The Luxury of Choice.
Gill watches the kids repeatedly shoulder barging one another, each trying to push the other off the path and onto the wet grass that bordered it, as they head down away from the front door in which she is stood, towards the car in which their father is sat waiting with the engine running, and his music playing loudly.
When the kids eventually reached the car, Gill shouts them her love. Tells them to be nice to each other. To have a good time. To say hello to Granny and Granddad, and that she'll see them Sunday. Each respond with a brief acknowledgement, before starting a short tussle over which of them will sit in the front and which in the back. Maddy, the elder by two years over her brother Tim wins as usual.
Their father, from whom Gill had separated a little over two years ago, due to his increasingly domineering behaviour, turns from watching the kids climb into the car, to look at Gill through his side window. She raises a hand to say both hello and goodbye. He gives a small nod in return, before engaging gear and driving off.
Gill steps back into the house and pushes the door closed. She needs to get a bit of a shuffle on. Like a myriad of others that Friday, the small Company she works for as an accountant was holding its Christmas party. A rather posh, black-tie event, at a very nice country hotel a few miles out of town. The Office had closed early, to give everyone enough time to get home, do whatever it was they needed to do, and then get to the hotel in time to meet in its bar for seven thirty.
Skirting around the small suitcase that was waiting patiently, packed and ready to rock at the bottom of the stairs, Gill makes her way through the sitting room into the kitchen at the back of the house, to complete the usual preflight checks. Cooker off - check. Backdoor locked - check. You know that sort of thing.
Returning to her case, she takes a half glance at herself in the mirror on the wall next to where all the coats hang out. With nothing amiss staring back at her, she selects one of the coats, retrieves her handbag and car keys from a little side table, picks up her case, and holding the coat under the same arm with which she carries the case, she opens the door, and steps out into the gloom.
Pulling the door closed behind her, she walks down the path to the road where her car is parked. Unlocking it, she drops her case and coat on the backseat, settles into the driver's seat, placing her handbag down on to the empty one next to her, sticks the keys into the ignition, twists them and starts the car. Then, pushing eject so that the much-played Metallica CD slides out into temporary idleness, and with the radio turned on, tuned in, and blasting cheesy Christmas music, Gill drives off, humming along happily.
The Hotel is a big old stone building. Having once been a country house for some now long departed members of the landed gentry. Its Reception is big, and still quite grand, though some of its opulence has been pared back to give it a more light, welcoming, and modern feel.
As there are a few other recently arrived guests in the process of checking in, Gill stands looking around, taking the surroundings whilst she waits for one of the smart and smiley receptionists to become free. And it is whilst Gill is engaged in this gazing about, that she spots Sam, one of her colleagues coming down the impressive staircase that sweeps into Reception from the building's upper floors. He has a big warm smile on his face, and he is heading straight for her.
Now it is fair to say, that Sam from Sales was blessed with a young man's cocky charm. It is also fair to say, that Sam from Sales, would very much have welcomed the opportunity to be cocky with Gill. A fact that he had never hidden. And it was an ambition he pursued whenever suitable circumstances presented themselves.
Whilst there was no doubt Gill enjoyed his attentions and was very happy to flirt with him in her own inimitable way. And whilst the appeal and potential of his youthful physic was far from lost on her, she'd decided from the moment his intentions had become clear, not to put too finer point on it, that she was never going to fuck him. There was, with him being a colleague and all, just too much potential for post coital yuckiness. And we not talking just wet patches here.
And to be fair, Gill had since the split from the children's father, been double wary about entering into any sort of relationship. Not because she was emotionally scarred or anything as dramatic as that, but because she was loving her independence. She could do, parental duties aside of course, pretty much whatever she wanted whenever she wanted to do it. The truth be known this translated into the odd Friday drink after work, or Friday or Saturday nights on the sofa with wine and her best friend Ness.
There was the uber occasional visit, again with Ness, to the local rubbish nightclub which was fun. Here she'd had a couple of snogs whilst her co-snogger had greedily handled her buttocks, which she'd quite enjoyed at the time. But she'd always ended up going home alone. However, the important point being, all this was her choice. And she loved it. Certainly, more than a quick knee trembler with a half-cut patron of a cheesy nightclub.
Anyway, always one to tell it as it is, Gill was equally as open with Sam about his chances, as he was with her about his ambitions. He was undeterred. She was happy to have him keep trying. And thus, they had become friends without benefits. Well, no physical benefits anyway. But there was always this mutually titillating teasy tussle going on.
Sam reaches Gill in Reception just as it's her turn to check in. They hug briefly. She picks up her case and steps forward to the desk behind which a receptionist waits. Sam takes a few steps forward too with Gill, then stops and waits for her. Formalities done, and key card to her room in hand, Gill returns to the spot to which Sam is temporarily rooted.
Turns out he's heading to the bar to meet a couple of their colleagues, and it goes without saying, he's keen for her to join them. Gill declines, on the grounds that she needs to get to her room, sort herself out, and get ready for the evening's corporate festivities. But she gives a thumbs up to his suggestion that he knocks for her later, so they can go down to the party together. Deal done, Sam heads off, and Gill watches him go.
She must admit, his bum looks good in those jeans!
Gill chooses to take the grand staircase, over the lift to the first floor where her room is located. The large landing and wide corridors are plushily carpeted, tastefully decorated, sparking in her a rather pleasant sense of anticipation, that the room will be something a little more special than your average chain hotel provides. Arriving at its door, she utilises the key card and lets herself in.
When the agreed to knock comes, Gill isn't ready. The room she's been given hasn't disappointed. Far from it. It's spacious, beautifully decorated and comfortable almost to the point of being, one might conclude, luxurious.
In any event, its effect was profound. And she had thrown her usual caution to the wind and opened the mini bar. From which, whilst laying on the big, beautiful bed wrapped in the super soft white towelling dressing gown the Hotel provided its guests, she had drunk two small, but exorbitantly expensive bottles of chilled white wine. Being not much of a drinker, the combination of the wine and the plushness of her surroundings had left her super relaxed and enjoying the feeling of being to the manor born. Albeit temporarily.
All of this adds up to, she'd spent too much time on the bed, sipping wine, and enjoying the shite programs that she had flickering on the oversized TV that stretched out along the wall in front of her. She had showered and was in the process of applying her makeup in the large non-mist bathroom mirror, when Sam arrived at her door. But that's as far as she'd got. So, it's in the white super soft dressing gown that she answers the door, and lets in Sam who, stating the obvious, points out that she isn't even dressed. And that they were meant to be joining the others in a few minutes"!
