Chapter 10

On Thursday, Sian and Malcolm had gone to the pub for a couple of drinks together after bumping into each other in the Union, and she brought him back to the house for a cup of tea and supper. She was in a really bubbly mood, which looked hopeful.

"We had a cracking lecture in Economics this morning - about the history of Economics and the important names to look out for. I thought the best quote was from J. K. Galbraith: 'The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.' But they did say that he was being deliberately rude about other economic models!"

Vee, who assiduously studied her horoscope every week, ignored the slur on astrology. She knew better than to try to wind up Sian with Malcolm present!

After supper - it was one of Vee's special stews with everything in it, and with extra bread and butter it fed five as easily as it would have fed four - we sat in the kitchen and chatted. I made another pot of tea, and sat down again to listen to the banter between Sian and Malcolm.

Julie gave up trying to catch my eye, and resorted to the more direct method of kicking my leg under the table to get my attention. I got up from my chair and said that I needed to close our curtains to keep the heat in. She came to help me, telling the others that we'd do theirs as well.

"God, I thought you'd never realise!"

"Sorry darling, what is it?"

"I think Sian may ask Malcolm to stay tonight, so don't you dare put your foot in it!"

"Well, tell me what to do, please - I'm a man who takes a size ten in shoes, so I'm genetically pre-disposed to put them where they shouldn't be!"

She giggled at my admission, and kissed me.

"You are a darling. Now listen - it's chucking it down with rain outside, and I want you to say so when we go back in to the kitchen, and after about ten minutes, I'll say that I'm knackered and ready to go to bed, and then we'll take Vee with us. Then it's up to Sian!"

We finished closing the curtains, and I made my remark about the weather, and put the kettle on for a couple of hot water bottles. It had just about got hot enough when Julie let out a huge yawn.

"Tonsils, darling!"

"Oh, sorry, I'm just exhausted. I'm for my bed - Jon, is there enough water for a hottie?"

"Yes, plenty - do you want one, Vee?"

"Please!"

Malcolm got up from the table.

"It's getting late! Thanks again for supper; it was far better than anything that gets served up in our house!"

"I'll come down to the door with you, Malcolm."

"Great, goodnight everyone!"

We said our goodnights as the two of them went downstairs; I quickly filled the two rubber hot water bottles for Vee and Julie, turned off the kitchen light, and the three of us headed for our bedroom.

Personally, I think Vee's period was finished by then, but as she really liked sleeping with both of us, and we enjoyed it too, we had made no move to evict her back to her own room. It would be time enough to do it at the weekend, when Julie was ready to do some catching up on missed lovemaking, and we wanted to be by ourselves again.

We got undressed and ready for bed quietly; the girls standing behind the door listening intently as the footsteps came back upstairs. They grinned at each other, and Vee held up two fingers towards me in the 'Victory V' sign, not the other one.

I crossed my fingers in superstition. I REALLY wanted this to work. If Sian and Malcolm became lovers, things were looking good. If it didn't work out, then I was in real trouble because I was friends with both of them, and couldn't take sides.

We waited for the click of Sian's door before the three of us nipped to the loo to spend a penny and brush our teeth.

Vee called out as we went into our room.

"All yours, Sian!"

There was a muffled word of acknowledgement. A couple of minutes later we heard her door open, and the sound of footsteps before the bathroom door was shut.

We cuddled under our quilt - it was too cold to hang around the door to listen - and as we heard Sian's door close and click, and a very faint sound of voices, Julie (who was in the middle) gave both of us a self-congratulatory hug.

We were tired; with full stomachs and a cosy bed, we all fell asleep quite quickly, and heard nothing from Sian's room until Julie's alarm clock woke us in the morning.

xxxxxxx

Vee made five mugs of tea and took two into Sian's room. I noticed that she did have the decency to knock on this occasion!

Then she brought the other three mugs into our room and rejoined us under the covers. She beamed as she told us that Malcolm was naked in Sian's bed.

"I thought they'd never get around to it!"

"Did it look as if it worked for them?"

"Oh yes, Sian's got a huge smile on her face, and Malcolm doesn't look at all frightened!"

