Sometimes in life, opportunities present themselves to you when you least expect them to. The tale I'm about to tell you happened a few years ago now but, for reasons that will soon become clear, lives on in my mind's eye.
My next door neighbour, Dave, had been seconded to the Middle East for work. Since the duration would be a minimum of a year but could well be longer, he decided to put his house up for rent while he was away. Being a Londoner, although a suburbanite, I tend to keep myself to myself and rarely get involved in other people's business and much prefer them to do the same with mine. So, although Dave had let me know his plans to rent out the house, we never discussed who he would be renting it to because, to be frank, it was absolutely nothing to do with me. I knew the date that he was moving and figured that someone else would move in at some point after that.
A few weeks after Dave left, I saw two cars parked on his drive that I'd not seen before so assumed that his new tenants must have moved in. A few days later, I was working from home in my study at the front of the house when I saw what I presumed were the new tenants arriving home. They were two young women, in their mid twenties I had guessed, so around 20 years my junior, both relatively slim, one with blonde hair and the other a redhead.
One early Autumn day, I was outside in my front garden having a bit of a tidy up when I heard a voice from behind me.
"Hello there"
I turned to see that it was my blonde haired neighbour.
"Hi. I'm Wesley. Pleased to meet you. How are you settling in?"
"Oh great, thanks. I'm Claire by the way. I can't believe we've been living here for nearly 3 months but have only just met."
"Everybody lives such busy lives these days. I did see you a few weeks ago when I was inside when you were coming home with your friend."
"That would've been my housemate, Rachel. We work together at the primary school down the road. We're both in our first year of teaching practice."
"I hear it's a great school. I hope you're both enjoying the house and the area. Feel free to knock if there is anything you need."