The characters in this story are all over eighteen and the age of consent, sex if it happens is consensual. UK English is the rule: if the spellings Mum, arse or colour annoy you, don't go any further, for the rest of you enjoy.
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Albriton was a faded Victorian seaside resort on Britains south eastern coast. It was selected by the Victorian railway entrepeneurs as a seaside destination for those newly enfranchised families who had been granted a statutory two week break. So they formed the London Albriton and South Eastern Railway Company and allowed its lines to spread from their Victoria terminus in London via small convenient towns until the grand station terminus at Albriton. The crumbling facade of the old station and the faded peeling paint of the four storey hotels and smaller three storey guest houses showed the poverty that now existed in this once glamourous town.
No longer the destination of hordes of families for their summer break it had wallowed in despair since the late sixties. Recently, however, the town council had managed to obtain Government funds and developed a new shopping and cinema complex which straddled a block between the two major shopping streets. The venture was bold, futuristic and doomed to failure, since no money existed in the surrounding area to prime the retail pump. Local residents, however, had slowly taken back their sand covered beaches and forgot about the levels of drug, alcohol abuse and petty crime that gripped certain areas of the town. The beaches were gloriously sandy, but with patches of large pebbled inlays in arcs along the sea front. At the far end as the town and sand ran out the beach was almost completely pebbles and a sign of the times was that the designation of this area had been amended to that of a naturist beach.
Susie Walters lay on her back on the beach on a towel, topless, but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary. At six foot three inches, she was considered tall for a woman. There is always a however, however; Susie was completely flat chested. Although possessing a forty inch chest, there were no actual breasts visible as such. True thanks to her efforts in the gym she had what appeared to be nice pecs, but she looked as far removed from feminity as could be. She had a slim boyish figure with a flat stomach and barely any hips.
Down below, under her shorts, she wore knickers over a freshly waxed bare mound, and tucked under and inside that, her labia, vulva and vagina were perfectly formed. In fact she had everything needed to procreate, or have fun. However, her main concern was just that she had no breasts. At puberty, as her friends developed, she remained flat; they had lumps, bumps, then little mounds, puffies, then full grown mammeries, Susie had zip.
A visit to a paediatrician and a gynacologist found no problem with her post pubertal development. Except, as she had screamed at them, "I have no tits, dugs, norks, lady pillows, fun bags, boobs, mammaries, breasts". The medical fraternity thought; took pictures, measured; thought some more and finally concluded, there was nothing to be done, next case please. At least she had nipples they concluded, so she wasn't as complete a freak as she thought she was!
After considering surgery, she had thought on and decided if that's what had been provided, there had to be a reason, so she sat it out and waited for mother nature to supply an answer. Now here she was, thirty three years old, single, and topless. She had lost count of the number of guys who had asked her, "Got a light mate", thinking she was another guy. It happened daily. Truth was though, she could get away with being shirtless on a hot day, whereas her friends could not. She had never had trouble buying a bra, or found a top too low cut. A couple of times she's tried a bra with a pair of inplants tucked into them, but it just made her giggle as they swayed around. In reality a couple of her rather well endowed friends were very jealous and made sure she knew it.
At three pm, Susie got up, rolled up her towel and walked to the roadside and as she padded off the beach pulled on a Liverpool FC top. She decided to wander through town, so she sat on a nearby bench and brushed her feet dry, then put on a pair of short socks and trainers; they were fairly bland. She didn't want to draw attention to herself by wearing girls style footwear in public, what with her boyish shirt and shorts. The fact she had a short boyish haircut all helped her blend in and not look too freakish in her eyes. Standing up and glancing left and right, she ran across the road and headed up through the lanes to the shopping centre.
As she walked though the new centre, wittily named BroadWalk, a girl appeared by her side and nodded at her.
"Hi Susie, how're doing?"
"Bloody hell, Lola Viola, how the hell are you?"
