Chapter 8

With the three ingots safely in my bag, I allowed myself to be taken back to the house, move outside, and lock it up before wandering down to the town centre. I was back there well before it closed for the lunch break, and walked inside. Georgina was dealing with a pair of clients, so I browsed the advertising cards for houses in Gourock and environs, Greenock, and also a few in Kilmacolm. They had enough display space to spread their offers widely.

After a few minutes chat, Georgina handed over a folder of house details, and offered either a viewing with a member of staff, or a set of keys once a down payment had been made. The couple went off with smiles on their faces, and I reckoned they were anticipating buying their first home together.

Once they had gone out of the shop, I turned round and gave a cheeky little wave to Georgina. She grinned and held out her hand flat with the clear suggestion of paying her. I swung the duffel bag off my shoulder and acted as if it was heavy – which it was. She nodded and welcomed me, “Glad to see you back, Mr McIntyre. You have brought your next installment?”

“I have. Have you a sister I could take out, as you are not available at the moment?”

She giggled at the riposte. “Sandy is sitting in the back office. I’ll call her.”

“Sandy!” she yelled. “A visitor for you.”

The door opened and a vision of loveliness drifted out. It was Sandy. My tongue was immediately lost for words until she recognized my presence.

“Hello, Bob. Here on business?”

I recovered and answered honestly, “I am, but as soon as I have that dealt with I am free to be seduced. Do you fancy lunch in an upmarket restaurant instead of a snack in a cheap cafe? I am flush with cash now.”

She chuckled, “Seduced, is it? And a real restaurant this time? You must think I am worth it, Bob.”

I adopted a formal face and tone. “Yes, you are worth it, no matter what comes of it.”

“My goodness! The sooner you get your business concluded, the better. Georgina, help?”

Georgina stepped in to the conversation.

“Quite right, Sandy. Well, Mr McIntyre, put up or shut up, eh?”

I moved closer and reached into my bag, pulling out the first ingot. “Installment one.” I reached in and again laid a second heavy ingot on her desk. “Installment two.”

Then I looked into her face, which did indeed have a resemblance to Sandy.

“Have you prepared for another currency exchange?”

She nodded, saying, “All ready, except I have to phone the bank about the current rate on gold.”

I lifted out the third bar and added it to the other two. “Make your phone call, Georgina, while I get forward with your sister.”

Sandy’s eyes widened at my words while Georgina picked up her phone to dial the bank for today’s gold price. Sandy gasped out, “Gold bars? You have gold bars?”

I replied, seemingly off-hand, “Oh, yes. Grandfather turned out to be wiser than most folk. He kept some of his assets in gold, and that is proving to be an increasing value resource. It solved some of my difficulties with being under twenty-one.”

Georgina concluded her immediate discussion and began her calculation of the gold ingot’s bank value less the shop’s commission. While I was concentrating on Sandy’s face, she noticed her sister wanted to speak to me, so took my arm to turn me and drag my eyes back to her big sister.

“Georgina wants you, Bob,” she informed me.

I responded like a flash, “No, I was hoping it was you that wanted me,” then gained an inspiration of manners. “Not that I have any objections to Georgina; she comes only second to you.”

Georgina started, then gave me a massive smile before saying, “Wow, a boy that has learned how to act round a woman. Sandy, this lad has possibilities as a real man.”

She watched my face blush and let me off the hook by asking, “Do you mind casting an eye over my calculations, and see if this is acceptable to you, Mr McIntyre?”

I took the notepad she offered, and did my rough mental assessment of the conversion and deductions, and it all looked fine; a trifle more than last week, so that was satisfactory.

“That will do me, Georgina. I hope your boss is similarly satisfied.”

“Oh, he is. He was delighted to take up your offer. You can repeat the exercise any time you like, and he says I will get a bonus of five percent of the commission. You are worth cultivating, Mr McIntyre: please note that, Sandy. Your sister needs you to keep bringing him back for more of the same.”

I swung my gaze back to Sandy, who was looking like the cat that got the cream. She said to Georgina, “You mean I have to force myself to be taken out by this rich young man?”

I told her, quite brusquely, “Yes, you have an injunction by your sister to be nice to me. Are you prepared to let me take you out on a number of occasions?”

She sighed theatrically, “I suppose I shall have to put up by being romanced by you. Have you any plans on how long this imposition will continue?”

