. 06

I walked up the High Street that Friday night, still mumbling in my mind about the stupid boss I used to have. And wondering what I would do for a job after I was sacked on Monday. I decided to leave it to them to sack me, that way they would have to pay me off, and that should be more money than if I resigned. Well, I guess Davinia won't be around after tonight, so I will be a completely free agent to move on anywhere for a new job. But it was a pity, I really did like living here.

The late night shop at the top of the High Street had a rack of flowers outside as I passed. I thought that if I was going back to provide a meal for Davinia, during which we would agree, like civilised people, that our relationship was at an end, but she might as well see that there is a good side of me that she is giving up. I bought two big bunches, one for the room and one to give her. I also bought a good box of liqueur chocolates, which I was surprised they stocked, left over from Christmas I guess, or stocked for Easter.

I just finished arranging the flowers in the living room when Davinia arrived. She was wearing a short coat over jumper and jeans. But she looked good.

She gave me a quick peck on the cheek, "Hi, excuse me, I need the loo." And she walked passed me towards the bathroom.

'Oh! Hi, Dave. Sorry I've given you such a rough week. Here let me make it up to you!' Yeah, sure. I should be so lucky! I went into the kitchen and collected a decent bottle of red wine, and a couple of glasses. I had my back to the door when I heard her return.

"Sorry about that, I was desperate." I turned round to face her. She had taken her coat off, her jumper was soft, cuddly wool, with her breasts shaping it softly, without the aid of a bra. I bet that if I searched I'd find a bra stuffed into the pocket of her coat.

I smiled and picked up the flowers, "Present for you."

"Oh, Dave, I don't deserve these. I should be buying you presents." She came and draped her arms around my neck, and we kissed. I full, passionate loving kiss.

When we broke, I put the flowers down so that I could hold her properly. "I needed that."

"So, did I" she said, "In fact, I hadn't realised how much. I'm sorry, I guess I've given you a pretty rough week."

All of a sudden the sun came out and shone so brightly in that room, every other problem melted away, it didn't matter how or why we had ended up as we had, she was pleased to be there, and that's all that mattered. But, I thought I'd better get over telling her that I've totally fucked up my career, she needed to know what sort of man she was entangled with, "Certainly not one of my best. But, not to worry. I topped it out well this evening, and that was nothing to do with you."

"Why? What have you done?"

"I told Tim he was a fucking idiot and a useless boss, which he is. And that he's married to a cheating slut, which she is. But I doubt whether it's done my career much good."

She broke from my hold and sat down, looking shocked, "I think I need a glass of wine, and then you'd better tell me about it. I can't believe you did that, well not in a way that you meant it."

I poured two glasses of wine, passed her one and sat opposite her. "No, let's talk about us. That's far more important, and I'll tell you about Tim, later."

She looked at me, and smiled her soft sideways smile, "I guess you scared me a bit last Sunday, when you suggested that I move in. It was all a bit too soon after Tod. And this was the Casanova of TGI! I'd be a fool to get myself in too deep with him. So, I guess I took some refuge in the play, I'm sorry."

"And Tuesday night?"

"I did get caught up with Mrs Malaprop having supper ready when I arrived. But I didn't think you would have gone to any trouble after I'd put you down on Sunday. And then we did run late. But, I'll admit I was a bit scared of how you were going to be, after Sunday and all that. But then I got here, and I saw how much trouble you'd gone to, and that made me feel so guilty. And I'm sorry I didn't handle it very well." There were tears welling up in her beautiful blue eyes.

"I'm sorry too. I did try to build some bridges on Wednesday in your office, but you seemed so determined to keep your distance."

"Well, I felt a bit guilty. There was nothing going on between me and Drew when you came in. But I know he would try and date me if I gave him the least opportunity. Tim asked me about him yesterday, just before he saw Drew."

"Yes, he told me that he wondered if Drew was letting personal feelings get in the way of his work."

"Yes. That's what he asked me about. But I don't think so. Or anyway, Drew isn't causing me any problem. He's a very nice guy, and he's got a great body. He doesn't have your good looks, Dave, but he does have an easy smile. But, I promise you, he's a non-starter, I want to be with you. Promise."

