Nothing Personal: Part Seventeen

~ beetleypete

This is the seventeenth part of a fiction serial, in 800 words.

Before walking away, Janice looked him in the eye. “My number? You will need my number if you are going to arrange coming to see me again.”. He got his phone out and entered her as a contact as she said the numbers. Still holding the door open, she gave him a very sweet smile. “Text me while I’m here, so I know your number. I never answer numbers I don’t know”. He did as she asked, and heard the two beeps sounding from he handbag. Then she closed the car door, and stood looking at his car as he drove away.

It wasn’t that late when Clive got back to the guest house, but the key wouldn’t open the front door. He had no alternative but to ring the bell. The landlady appeared, dressed to impress, and he didn’t believe her excuse.

“Oh, I’m sorry dear, I must have slipped the catch by mistake. Have you been anywhere nice?” It was painfully obvious that she had been waiting for him to get back, and he was wondering how long she would have held out if he hadn’t.

He started up the stairs to his room, and she took her last chance as he reached the landing at the top.

“You sure there’s nothing else I can do for you, my love? Tuck you in? Read you a bedtime story?” Something stopped him continuing to his room, and he turned with a smile.

“Yeah, why not? That sounds good”. In a rather undignified way, she quite literally ran up the stairs. He was sure she was licking her lips as she ran.

Lying there later listening to her soft snoring, he didn’t really know why he had caved in. Perhaps the evening with Janice had stirred something in him, or maybe he just felt sorry for the lonely landlady, and decided to brighten her life by providing what she had been hoping for.

When he woke up the next morning he was relieved she had already left.

Probably to get the breakfasts done, not that he knew if she had any other paying guests. Showered and feeling hungry, he went down to order his full English, and was impressed when she made no reference to the night in his bed. If anyone else was staying there, they were long gone by that time.

Now he was at a loose end. The earliest he could reasonably turn up at Janice’s house was when Becky got home from school, and instinct told him he didn’t want to be alone with that girl. Besides, he would have to arrange it with Janice, and she would be at work by now. He settled for a text, asking if it was okay to come to her house around the same time and take them out for dinner.

The reply came so fast, he just knew she had been sitting looking at her phone, waiting.

‘Becky’s staying at a friend’s tonight, so I will get us a takeaway at my place. Come around whenever you want, no need to wait until I get home. There’s a spare key under the large plant pot at the front and it will give you a break from the guest house. xx’.

He hadn’t expected that at all, and was surprised how forward and trusting she was after only meeting him yesterday. He didn’t understand women at all, and wondered if he ever would.

Right on cue, there was a knock on his door. The landlady was outside. “I see you have a car, and if you’re not busy I wondered if I could ask a favour? I need to go and get some shopping at the supermarket, and you could save me the hassle of getting a taxi home”. As usual, she was overdressed and wearing too much make-up, having changed from the outfit she wore to serve breakfast. He didn’t really see how he could say no. “Give me ten minutes, I’ll see you by my car”.

On the short drive to a very large supermarket, she still didn’t mention the night of passion they had enjoyed a few hours earlier. When he parked the car, she was friendly, but not over the top. “Feel free to wait here, my darling. I know how much men hate to go shopping. And by the way, my name is Jane, in case you were wondering”. It hadn’t occurred to him to ask her name last night, they hadn’t done much talking once they got into his room.

He watched her get a trolley from outside the shop, and wander inside. Then his phone rang. It was his work phone, not his personal one.

Alison got straight to the point. “Okay, you want to tell me what you are doing in Stoke-on-Trent?”

32 thoughts on “Nothing Personal: Part Seventeen”

  10. (1) The relationship with Janice is proceeding by the numbers.
    (2) Three women: Jane, Janice, and Alison. One man with two names: Clive Bilston and Tony Scott. I suggest he come up with another name: John Clayton. Then let’s match them up. Tarzan + Jane; Clive + Janice; Tony + Alison.
    (3) Clive is the clown in a 3-ring circus!
    (4) Three female hellraisers have put their hooks in Clive. Now, if they all pull at the same time, will Clive be a barker or a screecher?
    (5) Overheard:
    Jane: “I know how much men hate to go shopping.”
    Clive: “I don’t mind shopping for women.”
    (6) Overheard:
    Alison: “Okay, you want to tell me what you are doing in Greystoke-on-Trent?”
    Clive: “Playing the field. Or rather, enjoying the jungle. Right now I’m concentrating on the letter J. Here a J. There a J. Everywhere a J-J…”
    Alison: “Be careful. I can swap your E-I-E-I-O for R-I-P/A-S-A-P!”

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  14. I don’t suppose telling Janice he’s just there to help an old lady with her grocery shopping would suffice. Janice should have recruited someone whose brains were in his head, nor in his….

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    1. Yes, now he has to deal with Alison, Janice, and Jean. Three women at once is a very difficult balancing act. But I suspect it had been a very long period of abstinence for Clive.

      Best wishes, Pete.

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