My heart in my mouth I summoned up the courage to say, “If it is up to me, it will continue forever. There, I have said it.”

“My goodness ... my goodness ... My...”

“Yes, goodness; we got that, Sandy,” interjected Georgina. “Don’t spoil it by refusing his overtures, girl.”

Sandy stopped speaking and gave it some thought.

“Bob, can I work on the basis that this is an interim position that you are talking about? I will have to know you for much longer before I can consider taking on a toy boy on a longer term basis.”

“A toy boy? Yes, I suppose our age difference makes it look like that, but I am not toying with you, Sandy. By all means, let’s make it an interim arrangement, but if we get on together, it may go further.”

Georgina was sitting at her desk, mouth open. She finally spoke.

“If you two are getting serious, I suggest you go and have your hotel lunch and chat about it over a steak or something. Some of us have work to do.”

Sandy cast her eye around the empty shop.

“Yes, sis, I can see that. What a heavy workload. Bob, can we take Georgie with us to lunch? Not as a chaperone, just to let her see us together, and make her own assessment of what you and I should be thinking.”

“Good idea, Sandy. I fancy being seen at lunch with two beautiful women.”

“Good grief! He is picking up all the right words for a Lothario, Sandy. Better watch out, girl; you know what I mean.”

We quickly agreed on the girls’ choice for our lunch venue, and Sandy said she and I would go for a walk until Georgina had to close for lunch, then meet her there. As we walked along, looking in the shop windows as we passed, I asked, “Were you serious about Georgina making an assessment of me and you as a couple?”

“Hmm ... sort of. Georgina is at a loose end, and has been for a while. She had a long term semi-serious boyfriend, but he threw her over for another girl that he had been seeing on the side. She was hurt badly, and that betrayal put her off men for a long while, but she has been trying to get me to find a man that I could trust, with her making her own assessment on my behalf. I have been avoiding commitments, but she has been more pushy recently.

Trust has become a major point in her life, so I want to get her to see that not all men are like that. You are so transparently honest, being a beginner at coping with girls in a romantic situation, that she should be able to see that I am going out with a good man. Sorry, I accidentally almost said a good boy, but at seventeen you are already a man; just a learner at man-woman involvement. That was why the ‘boy’ thought; it was not a reflection on you as a person.”

I was stuck for words, so she went on, “You are an example she can use to view men in the future, rather than her ex-boyfriend. That is what I want her to see.”

“I hope you are not just using me to help her. I am hoping that it is primarily about you and me.”

She grabbed my arm and then held my hand.

“Bob, life is always complicated, and often you try to do several things at the same time. That is what is happening here: you and I getting to know each other, and my sister getting to see you as a trustworthy person, over and above her assessing how we are getting along. You see; three aims with one single event. Get it?”

“Sandy, my dear, your mental processes are more complex than I expected: shades of grey all around. I grew up as a simple but honest lad, and I tend to see things in black and white. You may have to show me the complications of adult life as you see them.”

She admitted, “I suppose it is with my father being a lawyer. Legal cases are never straightforward he says; there are always nuances affecting how things play out in court. It is his job to convince a jury that the vagaries of normal life have an effect on how people behave towards each other and towards society as a whole. A man may have just had a fight with his wife and his anger spills over in his other social activities, so that his bad behaviour on certain occasions is due to his previous annoyance rather than something that had just occurred. His behaviour is not your black and white, but a blend of how life is treating him overall, and his response to that complicated experience.”

“Gosh, I can see that society has more to it than simply me and it, or me and you. I would like it to be just me and you, but if I can do something to help Georgina at the same time, I am willing to be part of that.”

Sandy’s response was a kiss on my cheek. I would have preferred on the lips, but something is better than nothing. I would have to build on that.

We slowly sauntered down to the Cafe Continental, which Sandy said had a reputation for good food, but you could also go in for just a coffee and cake. Georgina had just arrived and was standing outside the door, looking for us to appear. She was wearing a snazzy coat that looked very fashionable, and I congratulated her on her lovely outer garment.

“Thank you, Mr McIntyre,” she said as she accepted the compliment. I rebuked her, “Please call me Bob, as we are away from our business activity, Georgina.”

Sandy interjected with some authority, “By all means admire each other, but let’s get inside, out of the wind, and get some hot food inside us.”

