Chapter 8

Christopher was excited about the forthcoming weekend. It should be fun. He had indeed warmed to Jenny. Now that she had shed her shyness and therefore her 'jolly hockey sticks' she had shown herself to be a considerate, friendly, intelligent and amusing girl. Certainly friendly in the light of her remark about wanting him to share her bed last Friday and inviting herself to spend two nights with him this coming weekend. He was mildly concerned by it in fact. Was she an easy lay? More important, was she clean?

The girls' network went into action. On Monday Jenny talked to Sally over lunch. That evening Sally passed the news on to Ellie whereupon the latter rang Christopher.

"It worked," she said without preamble.

"What worked?"

"My idea of inviting Jen to an easy concert."

"Yes, it did. Mozart's clarinet concerto is always going to be a success."

"And the Thai restaurant."

"That was my idea."

"And a very good one, big brother, but you've obviously still got a leaning towards small girls."

Christopher growled which produced a delighted chuckle.

"And, despite your rude interruption..."

A further snigger.

"I was able to meet Jenny's flatmate, Bea, who is also small."

"Oooh! Three in a bed!"

"Ellie," he warned.

Yet another snigger. "Methinks he doth protest too much."

Christopher chuckled. "No, Ellie love. She's very shy and, according to Jenny, a bit of a prude. On the other hand..." He went on to tell her about Richmond.

"Anyway, Chris, it sounds a pretty successful weekend."

"It was fun and I'm looking forward to next weekend."

"I bet you are."

"There's a bit of a nag though."

"Go on."

"I'm wondering, since we've only known each other for such a short time, whether she sleeps around."

"No, Chris. That was the first thing I said to Sally and she was quite clear that actually Jenny is really quite shy so it looks to me as though you've made a conquest. Her 'jolly hockey sticks' stuff, as you call it, is almost a defence measure."

"OK, that's a relief, but why's she turning on the 'sharing a bed' thing?"

"Two things at a guess. First of all she really is quite keen on you and the second is that she means it literally and doesn't mean that making love is necessarily on the cards."

"Ellie love, you are special. Thanks for all that."

"All part of the sisterly service."

"I mean it, Ells."

"I know you do, you old silly. Either way, enjoy."

"Do my best. How about your soldier?"

"I'll keep you posted."

"Yes, miss."

"That's more like it. 'Bye, brother dear."

Shortly after half past six on Friday evening Jenny rang. "I'm on my way. Half an hour?"

"Great. Look, I'll meet you in the street and give you my parking space and then you sit tight for three or four minutes while I put my car in the garage and then come and collect you."

"That's a bit of a palaver."

"Parking spaces, residents' permits. I know but it means we won't have to do it at seven-thirty in the morning to avoid a hefty parking fine and I shall be guaranteeing you a parking space."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Impressive forward thinking, sir."

"Glad you approve, madame."

Jenny giggled. "See you soon." She rang off.

The plan worked and Christopher, carrying her overnight bag, saw her into the flat.

Jenny looked round. The front door opened into the sitting room-cum-dining room which was spacious. It was a warm and welcoming room but nevertheless lacked the feminine touch. It was also, she noticed, spotlessly clean and tidy. She was touched. Even if Christopher lived tidily the room had clearly been spruced up.

"What a lovely room!" she said enthusiastically, adding with a grin, "Have you spent the last two days cleaning it up?"

"No. I just did my weekend dust and hoover this evening, a day early."

"I'm impressed."

"Thank you, kind lady. Now, what would you like to drink?"

"A glass of red?"

"It shall be."

She followed him through the back of the sitting room into a small but well appointed kitchen. He poured her wine and his beer.

Jenny noted that he had left her overnight bag just inside the front door. He was not assuming that she would sleep with him. She was relieved even though she realised that she had made it pretty obvious that she would share his bed. Now she had some misgivings. Had she bitten off more than she could chew?

"Are you ravenous?" Christopher asked.

She shook her head.

"So if I order the pizza to arrive between quarter and half past eight you'd be happy?"

"Very," she nodded.

Christopher organised that and they went back to sit on the sofa. It was a big one so they could turn in and talk to each other without it being too intimate.

"I'm glad you asked me to come and watch you swim last Saturday," Christopher said.

"Did you find it exciting?"

"Not really except when you were swimming."

"That wasn't a lot."

"No but Bea came out of her shell and I enjoyed nattering to her."

"She enjoyed it too. She's very shy and monster men like you tend to send her into her shell."

"I got that impression too but once she was able to relax I enjoyed her company. She's a very sweet and amusing person."

"She's all those things and I'm very happy that we decided to share the flat. As I said, we've become very close friends."

They nattered away happily finding out more about each other. Jenny turned out to be an avid theatre-goer and had enjoyed acting at school and at university where she had read English. Both had been at private boarding schools and it had been there that hers and Sally's friendship had developed. They had gone to separate universities and it was only by happy chance that they had both met up again at the Ministry of Defence even though they had kept in contact while at university.

"I wasn't bright enough to go to university," admitted Christopher ruefully. "I could have worked harder at my A Levels too. However, I enjoy my job and get well paid for it too."

Their pizzas arrived and they made short work of those. Afterwards Jenny became less spontaneous and Christopher asked her if she was tired and wanted an early night. She assured him that she was fine so he offered to put on some choral music with which she readily agreed. He decided nevertheless to pick something fairly short and put on Mozart's Vesperae Solomnes de Confessore, remembering, with a momentary twinge of sadness, Tina's remark that they are far from solemn.

That was a success and Jenny moved up the sofa to lean against him which led him to put his arm round her, something she appeared to enjoy. They polished off the remainder of the bottle of red wine.

"Well," said Christopher when it ended, "I suppose we ought to think about bed."

Jenny bit her lip and nodded shyly. Christopher realised in a flash that she was actually uncertain about 'sharing his bed'.