"Thanks, I think I needed to hear that. I was a bit worried. If I wasn't around, would you go if he asked?"

She thought about that for a bit, "Yes, I probably would. But I'm not going to, not for as long as you'll keep me around. I realised yesterday just how you must be feeling about Drew, and I promise you, you have no need to worry."

"Why, what made you realise this yesterday?" I asked, getting up, and sitting next to her on the sofa.

She moved over to make room for me, but then leaned against me once I was settled, "When I came into the Three Chuffs last night and I saw you with Alice. I was so jealous and so scared. I thought I'd driven you into her arms. And she's so attractive, and you two looked so good together, as if you belonged together in someway."

"But?"

"But I talked to Alice, and I know there was nothing in it. I believed her."

When had that happened? "She offered to talk to you, and I told her not to."

"I went and found her, I waited at the coffee machine on the Marketing floor, until she went into the Ladies." She explained, as if a woman hanging around the toilets was an everyday event at TGI.

I laughed, "The secret room. The female territory! What did she say?"

"I reckon she's a bit like Drew is with me. I reckon if you asked her, she'd go out with you. But I hope I never give her the chance. And I don't think she would ever try muscling in."

"And that's OK with you? That there's someone who would date me, given a chance?"

"Yes. Because it's like Drew. We're evens."

"Well you're a bit safer. I do agree, Alice's very attractive, and she's got a great body. But, even if you weren't around, I don't think I'd ask her. I like her as a friend, but..."

We both took sips of our wine, I saw the flowers lying in an armchair, "You ought to put those flowers in water."

"Have you got a vase I could use?"

"Aren't you going to take them home? I bought them for you."

"Well, I thought I might like to see them beside the bed when I wake up in the morning." Now that was promising. We kissed, and I held her in my arms.

Eventually, when we had settled back into just a cuddle, and I was wondering how I was going to tell her about my row with Tim, she asked "Can we eat later, can't we? I mean you haven't done something wonderful and special have you?"

"Oh, no. I brought in some Indian curry. You know from that little Indian shop just off the High Street."

"No, I don't know. But I'd like you take me to bed now. But I want to go to bed with you, and not use condoms. Please Dave. I want to feel you inside me, not a rubber skin."

"But I only use them for safety, for your sake. I haven't always just hung around in bars with Alice, you know."

"OK. How many women have you had in the last six months say?"

Good question. Should I minimise to make myself look better? Or exaggerate to make myself look better? The only solution was to tell the truth, "I don't know, I haven't counted. About eight I would guess. And I don't know who they've been with. It's safer with a condom."

"OK. Now have you used a condom of every single occasion with those women?"

"Yes, of course I have. It's sort of second nature to me now. Has been for years."

"So, you couldn't have possibly caught anything, then. And, as you're pretty healthy, and have been for years... I'll risk it if you will. And I don't think I'm risking anything. Please Dave. I want you."

"If you're sure. I guess I'm clean. I was tested about a year ago, and I know I've used a condom every time since then."

"Well, it would be a bit of a waste of my contraceptive pill if we don't use it." She smiled, stood up and led me to the bedroom.

I held her and took her in my arms beside the bed. We kissed, hard and passionately. And then I took hold of the hem of her jumper and pulled it up, she raised her hands above her head so that I could take it off.

A bent over so that I could kiss her breasts, with those soft pink nipples, and she held my head to her breasts, showing her need. Then I stood up and kissed her on the mouth again, and her hands found their way inside my shirt at the back, so that she was holding me to her.

Then I knelt down and slowly undid the stud button on her jeans, and lowered the zip. She wasn't wearing any panties. I looked up at her, she was watching me, smiling, "I took them off in the bathroom, when I took off my bra."

I kissed her tummy in the vee of the loose jeans, "I guessed the bra bit. It was the first sign that I was forgiven."

"There was nothing to forgive. I told you, it was my fault."

I slid her jeans down to her ankles, but she still had on her trainers and socks. I pushed her round to be sitting on the bed, and then undid the laces on her shoes and pulled them off, and then her socks, and finally her jeans. She swung round to lie on the bed. She was beautiful.

I pulled my shirt over my head as soon as I'd undone enough buttons to allow it. And then I undid my trousers and pushed them down with my boxers. I sat on the edge of the bed and scrabbled out of my shoes, socks, trousers and boxer shorts in one tangled, messy movement.