"Right, my darling, how do you want me to behave towards Malcolm?"

"Well, obviously we don't want to frighten him off now, so Vee will make it look as if she slept in her room, and we'll get her mattress back in there once you and Malcom have gone off to the lab for the day. We'll have a chat to Sian and see how she wants to play it, but if you just treat Malcolm being at breakfast as nothing remarkable, then that will be a good start."

So Vee went back to her bedroom with her bundle of clothes and made a performance out of emerging from her own door when she heard Sian and Malcolm; Julie and I had a quick wash and got dressed before laying the table for breakfast for five.

Malcolm and I strolled up to the Chemistry Building as usual; I didn't mention Sian until lunchtime.

"Malcolm, I've got to get the bread and milk on the way home - I presume you're going to be staying tonight?"

"Yes, she made me promise that I'd come back!"

"Great, you can help me carry the stuff then. It's amazing how many loaves we get through in a weekend!"

Malcolm treated us all to a cooked breakfast at the cafe on Saturday morning; he said that he owed us for quite a lot of hospitality! At my suggestion, he and I went off to the lab in the afternoon, partly to get ahead of the work again, but mainly on Julie's instructions, so that the three girls could have a long private gossip!

I spent the weekend trying not to put my foot in it; I didn't want Malcolm to know that I'd been having sex with Sian and Vee almost as much as I had with Julie. It was really difficult, because I had just about got used to the freedom of NOT having to sneak about!

xxxxxxx

My sister Jen went back to see Mum and Dad the next weekend; when I phoned home during the week and asked after her, Mum said that she had been quite subdued, but perfectly happy to go back to Reading on the Sunday, albeit with a big bag of goodies from Mum's pantry.

I was also pleased to hear through Julie - their letters were a great deal more intimate - that Jen had indeed been actively looking for a man, but had had the great good sense not to jump at the first chance she got. My remarks about avoiding the kind of man who carved notches on his bed post had obviously gone home, and Jen had taken a very logical step in getting Adrian to scratch her itch when it got too much.

I knew I had to let Jen find her own way in the world, but I made sure that I wrote her a letter every week, so that she was reminded that I loved her. Julie also wrote, and from the replies we got, we gathered that Jen was grateful for the support. She had also joined the Athletics Union and was going swimming regularly, and seemed happier to be doing something outside her academic studies.

Back in Cardiff, we had a bit of disruption as the city was converted from Town Gas to the new Natural Gas from the recent discoveries in the North Sea. It meant that all the burners on gas appliances had to be converted to burn methane, a process that actually only took the Gas Board engineer about ten minutes, once he eventually found someone at home to let him in.

He was interesting to chat to; although naturally worried by the future closure of all the local gas works once the pipelines to bring the gas over from the East Coast of England were completed, he thought it would be much cleaner and safer all round. He also welcomed the investment in the local distribution network; he said that some of the trace substances in the sulphurous town gas were really quite corrosive, and that a lot of the Victorian and Edwardian gas pipes desperately needed replacing.

We hadn't got a gas central heating boiler; we had a 'geyser' in the kitchen for providing hot water on demand. The engineer struggled a bit to take the front cover off; it clearly hadn't been looked at in years. It sounded much better once it had new burners, and it seemed to run hotter as well.

I couldn't let him into the ground floor flat, but I took him to the first floor and he did the kitchen there as well, labelling the two meters in the hall as having been converted.

I was impressed by how smoothly the whole conversion process went; whoever was in charge had made a special effort to minimise disruption to homes and businesses. Even the Chemistry Department tearoom was only out of action for a few minutes!

Our lecturers all commented on the change; they were very impressed with the technological achievement of bringing the North Sea Gas ashore, but also keen to explain how the compound 2-methyl-2-propanethiol was added to the odourless methane so that people could tell if there was a leak. They got us to make EXTREMELY small quantities of it in the fume cupboard - boy, did it stink! Luckily it burned very easily, so was simple to destroy.

Malcolm and I continued as good mates; he now stayed over with Sian most nights, but they had no intention of him moving in because her room was so small.

