Chapter 7: Im Throbbing In Excitement

Danny returned to the head of the settee and Jordan lay back down. Danny smiled at him. ‘You’re lucky,’ he said, ‘You are going to learn how to make love properly before you even experience it. But let’s return to your date now. Because I’ve just fired you, you should find it even easier to talk to me about it.’

‘Tell me about Saturday.’ Danny instructed. ‘I knocked at the front door just before ten and Samantha let me in.’ Jordan began, ‘She gave me a hug and led me into the lounge. I was introduced to her mum and dad. Her mum sat there quietly, but her dad went off like a rocket.’

‘He ranted and raved about anyone harming his daughter and what he would do to them. Samantha came and stood at my side and kept saying ‘Dad, stop it, stop it.’ In the end she burst into tears and ran out. That seemed to bring him back to earth and he went silent.’

‘I told you you’d go too far and upset her.’ his wife said. ‘Sir,’ I said, ‘If this is how you treat your daughter’s friends when she brings them home to meet you, I doubt you will see very many of them, if any.’

‘That will not stop her having friends, she is a nice and well brought up young lady.’ I said smiling at her mum. I turned back to him, ‘When you have finished teaching her that she has to keep all her friends completely secret from you, you will only have yourself to blame if she attaches herself to anyone unsuitable.’

‘I can only imagine how worrying it must be to have a daughter and how powerful the urge to protect her must be. But you will never be able to protect her from anything or anyone if the dangers are kept hidden from you.’

‘Now, as I’m clearly most unwelcome here, I will go and wait outside until such time as Samantha joins me for our day out. Or at least comes and tells me herself that she is now far too upset to go out anywhere.’ I was still standing up, so I headed for the door.’

‘Just one moment young man,’ her mum called out. ‘Please come and sit and talk to me. You,’ she said glaring at her husband, ‘Go upstairs this minute and apologise to your daughter. Then tell her that her friend is chatting to me in a civilised manner whilst he waits for her.’

‘He had the grace to look abashed, then turned and walked out. I sat by Samamtha’s mum. ‘I’m sorry about your reception,’ she said, ‘He can be a bit hot headed. Even Samantha can be at times.’ She asked me about myself and home. We had a good chat, she was nice.’

‘Then about ten minutes later Samantha came in. I stood up and she came over to me. She had cleaned up well and you wouldn’t have guessed she had been crying, although she looked very embarrassed. ‘I knew he’d overreact,’ she said as she linked arms, ‘But I never dreamt he’d be that bad.’

‘It’s only because he cares deeply for you.’ I told her. ‘What are your plans?’ her mum asked. ‘We thought we’d go for a walk through the park, then have some lunch at the little café the far side of the park before we have a look around town.’ Samantha told her.’

‘I quite understand if you don’t want to,’ she said looking at me, but would you like to come back here for six and have dinner with us?’ ‘Thank you,’ I told her, that would be very nice.’ At that point Samanthas dad came in. ‘I have invited Jordan to have dinner with us this evening.’ his wife told him.’

‘I noticed Samantha and her mum were both glaring at him. He turned to me and said, ‘That’s nice, I’m sorry I blew a gasket young man. You might not yet have that impression,’ he added, ‘But you are welcome here.’ ‘I understand sir,’ I said offering him my hand. ‘I’m Jordan.’ He looked surprised then shook it. ‘Thank you, Jordan,’ he said, ‘I’m David.’

‘Off you go you two,’ Samanthas mum told us, ‘Enjoy your day. We’ll see you later.’ We went out, and once in the road Samantha took my arm again. ‘I’m sorry you had to put up with that,’ she said, ‘But I’ve never heard him tell anyone to call him David so soon before.’

‘We walked to the park and strolled around for ages. We sat on a bench from time to time and just chatted, getting to know each other. We had a light lunch in the café, then walked into town and window shopped. We also went into the shopping arcade where we sat for a while and people watched.’

‘At five o’clock, we headed back to Samanthas. We reached there just after half five. The table was already set, and lovely smells were coming from the kitchen. There was no sign of her dad. ‘He’s in the garage doing something or other.’ her mum said.

‘Why don’t you go through and see what he’s up to.’ she said to me pointing to a door in the corner. ‘Can you give me a hand love,’ she asked Samantha. Samantha gave me a grin and a wink. I went through the door and found myself in a large two car garage.’

‘It had one car in it and the other half was set out as a workshop. Samanthas dad was working on what looked like an engine, but nothing like I’d seen before.’ I stood inside the door not sure about disturbing him.’

‘He glanced up and saw me. ‘Hi, Jordan.’ he said, ‘Come on over. I promise I won’t bite. Do you know anything about engines?’ he asked. ‘Not a lot,’ I told him. ‘This is a boat engine,’ he said. ‘It’s designed for a canal narrow boat.’

‘I don’t have a boat for it yet, I picked this up cheap, so I decided I’d do it up first and then think about getting a boat to fit it in. I worked in a garage when I left school.’ he added. As I leaned over and studied it, I recognised many of the parts.’

‘Erm,’ he said awkwardly, ‘Can I apologise again for how I treated you this morning?’ ‘No.’ I said, ‘There’s no need. You overreacted and I understand the reason perfectly. You have already apologised, which I accepted, so it’s now forgotten.’

‘He rested a hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Thank you.’ He explained what he was doing on the engine at the moment. He showed me a connecting rod he had taken out. ‘The last one of those I saw had removable shells.’ I told him. he looked surprised.’

‘This engine predates them,’ he told me. ‘To renew these, you have to send them away and they melt new white metal onto them. Then you have to refit them by scraping tiny bits off and trying them on the crank shaft until they are a perfect fit. ‘That sounds very time consuming.’ I said.’

‘It is,’ he said, ‘But I’ll enjoy doing it, and it will give me a lot of satisfaction when I get it right.’ Just then Samantha stuck her head round the door and called, ‘Dinners ready.’ We washed our hands at a sink in the corner, then went through.’

‘We had a lovely meal, and we all got on well. David managed to ask me a lot of questions about myself, but he did it calmly and politely, so I didn’t mind. Although I did spot him getting a few warning glances occasionally from his wife or Samantha.’

‘Samantha and Jean cleared away when we had finished, then David and I washed up. As we did, I said to him, ‘I have no idea how long Samantha and I will remain friends, although I hope it’s a long time. I suggest that if I’m invited here again, whenever you and I are alone together, you feel able to ask me absolutely any questions you like.’

‘If It’s something I don’t think I should answer I’ll say so, but your asking won’t upset me.’ ‘Thanks,’ he replied, ‘I’ll try not to make it a grilling, but if I get carried away, feel free to say so.’ We made coffees and took them into the lounge.’

‘After general chat, we finished our coffees and sat round the dining room table to play a game of Mahjong. It came in a very ornate box with ivory domino sized blocks and all sorts of other strange pieces with odd names and rules. I was a bit lost, but everyone explained it as we went along. It was very enjoyable.’

‘Then it was time for me to go. I got up and said goodnight. I went over and thanked Jean for a lovely meal and she gave me a hug. ‘I hope we’ll see you again.’ she told me. I went over to David, and we shook hands. ‘You’re welcome here anytime.’ he said.’