WARNING TO READERS - This is a long, rambling, multi-part story and VERY British. The individual chapters will make more sense if read in sequence.
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Chapter 11: Wet and Dry With Debbie
As I drove to work Monday morning I thought about what was happening. Since that first night in September my entire world seemed to be centred on the seduction of women and the pursuit of sex. I know that it is perfectly normal for teenage lads to be strongly focused on getting their end away, but this was something much more and completely different.
From the very first, I had been convinced that something had happened that evening with Alice, and whatever it was had somehow, left me abnormally irresistible to women. I hadn't asked for it or even worked at developing it, it was just there and part of me and I could not do anything about it. Sometimes I had to think about it and at other times it just seemed to happen without any special effort, but it generally seemed to be linked to touch; my touch on a girl's bare skin appeared to be all that was needed to open the fast track to her carnal desires, and from that point onwards what developed was out of my hands. Certainly 'The Touch' seemed to have more effect on a woman with whom I already had some level of emotional relationship, but I had also felt a strong connection with Georgia Craven when we had touched hands and I hardly knew her and was sure that she disliked me.
I arrived at the garden centre well before eight o'clock, parked the van and walked over to the office and made a pot of coffee. A few minutes later Maggie came in and we sat drinking coffee and discussing the plans for the day, most of the morning would be taken up with interviewing potential members of staff, I had work to get on with in greenhouses and Maggie had an appointment in London in the afternoon, it was Joanna's day off and so Emma would be looking after the shop.
My desk is facing the window and I looked out and saw Jack talking to a man that I had not seen before. Jack saw me at the window, waved and started to trot over to the office building leaving the stranger standing in the middle of the yard.
He came into the office, his face wreathed in smiles. "Mornin' all, "he chimed.
"Who is that?" I asked. It was unusual for Jack to let anybody into the yard until opening time, and this character definitely was not one of the builder's crew. He was dressed in a long brown stockman's coat, a brown leather bush hat and green rubber Wellington boots.
"That, my old son," Jack announced smugly, "Is the man that you two should be busting a gut to put on the payroll!" He paused for dramatic effect, "That, is Colin Llewellyn, and he is here looking for a job."
I had heard much about Colin Llewellyn during the past three years, he had been Jack's apprentice about fifteen years ago before Jack came to work for Maggie, if he was as good as Jack reckoned he was then we would definitely want him on the team.
Maggie glanced at me and I shook my head in answer to her unspoken question. "I don't think that he has sent in an application...?" She started to say.
"No, I don't reckon he would." Jack interrupted. "Not his way, but he was waiting at the gate when I got in a seven-thirty, and he comes with my recommendation, if you want references, and you would be total idiots not to see him."
"Is he that good?" Maggie asked.
"Yes, I reckon he is!" Jack responded. "He is a good all round gardener and nurseryman, natural green fingers...I trained him myself. If he had a bit more flair and imagination then he would probably be almost as good as this 'un." He pointed his finger at me.
"Thanks, Jack." I mumbled, grinning broadly. If Jack really thought that I was that good then that was the greatest compliment that I could have been paid as a gardener; to me that was worth more than all my certificates and qualifications.
"Right, well you had better wheel him in," Maggie said, "There's coffee up here but if he wants a cup of tea then he can bring one up from the staff room?" I never drank tea and Maggie only occasionally did so we just kept a pot of coffee in our office.
Colin Llewellyn was about thirty-five, slim built, about 5' 11" tall with longish dark hair, a stubble beard and the weather beaten complexion of a man who lived out of doors. Beneath the stockman's coat, which was worn but good quality, he was dressed in an ancient fisherman's sweater which was full of holes, over a plaid shirt and brown corduroy trousers with leather knee patches.
He was typical 'Black Welsh' with a broad South Wales Valley's accent and the dry Welsh sense of humour; he was relaxed and full of confidence. Both Maggie and I liked him immediately and we chatted for about half and hour, whilst Maggie made some notes. His experience and knowledge seemed to be everything that Jack had led us to believe. It turned out that he had been working for several years as gardener for a stately home in Hampshire but had recently moved back to Salisbury with his wife, a local girl, and their five children, as grounds man and gardener for the golf club. He now wanted to get back into real gardening, had seen our advert and decided to come in.
After about thirty minutes he pulled an old fashioned 'turnip' fob watch from his inside pocket, "I need to be getting off to work now," he stated simply in his lyrical Welsh sing song accent, "I have enjoyed our talk, see," he added, "and I think you will do me very well.....if it suits you I will start on the first of next month?" With that he shrugged on his coat and wished us good day, shook hands and left.
"Well," I said, "Did we interview him, or did he interview us? Maggie and I both laughed.
"The main thing is he appears to have accepted our offer and wants to take the job." Maggie replied. We were still laughing when Emma came in.
"Who was that?" she asked, "He looked like Crocodile Dundee!"
Taking on Colin was a serious bonus for our plans, he was just the man that we needed to get the work started at Craven Lodge, he had the knowledge and experience of working with that kind of country estate and would need very little supervision.
There were three more interviews scheduled for that morning which I tried to duck out of, but Maggie insisted that I sat in on them.
"It's good management experience," she insisted," besides, you will be working with any new staff as much if not more than me, so your opinions and choices are important."
The first two applicants were for the sales and cashiers job in the new and larger shop. We needed to cover an extended opening time of up to fourteen hours at peak time during the summer and so were looking for two people to work overlapping shifts.
The first applicant was one of those who had sent in a good looking application and turned out to be a very smartly dressed, attractive girl of 17 who had been working in a city shop since leaving school. She was a disappointment. She almost pointedly ignored Maggie and bombarded me with strong body language, leaning forward to expose her impressive cleavage, crossing and uncrossing her long legs and constantly tugging at the hem of her mini skirt. After she left Maggie and I both collapsed laughing, and agreed to cross her off the list.
The next interviewee was much better; she was a middle aged woman, called Eileen Potter, who Maggie knew vaguely as she only lived a few hundred yards down the road and brought her children to the annual Guy Fawkes party. Eileen had many years experience working in shops and was currently employed at a local supermarket as a cashier. She seemed to be a cheerful, sensible type of woman, with the right experience and was overjoyed when Maggie and I offered her one of the jobs straight away, and agreed to start the next Monday to replace Joanna. We both agreed that she would fit in well and living so close to the business was an added reliability factor.
We took a break then called Jack up to the office for the next interview as this one was for a trainee nurseryman who would be under Jack's supervision. The young guy who was applying for the job turned out to be a lad that I recognised from the college canteen although he was doing a different course to me. His name was David Woodman; he was seventeen and doing a botany course part time whilst working as a labourer at one of the competitor garden centres over near Amesbury. He seemed a nice lad and keen to learn the business.