For those that have been following this story welcome back, for those jumping in I have tried to encompass enough detail in the beginning for you to gain enough of the background not to have to read the first two parts. This is a fairly long section of the whole story and it has an abrupt ending as such if you wish to treat it as a standalone tale. For those following I'll be releasing a smaller bridging piece that will lead us to towards the final curtains of this story.
I'm a Brit, so it's English, English so to speak. It's been checked for errors as per last chapter if it transpires the path I've taken hasn't worked regarding editing I'll be back begging for a Literotica member or two to undertake that work. With regards to the story it covers some uncomfortable topics centred around abuse. If this isn't for you that's fine by me. As for the types of jobs that are referenced I don't work in those professions and apologise if it's too far from reality viewed by a professional but this is fiction?
Please remember that like Star Wars, Harry Potter or the James Bond franchises most of the content is extremely unlikely to occur in real life, but the aim is to try and make it seem as believable as we can through story writing. I'm hoping this goes some way to achieve that. In the meantime, let the show go commence!
ΛΛΛΛΛΛΛAction, Reaction and Consequences Chapter IIIΛΛΛΛΛΛΛΛΛΛ
"Grandad, when did you know where your life was going to go? Did you know when you were going to meet gran, buy a house, have a son? When will I know how my life is going to turn out?"
Seventeen-year-old Matt Andrews threw the question out of the blue at his grandad as they worked in the garage rebuilding Matt's Honda CBR125 engine for the third time in a year. Within a minute they had finished torqueing down the cylinder head nuts. Matt's grandad walked to the bench where he put down the wrench. Above the bench were two shelves containing manuals and other useful documents he had amassed over the years.
He hummed to himself as he scanned the shelves before the old man found an old brown wallet folder. He retrieved it and carefully pulled out several newspaper cuttings placing them on the bench.
"Have a look at this, be careful mind they are getting on a bit - rather like me."
His grandad picked up his cup of tea leaving Matt to look at the yellowy brown cuttings. The first one had the headline '
Bournemouth Bomb Devastates National Line-up
.' There was a grainy picture of a young man in black leathers with slicked back hair holding a large trophy and a winner's garland around his neck. Matt noticed that the man looking back at him bore more than a passing resemblance to himself.
"Crap grandad that's you!"
The old man smiled as he nodded.
He scanned through the article, it appeared that his grandad had ridden at a big national motorcycle race and won, in fact he had won four races over the weekend. He scanned quickly through the other articles and they were full of praise for '
The Bournemouth Bomber'
and how he was tipped for racing stardom as a rare natural born racer.
"I've never seen these, nobody has ever talked about them - What happened grandad?"
"Each person is a jigsaw puzzle son and this is one of the pieces in my life's puzzle. We all start with the same corner piece, born into this world and over time we add more pieces. Learning to walk, first words, attachment to our parents, family and friends form the outer part of our puzzle then we fill the inner pieces as life goes on."
"When I first started work it was for a small bike shop and it ran a racing team - it was good advertising, all the small motorcycle dealers done it. Win on Sunday you'd be selling more on Mondays. Unfortunately, that chap that raced for us had an accident that meant he couldn't race so they let me race that weekend, just to make sure we were out on track."
"Transpired I was good; in fact I was bloody good! Being young I had no fear and took to the track like a duck to water. My first race that weekend I was third, next race second and the last two I came first. They said I was a natural."
"After that first weekend I became the first choice rider to race up and down the Country. I kept winning or came in a very close second. Within six months the big factory teams were banging on the shop door offering me the chance to go big as a factory backed racer. But I didn't."
Matt stared wide-eyed looking at his grandad. He didn't understand so he asked the inevitable question.
"Why didn't you take an offer, you could have ended up being world famous, it doesn't make sense."
"I told you - life is a puzzle and up to a point my next few pieces were formed and ready to drop into place but the bits were discarded and new ones took their place."
" I met your gran at a Butlins holiday camp and fell in love with her the moment I saw her. Everybody around her was dull and lifeless but, to me, she brought a colour and vibrancy to my life, something I knew I never wanted to give up whatever the cost."
"She doesn't know - and you must never tell her- I walked away from possible fame and fortune because they did not compare to her. So a new piece was introduced into my puzzle and from there all of the other pieces were formed and dropped into place over time."
