top, interesting.

I placed Pixie’s wine on the table and took a long drink of my beer, then I placed the glass on the table and wiped the beer foam from my lips.

“Getting braver I see,” nodding towards the discarded t-shirt on the table.

“I was thinking about what you said yesterday, about hiding my figure, and how relaxed Naomi was showing me her boobs, and how nice she looks with her tan, so I thought if nobody minds, I’d wear a little less today. This isn’t as revealing as a bikini or bra, so nobody should be offended.”

My phone pinged, I read Kelly’s message, ‘what a pretty girl, tell her I love her hair.’

I turned the phone so Pixie could read the screen, “oh, that’s made me so happy, someone like Kelly being so nice to me,” she reached for my napkin and wiped her eyes, “I’m not used to people being nice to me.”

When her eyes were dry I asked if I could take a photo of her now for Kelly, she smiled and said yes, so I took a few and again asked her to pick the best, which I sent to both Kelly and Naomi. Naomi replied immediately with the wide open mouth emoji, Kelly a few minutes later complimenting Pixie, saying she’s a perfect match for Naomi, Pixie had to wipe her eyes again after reading that.

Our food arrived, I requested another pint, Pixie sheepishly asked for another glass of wine.

We were quiet as we ate, I used the time reading through Pixie’s story. It was pretty good, about a girl who found a secret garden where she befriended the animals, there were many stray dogs which she fed, tended to their wounds then found them loving homes.

Not a story I would seek out, but it was nicely written, and with a bit of tidying up, would probably be worth a try at entering in one of the regular short story competitions running in writing magazines.

After I’d polished off the last of my pork pie, and washed it down with the last of my beer I passed on my thoughts about the story to Pixie, she listened well, I watched her face constantly change between smiles and frowns as I alternately praised aspects and offered slight constructive criticism.

In the end I gave far more praise than criticism and she ended up smiling broadly.

“Can you teach me to type please, like properly, not single finger like I do at the moment, and how to use a word processor, I’ve never used one before.”

“Don’t they teach you computing at school?”

“Not really, well, I should say they do, but I didn’t bother so much with those lessons, or even most of that year really, I had a lot of bad times in Year 8, then in Year 9, when I started going to school more regularly, we’d started our GCSEs and Computing wasn’t one of the options I chose.”

“Ahh, ok, what subjects are you doing?”

“French, History, Catering and Art, along with Science, Maths and English obviously.”

“Do you enjoy school?”

“Enjoy isn’t the word I’d use, it’s not terrible, at least not after a couple of girls who were bullying me left, that’s why I missed Year 8, and some other issues at home. Enjoy? I enjoy History, I didn’t expect I would, but my teacher is really good, he breathes so much life into the subject. Art and Catering I love, because I like drawing and cooking, my Art teacher is lovely, she’s so enthusiastic about everything. The Catering teacher is weird, she’s got a beard,” Pixie whispered this last part, like she was scandalised by the thought of a woman with a beard, “but the subject is really useful, not just teaching recipes, but how to scale ingredients up from cooking for a family up to cooking for dozens, and how to plan menus and stuff, I enjoy that.”

“Do you enjoy English?”

“Not so much, I know that will upset you, because you’re a writer and all, but it’s boring, I know how to speak and write and spell, the teacher just doesn’t inspire me, so I can’t bring myself to get excited about the lessons.”

“I always think it’s a shame when a promising student doesn’t get the best out of a subject due to poor teaching. I’ll tell you what, if you think you could do better in any subjects if you had private tuition, I’m more than willing to arrange for a tutor for you, we could arrange for lessons at my house, or in a room in the library if you like.”

“Oh no, absolutely not! I can’t have you paying for a tutor for me.”

“I would barely notice the expense, seriously. I see a lot of promise in you, and I’d hate it to go to waste. Think about it and ask your nan, I’d be happy to talk to her.”

“She might think it weird if I keep coming to your house. She knows what mum did for a living from when she was younger than me.”

“Ahh, mmm, I guess we need to be careful to make sure there’s no suggestion of any impropriety.”

“What does that mean, impropriety?”

“It means you need a good English teacher,” I laughed.” No, seriously, it means no suggestion of wrong-doing.”

“Ahh, right.”

“We could say the lessons will be in one of the meeting rooms in the library.”

“Won’t that cost you money as well?”

“Not really, I own the building, and pay for most of the library budget, the village council can’t afford to run the library, so they pay Helen’s wages, and Glenda, the head librarian. The rest of the staff are volunteers, I pay for the building, heating, electric, all the fees we pay to the authors for the book loans, well not just me, a few people pay into the fund, but I pay about 60% of the fund.”