1
Kathryn accepted Simon's offer to drive her home from the Tamblyn's dinner party. Jilly was a close friend who had helped her through the trauma of losing her husband to cancer, just over a year ago, at the age of forty-three. She had hesitated in agreeing to be there for the evening, to dress up and be chatty, and to make the most of the hours away from her home. It often felt that she was living in a solitary cell, with no incentive to go out.
"Go on, you may be surprised by whom I have invited to be your companion," Jilly had enthused in her persuasive ways, a laugh never far away,
"I'm not looking for a companion," she had corrected.
"You know what I mean, Kathy...so please, just be with us for the evening."
She deserved to do so because she was way too young to live out her life as a singleton. The grieving for her loss would slowly become muted, never gone, but she also owed it to herself to gradually reclaim a social life that she and Tom Lovett had once pursued. There was now just an echoing void and she knew that a start had to be made in getting back to how life once was, as far as that would ever be possible.
She also knew that she could not live out the rest of her days without the raw and physical pleasures that she had found with Tom, their sex drives matched perfectly, and their loving pursued over nearly twenty years of a childless marriage. Before their romance and marriage, they had each played the field when at university, but not excessively so in her case.
Yet, in truth, there had never been a man like him after they had met and monogamy had become the only way for them each to function. And then the walls of that coveted world had come crashing down and she had been left on her own, financially provided for and secure, but with a void in her life that would have to be filled. Of that she was sure, just as she was intent on doing that on her own terms.
She had been uneasy about letting go when Jilly had spoken about the man she would be seated next to, but she had been persuaded. He too was recovering from a loss, but the apps and sites that helped people like them had not persuaded him to pursue any of the introductions. That much Jilly had also confessed. So, they were in the 'same boat' so to speak. And meeting in homely surroundings might be the way to soften the reality of what they each faced.
"You have to start somewhere and with someone," Jilly had finally said, exasperation clear in her voice. But it went with her friend's understanding too.
As Simon drove her home, her thoughts spooled back to their evening together.
♥
Over dinner, they had looked at each other and smiled, made the most of the opportunity to talk, laughing that Jilly, their amiable hostess, had made up the party's numbers by inviting them as a couple. They had, after all, been placed to sit next to each other at a boisterous table of six other guests. Her soft manner of speaking was in marked contrast to the noisy ebullience of Jilly who held a view on everything and loudly sought Simon's opinion on each subject under discussion. The party had at times been rowdy, in spite of the general conversation that ebbed and flowed across the table before neighbours would turn to talk to each other. John played the perfect host, pouring out some excellent wines that Simon was obliged to sample out of politeness, yet he drank modestly. Jilly would cause the first ripples of conversation and see to it that the party sustained a momentum that would justify all of her efforts.
Kathryn observed Simon as he entered into conversation, with those around him, and listened to his teasing answers after being singled out so often. Whenever they turned to each other to continue their own conversations there had been a smile of interest, even relief, on his face. She had sensed an immediate empathy between them, its origins more than to satisfy Jilly's table plan. She regarded him unwaveringly with her lively brown eyes, attempting to put him at ease in a group where Simon was a comparative stranger. They all knew of his business reputation and how he had made his money, they even commiserated, tactfully, on his bereavement, but of the man, they were all curious. She had learned of his situation; he had been ignorant of her personal life in one particular detail.
Thanks to Jilly he had learnt all about it. She had taken him aside before dinner and explained.
'The poor woman! She had few people to turn to in her grief. It's been eighteen months or so now.'
'I didn't know...it's not something you just ask,' he had replied.
'No, that's true Simon, but, she's a dear friend. Look at her?'
'I have, Jilly! I don't need a prompt to do that from anyone, I can assure you!'
They had laughed at Jilly's directness of purpose and his appreciative reply.
'Okay, I'm sorry.' Jilly had smiled, somewhat crestfallen by her own behaviour., but there was one more observation that she felt inclined to make. 'You're both in the same place, alone after a shattering ordeal. I thought it would help to ask you both, to make it all seem less arranged when we're together like this.'
'He knew what she meant only too well and the woman they spoke of, in her figure-hugging jersey dress, shapely figure, and lovely smile was more than just the object of his attention. He might seek to pursue so much more with her, deliberately purposeful in ending months of not being with any woman that he could take a fancy to. He certainly felt that way about the blonde-haired woman with a cloth choker that matched the colour of her dress, fastened at her throat, a jewelled brooch drawing the eye easily to her.
Kathryn noticed his thoughtful silences and the care he took to answer a question or to enter into a conversation with relative strangers. He weighed up his words carefully and she sensed that with her Simon was more open, his smile broadened as he visibly relaxed, paying her close attention, offering a flirtatious, whispered compliment on the elegant style of her dress. His eyes were attentive, their colour a blue-grey that stared out from a lean face, his furrowed brow often hinting that he was as taken by the moments that they could share as she was. He looked young and fit, his greying black hair swept across from the left side of his head, his mouth small and his chin softly pointed. She thought that his attentive ways, Simon's features, and the way that he had dressed for the evening gave Simon a chance to be the one to break the barrenness that had become her personal life.
But how as she to start, or should she simply let the evening unfold?
2
She had become susceptible to his soft-spoken charm, and the unmistakable interest in his eyes; the way that he leaned in close to her as they talked. She had reason to be grateful that Jilly, who winked at her in encouragement, paid attention to the man on her left leaving Kathryn free to tell him of her interests. There had been the ownership of a small livery stable before her marriage had crashed to pieces. But now she taught dressage -- more as a distraction than out of financial necessity. Kathryn found him to be an engaging dinner companion, openly attentive in his questions to her and the ensuing discussion of her answers.
In a discreet pass, Simon had touched her hand, as he asked about her bracelet. He found it was surprisingly easy, in spite of drinking little and having set off on his 'date' expecting to try and keep up with the horse-and-hound conversation topics that he had imagined would flow between the guests, more so than politics or other matters of interest. Kathryn remained a keen horse rider, and even went hunting occasionally, but it was not a subject he discussed easily or wasted too much time on, loathing everything about it.