Vee felt a little left out, now that both her flatmates had full-time boyfriends, so some nights Sian went round to Malcolm's house so that Julie and I could entertain Vee in our bed without alerting Malcolm to our strange relationship. I resolved to try and find Vee a boyfriend of her own (a very odd thing to wish for an engaged woman!), but really had no idea where to start looking.

xxxxxxx

At the start of the second week of November, after we had been back at our studies for four weeks, Julie phoned Adrian and Sheila, and we invited ourselves over to Clifton for the weekend to see the progress on their flat.

Julie had seen an old circular Georgian wall mirror on one of the second-hand furniture stalls at the Market, and had bought it on impulse as a house-warming present for the twins. It was a bit faded and dusty, but the plaster mouldings on the frame were all present and undamaged, and the slight crack on one side looked as if it could be painted over.

We had thought about going over the weekend before, but of course Julie was then expecting her period. That was now safely over, and she was very much looking forward to seeing Adrian again!

I was delighted that she was happy to keep having sex with him; firstly because I wanted her to feel that she hadn't just settled for life with me without trying anyone else, and secondly because I rather enjoyed being with Sheila!

It helped that we felt so comfortable with each other; during our demolition work in September I had become friendly with Adrian despite his strange liking for team sports, and Julie and Sheila were already on great terms. The girls seemed to be able to share intimate details much more readily than we men did - I still hadn't discussed Malcolm's new relationship with Sian with him, and didn't think we ever would. I was of course also most impressed with the care he had taken to ensure that Jen's first time was memorable for her; he was a really good lad.

After our lectures finished on Friday, we took the train from Cardiff Central through the Severn Tunnel, and the bus from Temple Meads, and in less than two hours, we were sitting in the twins' flat enjoying a cup of tea.

The place now looked amazing. They had gloss painted their front door, and polished the brass door knob and knocker. Sheila said that they had washed the paint on the bannister on their landing, which had looked a great deal better for it, and they were in the process of offering to gloss paint the street door if the other residents were happy for them to do it.

Their own short hallway was bright and clean and tidy; so much better for the removal of the cheap cupboards which had previously overpowered the space. A working lightbulb had also made a huge difference!

The shutters were closed in the living room, keeping out the cold and the dark. They were an excellent fit and needed no curtains, and they gave an unusual feeling of comforting security to the room, as if the rest of the world was indeed shut out. They also allowed the use of much of the windowsill as extra seating.

The twins had now acquired two baggy but comfy-looking armchairs, a rectangular wooden dining table with a colourful cloth, and four dining chairs around it. The kitchen corner was neatly organised with sink, fridge and cooker, and a useful piece of work surface allowing the cook to face into the room when working, and serve up the meals onto plates.

Julie handed over our present, still tastefully wrapped in the newspaper and string that the market trader had provided. Adrian untied the knot in the string, and passed it to Sheila to remove the paper.

"The plaster frame needs another coat of gold paint, but we thought it might work very well here."

"Julie, that's just perfect! It's a brilliant choice! Thank you so much!"

Sheila kissed us both enthusiastically.

Then, with tea finished, they took us on the guided tour.

"It's changed quite a bit since you were last here; we really hope you will like what we have done."

Their bedrooms were very similar, each with a bright woollen bedspread on the low double bed, with a spare dining chair next to the bed, a small chest of drawers and an old dark wooden free-standing wardrobe. Their bookshelves were now a clean gloss white, filled with medical textbooks. Pretty curtains adorned the windows, and a mid-green coloured carpet set off the white skirting boards and cream walls. They had even found time to hang a few antique prints on the wall.

"They're lovely bedrooms - you've really made it into a beautiful home. So which room do you actually use?"

"Oh, we take turns to invite each other to our bed, so we get even wear on the mattresses! Speaking of which, Dad played another absolute blinder when he bought this flat, and he has not the slightest idea! The ground floor and second floor flats are both rented by people who work at the aircraft factory at Filton, as places to sleep during the week. They always go home to their families at weekends, so we have the place pretty much to ourselves from Friday morning to Monday evening! There is a young couple in the top floor flat, and I don't think they mind what we do."

"So no restrictions on noise at the weekends, then?"

