I had a busy week at work, but spoke to Natasha every day. My fiancée babbled excitedly when we conversed, and she loved hearing about my victory in court against Samantha, my ex. I didn't know how my former beau would raise over £10,000, and suspected that she would beg her parents to bail her out of the latest mess she had created for herself. I knew my lover would enjoy enforcing the verdict, and her streetwise cynicism would make her a tough negotiator if Samantha contacted us to agree a payment plan.
Natasha spoke excitedly about my visit to the West Midlands at the weekend and said she had arranged something for us to do on the Saturday. She booked a suite at an upmarket hotel in a charming village on the road between Coventry and Birmingham, and I drove up the M6 after work on Friday afternoon.
The booking was for a twin room containing two double beds, and I put my bag on the bed beside the luxurious en-suite. A pair of suitcases were open on the other mattress, and I changed into clean clothes and met Natasha's mother in the hotel bar.
The mousy-haired grandmother rose to her feet when she saw me; her face lit up into a beaming smile as the lithe woman recognised me walking towards her table. "Come here," she squealed, wrapping her hands around my torso and squeezing me tightly. She radiated warmth and friendliness. "So good to see you again. And congratulations. I knew you two would get together and you're exactly what my daughter needs."
I blushed and sat down. Her eyes flickered towards the bar, and I saw an empty beer glass on the table beside her. "That's Conan. He's just gone to get changed. I met him at our photography group." She gulped. "Matthew took the car to go to Scotland on his Touching God nonsense so Conan offered to bring me down here."
I bit my lip. Natasha's mother had a relaxed attitude to monogamy that her husband did not share or know about. She had travelled to the hotel with the express intention of breaking her marriage vows once more. "Do you want another drink?" I asked.
"I'm fine. Tell me about last weekend." I recounted the evening where I had proposed to Natasha and my future mother-in-law beamed through my retelling. "She's so lucky," she muttered. "To find someone who loves her like you do."
I blushed once more and looked at my watch. "We better have something to eat soon, as we have to get to Solihull for Natasha's gig."
Ruslana nodded and gestured to her companion; I had not noticed the stranger waiting beside the bar and watching us. Conan was a middle-aged man with a rugged appearance. His dark brown hair and facial stubble made him look like an outdoor adventurer and an aficionado of masculine pursuits. He towered over the grandmother at around 6ft 2in, and she leant into him on the sofa as we finished our drinks.
We had a meal in the pub across the road. Ruslana raised the subject of our trip at Christmas and she recounted the sordid antics of Natasha and me for her friend. He listened and chuckled, but didn't show any discomfort at the explicit tales of wild debauchery.
"Just so you know, I'm done with my dead bedroom. I intend to do as much fucking as I can and when I get back, Matthew's having an ultimatum. I'm not a nun, and I'm fed up with being treated like one. He either finds his libido or he allows me to play away when I want." His companion's outburst did not faze Conan. He gave a wry smile as the tipsy woman sank another glass of wine and she divulged more personal information about her frustrations.
I knew Ruslana was not happy in her marriage, but hearing her describe the paucity of intimacy in her relationship, I empathised with her plight. She definitely loved her husband, but he could not or would not satisfy her sexual needs. After our meal, we changed and took a taxi to the Birmingham suburb.
Passionate punk rock fans stuffed themselves into the atmospheric venue on the outskirts of the city centre. Ruslana wore a long T-shirt dress, featuring the cover art of a Sex Pistols album, and she blended into the crowd, despite being three times the age of many of the attendees.
I saw Nessie, in a revealing tight crop top, selling merchandise with Fox, and Ruslana bought a few items before the gig started. The aged theatre was smaller than most venues where I had seen the band, and 400 revellers crowded into the grandiose building.
Natasha and her bandmates delivered a powerful, bone-shaking show with a wall of sound that reverberated around the Victorian architecture, with the array of lights casting a spine-tingling aura with imposing silhouettes against the bright colours.
Ruslana surged to the front of the mosh pit, dancing and flailing wildly at the songs. She revelled in the force of her daughter's band, discharging a fiery mix of aggression with their fast, violent, and deafening music.
I felt every note delivered by my fiancée touch my core as they rattled through their set with endless energy. Even though I had heard all of their songs repeatedly over the previous nine months, I loved every moment. I adored them, and at 9:30pm, their show drew to a close. They finished their gig on their new Christmas song, and then Wake Up, by Rage Against the Machine.
The track, where Natasha defiled me in public, on the cool November evening in Bristol, echoed around the venue. The very act which brought us together. I reminisced as she delivered "our song": their iconic finale to close the wonderful gig.
The crowd emptied after the band left the stage, and ten minutes later, my fiancée came into the near-empty hall, gripping a red holdall. A few fans accosted her for autographs and my pink-haired lover happily engaged with the young women, wearing Bitches Against clothing, and signed a multitude of possessions for her swooning devotees.
Ruslana flung her hands around her daughter, squeezing her tightly when she sauntered across to us. "Congratulations." She wiped her eyes when she inspected the ring. "You make such a wonderful couple."
Natasha smiled as we kissed. "Yeah, we do." She glanced at the man standing beside her mother and raised her eyebrows, expecting an explanation. Ruslana introduced Conan in the taxi back to our hotel. She had drunk several alcoholic drinks at the gig, and the middle-aged woman told her daughter what she had revealed to me during the meal. "Great. So I get to hear you fuck all night? Why did you want the dual double room? We could have got two doubles."
"Jacuzzi in the en-suite," Ruslana replied. "It's so much fun to shag in a whirlpool." Natasha sighed at her smirking mother. "And you bought tickets for us to go to the Erotica Expo at the NEC tomorrow! You can't be prudish now! I said find something lively and saucy, and you found that place. It's wall-to-wall sex and I'm so looking forward to it."
My fiancée sniggered, and judging by the expression on Conan's face, he was not aware that the two women had bought entry to the risque roadshow either. "I didn't expect you to want to treat the bedroom as if we were staying in the fucking Playboy Mansion!"
"Stop acting like your father. I know what goes on when you are on tour and I've walked in on you shagging enough times. It's natural." Ruslana spoke lewdly during the journey home. When we entered the hotel, she stopped to chat to the receptionist, leaning over the counter so her dress rode up, and then tried to seduce the barman.