At0micAndy

Chapter 4 part 10 It had been so long since anyone had bought her flowers, she had absolutely no idea where her vase was. Mentally kicking herself for not remembering earlier and so buying a vase in town, the only thing that sprang to mind was the tall asparagus steamer. She took the mesh inner out, filled the steamer up with tap water and added half the packet of supplied plant food. As it stood there ‘steeping’, she turned to the flowers, cutting the bottom inch or so off each stem, poured some boiling water from the kettle into a cup and plunged each rose stem into the boiling water for a second or two. After arranging all the flowers in the asparagus steamer she went and found a spot in the lounge where she could enjoy them, stainless steel vase and all.

Chapter 4, Part 9 Into ‘Girl’ for a good look, and a good deal of excitement as Geraldine found a superb looking black side vent slash bottom off the shoulder dress, and a red low necked strappy silken dress that stopped a decent length down her leg, but only just and as long as she did not have to sit down. Both were stunning and either would do, she couldn’t decide which one, so bought them both, and then headed to the arcade and Debenhams for the other bits and pieces she would need. Into the lingerie department first for some new matching underwear. After a lot of toing and froing she managed to find a thong that would be virtually invisible through which ever dress that she wore, and a lacy lifting and shaping bra that hopefully would make her look good no matter what outfit she went with. A couple of pairs of nude suspender less cling stockings and it was time for makeup. She selected two different colours of Maybeline liquid look high gloss colour and one transparent quic

Chapter 4, Part 8 After driving round the multi story twice she eventually managed to find a place on the open top floor just about as far from the lifts as it was possible to park. Looking at her watch she realised that she really only had about an hour of shopping time available. The weather had started to drizzle and she just prayed, ‘Oh Lord, please don’t let my tan run,’ and made her way onto the Promenade and into ‘Earth,’ a shop run mostly for sizes 8 to 14, although if you were an 8 or 14 you would be hard pressed to find anything that wasn’t either outrageously young (size 8), or depressingly staid (size 14). Fortunately she was a large 10 or small 12 and so had high hopes. Hopes that would of course be dashed. You can only ever find the perfect dress when you don’t actually need it. If you have nowhere to go, are reducing and are a 12 today, but will definitely be a 10 next week, in the first shop that you visit will be a stunning size 12 (small 12) dress sitting on the r

Chapter 4, Part 7 Ping. The chimer went, she turned to the right, and waited for a while, and then a while longer and nothing seemed to happen. She half opened her left eye and tried to peep at the control panel. ‘FINISHED’ it said in calm electric blue letters. “Oh My G…” She had been so preoccupied with what to wear and where to get it that she had not noticed the chimes. Instead of rotating a quarter turn four times and thus getting an even all over all round light tan, she had stood still and taken all four jet sessions to her front. Geraldine now looked like a native of the sub continent from the front, and an Eskimo snow girl from the back. Geraldine took the robe from the compartment, put it on and went out to the girl on the desk. “Don’t ask, don’t look, just give me another programme, right now. I don’t care who is next, if anyone, just delay them, just do it.” Not waiting for an answer, Geraldine went straight back to the booth, de robed and pressed the controls tha

Chapter 4, Part 6 The call had lasted over an hour and Geraldine had thought no more of it, until her monthly telephone bill had arrived a week or so later. That one call alone had cost over forty pounds, nearly twice her usual phone bill – the helpful lady who had connected her to Anne had neglected to tell Geraldine that the call would still be at the premium rate because she had just transferred her. Lesson learned. Flicking through the Parish Magazine, Geraldine found the number for The Tanning Solution in their square quarter page advertisement and dialled the shop. No, they could not fit her in Monday, but they did have a free slot in half an hour. Marvellous, she was on her way she said, dived into the shower, vigorously towelled dry, bra, pants, stockings, dress, coat, purse, keys, alarm, gone. She was only 10 minutes late. The Tanning Solution was actually a clever play on words, because the client would go into a booth and be micro-sprayed with a solution that tan sta

