On the Beach

I was on the return leg of my evening walk with my two best friends, Bruno and Gerta, my dogs. We had been best friends since I got them as tiny pups and they had just turned four.

Twice a day we walked the beach from the kiosk to a point where we could just see the roof of a house behind the dunes. Two purposes were served by this, we were all as fit as we could be and they were able to have a crap where it was easy to clean up as opposed to around the yard.

In the middle of groups of people packing up and trudging for the car park I saw a figure coming towards me. What set this figure apart from the others was that it was moving slowly, its head bowed and shoulders hunched. This person had the troubles of the world on its shoulders. As it drew closer I could see that the 'it' was a she and her body, highlighted by the setting sun, looked trim.

She was some twenty metres away when my two friends deserted me and ran to her, stopping in front of her. Gerta stood up and put her front paws on her leg so that she could be patted. They had never done this before and I was just about to call them back when she dropped to one knee and took Gerta in her arms. Her head was still bowed when I approached. "Look, I'm sorry about this, they're usually really good and don't trouble anyone."

"They're beautiful and are definitely no trouble." Her face, when it eventually tilted towards me, belied that statement, there were tears streaming from her sad eyes.

"I don't mean to pry, but something is bothering you, would you like to talk to me about it?" I held my hand out and she stood. As she got to her feet Gerta stepped between us and she stumbled and fell against me. I looked down at Gerta and her tail was wagging and the expression on her face was asking me if she did good. My arms went around the body of this woman and her head dropped to my shoulder. I let her cry.

When she eventually turned off the waterworks and returned my soggy handkerchief she looked at me. "What you must think of me, a fully grown woman behaving like some lovelorn teenager, and in public? All because I have two dogs at home and I miss them."

"What I think is that you have a big problem that you desperately need to discuss with someone but, for whatever reason, you don't know who you can turn to. What you need is a person who is not connected in any way with you or the problem and who can look at this from a disinterested perspective. How would you feel if I were to say that I am interested in offering my services as your disinterested person?"

She looked at me, her eyes searching every millimetre of my face. "I don't want to burden you with my problems, but," her eyes did another circuit of my face, "if it's not am imposition, I say yes, I would like that."

"Okay, the first thing is to walk back to the kiosk and I will share my friends with you." I took their leads from over my shoulder and slipped the nose loop collars over their heads. I unclipped the leads from the swivel handle that held them together when we walked on the lead and gave her Gerta's. "I'm Jeremy, Jeremy Robinson." I held out my hand for her to shake.

Her hand was soft and warm and she held mine for some time before letting go. "I'm Jenny, Jenny Prothero, I'm pleased to meet you."

"Do you want to start telling me your problem now, or wait till we get to the kiosk?"

"You probably have already guessed that this has something to do with a man, my husband in fact. I have been busy organising our thirtieth wedding anniversary celebrations and the venue planning service stuffed things up big time, it seems that they had double booked the venue and the other party had got in first, or had priority or financial clout. They offered to refund the money that I'd paid, but to get another suitable venue on such short notice was impossible, and to advise the many guests of the changes, was more than I could handle and I was feeling a little overwhelmed. He was working long hours and was unable to help, it just got too much for me, so he suggested that I take time out and come down here to our holiday home and relax for a few days. This afternoon the bastard sent me a text message telling me that he wanted a divorce and that I could keep the holiday home as my permanent residence."

"Ouch! That must have hurt."

"Tell me about it. It felt like I was half way down on a bungee jump when I realised that the cord wasn't tied to my ankles, the end of the world was seconds away and I was powerless to stop it."

"And there was no indication that he was planning anything like this?"

"The more that I think about it the more I'm picking up on the signs, signs that I wasn't willing to acknowledge. Things like the hours he worked, he didn't need to put in those hours, so he was probably seeing someone else. He hasn't mentioned a third party but there can be no other reason for him wanting to end our marriage."

"You anniversary, when is it actually?"

