MY INTERLUDE: MOVING ON
In the spirit of openness, Tess has written her own interlude, telling of the other women she loved and lost before Karin arrived in Australia.
Author's note: The film Petrov, mentioned towards the end of the story is my own fictional creation introduced purely to drive the plot forward. There was, I believe a film about the Petrov Affair some years ago, but it bears no relation to this 'Petrov.'
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It's a cold day here today, the snow came again and blanketed the streets, leaving cars covered in a thick covering of snow. It's lovely to look at but a bitch when you have to go work in it! But now that I'm home again and the stew for our evening meal is in the oven I've been thinking about the other women I loved and lost before Karin flew into Australia. Seeing as mum has written her little interlude about Karen I've decided to title this My Interlude: Moving On. It gives mum a chance to catch up with me as well!
So with that in mind let me sketch in the background. One of the first things I did after I broke up with Holly was to transfer my credits to a university course at Monash University and elect for a four year Bachelor of Arts. The primary reason being the fact that Holly was doing her TAFE college at the same campus but the secondary reason was because I wanted a decent education and that meant I'd have to put my nose down and my arse up and get to work.
Because Monash was so far from Lilydale I contemplated moving out into student digs but then Birgit found me a cheap four cylinder car and I also got a part time job working as a teacher's aide at a local high school. Added to that of course was the fact that I could now make clothes to order, mum and Birgit had bought me a sewing machine the previous year and Anna helped out with some other vital implements as well.
Another factor that played a major part in my decision to stay at home was the fact that a few years previously, we'd had an extension built in the backyard. It extends down the side of the pool and keeps the nosey guy and his even nosier sons from peeking over the fence at mum, Birgit and I. At first it was supposed to be a games room and spare bedroom because it had the wooden decking all the way along the front. But once I started making more clothes to order for friends, the games room became the sewing room. It made sense because there was enough room for a table tennis table but because the legs fold up it could be put on top of my cutting table.
Thus, I was actually in a far better position just staying at home, unlike Paul who'd finally moved in with Kelly into a unit in Warrandyte. He was working for a local builder and earning pretty decent money.
Which is how I met Emily Brown. She was from Devon, studying macroeconomics on a student visa. She had plans to apply for a bridging visa so she could stay and apply for a Temporary Graduate visa, which costs a bit of money. Emily's family back in Britain had given her money from the 'bank of mum and dad,' but she was still needing money for clothes and that's when she came to me. One of my straight girlfriends had told her I made clothes and when she met me in the student café the first thing she did was complement me on the blouse I was wearing. It was actually quite a plain ivory coloured blouse but it looked good enough for an office job, that day I was wearing jeans with it. I sympathised with her over our immigration and visa system. It's a dog's breakfast and that's being polite, and if it was a dog you'd shoot it I told her.
"But if it's clothes you want, I'll make them for you and charge you for material only, anything to help out someone in need."
I always was too soft hearted but in this case it had side benefits! When I was measuring Emily up she casually mentioned that she was gay but I value my straight girlfriends too much to come onto them. She was looking at me when she said it and I just smirked because my straight girlfriends valued my privacy too much to just tell anyone that I was gay.
"I'm the same," I shrugged, "I got with my best friend from high school and it was the worst thing we ever did together."
"Me too," she replied, "which explains why I was so keen to come here and travel, I thought if I put some distance between her and I then maybe we might be able to mend some fences."
I winced and nudged my glasses further up my nose, this was cutting close to the bone. We sat and talked for a while about our previous girlfriends. She'd had several and I'd only had one but when I left her house I felt the first quivering of desire. Emily was a petite dark haired woman with brown eyes and a gentle nature, but she also had that classic British self deprecating humour.
I found myself thinking about her over the next few weeks while I made up some clothes for her, we didn't see each other much at university because it's a big campus and our class schedules didn't exactly coincide. But after four weeks I arranged to meet her and turned up with a blouse, a top, a trouser suit and a skirt. Emily was goggle-eyed when I laid them all out and told her she could pay me now or pay me off in instalments.
"Or even when you get your first job," I joked.
"This is too much," she picked up the blouse, "how much in total?"
When I told her the price she swallowed.
"That's too little, God, I would pay ten times that for all of this."
"Consider it an act of kindness," I shrugged, "we're not all hard hearted pricks here," I looked down at myself, "come to think of it I think my prick has fallen off."
"I'll pay you now."
"No, you'll try them on first and make sure they fit," I moved towards the door, "I have to go to the toilet, so I'll be back in a few minutes."
I didn't really need to go to the toilet, but I did need to collect myself. I hadn't been with anyone since Holly and on the way over it had been on my mind that if she made the first move I wouldn't resist but I wasn't sure I'd be able to make a move on her first and thankfully I didn't need to because when I stepped into the bedroom she was just fastening the last button on the blouse.
"Well?" I closed the door.
"Everything fits," she stared at the mirror, "this is like Christmas, I should pay you more."
"Forget it," I picked at the sleeves, "it's all part of the service."
She turned to face me and I thought she was going to kiss me but then she turned back to the mirror and flipped the collar up. This blouse was particularly eye catching. It was made of ivory-coloured silk with two pleats running down each side of a placket, it buttoned to the top and had a matching satin tie.
"I haven't seen something like this for years," she murmured.
Emily took a purse out of her handbag and extracted $200 but as I grasped the money she gripped it tighter and smiled. I returned the smile and then she leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. I moved with her and put a hand on her hip and she released the money.
"Did you make this too?" Emily picked at the ruffles on my blouse. It was a low cut, dark green ruffled blouse in silk charmeuse.
"Yeah," I kept my hand on her belly, "it's silk charmeuse, it's quite hard to work with. I'd have to charge you more for something like this," I looked down as she slipped her hand up over my breast and held it there.
"How much?"
"Um," I swallowed and looked past her as Holly's face rose in my mind's eye, "seventy five or so, depending on what you wanted."
"This," she squeezed my breast and I inhaled and squeezed her waist in return, "in white."