I swung onto the bed to lie beside her, and kissed her again. She put her arms around me, but loosened her hold as I bent to kiss her nipples again, and then started to kiss my way down her stomach, to her belly button and on to that neat little triangle. I eventually kissed her pouting pussy lips, just by her clit, and I tried to push my tongue in, but her legs were too tightly closed.

I tried sliding a hand between them, at her knee, to open her legs, but she protested, "No. Just make love to me, I want to feel you inside of me. Please, Dave."

So I lifted myself on top of her, missionary position, and she opened her legs wide. I slid into a woman, for the first time in years, bareback. And I realised what I'd been missing in all those years.

She raised her legs and bent them at the knee, and I slowly began to fuck her.

She watched me to start with, staring into my eyes, but then feelings started to overwhelm her and her breathing changed to pants and her eyes closed.

"Yes, Dave. Fuck me, make me yours." And she climaxed, her whole body went rigid for a second, and I was forced to stay still.

Then I started again, gently, but speeding up. Her eyes were open again and she was watching me. I lowered my head to kiss her. And then I was being overtaken by feelings, and I put my head to the side of hers, and she held me as I came, "Yes!"

I rolled off her. Kissing her gently as I passed. "I think that could catch on. I rather enjoyed it." I said, laughing.

She laughed too. "Well, just once in a while."

We lay there in silence, with me drawing little circles with my finger across her tummy. "Does this mean you will move in then?"

She looked at me, "No. Not yet. I guess we might be on track for that, but not yet, please. I have got a lot on, with the play and everything. If I moved in now, I'd still be bringing too much baggage, and I've got so much to do, I don't want to have to be learning to live with you as well, with all the little compromises and give and take that it would mean. I'm sure to get it wrong, and I don't want another week like this week, ever. Let's leave that until after the play. Please." She moved her head a little further away from me, and looked at me, quizzically, "You're OK with that aren't you?"

What could I say? "Yes. I understand, only when you're ready."

She moved back, close to me, "But I promise I will come here often, and spend several nights a week here. Especially during the week, but I rather like being taken on dates at weekends. It sort of makes them special."

"OK. Just make sure I see a lot of you, especially in this bed." and I kissed her, gently.

When we broke apart she sat up against the headboard, "So, how about this curry, then? And more important, how about another glass of wine?"

"OK" I said, it'll take about half an hour to defrost and serve, but cooking my special pillau rice will take that time as well. The wine is a little more instant." I got up off the bed in search of the bottle and our glasses, throwing on my bathrobe as I went.

By the time I got back she had put on my discarded shirt. It suited her, the blue went well with her eyes.

I passed her a glass of wine, "Fancy peeling an onion, and crushing some cardamom seeds?"

And we both went off to the kitchen, cooking under my direction, but kissing every time we passed each other. I did the bulk of the cooking, not that there was very much to do, Davinia arranged her flowers in the bedroom. Soon the food was ready, and we took it into the living room to sit at the table.

"So, what's the story of you and Tim then?"

"Well, this afternoon I tried selling him my ideas to totally reorganise the Department. I thought I was doing quite well, it was a big thing, it'll effect the jobs and careers of everyone there. But I thought, give him time over the weekend, and he'll come round."

"You both looked amicable and happy, fairly tired, but happy, when I brought you those last cups of tea."

I looked up at her, "We were, or I thought we were. But we decided to go to the pub. Not over the road as usual, but the Black Swan, so that we could talk some more. But, by the time we got there, he totally rejected the whole idea, telling me I was an idiot to try and even think of it. So, I responded in kind, only I upped the stakes a bit, so he upped them and it sort of got out of hand. But it is a good idea, and he had to be told."

She listened quietly, "So what happened then?"

"Well, we sort of called a truce, and had some more beer. But then we got talking about Greg Dickens, you know - the ITP chap. Apparently he's getting divorced because a silly witch of a mother-in-law has stirred it up that he was indiscrete a couple of times when his wife has been spending all her time in Scotland. And then he asked about you, or about us really. And I said I was a bit miffed at you this week. And that sort of led to me observing that women are different to us blokes, and that his wife was a leader of being a bit different. That's all. But I was a bit more colourful in my language."

