Victoria And Geoff

(A big thank you to Muddy for editing this story for me. Please enjoy your read and if you get to the end of this story with a smile on your face and a warm feeling inside... Then I guess I got it right.)

Geoff had been waiting in the library for twenty minutes, his patients now up. He was even beyond looking in the direction of the doors in case she was late, he was sick of this. Ok, he was a geek, so what, he didn't go around calling the athletics or football team jocks, yet he was growing increasingly annoyed at just how far down the food chain in college life being branded a geek put him. Picking up his books, his back was to the door.

"I'm sorry I'm late."

He turned and looked at Victoria, she was of no surprise to him, he had seen her around campus. Victoria Breckenridge was what can be described as a Barbie doll, one of the unobtainable on campus, she and maybe two others held a very unique area. The jocks and the pretty boys lusted after them and they had the pick and choice of who they went out or 'associated' with, and not a word was said about them and now he was caught in her radar. Caught is perhaps the wrong word. Trapped would sum up his situation much better.

Although Geoff's major was computers he had a second in business studies, sadly for his future intentions one couldn't work without the other. As he left business studies he was asked by one of the teachers to help Victoria since he used extra studies from students to supplement his own income rather than try and hold down a bar job or wait tables in some restaurant. The teacher came to him first. Only the way the teacher put it to him, he had no choice in the matter. He introduced Victoria to him and promptly left them to it. That's why they were both supposed to be in the library.

"Sorry Victoria your time's up." He handed her a sheet of paper. "These are my rates; you come in the top line at the highest rate, if I have to wait around for you to show I intend to get paid for it."

"Hey wait, if you give me a minute I can explain."

Geoff stopped in his tracks. "I'm sure you can and I'm even sure it will sound incredibly feasible as well. But before you do let me ask you one question, if you were here waiting for me, would you still be here after twenty minutes?"

Victoria glared at him, both knew the answer, yet she tried hard to figure out a better one. She failed, looked down and shook her head. The next day Geoff was again sat in the library when Martin Tyler the honorable football captain strolled up, this caught Geoff's interest. Since when did anyone in the football team even know where the library was.

He leaned across the table inches from Geoff. "This is me being polite, don't you ever disrespect Victoria again, or I may have to cut you balls off. Do I make myself very clear mister?"

Not even waiting for an answer, he slapped Geoff on top of the head like some pet poodle and walked back out off the library. Geoff leaned back in his chair, he could hear snickers from some that had heard the conversation, and Geoff slowly smiled to himself. The next morning the whole college woke finding pictures of Martin Tyler naked strategically placed behind another man who was also naked and judging by the facial expressions of the man in front, it wasn't a pose. Despite his denials, his ratings with the girls dropped dramatically. Geoff walked around campus impressed at how easy it was to superimpose a head or a body with computer graphics after you get the hang of it.

It was a full week of peaceful bliss after that, and then his world came crashing back down to reality. His appointment was with Marsha Todd, she had asked for an hour's math's tutorial, he had agreed and set his time in the library. Five minutes before the appointment, in walked Victoria.

"All change. Marsha couldn't make it, so you have me for an hour."

Geoff just shook his head, picked up his books and started towards the door.

"What's the matter now, I arrived early didn't I?"

"You know what actually stuns me is, you just don't get it, do you? You're using people to get what you want."

"And you don't use people? You who charge students for tuition!" Victoria spat back.

"People know in advance what there getting from me, I tell them before we even start. This is my rate, if you don't want my help then form a study group, people do it all the time, which is what I'm suggesting you do. Only this time don't get your football captain boyfriend threatening me again. It gets boring."

Firstly, it was the look of total confusion on her face, then the lights came on and she started to giggle.

"So it was you who made the pictures, he's been screaming they're fakes but no one believes him now." All she could do was giggle for a minute, and then said. "So now I've pissed you off do I get to be in a picture with some hottie?"

