Aunt Diane invariably preferred breakfast on the verandah if the weather was fine, and as it was, that was where Harry found her.
"Good morning Harry," she greeted him, "If you want a cold breakfast everything is here, but if you want something hot, you'll have to cook it yourself."
He kissed her perfunctorily, not noticing her briefly quizzical glance at him. "I'll cook some bacon, would you like some too?"
"Hmm," she thought for a moment, "I hadn't intended to, but I won't be able to resist the smell, so yes please."
"Good," replied Harry heading for the kitchen, "Because I could eat a horse."
It was not long before Harry re-appeared with a huge plate of bacon and scrambled eggs, which both aunt and nephew applied themselves to, steadily and largely in silence for the next few minutes.
"Ah that was excellent," said his aunt contentedly as she finished, and then completely from left field she added, "You know Harry; your lady friend has quite exquisite taste."
"What do you mean?" he responded, more confused than she had anticipated.
"Her perfume," his aunt explained. "It's unusual; I noticed it when you kissed me." She didn't add that she had now remembered exactly what it was. Nor did Harry's aunt tease him with her observation, that only a woman with a healthy income could be likely to have afforded it.
"Well," said Harry changing the subject, "Today I'm going to have a day here, doing your lawns and generally tidying up.
"In that case," responded his aunt, "you will have the place to yourself, because I am going to do one or two visits, then I am going to the movies and having lunch with my friend Ellen."
Within half an hour Harry was occupied with the mowing, which considering the size of the block he knew would take him a couple of hours.
Later the same morning Maria Bunce was having coffee at Café Georgios in town. Her companion sitting opposite her was a black haired swarthy man about her own age. She was obviously not too happy with what he was telling her.
"I am sorry Maria," he said with a smile, but a determined smile. "I dislike intensely going back on the agreement you made with the former owners, but I hope you will understand that with the change in ownership of the business, we as the new proprietors want to look at some strategic issues first"
"I understand Joe," responded Maria, "obviously I am disappointed that you have decided not to go ahead with it, but can I call you again perhaps, in what? say six weeks or so, to see whether we can do anything for you."
"You can," responded Joe, "but I am flying back to Sydney late this afternoon, and as from next week will be on a ten week trip to the US and London, so your proposal will not be considered until after my return."
"Thank you," responded Maria, affecting more warmth than she felt in response to his obvious brush off, "I will ring you for an appointment as soon as you are back."
Joe looked up and grinned. He was impressed despite himself. He knew that Maria was disappointed that her project had been cancelled at the last moment, but he admired her tenacity. Perhaps it was his competitive instinct, but some small devil in him decided to wind her up a little, to put her, just slightly in her place. "There was one aspect of your proposal which I didn't quite see the value of Maria, that was the involvement of your accountant Mrs Tremaine; our local office told me she was a widowed lady, and a friend of yours. I am not sure that sending some old battle axe accountant around the franchises would achieve very much."
Joe looked up, and for a moment saw the light of battle flare in Maria's eye. But in a moment it was gone, Maria relaxed and smiled beatifically, "Joe," she said patting his hand gently, "your comment was timed to perfection, your battleaxe has just walked in; I'll introduce you to her."
There are times in life when the fates conspire against a man and they did at that moment to Joe Callaghan. As he stood up, a large severely formidable looking middle aged woman brushed past him. "Mrs Tremaine?" he enquired of her.
"No," the woman retorted rudely, and pushed on.
"I don't think I know you," said a voice from over his shoulder, and Joe turned around to meet a woman who two days later he described to his personal assistant as the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, His jaw dropped, and for a moment he was lost for words.
"Maria," said Joe genially, "You're either going to introduce me, or I'll have to throttle you."
"Of course," replied Maria laughing, "Susan Tremaine, meet Joe Callaghan."
Joe knew from experience that when a situation is desperate the only option is to grab the initiative; "Mrs Tremaine," he explained, "Maria cannot stop laughing because I have just made a complete and total idiot of myself. I, on an all too obvious and stupid assumption have just called you an old battleaxe."
Susan laughed, "In that case you'll have to make amends. First you must call me Susan and not Mrs Tremaine, otherwise I might start to think I am turning into an old battleaxe, second, you can order me a coffee, and thirdly, you can tell me how you made that mistake, without omitting even the embarrassing bits, in fact, especially not leaving out the embarrassing bits."
Coffee was ordered, and Joe began a slightly rambling and apologetic explanation with Maria chipping in from time to time to make sure he didn't cut any corners. It gave Susan the time to examine him more closely, Joe was a little above medium height, maybe five ten or so, and had what she described later as a sort of attractive ugly appearance, which was characterized by a slightly bent and rather hooked nose, dominating a face which generally looked slightly battered. Heavy in the shoulders, but with slim hips, he nevertheless looked well balanced, like a dancer or boxer she thought. His best features were his bright blue eyes which she was very conscious never left her face, and his surprisingly elegant hands, spoiled by the fact that the top joint of his right little finger was missing.
"So there you have it," Joe concluded, "and" he added "to try and make it up to you, I would like to ask you out for dinner this evening"
"Why that is kind of you," responded Susan, rather surprised but not so surprised as to allow Joe to out manoeuvre her so simply. "We would be delighted, won't we Maria?" "Oh yes," responded her friend, knowing just as well as Susan that Joe hadn't originally intended to include her.
But Joe was not stupid either, he hadn't really expected Susan to say yes, so, although caught off guard, he wasn't going to try to cut Maria out and give Susan a chance to escape as well.
