ALL TIED UP.
Hi, I'm Jeff, I'm writing this so that there is a record of how I got where I am, not how people think I got here.
You must know how when you are younger and people, (older people,) tell you to do more with your life, make something, do something to make your life better in the long term, have you been told that?
Yer, well I remember getting that little talk on lots of occasions, my answer then was yeah yeah yeah, soon, I'll just go out and have fun now, I'm too young to get tied down now.
Well here am I knocking on thirty... god, thirty seven next birthday, thirty seven, where did life go to?
I'd done my apprenticeship and became an electrician, it's the one thing I can say I've achieved in my life, I have a small business that does alright in a modest way, I'll never be rich, but I'll not be poor.
My dating life is... what best can be described as,... absolutely awful, or in less polite society shit, there I've said it, I know lots of my old mates said it, I mean I think, no I know that they are all married, most have at least one kid, and only two are on their second wife, so far, it seems lots of marriages end up being with the person and they have a second go with someone else, but me, I'm the bloke who all the girls, now women, went out with on one or two dates and dumped me and met their "one and only" straight away, I wouldn't mind so much if we had had a bit of time together, you know got to know each other, but only after one or two dates and then being dumped hurts, and as for sex, I'm not a virgin, but hell, how much sex do you think a man gets on a second date, I can tell you, it's not much.
But I can wear big boy pants and grin and bare it, what other choice do I have, pay for some by the hour? No that's not for me, I won't knock it as I've never tried it, and hope I never have to, so back to my story.
As I said, I did my apprenticeship with a local company, okay it wasn't one of the big ones, it was a man who had his wife as bookkeeper and answered the phone for him, so it was a close run thing that I was able to do everything that I needed to to get my certification, he, Bill and his wife Mary became friends as much as work colleagues, after I had finished my apprenticeship I stayed helping Bill for a year but he made it clear that I had to go somewhere else or set up on my own after that, I set up on my own, stupid? Lots said I was at least mad, but I've made a go of it as I said, Bill and I stayed friends and helped each other out when the job was too big or you just needed another pair of hands to move or hold something, it worked for us both.
We had socialised, attended weddings and on one occasion a funeral, but we didn't party together, a bit too big an age gap, but I had been to their house for dinners, and when I got my flat I had proved I wasn't the best cook in the world, but could make something that was palatable.
My life changed when in the middle of the day in the middle of a job Mary called me, Bill had had a heart attack, he wasn't likely to survive, I packed up as soon as I could, told my client what was happening and they were understanding and let me come back to finish when I could.
Bill didn't survive that evening, I sat with Mary for the afternoon until Gwen turned up at the hospital, Gwen was Bill's sister, Larry her husband, well he did what he was famous for, he showed up just as we were leaving after Bill had passed away and the paperwork that was needed on the night was all signed and put away, Larry wasn't there whenever he was wanted, I'd got used to it over the years, and so had everyone else I thought, but Bill dying must have been the final straw that broke Gwen, I'm not sure that I had ever heard a man swear so much, let alone a woman, she let rip at Larry, I didn't feel sorry for him, from what I had seen over the years and guessed at, he had other women and played around, but I was sure that his not being there for Gwen as Bill was dying, that was the end of him and Gwen.
Bill dying in hospital meant that it was easy to go ahead with the funeral, he wanted to be cremated, so two weeks later as we were waiting for the hearse Mary asked if I would help carry the coffin into the service, Larry was doing what Larry did, he wasn't there, which was the final final final nail in the marriage to Gwen.
The wake was just a sandwich and drink in a pub, nothing big, nothing lavish, just as Bill would have wanted, towards the end when people had started to make their way home Gwen came and found me.
"Jeff thanks for coming, and thank you for being such a great friend for Bill, he always said that you were a stand-up man, you were always the son he didn't have, and thank you for being here for me, that idiot I married promised he would be here to carry the coffin, but just like every other special occasion, he missed it, still I won't be in that situation again, he's toast, my divorce is on the way, whether he wants it or not," Gwen took a sip of the drink in her hand, it looked like she was thinking about something.