Geoff blushed, walked back to the table and sat. Victoria followed and sat across from him. "Ok these are my rules, they are all non negotiable. Firstly, we work from here at a time that is set down by the both of us; once set, those times do not move. Secondly, if you ever come here in anything that I regard as provocative I leave even before you have sat down. Thirdly," He stopped when she held up her hand.

"Sorry, I didn't realize there was going to be a list so I'm going to take notes, me being a blonde and all."

She fluttered her eyes at him. Geoff couldn't tell if she was joking or not. He shrugged his shoulders and counted off two more rules before they settled down and started to study. Geoff took advantage of her open note book. He asked Victoria to add one other item and then decided that tuition was over for the day. He would have loved to say things went smoothly from then on, but they never did. Victoria's time keeping would still slip and Geoff was sometimes still seen leaving the library with Victoria in toe apologizing for her lateness.

Victoria, however, got her own back. Geoff had a weakness that only she seemed to have noticed. His liking for milkshakes, now when she knew she was going to be late Victoria always went via the college canteen. The contraband milkshake was the first thing on the library table before the apology. Both noticed something weird going on between them, a kind of banter that would bounce between them often mild insults about dumb blondes to be retaliated with mild insults about no life, computer geeks. Both always left the library with a smile and a wave, so neither took it seriously.

Geoff got to the library first Victoria seconds behind him wearing a coat and breathing hard as if she had run, she sat down and set her books out but didn't take her coat off. Geoff frowned the library was a constant heat to preserve the books she didn't need to sit with her coat on, but it was her choice, so be it. After twenty minutes he noticed beads of sweat on her forehead, he asked if she wanted to take her coat off, she declined. This was very odd for Victoria even when the temperature was cool outside he had never seen her in a coat. Finally he asked her to remove her coat since it was to warm to wear it in the library. She blushed and declined. He stopped working and sat back she was obviously hiding something, so he asked her one more time.

"Ok, but I want you to remember, you told me to take this off, I would have finished with it on but you insisted, remember that."

She stood and undid her coat and pulled it off. Revealing her cheerleading outfit and nothing else, even in the library there is always some form of background noise. When Victoria stood and took her coat off there wasn't even that noise. Geoff looked behind him and the whole library had stopped what they were doing to look at Victoria and the figure hugging cheerleader outfit. Most of the men and a few of the women sat their mouths open. His hand wandered to his books.

"You dare get up and leave me here like this and I will punch you so hard."

He smiled, closed his books and came around the table. "Grab your things I'm taking you back to your sorority house before we have an orgy on our hands."

Her features relaxed and she put her coat back on and grabbed her books, following Geoff out the door. Once the door shut behind them they just couldn't contain themselves any longer. They laughed, both laughed so hard they cried. That one incident now broke any ice left between them both.

"I'm sorry, practice run late. I didn't even have a chance to shower I just grabbed a coat and ran to the library."

Geoff couldn't even trust himself to say anything at the moment, so pulled a notebook out and wrote down his number, handing it to her as they walked. He told her it was a free pass per week, if practice ran late again she could let him know and he would wait, but one pass per week, anymore than that and his rates go up again. She took the note and the pair of them started to laugh again. He paused long enough to say goodbye outside her sorority house and left her to walk inside. After all there was still that status, he was the geek and still way to far down the food chain.

A week later the teacher pulled Geoff aside after class. "I see some improvement in Miss Breckenridge's grades, but not enough. I will leave it to you to figure something out, but make it good. You have six months and I want to see real improvement."

Geoff was angry and his self control slipped. "Don't threaten me."

"I don't resort to threats young man, I have no need to when I can write a big fat F on your test sheet and if you think I can't get away with it, you may want to think long and hard about it before you try to call me out on it."

He met Victoria at the library the next day, as soon as she came in he ushered her out and both walked over to another building close by, she tried to find out why, but he remained tight lipped. Finally, on the third floor he stopped at room thirty seven and opened it, also handing her a spare key.

"Ok, now were going to the next stage. We are going to start a business together."

