5 Weeks

by June Hopkins

  I haven't seen Lissa this week as she has been up to her eyeballs in all things wedding which is good because I would not have been able to fool her. There is no doubt that she would rumble me if I spent any time in her company. Luckily she hasn't been demanding my time as things could have got awkward. I haven't had any free time this week, what with Harry, James and work. We usually get together at least once a week and for once it seems that Lissa's self indulgence has worked in my favour. Mum has commented on my hyperactivity and general all round good humour. She is definitely suspicious, but I am giving nothing away. She is contenting herself with frowning looks and knowing smiles which I am doing my level best to ignore.

  Liz has phoned a couple of times for a progress update and it is actually her fault that my plan has come into being.

  It's Friday already and I have spent the day at work. James is taking me out tonight. He has some fabulous surprise planned, so mum and dad are having Harry to stay. I have just returned from their house as I drove over straight from work to see Harry because mum picked him up from school. I delivered his clothes and spent an hour with him before coming back to get ready and I haven't got long; the taxi will be here in an hour. As far as my parents are concerned I am off to Liz's pub for the night and I may stay over.

  I rush upstairs and dive into the shower, and this time I ensure the niceties are carried out; I am not making that mistake again. Unfortunately the nether regions are still decidedly bare but there is nothing I can do about that now, short of a wig, and I am pretty sure you can't buy one of those, can you? I dress quickly but carefully in new underwear and a new dress, purchased on a rare shopping trip on Wednesday morning which Liz insisted she take me on after I told her of James's plans for tonight. He has ordered me to dress up and Liz has ensured that I do exactly that. The new underwear consists of a sexy black basque and sheer black stockings; I am so going to test his will power tonight. I have never owned either before and have been practising for the last few days actually putting it all on. The stockings have given me some grief and it took me ages, not to mention three pairs, before I figured out how to do them up without laddering them or managing to stick dirty great holes in the tops with my nails. It’s lucky I foresaw my ineptitude as I bought five pairs just to be on the safe side. The whole thing has cost me a small fortune; it had sodding well better be worth it!

  I give myself the once over in the mirror. The black wrapover dress hides my stomach admirably, the deep V-shape makes the most of my cleavage and the hemline sits flatteringly just above the knee. It is safe to say that James has never seen me dressed up before. I pile my hair up on top of my head and allow some soft curls, created with my straighteners, to hang down framing my face. I quickly apply my make up and add a silver necklace and dangling earrings to complete the outfit. The doorbell makes me jump and I quickly spray on some perfume and grab my bag before switching out the light and rushing downstairs.

  "Just coming," I call as I slip on my new lush high heels and grab my pashmina from the back of the sofa where I left it earlier. I take a moment to compose myself and take a quick peek in the mirror again. Ok, if this doesn't work, nothing will. I walk serenely to the door, take a deep breath and open it.

  "Blimey, I was beginning to think ....” he tails off as he takes in my appearance. "Wow, Annie, you look amazing," he tells me thickly. I watch his face and notice his Adam's apple bob in his throat as he swallows.

  Got him. I am an all powerful sex goddess. I pout at him I hope subtly, like I've practised, and eye him up and down slowly, then look straight into his eyes and say huskily, “You don't look so bad yourself." And he does look gorgeous; he is wearing his best black suit with a crisp white shirt which is open at the neck with no tie. I can smell his aftershave and it is my turn to swallow.

  James shakes his head quickly, "Come on,” he says, “Let's get out of here before I drag you up those stairs."

  "Personally, I can't see what would be wrong with that," I tell him with a lewd grin.

  "Out, now, miss. We are going out. I have spent a fortune on tonight and you are damned well going to enjoy it, although I really can't promise anything about later."

  "Spoil sport," I tell him sulkily. I pout at him some more which makes him laugh and then he grabs me and gives me a long slow kiss. Eventually he moves his mouth to the side of mine and whispers, "You are driving me mad Annie." I respond by moving my mouth back to cover his again and we share another deep kiss, right there on the doorstep in broad daylight.

