Chapter 2: Things warm up at the Bar-b-q

When Janice and I finally found the house from the directions he gave me, his drive was full of nice cars, posh BMW's, Audi's and Merc's, and my old one litre Micra seemed way out of place, so I parked it further along the road. The front door was opened by a young girl, which turned out to be his daughter. She was tall, dark-haired and had stunning blue eyes. She introduced herself as Fliss, short for Felicity, who took our coats and told us to go through to the garden. She struck me as being a very pleasant, well- mannered girl, and I was given no inkling of the little minx she really could be.

Paul, and another guy I later found out was his brother, were already kicking off the barbeque, putting steaks and coated chicken pieces on to a huge grill to cook and unwrapping some thick sausages. He spotted me and waved a 'Hi' but I thought I'd better not interrupt the men at work. I saw Sister and her husband sipping sherry on the patio and went over to introduce Janice. I had never heard anyone refer to her as anything but Sister but she introduced herself as Edna, and even called me Nicola instead of the usual Nurse Bryant. It seemed strange seeing her out of 'character'; somehow I never thought she had a life outside the ward.

The other older nurses appeared and started chatting to Edna, which was good because I couldn't think of much to say apart from talking 'shop'. Janice and I sloped away and looked for people our own age to talk to. Surprisingly there weren't any. Most people seemed either to be in their 30s and 40s, or else in their young teens, presumably friends of the daughter. We seemed to be in a generation black hole, the only 20 something guests there. We talked to a few of the guests for a short while and then Paul announced that the food was ready.

Janice and I loaded up our plates with a steak, chicken breast and sausages and some salad stuff, then found ourselves a couple of garden chairs to sit on further down the garden together with some of the younger girls. After we had eaten some of the girls started throwing a Frisbee to each other and Janice got sucked into the game too. I was going to join in too but Paul appeared with a sausage on a cocktail stick in one hand and a beer in the other and started chatting.

"Hi, Nicki, sorry I couldn't say hello properly before. Where's your friend?"

I looked around and pointed her out. By now the game had moved on to the larger lawn but Janice waved at us before chasing the Frisbee again.

"Come in the house... ," he continued through a last mouthful of sausage, "... and get some beers or something to drink."

In the dining room the table was loaded down with all kinds of drinks, most standing in deep metal trays filled with ice. I picked a bottle of lager for Janice and lemonade for me as I was driving, together with a couple of tumblers.

"The house is really lovely," I remarked, "Is it just the two of you living here now?"

"Ah, you heard about my wife then. Yes, just Fliss and me at the moment, rattling away in this big place. Do you want a quick tour by the way?"

"Mmmm, yes please, I've been dying to have a look round." We put our drinks down and he guided me to the kitchen, huge lounge and study before climbing the stairs. It certainly was a nice house. It had six large bedrooms and three bath or shower rooms on the two upper floors. His bedroom looked really elegant with a four-poster bed. A very feminine- influenced look to the room that I suspected was a legacy of his wife. On the top floor, where two bedrooms and a shower room were located, he pulled me to him and hugged me.