"Look Jeff, would you be a dear and meet Mary and me early next week?" I nodded. "There are one or two things we would like to discuss with you, see if we can come to some kind of agreement, can we leave it till next week, Mary and I just need to sort out the last little bits between us first," I said just to let me know when and where, she kissed my cheek, as she had to everyone else who had come to the pub, and we parted, shortly after I went home.
Three days later I received a text from Mary.
{Gwen and I were wondering if midday tomorrow would fit in with your work.}
I text back Okay.
The next day Mary let me in and I had to say she looked like she was holding up well, Gwen was bright and... well her normal self, Mary made a pot of tea and put a plate of sandwiches on the table.
"Help yourself Jeff, you don't want to miss lunch, I know you, I bet this is just your lunchtime and you'd not have anything to eat if you didn't while you're here,"
She knew me so well.
They chatted about nothing for a while, I could see they were nervous about something and waited for them to say whatever it was that was wrong.
We would like to make you a proposal, you live in your flat, you have trouble with storing materials and tools, and Bill always said that you were a nightmare about your paperwork, Gwen and I... we are going to move in together in her house, you could move into Bill's and mine, that would give you a safe storage place, a bigger home," I went to say something. "No, let me finish before you say anything, you can bring Bill's work in with yours, I could do the bookkeeping, answer the phone and everything else that needs to be dealt with, that would leave you with the work to sort out, it might even allow you to get help, you know, have an apprentice, or employ someone," Mary took a deep breath and looked at Gwen who was nodding at her.
I wasn't expecting that, I mean... but then my brain kicked into the real world, how would I pay for this, my flat was mortgaged, I didn't have a pot in the bank to just dip into, how could this work?
We sat and talked about it, after Mary made a second pot of tea Gwen dropped the mega bombshell, the idea that Mary had put out so far was a bombshell on its own, but when she said.
"Bill left you some money in his Will, we had talked about it before, we didn't think that it would be so soon, but you can buy into this, we could make it a business between the three of us, it would work, they put sheets of paper on the table, spreadsheets and forecasts and... they had thought this out, and by the look of it it wasn't just from when Bill died, it was to well put together, it was, well it was going to work if I said yes.
They insisted that I take the paperwork to my own person, get someone who wasn't attached to them in any way to prove that they weren't getting one over on me, their words, not mine, which I did, I don't believe about not looking gift horses in the mouth, I didn't want to be bitten by rotting teeth, no idea what I might catch, I didn't have much to start with, didn't want to lose that did I.
Six months after that lunch, I was moved in, sorting out Bill's past jobs that needed to be reviewed or some maintenance work that he was responsible for, Mary was right, I had had to take on an employee, we knew each other and he wanted to work for someone, not be self-employed, it works for us.
A year on it was as if it had always been this way, everything in my life was rosy, apart from that one thing, or two, sex, and a girlfriend, not in that order necessarily, I hadn't been lucky, not even a kiss that wasn't on the cheek.
"Jeff, what are you doing this weekend?" It was Gwen on one of her weekly visits to see Mary.
"Nothing I can think of, might wash the van, clean up the store, oh I might watch some bike racing on the box, what about you?"
We had had conversations like this on several occasions.
"It's just that I have a wedding that I have to attend, and it's a plus one do, would you be a dear and be my plus one?"
I wasn't doing anything, and Gwen wasn't asking me to marry her was she, a free bar and a dance or two, better than the box for another night.
"Yeah, why not, you sure you can't get someone better?" She laughed.
"I'll write the details down, I'll pick you up, give you a ride for once," I wagged my eyebrows at her. " Going to give me a ride are you, what all weekend?" I wiggled my eyebrows at her again.
We had had banta before, it didn't mean anything did it, I mean, Gwen was older than me, not by a lot, well I didn't think so, I was forty soon and guessed that Gwen might be forty five, six, five foot and a bit tall, nice legs and body, not that I had seen much of it, she wore trousers a lot of the time, her face was pretty, in my opinion that is, nothing stood out, she was fun to be around and seemed to know what she wanted now Larry was out of the picture, it should be a nice weekend.
