Chapter 9

Sunday morning saw Maggie dressed casually but completely and the three of them motored back up to Wroxham. Maggie and Andrew sat on the bench in the cockpit with Tony driving.

“Are you okay?”

Andrew smiled at Maggie’s question.

“I am fine. There are moments where the oddness of what we do gets to me. I think now that I am away at university, it makes it easier in that it is not a constant in our lives, but it also means that it stands out as unusual when we do meet.”

“Does it make you uncomfortable?”

Andrew shook his head.

“No, not at all. That comes back to your comment yesterday. I get moments where I think I should be uncomfortable but I don’t. That might be the most odd part. You are this very sexy woman with an incredible body who I see naked all the time. Yet it seems normal, even although I know it is not.”

After tying up the boat at Wroxham they returned to Cambridge. They parked out by the College sports fields and walked back towards the College buildings.

“Everyone seems so relaxed.”

Maggie’s observation was true.

“The exams are over and term is starting to wind up. I think Balls started last week at some of the Colleges. Once ours in done on Monday then the College will empty out. Everyone has written their exams and nobody knows the results yet, so nobody has to face up to reality yet.”

“Where is the Engineering Department.”

Andrew pointed off to the right.

“Down there, three quarters of a mile, something like that. An easy 15 minute walk in the morning. Most people walk everywhere. The streets are narrow, there is no parking and most of the University is compact in the centre of the town.”

They crossed the Cam and Andrew signed them in at the back gate.

“This is where I will be living next year. Over there on the right.”

They carried on until they were in Great Court.

“It is a pretty amazing place to live.”

“Sadly, you get used to it very quickly. Where I will be staying next year is New Court, but it is 170 years old, and that is new compared to the other two Courts. When I went to the two Colleges in London on their Open Days, the buildings were newer, both were in the centre of London yet I preferred the course out here. I didn’t come to Cambridge because of the old buildings, it was how they treated me, the way the course is structured. Lots of different things.”

Just as Andrew had taken for granted going to school at Heriot’s in the centre of Edinburgh, so he, and most of the rest of the students, did the same with Trinity. What was spectacular on the first Saturday was mundane and just part of day to day life by Wednesday. Andrew showed them his room but they didn’t stay. Instead he showed them round the centre of Cambridge, all the different Colleges nestling beside each other. Once they were back in Trinity they went for dinner as soon as Hall opened. Looking at the rather unappetising food on their plates Tony commented.

“They aren’t spoiling you with the food.”

Several people came over and said hi and Andrew introduced Maggie and Tony to them but nobody stayed other than Pedro. The four of them chatted away but it was a quiet end to the weekend.

“Pedro seems like a decent bloke.”

“He is. He is quite anglicised as he went to school for a year in Britain on a Navy exchange scheme. It was him I was supposed to be going to stay with after Paris, but his father’s new job put the kibosh on that.”

They walked back to the car. It had been good to escape Cambridge for a couple of days and potter about on the boat. And Maggie had been a very entertaining distraction. Suddenly Helena popped into Andrew’s mind and he smiled in anticipation. Tony and Maggie left and Andrew jogged back to the College. It took a while to run her down but there must have been something in the way Andrew was looking at her because Helena excused herself with a smile and walked towards him.

“I like that look. That look is very promising.”

It wasn’t often that Andrew was a selfish lover. Even that night he still made sure that Helena was well taken care of, but he was relentlessly horny. It wasn’t that he was dreaming off Maggie as he fucked Helena but he was thinking about Helena in the same situation, draped indecorously over the bow of a boat. Even thinking about the situation renewed his vigour and he fucked Helena even more enthusiastically. Just as Andrew had been some kind of prop for Tony and Maggie so in turn Maggie had inspired Andrew with Helena.

“What did you get up to this weekend? Not that I am complaining but good lord Andrew.”

Andrew pulled Helena up his body for a kiss and didn’t answer the question directly.

“It is a beautiful summer’s day and I was horny. I have no excuse other than I am a man. Well that and the fact you are a complete sexpot.”

“I am glad you finally realised.”

They laughed and the underlying question was forgotten.

“Let’s grab a quick shower and then come and sleep with me. It is nice to be held and there are only a couple more nights.”

They both slept very soundly.

All that was left was the May Ball, which of course being Cambridge is held in June every year after the exams. Matt had got two tickets and was bringing Olivia, platonically allegedly, and Justin also had got a second ticket for Judy but most of the rest of them just had the single ticket. It was a great occasion, everyone dressed up, the dresses were spectacular but it was also a huge affair stuffed full of entitled, snobby dickheads, not just from Trinity but from all over the University. The Trinity May Ball was the top of the social heap. Everything about it was done to excess, including the drinking and the drunken staggering home at 7.00 in the morning. It was the ultimate in peer pressure, ‘respecting the traditions’ and drinking champagne all night. Yet it marked a transition, you have survived a year at Cambridge and for around a third of the people attending it was their send-off to the place.