  My hands move up his back and roam through his hair, whilst his move down my back. One stays in the middle of my back, forcing me up close to him, whilst the other roams further south, moving over my bottom and down my right thigh, where it stops and moves around in an exploring motion and I smile to myself.

  James drags his lips from mine and stares into my eyes. I can see the surprise in his. "Just wait there, don't move," he tells me huskily. He pulls away leaving me grabbing the door for support and runs off down the path. I watch as he pays the driver and then heads purposefully back towards me. Looks like the plan worked, I smirk to myself as he shoves through the door and pushes me up against the wall, closing the door with his foot.

  "Sod it! Let's just stay in, shall we?" he mutters as we slowly slide down the wall to the hall floor.

  Chapter 8

  It's Thursday again and James left in the early hours of this morning for Dubai; he will be away for two weeks. He actually considered cancelling, losing the money and letting his mates down just to spend it with me, but I couldn't let him do that, so I persuaded him to carry on with his plans. It's just bad timing. Still, it will give us some breathing space as whatever is developing between us has all happened rather fast. Last Friday night we made love for hours, fell asleep and made love again, moving from the hall floor to the lounge, on the stairs and then the bedroom where we eventually fell into an exhausted sleep as the sun came up.

  The phone woke us at about eleven when mum rang to see if she could bring Harry back and James had to hunt down his clothes and race out of the house in record time before they turned up. Harry and I had a play area date in the afternoon with Lissa and Molly and, as I knew she would, Lissa rumbled me within less than an hour in her company. I caved in under the constant barrage of questions, which involved, "Why are you walking like John Wayne and grinning like a Cheshire cat?" Lissa shrieked when eventually I admitted everything to her, but she seems genuinely pleased for me. Well why wouldn't she be? James is her mate too and a bloody nice bloke. I had to feed her all the details and I have to admit in relishing the telling; as I've said, it's been a long time.

  Harry broke up from school; his last day was Tuesday. I can't express enough how annoying that is, having to go through the entire school uniform routine just for two days. I mean, what the hell is wrong with breaking up on a Friday? I even had to break the rules and send him in his trainers for the last few days, as his poor toes were virtually poking out of the end of his school shoes. There was no way I was going to pay for a new pair for the sake of less than a week. Some people may think that's mean but he grows so fast that before the six week holiday is up he would have pretty much grown out of them again. It is going to cost a fortune in uniform and the other paraphernalia needed to send him back as it is.

  James took us out for the day yesterday to a wildlife park. Harry loved it and I quite enjoyed it too. James was a tad pissed off though when a delinquent monkey ripped off his windscreen wiper, but that certainly made my day. I haven't laughed so much in ages. He stayed with me until midnight last night cuddled up on the sofa with a takeaway and a bottle of wine indulging in lots of snogging once Harry went to bed. We haven't had sex since Saturday morning. James enforced the no sex rule again, much to my disappointment, but luckily we haven't had too much time alone together since then which has helped with keeping it in place. However, saying that, we did come pretty close to breaking it again last night during our passionate goodbye, until Jam
es came to his senses and brought things to rather an abrupt halt. 'Pissed off' is the best way to describe how I felt. We actually had a bit of a row about it, but eventually we kissed (a lot) and made up.

  It's 9.00 pm and I am covering the late shift in the pub for Helen who is out on the razz again. She asked me to swap and is covering tomorrow for me. She had better bloody well turn up. It makes my life easier anyway as at least I'll be home for Harry tomorrow. I'm alone and watching TV; the week nights in the pub are rubbish at the moment. I'm missing James already, which seems so strange but at least Harry is not at school which means I will have to find weird and wonderful ways to entertain him and keep him occupied. This should help to make the time go faster and we can still speak on the phone or text and of course there is the wedding to prepare for; only three weeks to go. I'll guarantee that Lissa is going to start cracking the whip imminently. Then of course there is Tom's arrival. I still have no idea when he will turn up, although I'd imagine I'll have a couple of weeks’ grace. With any luck I won't actually see him until the wedding day. James will be back and I will be able to concentrate on him, hopefully giving me the opportunity to avoid Tom as much as possible.

