My wife Emily and I were finally going to be able to have a quiet night alone for the first time in what felt like ages. We had dropped the kids over to her mum's house and had planned a simple night of dinner, bottle of wine and a movie. It felt like ages since we had enjoyed a normal couple night together. I suppose it happens to every couple after a while. We had been married for 6 years and together for 9. We have two wonderful kids which we both adore and everything was going great. Despite the two children, Emily still looked amazing, 5ft 7, petite with perky little tits, she had retained her figure well. She had aged slightly but, at only 29, she still looked young. Of course, as with a lot of people, this state of domestic bliss was shattered by the events of the global credit crunch. I lost my job about a year ago which lead to a chain of events which would change our lives, and our relationship, forever. At first, we were not too worried. We had savings and I was confident of finding work fairly quickly. Unfortunately, things don't always pan out the way you expect. The savings in our accounts became less and less and my attempts to find work, any work, added up to a total of zero job offers.
Eventually our savings began to run out and I was forced to turn to family and friends. Inevitably, their ability to help was stretched to the limit and I was forced to borrow money from a source that made me nervous just thinking about it. His name was Gary and he was a loan shark and local thug. Aged in his 50s, overweight but standing well over 6ft tall, he was physically intimidating. An attribute of which he was very much aware. The first time i went to see him he seemed entirely reasonable and even quite friendly. 'Borrow what you need and look after you family' he had said. I did, of course, but it didn't take long for things to start to go wrong. The interest rate that had seemed so reasonable when he had explained it had soon increased almost tenfold due to late payments. Pretty soon I was unable to meet interest payments and he went from reasonable and friendly to unreasonable and very unfriendly pretty quickly.
So sitting with Emily on the sofa that evening after our dinner, with a glass of wine and a film had, despite our situation, relaxed me for the first time in a long time. About 30 minutes into the film, with Emily snuggled up to me, my phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw that it was Gary. my heart began to pound a lot faster.
"Ignore it" Emily said.
I was very, very tempted to do just that as I did not want to ruin the perfect evening we were having. I was worried though. Ignoring Gary was likely to piss him off even more so I got up, paused the film and went into the kitchen to take the call.
"Hello"
"James, this is Gary, when the fuck am I gonna get my money?" he demanded.
"As soon as I have it" I began to plead, trying not to sound as nervous as I felt.
"You said that yesterday and so far you have given me fuck all. Don't mess me around or there will be fucking trouble".
"I'm not trying to mess you around" I stammered, "I honestly don't have it".
"Well then maybe you have something else you can pay me with" he sneered and suddenly put the phone down.
I walked back into the living room in a daze.
"What's the matter? Why did you take the call in the kitchen" Emily asked.
"That was Gary" I confessed.
"Gary Stone?"
"Yes" I answered rather weakly.
"Oh James, please tell me you haven't done what I think you have?"
I said nothing but just looked at the floor.
"What have you done? This guy is the local looney and trouble follows him everywhere".
"I know" was all I could manage.
"James, this is awful. I actually feel quite scared".
"So am I".
"How much money is it?" she asked.
"Several thousand".
"Several thousand! Christ, when does he want it by?"
"Last week".
Her face fell and I thought she would cry. She had very recently had her blond hair cut quite short and she looked rather like and elf. It made her look really cute but now, with her face etched with fear, she looked vulnerable.
Then the doorbell rang. I walked over to the window and saw Gary standing there.
"Its him" I said.
"Oh no James, this is serious".
"I know".
"Just ignore him and he will go away" she said with a distinct lack of conviction.
I was about to do just that when I heard him shout through the letterbox.
"Open up James, I can see you twitching the bloody curtains so I know you are there".
"I had better let him in" I said "I will only piss him off more if I don't".
Emily said nothing so I went to the door. My heart was pounding so much that I thought you could see it.
"About fucking time" he brushed straight passed me and into the hall way.
"Let's do this" he said and walked on into the living room. Emily was standing there quite clearly nervous. His face turned into a pretty awful smile as he looked her up and down.
"You must be this piece of shits better half" he said by way of an introduction.
He held out a hand and she shook it, quite clearly trembling as she did so.