Andrew was ambivalent about the whole thing, but then he stayed clear of all the social drama, or at least as much as possible. He was an unashamed nerd who would rather study than join secret societies or drinking clubs. And there were, and are, a number of them. But that whole side of Cambridge was of no interest to Andrew. Their corridor of ten was fairly cohesive and low key and he preferred that to trying to fit in with the Hoorays and knowing he never would. Andrew went to private school in the centre of Edinburgh, in a building that was 350 years old with an unobscured view of Edinburgh Castle and he was a student at Trinity College in Cambridge. But he hated entitlement and had an anti-establishment streak in him that was deep and pronounced. And then just to counter the counter he also had a picture of him with the Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe on his desk and stayed at the home of a Law Lord when he was in London. Andrew was a mess of contradictions.

10 or 12 of them stayed together for most of the night at the ball, they must have danced for hours, it was a way to limit champagne consumption if nothing else. Helena and Andrew danced of course but he also danced with Navya, Rupashi who was there as the guest of a Trinity law student, Emma, Abigail, Judy and Olivia. It was a great night and Andrew thoroughly enjoyed himself, but on his own terms and within his own little bubble. When you looked around there were bubbles everywhere, sure there were people flitting around talking to large groups but for most people it was a night for a core group of friends. He and Helena lasted until 6.07, the sun was up and they had posed for the ‘survivor’ picture, they had survived the whole night. As soon as they were back in her room they snuggled up and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.

Which was brought to a crashing halt by Pedro banging on the door at 1.00.

“Andrew, are you in there? Get up, you have a visitor.”

Pulling on his underwear but still somewhat underdressed for visitors Andrew went to the door and when he opened it there was Leslie. Reflexively leaning in to hug Leslie, wearing only his underwear while Helena lay naked in her bed was perhaps not the smartest move. Leslie pushed back.

“You reek of booze, get off me.”

Andrew laughed and kept trying to hug her. Helena was looking at this with a quizzical frown and he figured even although they were hardly dressed for it, some introductions were necessary.

“Helena, this is one of my best friends Leslie who came to take me home. Leslie, this is Helena who I attended the Ball with last night.”

He turned back.

“Hang on, why are you here? I thought you were picking me up tomorrow?”

Leslie had offered to bring his car down for him so he could transport everything back to Edinburgh but she was supposed to be arriving after lunch the next day, Wednesday.

“I will explain all that over a late lunch. Get up, shower and get dressed and we can talk. I want to meet your friends here in Cambridge.”

She looked over his shoulder at Helena.

“Please say you will join us for lunch?”

Helena had finally got her brain working after watching this tableau play out in her doorway.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Once Andrew closes the door and lets me have a modicum of privacy then I will shower and join you for lunch. The famous Leslie herself is here. Oh my.”

30 minutes later Leslie, Helena, Navya, Pedro and Andrew were sitting in a little café on Trinity Street not far from the College. It was Pedro who had signed Leslie into the College, he had heard her asking for Andrew by name at the Gate and brought her over. Plus he was a shit-stirrer of the first order. Everyone was a combination of hungover and tired, including Leslie who had been up at 6.30 to make the journey south. It was a miracle she had not got a speeding ticket as she had a heavy right foot as that morning’s journey had shown. He introduced her to everyone with Pedro last. She just smiled at him.

“How is the lovely Margaux? Has she recovered yet from 36 hours of Pedro?”

She dropped the mike on him with her first sentence. Pedro looked stunned as did Helena and Navya before bursting out laughing. Andrew was not sure he had ever seen Pedro so flummoxed.

“It is nice to meet you all. Sorry Pedro it was too funny to pass up.”

There was a more extensive meet and greet between the four of them, aided by the fact that Leslie knew a fair bit about each of them.

“I am sorry to barge in on you this morning Helena, but this was a surprise visit. I had told Andrew I would be here tomorrow but decided that I wanted to see Cambridge this year because I am not sure I will have the chance again.”

“Why?” This was Navya.

“I finished at Edinburgh this month. Assuming I pass I will be graduating next month. Once I am working then these spontaneous trips become more difficult, that’s all.”

She turned the conversation back on them.

“How was the Ball?”

They had all enjoyed it, Pedro the most given that he had been returning to College from escorting a young lady home when he ran into Leslie at the Gate. As their food arrived Leslie kept up the conversation.

“How have you found the first year here? Was it as difficult as everyone assumes?”

Andrew was content to let the three of them chat to Leslie, he would have the journey home the next day to catch up and could and would be honest with Leslie in a way that he was never going to be in a group setting. It was Pedro who finally started to ask Leslie questions rather than the other way round.

“You have known Andrew for more than five years. He talks about you as his unrelated older sister. We all know and understand how you met but I wondered how the connection didn’t fade away over time.”

Just because Pedro was an inveterate womaniser did not make him stupid or insensitive.

“Lots of things helped. A lot of things he did before my sister Faith had even died.”

That held everyone’s attention.

“And we needed each other for a long time. Because we kept in touch he eventually come round to the house and in lots of ways helped Mum and Dad deal with her death as well. From there it just snowballed.”

Leslie smiled a tired smile. Nobody knew quite what to say.

“Look I don’t want to bring this down. For Andrew’s entire post-cancer life he has had to explain me and our relationship. It has got easier as he has gotten older but 14-year-old boys don’t hang out with 19-year-old women.”

Helena spoke up.

“It seems too weird, I can’t imagine hanging out with my little brother’s friends and they are only three years younger than me, especially when they were 14. I don’t think any of them looked me in the eye for more than a year.”