  The wedding is pretty much organized. Lissa and her mother have been at it like a couple of maniacs, and most things are sorted. I am, I have to say, impressed. They should take wedding planning up as a career; they could clean up. James's brother Alex has moved into the pub to run it while he's away, which certainly won't help the profits any. He drinks like a fish but is pretty reliable most of the time. We bar staff have our orders to keep an eye on him and take charge if he goes on one of his benders, which means I can add babysitting to my CV. Tonight Alex is out with his girlfriend, Louise, and I'm in charge and will lock up later. For now though I have nothing to do. I'm bored stiff. I've cleaned the shelves and bottled up. I can't lock up until at least 11, so I have a while to go yet. Hopefully some of the local football team will come in after football training; that's looking unlikely though. They're normally here by now. 'ey up, that's the door; obviously I spoke too soon. Sure enough, here they come, and I jump up and get to work. They drift in, in dribs and drabs and take over the pool table and dart-board in the back bar. I switch off the TV and put on the juke box to help with the atmosphere.

  Half an hour later I am collecting glasses in the back bar when the front door goes. I walk into the front bar and put the glasses on the bar just as a deep voice says, "Annie is that you?" I freeze. My stomach drops into my old scabby work trainers. I'd know that voice anywhere. Turning slowly around I find myself staring at Tom. I don't have time to think or register him properly as he rushes towards me and grabs me in a big bear hug. "Annie, you've hardly changed at all," he informs me as with his hands on the tops of my arms he moves me back from him and looks me up and down.

  Bloody hell. Well, this is unexpected and what's ”hardly changed” supposed to mean? I'm assuming he's referring to my two stone weight gain. I gaze stupidly into his gorgeous dark blue eyes, my heart sets off at a gallop and butterflies take up residence in my stomach.

  He, typically, has not changed at all. If anything, he looks in rude health; tanned, fit and handsome, even more handsome in fact than I remember. Age, it appears, has added a ruggedness to him, a distinguished tinge of silver to the sides of his dark hair, a hint of stubble to his strong chiselled chin, and a few crinkly laughter lines around his eyes. Bugger, just my luck. Why can't he be horribly grey, balding and portly of tum? I note that he is well dressed, but casual. I drag my eyes from his face and glance quickly at the rest of him; definitely not portly of tum but trim and hard of pecs. He is wearing expensive jeans and a blue shirt, I can tell. Oh yes, he reeks of money. His aftershave is subtle but effective and I breathe him in deeply.

  Pulling myself together, I clear my dry constricted throat and find my voice. "Tom, good to see you! How are you? What are you doing here? I didn't expect you to arrive for another couple of weeks." I stumble quickly over my words. I'm feeling self conscious and under dressed in my cheap jeans and sweatshirt (a bargain at Primark). Not enough make up and what little there is, is hours old and my hair hasn't seen a brush since six o'clock this evening. Why does this always happen to me? My fantasy of meeting Tom again involved me looking gorgeous. Bloody typical!

  "Really? Well I am surprised. I changed my plans days ago. Don't you and Lissa talk anymore?" As he speaks he's looking over my shoulder, and I turn to see Lissa and Ben are here as well.

  Lissa looks uncomfortable; as well she might. "Sorry Annie. I meant to say the other day but what with the wedding and everything, I forgot." She forgot? "Still no matter, it's a nice surprise, isn't it?" Her voice has become rather brusque and high pitched. She sounds like her mother. Any minute now she'll start rearranging the beer mats and wiping the bar down. She looks nervously anywhere but at me.

  "No of course. No problem, and it is a lovely surprise." I know I sound overly cheerful, trying to compensate for my discomfort. “Anyway what can I get you all?" I move back behind the bar and serve their order for them, getting myself a stiff gin and tonic when offered by Tom. I shoot Lissa a couple of dirty looks just to be sure she knows I'm not happy when the men aren't looking, but she just shrugged and mouthed a sorry at me. I can't bloody well believe she's brought him here without warning me. God knows what she's playing at.