"So, what did he say?"

"Nothing. He just sort of walked out."

"Well, you have set yourself a mountain to climb. But it's all my fault. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean? You've got nothing to do with my relationship with Tim. We've known each other for years, it's nothing to do with you."

"Oh, so if you weren't upset about the way I had been treating you this week, and you were in a happy mood, you would still have thrown your vitriol at poor Tim? You were in a bad mood, because of me, and you took it out on poor Tim, didn't you?" She sipped her wine, looking at me across the table.

"Well, I'll admit I haven't been in the best of moods. But he started it, he called me a fucking idiot. But, I guess I wasn't in a mood to overlook it."

"What was there to overlook? He calls you a fucking idiot about once a week. And you call him one on fairly regular occasions. It's one of the strengths of your relationship, that you have a boss, no a business partner, that you know and trust and respect that much. Neither of you have ever meant it before, and my guess is that Tim didn't mean it tonight."

"Oh!, Fuck!"

"Yes, Oh Fuck. But more important is if you called his wife a slut."

I thought about that as I chewed a piece of nan bread, "I can't remember my exact words, but they were pretty explicit along those lines."

"How would you feel if Tim had called me a vicious woman who deliberately tried playing you around this week, just for malicious fun. A real cruel bitch."

"But you aren't."

"No, but it is a legitimate view of how I behaved. And no one else knows what goes on between us, or what we feel. The same is true of Tim and Beth. He has every right to be seriously upset with you."

"But you said it was a possible legitimate view."

"Yes, but you don't believe it's true yourself. You told me how impressed you were at Beth's need to build a new life with Tim, and how committed they are to each other. You said they had something very special. Now that's the relationship where you are saying she is a slut."

"Did I say that about them? Oh yes, I guess I did on that Sunday, after their dinner party. Maybe I was fooled by their PR."

"Do you believe that?"

"No. I think I really have stuffed up."

"Well, you're certainly going to test the strength of Tim's friendship to forgive you this one."

"Fuck!"

"Yes, Fuck! But first - fuck me." She started undoing the buttons of the shirt she was wearing. "Come on, there's nothing you can do for Tim tonight. There's something you can do for me."

And we went to bed. And it was wonderful, again.

In the morning I woke first, and crept out of bed to make a pot of tea, which I took back to the bedroom.

She was sitting up in bed as I returned, her breasts moving on her chest as she watched me, "I was looking at my flowers. They are beautiful, and I didn't thank you properly, Dave."

"Oh, I think you did, but if you want to thank me again, well...."

"No, I mean, you were buying me flowers when I'd been a bitch to you all week. I don't deserve you. Thank you."

I looked at her, "Do you want to know the truth?"

"Don't tell me, you stole them from a funeral cortege."

"No. I just wanted to be Mr Perfect when you gave me the push. It was one-upmanship."

"God! Did you really think I was going to call it off?"

"Yes. And I'm glad you didn't. And this is why" I said as I bent down to take both her breasts in my hands and lift them to my mouth.

Soon we were full into a loving sexy embrace, with her playing with my cock. She pushed me back onto the bed and took me in her mouth, gently sucking away. She was definitely improving. But she didn't do that for long before she knelt over me and guided me into her pussy, then she sat on me, with me deep inside her.

"You realise that we are meant to go to dinner at Tim and Beth's this evening."

"Oh, God! I'd forgotten that. Do I have to phone them or do you think they'll realise that I won't be going?"

She gently pumped herself up and down, but I was rapidly shrinking, thinking about my faux pas. "That won't do you much good. I think you've just made my balls retract inside me, into a pre-puberty position!"

"Oh, sorry. I just wanted to make you realise that you've got to go and apologise this morning. Sooner the better."

"I can't. Maybe he'll realise that I was just hitting out. Maybe I won't have to say anything. We'll just go on before, never having to say anything. I'll find out soon enough, on Monday morning."

"No. You owe him and Beth an apology. And I'm going to dinner tonight with or without you. Tim's my boss, and I like him and Beth. And I haven't been calling them names. It's up to you to sort it out before then. Or not show yourself, but I don't think you're that big a coward, are you Dave?"