Victoria looked at him, trying to gauge how serious he was.

He smiled. "Relax, it's a simulated business. Now I've spent all night working on this program and soon enough I will spring it on you. You have your own key and you can come here whenever you wish. We have now gone into partnership, I'm the computer geek and you run the office and logistics."

Geoff walked up to a board that covered one end of the room, and wrote 'Blonde Computers Inc.' on the board. Victoria giggled and picked up her own marker, crossed it out and wrote 'Peace of Mind Solutions Inc.' He liked that and told her to list out what was now required. He watched as Victoria set about organizing office premises, location, bank loans, and furniture. The list went on, occasionally making some notes himself. When the list was finally done, he sat her down and acted like a prospective business interested in having 'Peace of Mind Solutions' on retainer. She was very thorough with her questions and surprised him with her professionalism when she interviewed him.

"Ok, enough for today. Remember no more library, this room will be the rest of the lessons with you. Tomorrow when we come in I will switch this on, you push a button and it will spit out either a problem that needs to be solved or a question on the business, any questions?"

Victoria shook her head, so they both left. For the next two weeks Victoria was in the room before Geoff got there, refining details on the board and accessing information from the link up with the library computer. As soon as Geoff came in she would stand by the machine and he would push the button, out would come a question or a situation. Victoria was like a woman possessed, she simply would not let go until she had solved it, often running over their time and Victoria offering to pay extra to cover. Geoff would decline, pleased that she was showing an interest even though he knew she would never actually go out and earn a living.

The Breckenridge family were bankers, or rather they owned one and had interests in two others. To Geoff, Victoria was just playing, but he suspected her family business acumen pushed her on with this. They had their funny moments as well, Geoff pushed the machines button and a question came out.

'Your engineer finally phones in sick after trying to work on for three days. What do you do?'

Victoria looked at the question walked the room for a moment, picked up her marker and wrote, force feed him chicken soup.

"Why chicken soup?"

Victoria looked up from the board. "I was given it when I was sick, and if I had to put up with it, the damned engineer can as well for letting the company down."

Geoff laughed so much he had to tell her to leave, the lesson was over. He couldn't concentrate after that without the thought of chicken soup in his head. Geoff took the time by himself to re-load the machine with questions and problems. Today was Friday so they wouldn't see each other again until Monday.

"I see you and Miss Breckenridge has been busy."

There was no need to turn around; he had made the mistake of leaving the door open. Their teacher had walked in and looked at the boards, then looked at Geoff. "I assume all this is Miss Breckenridge's work?"

Geoff nodded. The teacher headed for the door. "I may spring a mid term paper on the class to test her progress, if I'm pleased, there is a slim possibility I may move my opinion of you from an F to a C grade."

True to his word, on Monday the paper was put before the class, it blind-sided everyone but Geoff. An hour later he was amongst the first to leave the class; Victoria found him in their study room, looking at the board, he looked at her when she came in.

"How did you do?"

She shrugged her shoulders and said. "I live for the day I can get an exam finished and leave like you do."

He laughed and then watched as Victoria sat down, she looked at the machine and then to Geoff.

"Do I get to push the button this time?"

Since it was closer to her than him he agreed. Victoria stood walked to the machine and pushed the button, out popped a slip of paper and she read it, with barely a moments hesitation she walked over to Geoff sat on his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Stunned isn't a word that comes naturally to Geoff, he just sat there until Victoria had finished kissing him and got up off his lap.

"Would you mind telling me why you did that?"

Victoria handed him the slip of paper she had taken from the machine, it read 'It's the engineers birthday, all the staff must give him a birthday kiss."

"I didn't program this into the machine." Geoff leapt from his seat and pushed the button himself, another slip popped out, this one read. 'The engineer is feeling rather down, he needs another kiss.'

Victoria walked over, Geoff put that slip into his pocket and pushed the button again and out came another slip of paper. 'The engineer is feeling rather confused and needs a kiss.' Again he stuffed that slip into his pocket and once more pushed the button, again a slip of paper appeared. 'So when is the engineer going to return the kiss to the staff?'

