Chapter 5

Work went as well as can be expected, yes my mind was a bit distracted by the events of the previous four days, but other than a series of saucy texts from Valerie and Gemma not a lot went on of a sexual nature. Well not until the last of my four 12 hour shifts on when, as it was a Friday, I ventured up to my supervisor's office to give the weekly report and go over anything scheduled for the next week.

I was greeted by Wendy, his p.a. secretary and general dogsbody. She's a lovely woman, a bottle blonde, tall leggy Barbie doll type, getting on a bit with a bit too much makeup and with a sharp tongue if you got on the wrong side of her.

"Hi John, he's busy with a technical problem at head office on the phone, he might be a while," she said with a smile and her lovely lilting Irish accent.

"No problem, I'll wait," I said. "How are you doing?"

"Not bad John. Just sick and tired of waiting for my lazy husband to either fix or replace my shower," she replied.

"Still?"

"Yes, you know what he did? He bought me one of those silly showers that fit over the taps and told me to use that, the tight git!" she stormed.

"Do what Jan does with me and tell him he's not getting any till he gets it sorted," I chuckled.

"Christ, he'd welcome that. Last time I practically raped him because he's forgotten what it's for. I'd never get anything done then and Lord I love my nooky," she giggled.

"Guess you'll have to get someone in," I said.

"Tight bastard won't go for that," she moaned. "Christ, I'd offer myself to anyone who would do it if I thought I'd get any takers."

"If I thought you were serious I'd be round tomorrow like a shot," I laughed.

"Would you?" she asked speculatively.

"Ah hell, you get the shower and I'll fit it for you," I said with a smile. "No extras either. I'm free for most of tomorrow so can do it for you then."

"Well Frankie's off to the races tomorrow, but I'm in all day," she said. "So if you could John I'd be ever so grateful."

"Give me your address and I'll be there about 10-ish," I said.

She scribbled down an address and phone number for me and glanced at her panel. "He's finished now John, so in you go. And see you tomorrow," she said with a speculative smile.

The following day I got up with Jan bright and early and made her breakfast before she set off for work. There are times we really are like ships in the night, but we were both looking forward to a barbecue at Ted and Gemma's that night as Jan was off the following day so we both could have a decent drink.

Once Jan was away, I popped out to the shed and got out my tools along with a few lengths of chromed 15mm pipe which I thought might come in handy along with washers and compression joints as well as a lock-off valve.

Until yesterday I hadn't a clue where Wendy lived, but it wasn't so far from me, practically the next estate over. Loading the car I waved to Jean who just gave me a smile as I could see her hubby lurking in the background, whilst across the road I could see Mark's van outside of Lisa's. Weekends, I thought with a wry smile, glad mine move about a bit.

I reached Wendy's at pretty much ten on the dot and she welcomed me in looking a lot different to her working attire. No makeup and a long loose T-shirt covering the top of some black leggings which, for all they hid her legs, did not hide their shapeliness, all topped off with wet hair and pink fluffy slippers.

"Thanks for this John," she said. "I bought a shower and told Frankie I'd fit it myself. He hasn't stopped laughing. So if you don't mind I'd like to watch to see what you do so I can at least lie convincingly."

"No problem," I said. "Let's see what you've got."

"Before you fit the shower?" she said with a giggle.

"I meant the shower," I said with a laugh. "But if you're offering..."

"Naughty man," she smiled. "The shower's up here."

It was a good reliable make of shower, but, a quick look told me that whoever had fitted the last shower did not really know what they were doing. All the pipework was corroded and not straight.

"I'll need to turn off the power and water," I said.

"The stopcock is behind the sink downstairs and the fuse box is under the stairs," said Wendy.

I swiftly shut off the water and power and unscrewed the old unit from the wall. Clearly the pipes had been leaking inside, though I was surprised to see the wiring was up to spec. Undoing the compression joints for the shower didn't take long and after disconnecting the wires I lifted it off the wall.

"I'm going to have to go up in the loft to replace this pipe," I told Wendy.

"Ok," she answered "It's up there and the hatch has a ladder built in."

Grabbing a torch I tugged the hatch down and climbed up with a straight compression joint, some olives and chromed pipe as well as my pipe cutters and spanners. Wendy stuck her head up to watch what I was doing and held the torch. I saw where the old pipe had started leaking from a joint and cut above it feeding the chromed pipe down and tightening the new compression joint to give a good seal. Back down in the bathroom I cut the pipe again to fit the lock-off valve and asked Wendy to turn the water back on whilst I slipped back into the loft to make sure it wasn't leaking.

After that I cut a new short length of pipe and slid it into the shower to make sure it would fit when the shower was attached to the wall. Then it was straightforward, drill the wall, fit some rawlplugs, screw the shower onto the wall, re-attach the electrics and tighten the compression joints. Then I fitted the case cover and went down to check the fusebox.