Ramona Violetta grinned and they hugged. They stood facing each other. Susie looked down at the woman Lola had become. She was dressed in a smart white peasent top, with a scoop neck, revealing a bit of the cleavage she undoubtedly had, over that a slightly scruffy and probably too small denim jacket sat round her shoulders. Down below that a short ra-ra skirt sat over her hips and covered only the tops of her very tanned and shapely legs. Finally reaching her feet she saw that they were neatly covered by a pair of canvas sandals. Susie grinned,
"It must be what, twelve no fifteen years since I last saw you; the sixth form dance wasn't it?"
"Yeah, I was with Rici F, remember him?"
"Oh yeah, Tricky Ricky, I swear that guy had four arms?"
"Yeah, he did, especially back then; but fool that I was, I married him!" Lola grinned.
"Shit, sorry, he was OK, there were far worse than him." Susie began to redden uncontrollably.
"Yeah I know, but, he died last week. Sudden like, no explanation, just found in town, on his back, dead." Lola looked at the ground, which Susie now hoped would swallow her up.
Shit, shit, shit, I am so, so sorry, my mouth just runs off, I didn't..." Susie floundered to a halt, thinking having dug the hole she should now stop digging.
"It's Ok, we'd divorced about four years ago, he was; well, he had other women, lots of other women." Her mouth was turned down and Susie felt inadequate as usual.
"Oh God! poor you, I don't know what to say." Susie shook her head and put her hands on Lola's shoulders. Lola sighed and put her hands on Susie's waist. "Can I buy you a coffee and we'll talk some more, you sound like you need to get this thing out of your system."
"That would be good; nice; yes please, a coffee would be great."
"there's a Starbucks over there or we could go over to the old place, in Fore Street."
"Flic's! Let's go there, it's not changed much and we might get a booth."
Susie nodded and wrapped an arm round Lola's shoulder, Lola at five foot four was like a small garden bird propped against Susie's heron like stature, but they hugged together and walked out of the Centre across the road and into Fore Street. Flic's wasn't really empty, but it was nowhere near even half full. They found a booth and waited for the Waitress. A lady in her early sixties came over, took their order and disappeared. They sat opposite each other and Susie thought that Lola appeared preoccupied, although she thought she knew the reason why.
"So you and Ricky right?"
It's Rici!"
"What?"
"His name was Rici!"
"Right, Ricky," Susie gestured helplessly.
"But you're saying it with a y it's not, it's Rici with an i; Arr, Eye, Cee, Eye; Rici."
"Rici?"
"See not difficult is it. Rici. He was named Ricardo Alberto Giacomo Fenstretti."
"Fuck! sorry, but that's a mouthful." Susie couldn't help smiling.
"Fuck you! Every day he got the piss ripped out of him for his name; every day just like me."
But I thought your name was Lola Viola?"
It's Ramona Violetta, actually; although my family call me Mona. But everyone at school called me Lola, like Mona was too difficult right. Then that prick Kevin Porter shortened my surname too and made me a cartoon character, fucking happy days."
"I'm really sorry Mona, I'll try to remember not to call you Lola anymore."
"S'All right, I'm used to it by now; it's just sometimes I get a bit..."
"Pissed off with it?"
"Yeah that's it alright. But you must know that Susie, what with the Titless Wonder jokes."
"Tell me about it, still no use crying over spilt milk, or even no milk! Ah ha, coffee."
The waitress put the coffees down and left the bill between them. They took a sip and smiled as the delicious fresh brewed coffee taste filled their mouths. They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the feel of the coffee and the warm inner glow it gave them. Susie looked at Mona and smiled.
"So, what a coincidence meeting you today?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Well not really, I'd been on to your office earlier and asked if you were in; they said it was your day off and you usually spent it bumming about on the beach at this time of year. I was heading that way when I spotted you."
"And that was because?"
"I want you to help me find out what happened to Rici?"
"And I'm qualified to do this because..." Susie raised her arms out,
"You're the Argus's ace investigative Reporter..." Mona looked at Susie imploringly.
"No! I am in fact, the Argus's local reporter. I deal with obituaries; thefts but only those not involving violence; flower shows, dog shows, bring and buy sales, Parish meetings and Fetes. The only investigating I do is about the taste of the cakes and wine at the shows and fetes I go to." Susie stared at Mona and waited.
"But you've always wanted to be an Ace Investigative Reporter haven't you?"