Geoff turned on his heels totally confused and just a little weirded out. Victoria was standing behind him. She had a set of headphones in her hand, smiled and winked at him then placed them on his head and pressed play. As the music started up he watched Victoria walk to the door and leave, closing the door behind her, not once looking back. He had never heard of this song before. It was the same song repeated over and over again and he listened to it several times. 'I Surrender' by Celine Dion.

There next scheduled lesson wasn't for two days. Victoria never showed, never phoned, and never again came back to college, after a month of not seeing her, Geoff boxed up the contents of the room and closed down the machine, handing back his key and paying the default on the lost key Victoria had. He did try to find out what happened to her, but no one would tell him or simply didn't know.

It was a year after graduation when Geoff got his answers, but in an unexpected way. There was a knock at his door, when he opened it a man stood at the door almost filling it. This man was a giant; he looked like something out of a secret service manual, all dark suit and sunglasses. The man asked Geoff his name, when he told him the man pulled out a photo from his jacket. Looked at it, then at Geoff, satisfied he reached into his inside pocket and pulled out an envelope, handed it to Geoff and waited.

Geoff shrugged closed the door and opened the envelope, the only contents was a key. It took Geoff some time to figure out where he had seen this key before. He turned and opened the door again, the man still stood at the door.

"What do you want?"

"I need you to come with me; the key is to prove I'm legit." He gestured to the waiting car parked at the curb side.

"No thanks, but you can tell the pampered bitch she owes me the cost of the default I had to pay when she ran off with the key."

The man smiled and put his hand into his jacket and pulled out another envelope. "She said you would say something like that."

He handed Geoff the envelope and a fifty dropped to the floor when he opened it. Curiosity was starting to get the better of Geoff now. He had always wondered what had happened to Victoria and perhaps now he finally would be able to put that particular question to rest. The journey took them across town, he half expected the closet secret service man to throw a hood over his head when he got in the car. Geoff was even more amused when they stopped outside an office block. The man mountain even opened to door for him.

It seemed silence was second nature to them both he could count on one hand everything they had said since they left the house. The elevator doors opened and Geoff was shown into an office at the end of the corridor. Victoria watched him come in, leapt from her chair and rushed to hug him. Geoff was desperately confused now.

"You want answers don't you?"

All Geoff could do was nod his head.

"Have you ever watched beauty and the beast?"

Both laughed, and then with a glint of mischief in his eye, Geoff said. "You know I never looked on you as the beast but I can see the resemblance now you mention it."

Victoria slapped his arm, gave him a hug. As she released him their eyes locked on one another, she leaned in close and kissed him. At first brushing his lips with hers, Geoff felt her hands on his face, refusing to let him go. Her tongue now pierced his lips and gently run along his teeth before his own tongue connected with hers. There was a polite cough from a man sat at the far end of the table which ended the moment. As she broke their kiss, Victoria looked deeply at him.

"That's a deposit. I still owe you a few more yet."

She took Geoff's hand and walked him to the man at the end of the table, sat Geoff down next to him and Victoria walked to the other side so she could sit opposite.

"Now before we begin I know you're going to freak. So promise me here and now that you will hear Mr. Chapman out. Hugo is still on the other side of the door and if you try to leave he will gladly drop you out of the window to assist your leaving."

"Victoria, what is this all about?"

Geoff could see the intense look on her face. "Please, let Mr. Chapman explain. I will answer anything you want to ask afterwards with total honesty but I do need to ask you just one question. Did you listen to the song I gave you?"

"I can recite every word. I listened to it often enough, I can't say I like the singer but I listened to the song."

He watched as her eyes misted up and she looked at Mr. Chapman and asked him to wait for a moment. Victoria then leapt from her chair across the table and grabbed the front of Geoff's shirt pulling him close to her. She kissed him again then sat back down, her cheeks a little flushed now. She nodded to the man to continue.