But now she thought that she might be ready to settle down... just at a time when any hope of that seemed snatched by... well, by England. Or at least by Macclesfield. She hadn't had sex once since coming here, and, since she was living with her brother in a relatively small house, she had felt too embarrassed to buy any toys that might have brought relief. It was by far the longest she had been without sex that involved another person since she'd turned eighteen.
Wrapped up in her thoughts, she parked the car as close to the pub as she could, and then made the dash through the rain to get inside, silently cursing herself as she realised she had forgotten her umbrella this morning.
The pub was a typical two-story building, built of the same greyish brick as everything else around here. The small yard out back would have been empty were it not for the pair of smokers huddling up against the wall, and the blackboard outside promised discounted drinks on - surprise, surprise - a completely different day of the week. It wasn't much, just a small local, but Jerzy liked it, and it was where he had agreed to meet her after work.
But, as she looked around the dingy interior, she realised that he wasn't there yet. Perhaps a job had overrun; it wasn't that unusual. She pulled her mobile from her pocket to check for messages, and immediately saw that he had left one. Her heart sank as she read it - he wasn't coming. In fact, he wasn't going to be home until tomorrow evening.
Well, she knew what that meant: he and Sandra were making another night of it. It was yet another way that he was clearly getting more out of being in this country than she was.
Of course, the house was in his name, so, when he had first started dating the giggly blonde secretary, that was where they had spent the night. But it seemed that, if Raina was embarrassed to buy anything intimate that he might find, he wasn't too keen on her having to listen to his night time antics through the thin walls of the house.
She suspected that the last straw on that front had been the night that Sandra, who tended to chatter away without thinking at the best of times, had suddenly shouted "fuck me hard in the ass!" loudly enough that not only Raina, but surely also the neighbours, had been able to hear. Since then, they had spent their nights together somewhere else, which was a blessed relief under the circumstances.
She stood there for a moment, debating whether she should just turn around and go out again, or if she should at least buy a drink now she was here. No, she decided; there wasn't much point to drinking on her own. She had to admit that she was also feeling a bit 'napalony' (whatever the word was for that in English), although she couldn't really explain why. With the house to herself, she should take the opportunity to go home, curl up under the bedsheets, and work out her sexual frustration as best she could.
"Hi, Raina, isn't it? You look a bit lost... did somebody stand you up?"
She turned to see a young man, about her own age, looking at her expectantly. It took a few seconds for her to remember where she knew him from. She didn't think they'd ever spoken before, although she did wear a name badge at work, so that was probably it. And, being English, he probably didn't want to take the risk of mis-pronouncing her surname. Which, in her experience, he was almost certain to do.
"Yes... no... my brother. My brother was to meet me, that is all," she said, "but he is busy." She struggled to remember his name, knowing she'd heard it somewhere. "You are Mister... uh... Pen... Pren..."
"Call me Matthew," he said, smiling, "do you mind if I buy you a drink?"
"Oh..." she was taken aback by the sudden offer, and, at first didn't know how to respond. Didn't she want to get home? On the other hand, Matthew was rather good looking, with dark eyes, medium length hair and a short beard. He wasn't quite as muscular or as tall as her usual type, but his build was slim, without being skinny, and he was no shorter than she was. And hadn't she just been musing about how she had no friends here? "Yes, yes, of course you may," she said, "thank you."
Soon they were sitting at a small table near the bar, a drink each between them. She knew Matthew from the school that her agency did cleaning for, one of a number of different premises that she worked at, as the demand required. That was why she hadn't recognised him at first - he was a teacher, and she had only seen him in suit and tie before, not the casual shirt, sweater, and jeans he was now wearing.
She, on the other hand, was still wearing her cleaner's uniform. She wondered for a moment if that was how he had 'remembered' her name, and he'd just read the badge as she stood there, but then realised it would have been hidden beneath her coat. So he must have made a note of it when she had been at work, and genuinely remembered it now. That was flattering, at least. Few people at her work places bothered remembering the names of the cleaners.
"So, how long have you lived here?" asked Matthew.
Slowly, but surely, it all came out. Not the part about the sexual frustration, obviously, but all the rest of it. She tried not to be too negative about the country, because that would have sounded rude, and, in any event, it wasn't England - or even Macclesfield - that was the real problem. Yes, there were people here that resented her, but when Matthew was being so nice, even that was a subject she preferred to skirt around for today.
It turned out that Matthew was single; she'd assumed as much anyway, from the way he'd approached her. He seemed genuinely interested in her, but even talked a bit about his own background. He was actually from Trafford, having come to Macclesfield to work, but didn't seem to consider it much of an improvement, which led to them comparing their respective childhoods in their home towns.
It was a pleasant evening, the best she'd had in a long while. Before long, they were laughing and joking, and she couldn't help but think that he spent a lot of time gazing into her eyes. After a while, he bought her another drink, and, when he returned and sat down, Raina experimentally brushed her leg up against his beneath the table. He didn't move away, so she rubbed up against him a little more. He responded by putting his hand on her knee, and, when she smiled encouragingly in response, slipped it a little way under her skirt, stroking her outer thigh.
This was going well.
After a while, Matthew glanced at his watch, leaned back in his chair, and asked "do you want me to walk you home?"
"I have a car," she said, automatically, realising that it was much later than she had thought. Was that really the time?
Matthew nodded silently at her empty glass. Oh, yes, that was probably a fair point.
"Unless..." he said, "I could order you a taxi. You said you live nearby, but..."
"Near enough, yes," she said, "of course you can walk me home." She paused, before adding matter-of-factly, "my brother will not be home tonight."
"So you'll be on your own?" he asked.
She nodded, wondering if he felt the same desire that she did, the one that had come out of nowhere earlier in the evening, and had, if anything, only got stronger since. The way he had touched her leg earlier seemed to imply that he might do.
"That's a pity."
"Yes," she said, smiling as she got up, "a big pity."
The rain had stopped, although the sky was still cloudy, an amorphous darkness beyond the glow of the street lights. They both walked swiftly, an unspoken assumption between them that the night was not yet over, and that they needed to get indoors to conclude it. It really wasn't very far, so it wouldn't be difficult to pick her car up again in the morning. A bigger problem would be someone pinching her space in the meantime, so that she couldn't park outside her house the next day. If Jerzy got back late enough, she could park where he normally put his van. Although, that, to be honest, wasn't the foremost thought in her mind right now.