  Ben and Lissa rarely drink in here; they usually frequent the plush hotel on the edge of town. The only reason they can be here is me. I can't wait to find out her explanation. She, more than anyone, knows how I feel and she would have known that I would have wanted to be prepared.

  "So Annie, how have you been? You have a little boy don't you? I can't wait to meet him." Tom has a strange tone to his voice which I can't quite put my finger on. I feel myself blushing.

  "Umm yes, Harry. My mum is babysitting tonight." I try to keep my voice steady and change the subject. "What time did you get here then, Tom? And is Melanie with you? I haven't met her yet."

  "We arrived at lunchtime but Melanie has gone to Oxford for a week or so, she wants to see her parents and some old friends. I'm going to stay here for a while and then go on to Surrey to stay with dad and mum until the wedding." He smiles at me in that beautiful way I remembered. God it's still there; he can still make me go weak at the knees, even after all these years.

  Ben comes back into the bar after a trip to the loo, "Blimey Annie, it's dead in here tonight. Bet you're glad we turned up aren't you?"

  "Yea, well until the lads came back from footie training I was on my own for an hour and a half. Pubs aren't what they used to be you know. People can't afford to come out so much any more and obviously the smoking ban hasn't helped." I need to stop talking. I'm wittering. I'll be on my soap box and ranting at the top of my voice in a minute. A voice calling for service from the back bar saves the day and I gratefully make my escape. When I return the three of them have made themselves comfortable at the bar on stools and I feel as if I'm in for a long night.

  As it turned out the night wasn't too traumatic. Tom was really attentive and I have to admit to not thinking about James once. Now that's bad. In fact, I never gave him a thought until Alex and Louise came back early and joined us. Seeing Alex brought James to the forefront of my mind with a bang and I felt terribly guilty that I had spent the evening mooning over, and flirting with, Tom. Now, sitting in Louise's car as she takes me home I'm staring blankly out of the window whilst Louise babbles on ten to the dozen. Luckily Louise can talk for England which doesn't require me to answer. At least I've successfully completed one hurdle; I've seen him again, managed to spend the evening in relatively sensible conversation and after the initial meeting it began to feel as if he'd never been away. He'd regaled me with stories of his fabulous life in New York, a life a million miles away from mine.

  Lissa was very quiet the entire time, which is unlike her. Feeling guilty, hopefully, for not giving me any warning. She seemed to make sure that we weren't alone together.
Each time I needed the loo I'd wait until I was virtually cross legged before I gave in, in the hope that she would go out first; but either she was tipping her drinks on the carpet or her pelvic floor muscles are impeccable compared to mine. I'd kept trying to attract her attention but she was studiously ignoring me. So typical of her. I'm not bothered though. I will see her and we will have this out, whether she wants to or not.

  The only unnerving parts of the evening were the questions about Harry. Tom kept bringing the conversation back to him, or so it seemed. It's probably nothing, just idle curiosity I expect. I'm sure I'm just being over sensitive but I felt that he was showing an unusual amount of interest in my son. Our son, in fact. I give myself a mental shake. Worrying about every little thing will turn me into a nervous wreck and I'm bound to see Tom a few more times before the wedding. I’m jolted out of my reverie when the car stops and I realise I'm home. Louise is still rattling on and I quickly give what I think is the right response, and must have been close as she doesn't look at me strangely. I say my goodbyes and let myself into the cottage. I spend ten minutes with mum before she leaves and I don't tell her that Tom is back. I don't know why, but I just think that now isn't the time. I give her a kiss and wave her off. A cup of Horlicks I think; made with milk and drank in bed, that's where I'm at. I put the milk in the microwave to heat and go upstairs to change into my pyjamas and old faithful dressing gown; once a lovely, fluffy powder blue, now more of a soft, bobbly, dirty grey, but comfy and I love it. I go to the loo and grab a face wipe to take off what's left of my makeup. Crikey, I feel exhausted. I can't wait to snuggle up in bed; it's 1.00 am and I need some sleep.