Within a year Herbert Anthony Andrews suffered a heart attack thus creating the last piece of his life jigsaw making it complete. Had he remained racing he would have become a motorcycle world champion but to him that would have paled into insignificance with the life he had shared with his beloved wife.
A few years later Matt Andrews sat thinking about that conversation in a small Italian restaurant in the suburbs of Bournemouth waiting for his wife Tanya to arrive. They referred to the restaurant as
our place
. It was where they had gone on the first night they met - brought together by a terrible traffic accident that they had dealt with. The accident echoed his own childhood; a cruel twist of fate on a wintery morning made him an orphan losing his parents and brother. He had visited the hospital to enquire about the child he had hoped survived the accident he attended as a fireman. Tanya was at the hospital as the police representative which is how their lives became entwined leading to their marriage.
Today was their first anniversary and Matt had thought back to the conversation with his grandad whilst waiting for her arrival and realised how his grandad was right, Matt's own life pieces were quickly dropping into place with clear vision of what the next pieces were likely to be.
The phone buzzed with a message breaking his thoughts.
'
Sorry Catch
(the pet name Tanya called Matt)
I'm going to be about 30 mins late lots gone on today. CU around 8 xxxx'
Matt replied with a couple of
XX
s and then beckoned the waiter for another beer.
"Shit! I need to go Graham, Matt'll be sitting waiting for me. Dam it! doesn't look good for a first wedding anniversary to be late!"
Tanya's boss Graham chuckled. "Matts a good man Tanya, he'll understand why once you tell him. Now get the taxi sorted and get your arse out of here!"
Ten minutes later she was in the taxi, her original plan was to go home and change into something sexy befitting a first anniversary dinner but the news and meeting with Graham had put a spanner in the works of that plan.
As the taxi made its way to the restaurant she pondered on her life to date. Until eighteen months ago her focus was simply work. She had few romantic encounters keeping men at arm's length, not wanting to form any meaningful relationships. She enjoyed sex, what young adult doesn't, but the majority of time her fingers and a few personal toys had given her the sexual release to iron out those urges. That was until Matt literally stepped into her life via that twist of fate.
She thought back to the first meeting; how the man had broken down within minutes of meeting her. His own trauma from his childhood sprang like a jack-in-the box into his adult life when he dealt with a mirror image of his own trauma. After this she felt a connection, a deep connection, she knew at the time it was crazy. With this man it truly felt like cupid had sat waiting for that day to throw two similar souls together.
Until Matt came along her own childhood loss had driven her to want to make people pay for her loss. Her mother was a junkie who had used prostitution to feed her habits until her life ended before she had reached twenty-one years of age. Joining the Police had allowed her to become a tool to find and punish the type of people that robbed her of a happy childhood and loving mother.
A whole year, she thought, a whole goddam year had passed since she had tied the knot. In a conversation before they married they had spoken about their future together and the prospect of children. Her aim was to get to the top, be known as the best of the best by destroying as many criminal and their empires as she could which could only come about by deft intelligence gathering and this is where she excelled. The fly in the ointment is that she had committed to Matt that after five years she would start to raise a family with him, irrespective of how far she'd climbed her personal mountain.
Back when this was discussed her mouth had uttered words of commitment but she knew in a corner of her brain, the part that had always driven her life. would be ready to light the match to burn that agreement if required. By then their love for each other would be able to overcome this obstacle she reasoned.
"Here you go luv, that's eight pounds fifty."
The taxi driver broke her train of thought, she handed him a ten pound note before hastily exiting the taxi and stepping into the restaurant.
The restaurant staff had become accustomed to Matt and Tanya treating it as their special place they reciprocated by treating them as if they were local royalty. Every time they booked they were always sat them in the same place as when had their first meal together whilst the staff fussed over them.
Matt watched her come in, he wanted to pinch himself to be sure it wasn't some dream. Even being married a year his heart beat a little harder every time he saw her. Tanya was the epitome of the classic English rose as she walked gracefully towards him. Dressed in tight jeans, figure hugging sweater with hair tied in a ponytail her lithe body could be considered athletic - he knew from personal experience that was particularly relevant in bedroom where she'd earned a virtual gold medal every time they exercised so to speak.
She walked over and kissed him as a waiter scurried over to pull the chair back to seat her opposite Matt.