Hi, this is my entry into the
Valentine's Day Story Contest 2023
and it is a long, slow-burn romance.
So please, stick with it until the end, before you judge or vote on it.
If this doesn't suit you, then please, read either any other stories of mine or another contestant's stories.
A special thanks to Nicole for Beta reading at short notice, giving advice and support throughout multiple changes.
Other thanks to another friend, who unknowingly inspired Bea's character and continues to make me laugh.
A chance meeting with a truck driver inspired the story.
~~~***~~~
Laura climbed back up into her lorry's cab after finishing her last delivery on one of the largest local caravan parks on her patch. She slumped into the driving seat, pulling the door sharply closed behind her, shutting out the thundering rain. Thankfully, her fluorescent coat and leggings had kept her dry except for the odd drip down her neck. She wriggled in her chair and pulled her coat's hood off her head.
With a sigh of relief, she fired the old truck's diesel engine up and the heater fan whirred into action, fighting to clear the condensation from the inside of the windscreen as Laura flicked the wipers on to fight the rain on the outside. She had over an hour before being expected back at the depot.
More importantly, her only friend Bea was on the other side of the caravan park. As always, whether delivering to clients in the park or just locally, Laura had rushed through her schedule to ensure she'd have time to call in for a cup of tea with her favourite customer.
She'd started her new job earlier that year and loved the independence. At first, delivering LPG was a little scary, knowing that behind her sat a tank of nearly three thousand UK gallons of Liquefied Petroleum Gas held under pressure, but the instructors set aside her fears on the LPG tanker operators course the company sent her on.
After driving forty footers, the short tanker was a breeze. Luckily her reputation on the long trailers had caught the ears of the boss and he'd head-hunted her. The shorter hours and pay offer had tempted her, but the opportunity to be home every night made it an offer she couldn't refuse.
Bea was one of her earliest customers and after that first meeting, Laura engineered her schedules to visit as often as possible. Over the year she'd known her, Bea became the closest thing to a friend she had. She loved watching Bea curl the bands of her hair around her fingers as she gabbled on relentlessly about everything and nothing.
Normally she found overly chatty people annoying, but Bea has an innocence that endeared her to Laura. Even with her blindly jabbered on, she never had a bad word to say about anything or anyone and always found the silver lining on every cloud.
More importantly, the short brunette was the most gorgeous woman she had ever met, witty, bubbly and as cute as hell. Her smile is a ray of sunshine on a stormy day that produced cute dimples, and her perfume hinted at something more sensual about her.
Throughout the summer, she continued to unwittingly tease Laura's taste buds by wearing the teeniest bikini top that displayed her tanned body and barely held her sumptuous cleavage at bay. The sun also brought Bea out in the tightest pair of shorts that gave flashes of white as the base of her tight, plump cheeks that peeked out from beneath the legs of her shorts whenever Bea turned her back to her.
Bea's only downside was that she was straight and lived with her boyfriend, Steve, who luckily was never around, as he worked suspiciously odd shifts, making Bea essentially lonely and craving company.
Laura was the opposite. Her previous girlfriend left her for a man, after living together for a year. She ended up in yet another bout of depression. As a result, she returned to distrusting people and hating crowds. After Covid and the lockdowns, the government gave grants to encourage new haulage drivers and considered the isolation as a further benefit. She embraced it as an alternative career path.
Despite people annoying her, Bea had become the yin to her yang. Laura couldn't put her finger on it, but every visit energised her and carried her through until the next excuse she could find to call in. The icing on the cake was the jungle drums of the park, which always ensured Bea knew when she was delivering and, as a result, she rarely arrived unexpectedly.
The lorry's windscreen heater made some headway, and the wipers fought the waterfalls of rain, swishing them away from her vision. Laura could see the caravans with their tiny undersized wheels that laughingly deemed them temporary homes, despite being surrounded by dwarf walls or picket fences.
She soon felt the heater warming her toes through her wet boots as she removed the handbrake, selected first gear and pulled away, zigzagging through the park's maze of link roads. She loved the anticipation of seeing Bea's caravan's bay window light in a few corners, which will be a beacon of delight shining through this grey day.
