Parker's assertion that my boyfriend was having sex with someone else was as pathetic as it was predictable.
"Is he really," I said, "I'm sure I would have noticed."
"Really," said Parker, "I have evidence."
"Oh, do tell Parker."
"I've promised not to," he said. He leant against my car and sighed with a deep and meaningful shake of his head, and with his appalling level of amateur dramatics I thought that for once he had copied Bradley rather than the other way around. "I just don't want you to suffer any more pain Natalie, Come here," he said spreading wrinkling his nose with a feu-compassionate resigned smile on his lips and his arms wide.
"Fuck off Parker," I stepped back from him.
"No," he said adopting his voice he used to use to try and boss me around, "Come here Natalie." He moved closer and tried to envelope me in his arms, even though I was a head taller than him.
"Parker, get away from me, you take one step closer and I'll punch you in the face."
He stopped and did his now famous arms outstretched, mouth open, bottom lip protruding, looking around for support 'What have I done now?' dance that Bradley had almost mastered.
"Leave me alone you fucking idiot!" I said getting out my mobile phone and walking back towards the school and the other staff members that could witness his strange behaviour.
I could see his supressed anger in his face, he had always really hated me standing up for myself and 'giving him cheek', he was so convinced that he was in the right. He started with that thought in his mind.
"Natalie, this is your last chance," he growled, "right now I'm prepared to take you back, no questions, no names, no pack drill, even though you're dressing like a slut," his voice dropped a few octaves in disgust, "and... and I'm even... I'm even prepared to forgive and forget that you've slept with Woods!"
He dragged out the word 'slept' and gave it so much am-dram venom ending in disappointment that I thought I was going to laugh and 'Woods' as if my lovely Gray was just the very worst sex pervert.
"Yeah, I slept with Gray, lots of times but at least I had the decency to have waited until I was separated from you first. And you know what, he's a thousand times better in bed than you are. I folded my arms, "he gave me more orgasms in one weekend than I had with you in our whole married life! So other than you slagging me off for the last three years, fucking all of your female employees other than Edith, why should I get back with you again?"
He bit his bottom lip and tried to think. It went on for just too long.
"Because... because I... love you? Yes! Yes," he said dropping to one knee, "I love you Natalie; Woods doesn't he's just using for sex..."
"Yeah and he can carry on as far as I'm concerned."
"But..." he suddenly remembered and then picked up his brown folder, "I have evidence! AND I forgive you!"
"Have you finished Parker?" I said with folded arms and a furrowed brow, "Yes? Good, well Parker fucking Wallace," I spat, "I don't forgive you for screwing Shauna, and then for screwing Penny, and then screwing Stephanie, and then screwing Diana; and I don't forgive you for spending your money on them on not our children, or our house. I forgive you nothing Parker," I shouted, "NOTHING!"
"Natalie!" he scolded like a school master.
The amateur dramatics hadn't finished,
"Natalie," he said with a studied wobble in his voice, "Darling, I... I want you back, you're all I've been able to think about for weeks, please... please give me another chance!" He reached out for me and I pushed him away, the heel of my hand in his unprotected solar plexus. He groaned and fell back slightly then looked angrier than before.
"You're MINE Natalie!" he snarled. That look I'd never seen before was quite scary and I did feel just a little concerned, we'd gone for it more than we ever had before. Well I had at least.
"Everything OK Natalie?" said a voice from behind me. It was Pete Creamer, one of the huge PE teachers and twice the size of Parker.
"This is Parker, my ex-husband..."
"You're still my wife!" Parker snapped at me, eyes blazing, but he came back to himself and starting backing away slightly as the giant Pete moved closer, Parker tried to recover his bravery pointing at me, "don't you forget that!"
"No Parker," I said, "I'm still married to you, I stopped being your wife when you started sleeping with other women."
Parker growled
"Oh my fucking Christ, this is none of your business!"
"OK Mr Wallace, I suggest you leave the school grounds," said Pete, and I could see through the staff room window several colleagues looking across at us, one with a phone to her ear.
"You going to make me boy?" said Parker trying to increase his size.
"I can if you really want me to," said Pete with a grin taking a single pace forward. Parker turned, and stepped towards his car huffing and puffing for the want of some kind of verbal response.
