I woke on Sunday morning with a hangover and pleasant memories of my tryst with Wendy, the previous night. I recalled enjoying her pliant body, as we lay in the bed where I now languished. I laughed out loud as I recalled fucking her earlier, when the sprinklers came on at the cricket ground. However, as often happens with the alcohol in the system, a feeling of melancholy soon descended to spoil my morning.
Wendy had basically used me to get even with her fiancé Jack. It had been a great night, but at the end she had been clear that we would not be repeating it. I was sad about that, because she was an attractive woman. I genuinely liked her company and loved her body. My mood was not improved when my thoughts drifted to what I'd been told about Felicity last evening.
It turns out I was not her first affair with a boarder. Far from it. I'd been told she'd bedded every boarder who had stayed with her and Mike. That I'd got this information from more than one source made it appear to be accurate.
What made the news of Felicity even harder to accept, was that she'd only just told me that she'd fallen in love with me.
"Has she told every boarder that she loves him?" I wondered to myself. "I need to ask her that."
The problem was Felicity wasn't answering my calls or texts, while she cared for her sick mother. At least her and Mike being away from the house left me alone. I was thankful for that at that moment. Then my thoughts drifted to Terri, the younger girl who I'd fallen for quite heavily and who appeared to reciprocate my feelings. She wasn't answering my texts either and had not done so since her grand entrance to the clubrooms, five days earlier.
"It's time for me to talk to Australia," I thought.
I got up and noted the time. It'd be 1.30am back in Aus, so I put off calling my girlfriend Emma until later in the evening.
As the day progressed and I went about mundane chores such as washing. I began to wish I had some company.
"I might be angry at Felicity, for not being fully honest with me, but I miss her," I thought wistfully.
By the time evening came around I was desperate to call Emma. I was seriously beginning to consider returning home to Australia in the coming week. The whole England thing had become too difficult. Apart from the sex that is. The sex was real fun, but the relationships were weighing heavily on me.
My efforts to skype Emma came to nothing, as had been the case all of the previous week. I began to get frustrated. I went to cook dinner and upon returning to the computer was surprised to see an Email from Emma. It was extensive and as I began to read it my heart sank. Running off back to Aus was now much less of an option.
Basically Emma told me she had started seeing someone else. She was careful to note that this was what I'd encouraged her to do, when I left over two months earlier. As I read on she went into some detail about the fellow, who was someone I didn't know from her travel agent job. He had a steady job, was reliable, brought her flowers, and spent time with her. All the things I wasn't so good at. She finished by saying she hoped I'd be happy for her.
"Fuck!" I shouted out loud at the computer. "Fuck you Emma."
I felt let down in my time of most need. Sure I hadn't been a great boyfriend and in the months prior to my departure we'd well and truly drifted apart. I'd even been sleeping with her friend at one stage. However, in the days before I left we seemed to get it back on, big time. After I came to England we had Skyped regularly and had professed our love for each other. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and I'd begun to miss her. It never seemed in doubt that I would return to her and we'd be back on. Now she had a new man.
"So now I'm estranged from all the women I have affections for," I thought, wallowing in self-pity.
I immediately changed into running gear and went out for a jog. I went over and over everything that had occurred, trying to make sense of it all. At one and a half hours I had run further than I'd ever run and knew I was past half marathon distance. I turned around and headed for home. Half way home I hit the wall and had to walk. By then I had some things clear in my mind.
"Hard to blame Emma for the new boyfriend," I thought. "He couldn't be less reliable than me. She deserves a new start."
Having put Emma aside I tried to work out the English women. Wendy I would've liked to have carried on an affair with, but she'd made it clear this would not be occurring. Like Emma I decided I could handle this. However, it wasn't so easy with the unanswered questions around Terri and Felicity. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't completely work them out.
I arrived home exhausted, but at least this let me sleep. The next day I kept to myself, worked in the evening and looked forward to cricket practice.
-----------------------
The whole team except Mike made practice that Tuesday evening. We chatted a bit about Mike being up north, supporting Felicity, while she cared for her mother. He had phoned Jack to say he'd miss our Wednesday evening game, but would be down for the match on Saturday.
I said nothing to Francis because I didn't want to even think about Terri. Jack was OK toward me, better than I thought he'd be, given he must strongly suspect I'd spent Saturday night with his fiancé'.
After practice I went down to the pub with Andy and Rob and Finn. Finn was supposed to be away travelling. I knew this from Ness, who had told me when intimating that we were going to get together again.
"Got delayed a couple of days Andy," he said, after Andy enquired. "I'm off tomorrow."
I was happy that Andy had asked, as it took a bit of focus off me. The other thing Ness had told me was that Finn was suspicious her and me were getting it on together. She'd further said she was doing nothing to quell his suspicions.
We sat down in a booth, with Andy taking a chair facing us, which was normal when there was only a few of us. We relaxed as we made the usual small talk about cricket and other sports. The banter was enjoyable and I found my spirits lifting somewhat. This was what I liked about being around the boys from the cricket club. Then Ness arrived.
"Hi boys who's buying me a drink?" she said cheekily, pushing in beside Finn so that Rob and I had to move around.
I was most certainly not going to jump up and obviously neither was Finn.
"What would you like Ness," Rob asked.
"Typical!" I thought, but thankful that again it was someone else and not me.
Ness was considered 'One of the boys', and as such didn't inhibit the conversation in any way. Rob returned with his round of drinks and we continued to chat away. At one stage Ness moved away and made a phone call, but soon returned. The banter continued, neither Finn nor Ness was having a go at me and I was as happy as I'd been in a couple of days. Then Finn's phone rang.
He pushed past Ness to take the call, then quickly returned saying his Boss had just rung. He had to go into work to check some stock he'd be taking on the road tomorrow.
"That's no good babe," Ness said giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Get back soon as you can."
"He probably shouldn't be driving," Rob said, after Finn had left.
"He'll be alright," Ness said dismissively. "He can hold his beer. He'll call into work for an hour, the Boss will drop him off back here and I can take him home."
It did briefly occur to me how she might know all that, but that instantly disappeared from my mind and we returned to our prolonged discussion about the merits of the latest Quentin Tarantino film.
Within minutes of Finn leaving I felt Ness lightly press her thigh to mine. I didn't react and quite enjoyed this little bit of teasing on her part. I was still in my training shorts and I could feel the coolness of her thigh on mine. As usual my cock began to stir. I looked at her, but she did not return the look, merely continuing to talk. The pressure grew a little firmer.
Her next move took me aback. She moved her hand and placed in on mine where it lay on the table, next to my beer. In clear view of both Andy and Rob she then moved our hands below the table. Had it been a glass top table the boys would have seen her rest my hand on her bare thigh, with her hand keeping mine pinned.
Despite no glass top, there could be little doubt among those present that Ness had placed my hand near an intimate part of her anatomy. Rob glanced down to where our arms disappeared beneath the table and smiled nervously. I was embarrassed by her boldness, partially because I had previously reprimanded these same two young men for getting too familiar with the Captain's fiancé. Now here I was with a team mate's girlfriend, clearly touching her under the table.
Ness continued to talk as though nothing was amiss. She seemed to completely separate what she was talking about and what was occurring beneath the table. She began to draw our hands along her inner thigh, pushing her black skirt higher as we went. I looked at her again, but she made no effort to look at me, concentrating her attentions on Andy, as they discussed the high-point in Reservoir Dogs.