"Next week, the celebration was supposed to happen on Saturday. As well as about thirty friends, our son is coming from London with his family and our daughter lives not far away and she'll be there with her husband. I suppose that I'd better speak to them and break the news. I don't know how they'll take it."

"Are you and your children close?"

"Not particularly, not in this age of nuclear families, I mean we get together with our daughter and her husband and their kids every month or so but Simon our son, we haven't seen him for over a year and I was looking forward to it."

"But you'll still see them won't you?"

"I suppose so. I don't see why I shouldn't, they are my kids after all."

"Why don't you call them this afternoon? You can call them while I order us a coffee." We had reached the kiosk and I tethered the dogs to a post just outside the door. They were used to this and sat patiently, saying hello to the regulars who stopped to talk to them and give them a pat.

As I walked back to our table with the coffees and a slice of decadence for each of us she was just ending her call to her daughter. "Thank you Honey, I'll be okay and I'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow, bye." She smiled at me as I placed the plate in front of her. She had a nice smile and I realised that it went with the rest of her. I hadn't paid much attention to her up until now so I took the opportunity to check her out. She looked to be a couple of years younger than me, probably in her early fifties, and looked as if she had taken care of herself. Her hair was a dark brown colour with no signs of grey, her eyes were brown and clear, there were a few lines on her face where I would have expected them and she had a dark complexion suggesting a Mediterranean origin. She was slim where it mattered and not where it was best not to be, all in all an attractive package.

"What time will it be in London about now?" She asked.

I carried out a quick mental calculation. "Around seven in the morning, I think"

She dialled a number and waited for the connection. "Hi James, yes it's me. I don't know whether your father has been in touch but if he hasn't I guess I should be the one to break the news. He has just told me he wants a divorce." Pause while she listened. "Yeah I know the timing sucks and no." Another pause. "No, I had no idea this was happening and before you ask, I don't know if there is another woman involved." Another pause. "Yes you should still come, I'm down at the holiday house, let me know when you'll get here and I'll meet you at the airport." Final pause. "Bye Darling, thank you." Turning to me. "Well that's that. Now doesn't this look yummy?" She broke off a piece of cake and popped it into her mouth. "Thank you. Thank you for this, and thank you for listening to the babblings of a confused old woman."

"There's nothing to thank, and, you're not an old woman, confused maybe, and that's to be expected, but you have many good years ahead of you, all you have to do is take the first step to maximise your potential."

"What potential? I have no skills that will get me a job, how will I survive financially?"

"There are ways." She looked at me with a puzzled expression. "I don't mean that you have to think about selling your body," I was hoping that my attempt at lightening the mood will come off. "Although with the right pimp you'd do very well at it." Quick get in the next comment before she reacts. "Forget I even mentioned it, it's just me being silly."

She laughed. At first it was a nervous laugh as if she wasn't really sure that I was joking and then when she saw the stupid smile on my face she opened up and her laugh was full on and infectious, we both sat there cackling away. "For a moment there I thought that you were a pimp recruiting me for you nefarious activities. This is the first time in I don't know how long that I've really laughed. Thank you again."

"Where are you living, I'll walk you home." It wasn't far out of my way so we walked side by side, each with a dog, and because of the narrow paved path we bumped frequently. At first I tried to avoid bumping her but after a while I got the impression that she didn't mind the contact so I gave a tentative deliberate bump and she returned it. We reached her house and she handed Gerta back to me. She stood in front of me and stretched up on her toes and her lips brushed mine. It was almost like static electricity between us, the tingle was barely noticeable but it went right through me. "Thank you for everything. Maybe I'll meet you on the beach tomorrow?"

"I'd like that, very much." I was just about to turn to walk away when an impulse took control. Putting my hand behind her head I drew her face to mine and kissed her, not a light brush, nor a full on kiss, just a slow and lingering kiss that lasted for no more than a second or two. The significant, for me, part of this was that she returned the kiss. "Until tomorrow, good-bye."

"Until tomorrow." She placed her fingers on her lips and smiled.