"As long as we haven't left the windows open, pretty much not!"

Then they took us into the bathroom. Instead of the rusty old bath, there was now a proper tiled shower cubicle and a cupboard; the whole room was bright and clean. The sink and toilet were not only new, but they matched! The grotty floor had been carpeted, and there was a huge fluffy mat by the shower.

"When we took the old immersion heater out of the hall, the plumber suggested we put the new one in the bathroom and make an airing cupboard out of it; and because we were a bit short of space he suggested installing a shower instead of a bath, which is absolutely fine with us."

Sheila giggled.

"Go on twin, see if they can spot it!"

"Spot what?"

"Have a look at the shower."

It seemed a perfectly ordinary modern shower to me; white ceramic base, three white tiled walls with pipes and mixer on one side, a horizontal white grab rail at the back, and a colourful plastic shower curtain on a rail at the front. I shook my head.

"No, I don't see it."

Sheila slipped off her shoes and backed into the shower. Adrian followed her, and lifted her up until her bottom was on the grab rail, and she gripped it either side of her with her hands.

Julie squealed with excitement as she understood what we were seeing. She clearly remembered our 'sports afternoon' a few weeks earlier when we had made love standing up in the half-landing bathroom.

"Mum was worried that we might slip on the floor, and told us that her squash club has fitted grab handles in their showers for extra safety. Adrian got the plumber to fix one at the right height, and hey presto, a nice neat perch!"

"I got him to use four-inch screws to fix it to the wall; I told him that if we did grab it as we were falling it would need to take a shock load of more than twice our body weight, so it's going nowhere fast!"

Julie removed her shoes and started stripping off her jeans.

"I feel really grubby after that train journey, would you mind washing my back, please, Adrian?"

Sheila chuckled as she led me to her bedroom.

"I thought she might like that idea!"

"I think I might like a try too, later, if you are in the mood?"

"Oh, yes please! It's one of my favourites!"

We kissed and hugged. It was great to be back in Sheila's arms after two months. As much as I loved Julie, I had quickly become very fond of Sheila; in much the same way that Julie was very fond of Adrian. They were genuinely nice kids; and good fun to be with.

After our long weekend with them in Cardiff at the start of June, we had very quickly formed a special relationship with them, which never would - and never could - be as close as their twin bond, but we felt instantly comfortable with them.

Our September visit, when I had been with Sheila and Julie in between stripping wallpaper, while Adrian had taught Jen about making love, had cemented our friendship, and we had exchanged letters and phone calls since then.

But it was great to be physically back together again.

I reached round the back of her and undid her bra through her blouse, kissing the side of her neck as I did so. She laughed again.

"I've been looking forward to this moment ever since Julie phoned!"

Sheila released herself from our embrace, folded up the bedspread and put it on the floor to one side. She pulled the quilt to the bottom of the bed to expose the sheet, and laid down on her back, crooking one finger towards me in a unmistakable gesture of invitation. I did not hesitate, and jumped on top of her, both of us still almost fully clothed. We kissed and rolled around a bit, and then sat up to remove our clothes.

There was a soft thump on her bedroom wall, followed by a regular succession of further thumps.

"I just KNEW that I'd be able to hear it! Come on, Jon, let's see how they're doing."

We went into the bathroom, and Sheila pulled aside the shower curtain to reveal that there were two bodies in the shower, but no water was flowing, and no washing was going on.

However, Adrian's bare bottom was moving regularly in between Julie's outstretched thighs, while she had her arms tight around his neck and her head on his shoulder, with her eyes closed. Judging from the look of utter delight on her face and her constant purr of pleasure, it was probably fair to say that her ovaries were indeed getting the razzling she had so much been looking forward to.

Sheila muttered, echoing my own thoughts.

"Not a lot of signs of soap and flannel being used!"

She closed the curtain again, and we went back to her bed.

"I bet him three orgasms that I would be able to hear the thumps in my bedroom, although of course up to now we have been the ones in the shower, so I haven't been in here to listen for the noise. He'll have a tired tongue on Tuesday morning when he's paid his debt! Speaking of tongues, has the cat got yours?"