Three... Two... Laura counted the turns, driving through the maze that threaded through the caravan park. She stayed in a low gear, eager to turn that last corner and honk her horn, knowing that being early afternoon the neighbours wouldn't mind.
One... She wound the steering wheel around, wishing she had the power steering of the forty footers as she watched her headlights swing through the turn, cutting through the darkness of the dying afternoon. Laura's heart sank as she saw the dark blank bay window of Bea's caravan.
She'd never found Bea away from home before. Rather than pulling in, she straightened her lorry up, preparing to change up a gear and head out. As she passed the front of the unlit caravan, seeing movement, she stamped on the brakes, bringing the heavy lorry to a lurching halt.
Laura gasped in fright as she saw Bea, dressed in a sopping wet grey tracksuit, sitting on her front door's top step, a bag by her side, her head bowed onto her hands, hidden by her now straight soaking wet hair dangling down over her like seaweed washing off a rock.
Bea didn't look up as Laura dropped into neutral, pulled the handbrake on and took in the scene as she pulled her coat hood up. Bea's buckled and damaged front door had yellow tape, with 'POLICE' crisscrossed over it. Laura could see a notice on the inside of the opaque door's glass panel that even in the rain, she could read `REPOSSESSED'.
Laura's adrenaline pumped through her as she grabbed her spare donkey jacket, threw herself out of the cab and ran over to her friend, who was shivering but still not looking up.
"Bea, Bea, what the fuck has happened?"
Laura stopped in front of her to match her height on the steps, wrapping the coat over Bea's shoulders. The rain streaked over Bea's head and her fingers appeared to pull the coat tightly around her.
Laura read the repossession notice. It quoted various acts and bylaws, listing dates that the bailiffs had attempted to recover rents and debts owed. Last of all, dates confirming the county court's ruling of eviction.
"You've been evicted? But why did they smash the door in?"
Laura's mind raced, imagining a fierce battle like the Alamo of Bea and her boyfriend defending their castle.
"He never paid a penny. He said it was all a mistake, a mix-up, and he'd sort it. I never saw any papers. He always dealt with it, saying they had it wrong and he'd paid."
"Do you need a lift anywhere, to your mum's, brothers or sisters?"
Bea had never spoken of her parents or family in the present, only as memories of growing up.
"Even if I had my phone to ring them, they wouldn't answer. They warned me when I moved in with Steve. We've not spoken in a couple of years, as they had nothing good to say about him, always against him. They never let him near their house."
"What about Deirdre over the road? You're both as thick as thieves."
"Don't make me laugh. She's like the others, telling me I'm the reason their rent and rates have gone up. They all saw the police arrive this morning and drag us out of our bed, collect evidence, and then watched the bailiffs take the rest before changing the locks. This is all I've got."
Bea's hand patted the large bag for life at her side.
"Why did they drag you out of bed?"
"Ha, that rotten so and so of a so-called boyfriend of mine, wasn't working shifts as he's never worked a day in his life; all he's done is lie through his back teeth. I've been treated like public enemy number two and he's number one. They told me about his previous convictions for burglary, joy riding and now drug dealing."
"They believe you, right?"
"I don't know. They've let me go but have kept him in, saying they want me to tell them everything, but I know diddly squat. They've even seized my phone. I had to give them my passwords and have to return to the station tomorrow. I've not a single penny to my name and yet they found a hundred grand in the boot of his car."
"What about, all those friends you have? Can't you stay with them?"
Bea looked up, her tired, bloodshot eyes blinking through the strands of wet hair.
"All my old friends thought the same as my family and dropped me one by one. I want nothing to do with him or his friends; they must have known his lies and I must be the biggest joke of the century."
Laura's sense of justice and fair play kicked up a notch, as well as a desire to protect her only genuine friend. A plan formed in her head and to her, it was a simple decision.
"Right, come on, get in my cab."
Bea's eyes dropped to the floor, her hair sticking to her like glue. The once-dry donkey jacket struggled to hold the rain back as Bea remained frozen to the spot.
"Come on, you can stay with me."
With her shivering so hard, it was difficult to tell, but Laura was sure Bea shook her head. Laura's blood boiled, time was ticking, and her plan needed time. She grabbed Bea tightly by the arm and pulled her up onto her feet. Her other hand picked up the bag.