We moved indoors, selected a table looking out on the river, and browsed our menus. I told Georgina, “This meal is on me, so select whatever you fancy, Georgina.”

She responded with a shy smile, “Thank you, Bob.” and bent her head to the menu card. Each of us selected something, and cautiously I picked a dish that I didn’t recognise but sounded nice. The two girls made their own choices, and by then a waitress was by our side, ready to take our orders. I didn’t want wine, as I was not used to drinking wine, but I invited the girls and they both chose a wine they each liked and shared a half bottle.

The food was indeed good, and I had no trouble eating my main course. I even went with the peach Melba dessert option. I was full and skipped coffee.

We chatted a little over the meal, but I knew Georgina had to go back to work, so we could not dawdle over our food. I admired the scenery outside the window, but then Sandy reminded me that I should be admiring the scenery at the table. I switched my gaze to the two women, alternating between them, and Sandy nodded her approval. I paid a little more attention to her elder sister, and sussed that Georgina acted kind of shy.

I jocularly remarked, “You are a little backward about being forward, Georgina. Sandy is not reticent to say her mind.”

Georgina came back with, “That’s because of university, Bob. I didn’t go to university; I was busy looking after our mother and my sister.”

This made me note that up until now, only their father had been mentioned.

“Mother? Something I should know more about, Sandy?”

She shrugged. “Our mother died with cancer about ten years ago. Georgina has acted as my mother ever since, as you will have noticed by the way she speaks to me at the shop; gives me a telling off if she thinks I am too forward. Daddy is always busy with work, so he doesn’t have time to devote to his daughters.”

I got the impression that Daddy was not a doting father. He probably had no idea how to bring up daughters and as a result appeared aloof.

Georgina checked her wristwatch and gasped, “Time I was going. Sandy, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Bye, Bob. Thanks for the meal. See you again, I hope.” And she got up and hurried off to her duties. I resumed admiring my lovely Sandy, who looked thoughtful.

“Hmm,” she said, non-committally, leaving me wondering what she was thinking. She looked back at me, and remarked, more to herself, “Yes, I think so.”

I stared at her for a moment, then enquired, “What? What is it you are thinking, Sandy?”

She seemed to at last realise that I was still here, and said, “Sorry, Bob. I was watching her response to you, and I am astonished.”

“Astonished at what, exactly? You have lost me there, Sandy.”

“Oh, just that she is acting as if you were much older, in fact older than her. She has adopted a girlish mode, more like what I might be expected to be in front of you.”

I mentally shook my head, for I was flummoxed and did not understand what she was saying.

“You will have to make it clearer to me, Sandy, for I am out of my depth here.”

“Oh, of course; your girl experience is not extensive, so you don’t notice female things that are worth noticing.”

“Okay, I grant you that. I still don’t see what I am missing.”

“Bob, my dear man, it is mostly other women who observe these things, do don’t take it to heart. Georgina has been off men for so long that she has forgotten how enticing an honest man can be to a susceptible girl.”

I gaped at her and replied, “Are you sure you are talking about me? Your toy boy?”

“Oh, most certainly. You have an inbuilt charm about you that I spotted at once when we met. Why do you think I was so taken with you right from the start?”

“Me? I thought I was the one who was swept off his feet when I found you, an angel, a vision of radiance, a woman with a touch of glory about her.”

“My goodness! Was I as much a shock as that to you?”

“Yes, I admit it; I was sucker punched right from the moment we met.”

“Well, I have to tell you, my man, that you have had a similar impact on her in the last half hour or so. Congratulations.”

“Eh? What is there to be congratulated for? We just had lunch together.”

“Yes, and she has not been this close to a man in a social setting for years. You said and did all the right things that she has been missing, and it had an unexpected effect on her. This puts your proposition to me in a different light.”
“My proposition?”

“Your declaration that you wanted to go out with me for ever. I take it that this was tantamount to a declaration of love intended to be undying.”

My blush started up again. I could feel it all over my face.

“Well, you see, my heart got me to say a few things that I know I should not say so soon in our relationship, but the words just popped out before I could stop them.”

“Were the words meant sincerely?” she demanded.

“Yes.” I left it at that, waiting for the axe to fall.

“And I took them that way. I admit my emotions must have got away with me too, for if you had directly asked me to marry you at that point, I would have said ‘yes’ without thinking properly about it. I know it is all wrong to think that way, but sometimes life hits you for six when you least expect it.”