Once he was safely at his car with the door open he did the touching his eyes with two fingers and pointing at me in that 'I'm watching you' gesture.
I proceeded to point at him then raise my middle finger in a 'fuck you' gesture, glad that no children were on site to witness Mrs Wallace's 'difficulties'. Parker's car pulled away with some difficulty, I guessed that on top of everything else that was buggered as well. In a cloud of smoke and some rattling, his old BMW finally got out of the car park. I rolled my eyes and thanked Pete.
"No problem," he said, "glad to help Natalie."
I heard the screech of his fan belt as he reached the junction and I wondered who he was going to get to fix his car this time. So many of the local garages refused to help him because of unpaid bills and bounced cheques and the rather annoying habit of his of trying to bargain the price down or barter with them - after the work was done of course.
One of the people watching the proceedings was the school headteacher who had a discussion with the site manager and before I'd even left the car park, they had captured a still picture of Parker in action and attached it to the banning letter we occasionally gave to pupils and parents telling him that he had no further business on school grounds and would be prosecuted if he set foot on any land belonging the county education department. I wrote out the envelope myself the very next morning.
I rang Gray when I got home and told him of Parker's increasingly irrational behaviour.
"Are you OK Baby?" he said, "Do you want me to come over?"
"I'll have a glass of wine and a nap, I'll be fine Gray honest." I replied trying to sound more confident than I felt.
"So long as you're sure Darling," he said.
"I am honest," I said, "Oh by the way, Parker says he has evidence that you're shafting someone else." I added a giggle letting him know how ridiculous I thought it was.
"If I had the energy to make love to two women, then I'd be at your place every night Baby," he said, "and I'd never let you out of bed."
"Oh Gray you just say the sweetest things!"
"You are the sweetest thing Nats, I love you," he said, "If you need me just call and I'll be there, Promise."
"Thanks Gray," I said and almost asked him to come and stay, even though I knew he was working several cases in London that week.
I went down to the kitchen and as if by magic Tom appeared with his big smile. A couple of minutes later we were joined by Gemma. Bradley was noticeable by his absence but the noise from his closed bedroom door suggested electronic death and violence via his Playstation.
I cooked tea and Gem and Tom just hung around guessing that something had happened with their father. I kept quiet about the incident but did wonder what the fuck had been in the brown folder he'd kept pushing at me. It would be nothing, Parker was involved after all.
I heard nothing from Parker for a week, but as I guessed he was in the shit financially and he was working on a way to pay for his car repair - I found out from Tom just how bad it had got some months later.
On the next Saturday night, I had gone out to dinner with Gray, leaving a now eighteen year old Gemma in charge at home, and it was such a wonderful night that when I got home on the Sunday still dancing on air, neither Tom nor Gemma would bring me down bless them.
Gray had taken me to a wonderful Chinese restaurant and we had eaten the most wonderful food and just loved being in each other's company, and were stupid and soppy with each other. We got back to Gray's house and I suggested a swim and opened the patio doors, stripping off.
As I stood at his open door in just my string panties, he reminded me that we shouldn't really swim after a large meal so I just strolled out onto his patio and saw the moonlight making the ruined church and other buildings look enchanted. The early summer night was warm, the stars shone and I just wanted to go out into onto his land, naked, and just feel the grass on my bare feet.
"Nats?" said Gray a little confused.
"Get naked and walk with me," I said holding out a hand.
He stripped down to his boxers and did just that and we walked out into the moonlight, the screening trees hiding us from the distant road, there being no other properties on Gray's small country estate.
I picked up speed and started to run, I didn't know why and still don't but it was spur of the moment excitement and exhilaration, and as we neared the ruined Saxon church he grabbed me and pulled me down onto the lightly undulating grass, cool and soft against our bare skin; bare skin that had that strange white glow that goes with being bathed in moonlight.
He kissed me and I responded, our mouths meshing in intimate joinder, passionate yet gentle contact that calmed us down and fired us up, and I knew that I would make love in the grass that night, for the first time ever.
"Make love to me Gray," I said, "I've never done it in the open before."
"Wow," said Gray with a smile, "another first to chalk up at my place."