Thoughts scurried through my mind as I walked home. Thoughts of what could be, might be. How long had it been since I had felt the lips of a woman on mine? Not since the fatal attempt my friends had made to set me up with a woman following my ex-wife's departure, "She's really nice, you'll love her." They said "She's smart, she's funny and she's got a figure to die for." She might have been all of those but I wasn't ready for any involvement and the whole evening was a disaster. God that was years ago. I would have been lonely except for my dogs, their love was uncomplicated, I fed them and they loved me in return. I took them for walks and they loved me. We sat on my old leather lounge and fell asleep watching TV and they loved me. I hadn't realised until just now how much I missed the companionship of a person of the feminine persuasion.

I hadn't realised that it was a dream at the time, but in my half awake state I felt a hand caressing my hard cock. It was when I rolled over to cuddle the person attached to the hand that I realised that I had resumed my long standing affair with Mrs. Palm and her five daughters. I scrambled from my warm bed and relieved myself in the en-suite. It was with a feeling of guilt that I realised that I had just committed adultery with Jenny before I had even reached the point of our relationship that would make that technically true.

I willed the day to hurry but nothing I did helped, it dragged on until finally I slipped the dogs' leads on and we headed for the beach. I searched the sand for a sign of Jenny but there was none and my heart sank. It was a familiar feeling, this having my hopes dashed like this and I was just about to turn for home when I heard a voice. "You must be Jeremy, I'm Phoebe, and Mum told me to look for a handsome man with two of the cutest dogs, so I guess that must be you. If not I've just made a complete fool of myself."

I looked at a younger version of Jenny. "You haven't made a fool of yourself. I suppose you're here to tell me to stay away from your mother?"

"No. On the contrary, I'm here to take you to her, she's had a bit of a shock and didn't think she could make it here without breaking down."

"What's the problem?" I didn't much like the sound of this.

"I can tell you that it has nothing to do with you and her. After what she told me about you and her last night, I have a feeling that you might just be what she needs right now. Just after I got here today she had a phone call from my father's lawyer advising her that he would be keeping the dogs. I don't know why, because he doesn't like them all that much and they certainly haven't taken a liking to him."

"I think that I may know why. It's a little thing called leverage, he's using them to force her to comply to his wishes. There's a simple way around that, I'll explain when I see her."

Jenny wasn't in a good way when she let us in. "I wanted to see you earlier but I don't know where you live. I don't know why he's doing this and I don't know what to do."

"Calm down, please. Listen to me." I held her face in my hands and looked into her sad eyes. "What he's doing is trying to keep you off balance so that you'll do as he wants. He knows that right now you care more for the dogs than you do for him so he's using them to get what he wants. What we have to do is to take the initiative. Now in this country there is what is known as 'no fault divorce', what that means is that you can't claim more from him just because he's having an affair, which, by the sounds of it he is. So, the only way he can deny you what, by law, is your entitlement to the joint property is to get you to agree to his demands. If you go along with him your dogs become very costly to you."

"Are you saying that he's been having an affair?"

"In all probability, yes. Now the family home, what would you estimate to be its value?"

"In the vicinity of two and a half to three million dollars."

"We need to get an independent valuation. And this place?"

"Five hundred thousand." Reality was sinking in.

"When you factor in the value of stocks and shares, furnishings, art works, motor vehicles and things like that he's offering you not much more that ten percent of joint assets."

"So what can I do?"

"Find yourself a good lawyer and lodge a counter claim for half the joint assets, and while you're at it a full financial disclosure, what you are looking for is any discrepancy between what he'll declare and what he has actually earned to see if he's been tucking funds away somewhere, like in a bank account in another name, possibly that of his lover, or offshore somewhere. Look for property trusts that own commercial buildings that could house businesses in which he has an interest, things like that."

"You seem to know what to look for, do you know a good lawyer?"

"Yes I do." I took a business card from my wallet and handed it to her. "She's very good, she handled my divorce, and she's also my business partner. My ex hired one of the top divorce lawyers when she filed for divorce and he made some weird demands to keep me jumping and, because I was in emotional turmoil, Kate took over and screwed them big time and without sinking to their level. Before you ask, Kate and I are not and never have been anything other than friends and business partners. Apart from that she's my sister-in-law."

My mind went back to that time three years ago when Melinda walked out on me, she had been having an affair, more than one actually, and decided that her new lover could provide more than I could. The demands were outrageous, based on her imagination rather than fact, things like a claim for emotional abuse because I wouldn't allow her to go on an overseas trip 'with the girls'. The fact was that there were no 'girls' on this cruise, just her current lover. I found all this out when the names that she said were her friends weren't on the passenger manifest and that the stateroom she was sharing was with a man. Sure she got emotional when confronted with her lies, but I wasn't the cause. It was her lawyer who had her convinced that all she had to do was to keep me emotionally unbalanced and I would agree to anything. That was her first big mistake.

Her second big mistake came after her lover dumped her when he found that the windfall that she had promised would not be forthcoming. Her third big mistake was to suggest an attempt at reconciliation with me when her plans had all fallen through. She reasoned that I would be desperate for female companionship after the dry spell that I'd been going through since she left. I wasn't that desperate.

"Would you like to stay for dinner?" Phoebe said. "It isn't anything special, Tony and the kids will be back soon and we're having take away Chinese."

Jenny looked at me. "Please stay."

"I'd love that. Is your back yard enclosed so the dogs can run around out there? They don't live inside at home apart from sleeping in the laundry and the short time we spend at night watching TV." She led the way and the dogs spent the next few minutes exploring before settling down on the back porch.

Tony and the kids, Travis and Julie, Clattered into the house loaded with containers of food and a couple of large bottles of soft drink. We all sat around the table helping ourselves from the many dishes in the centre. Tony was asking probing questions about how Jenny and I had met and what plans, if any, we had for the future. I explained as succinctly as possible how all of this had happened and that it was far too early to have plans for the future given that Jenny was not in any position to make decisions about anything other than her present problems. That seemed to satisfy him for the time being.

"Jeremy," Tony said. Jenny and Phoebe had adjourned to the kitchen to wash up. "I have to tell you that I like Roger and I'm upset that this as happened. I'd like to see them patch things up so if you have ideas of stirring things up to keep them apart then you'll have to answer to me."

"Look Tony, I met your mother-in-law for the first time last evening and she was in a hell of a state. I provided a listening post and offered some suggestions. Whether those suggestions allow them to get back together or keep them apart is up to them, I am only a disinterested party trying to help."

"From what she has told us you aren't just a disinterested party." This was music to my ears, I had not yet begun to hope, and maybe now I can.

I stayed talking to them for a little while longer. Tony and the kids went off to play computer games leaving me with Jenny and Phoebe. "I suppose that Tony has told you that he's not happy that you're on the scene?" Phoebe asked.

"You could say that. I told him that I'm just a disinterested party here to help Jenny if she needs me." Jenny glanced at Phoebe and the look that passed between them suggested that they had discussed this and decided that it was more than that.

I collected the dogs from the back yard and said good-bye to Tony and the kids as I led them to the front door. Phoebe gave me a peck on the cheek, "Thank you for helping Mum, will we see you tomorrow?"

"I'll be on the beach at the usual time." I was non-committal.

"Will you give me your address and phone number in case I need to speak top you before then?" Jenny asked. She gave me a piece of paper and a pen and I wrote down my details for her. She kissed me on the lips. "I don't care what Tony thinks can happen, there's no way that I'll ever go back to Roger."

I couldn't get to sleep thinking of the possibilities of Jenny and me getting together and not even a session with Mrs. Palm and the girls eased the turmoil in my head. I didn't want to rush things for fear of scaring her off so I decided to let her make the first move.

I was just preparing my breakfast, muesli with yoghurt and a banana and a mug of coffee, enough to set me up for the day so that if I forgot lunch it was no big deal, when my phone rang. "Hi, it's Jenny, do you mind if I come and see you, I need to see you."