Chapter 4 part 5 Having given up with disdain at the reliability of television adverts, she had decided to have a coffee and catch up on the colour supplement in the weekend paper, Anne would surely phone her at some point, and if not she could always pop round and see her and get the number that way. Having percolated her coffee and strewn the top with freshly grated nutmeg she had sat down for two minutes, ‘and only two minutes’ she said to herself - she had lost enough time already that day, just to flick through the supplement. As always she had started at the fashion pages at the back, before skipping to the ‘who was seen with who’ paparazzi photos at the front. Third page in had been a full page advert for one of the new 118 numbers. So she had rung them and gave the details of her friends address to the helpful lady who unfortunately seemed to have the most difficult dialect to understand. Years ago, you would have said foreign of course, but not now, this accent would have

chapter 4 part 4 Geraldine handed over the information and made a note on her Jotter of the times. Sorted, bit of luck really, they would never believe it at A Cut Above – she hardly believed it herself, and she almost hoped that she would bump into Richard Tuesday night – that would show him, ha. Tuesday then, she had to be at ‘Snips’ for just before 12, and wouldn’t get out much before 2, and from 2 onwards she wanted to just go home and chill and not get her hair messed. Next on the agenda was a top up tan. She hunted around under the coffee table until she found the parish magazine. She could just never remember the number of ‘The Tanning Solution’ and they were too new to be in the phone directory, and as for trying to work out what the number was for directory enquiries these days, well that was all too complicated. She had been caught out before. She had not been able to remember the new number of her best friend Anne who had just moved house. Usually you would expect p

chapter 4 - part 3 "Bugger” Geraldine said to the empty room as Richard cleared the line. Now where? Her white lie had failed. If she had stopped to think, she would have realised that Richard would know everything to know about his competitors, and he would know that Snips would absolutely not have a vacancy Tuesday afternoon. In fact, if she had stopped to think at all, she would have realised no one would have a vacancy on Tuesday, and if she had played it a little softer, Richard might have squeezed her in somewhere. Now faced with little choice, she phoned The First Snip just on the off chance. “Hello, yes, I was hoping to get a hair and nails makeover sometime soon?” “Hello miss, let me see, I don’t expect that we will have any slots this coming week, I know that we are really busy.” The talker went quiet and Geraldine could hear as pages were turned at the other end of the line. “No actually we may be able to help. One of my colleagues has just taken a cancellation

Chapter 4 - part 2 Geraldine took the flowers into the kitchen, plugged the sink and ran the tap, dropping the flowers stem first into the bowl – she would deal with them later. There were more important things to sort out right now. Things had to be arranged. Geraldine looked across at the open report that needed still a few final touches. Work, she decided, would have to wait for now. Fortunately it could, well for two or three days anyway. First she would phone Richard at ‘A Cut Above’ and book her self in for hair and nails Tuesday afternoon. Then she needed to book a session in the tanning room for before the hair. This afternoon there was just time to get into town for a new outfit, most shops would be shut tomorrow, but first she had to get back on the phone and make the appointments. “Hi, I’m looking for an appointment Tuesday afternoon.” “I think madam may have left it a little late. What would madam require?” “Cut it out Richard, it’s me Geri.” “Oh, Hi love, sor

chapter 4 part 1. War Paint After Edward walked to his car Geraldine quietly closed the front door. She turned and stood for a moment in the hall gathering her thoughts. There was much to think about and possibly little time to make the necessary arrangements. There was definitely a game afoot, and this was a game that could be interesting to play, and one that she hoped would finish up with no losing side. “Right Ger” she said softly to herself, “time to get a move on and see what happens.” The pager interrupted his preparations for the evening once more. Wiping the foam from his face before he had even started to shave, he left his wife soaking in the bath and padded downstairs to the study. “Hello. What news?” “Hello Sir. Another meet.” “I See. Anything else.” “Sir, Yes Sir, There was an exchange again.” He was beginning to tire of Natalie and having to drag every item of detail out of her. If things were to develop further, he looked forward to the duty manage

chapter 3 part 12 “Yes, Debbie.” “So I assumed…” “Ah yes, assumption, now we all know what happens when people assume, and this is a classic example of how to make an ass of yourself” “Oh right. Okay then, sorry. Hope to see you on Tuesday then.” Edward turned and left ensuring that Geraldine would not see the smile cross his face. He knew of course exactly who Debbie was, and much more besides, but these were things that, from her perspective, he could not possibly know, and if he did, she may begin to start believing her own lie of him being a stalker. It was important that she did not know what he knew. Important, because if she was who she purported to be, he had to appear to be someone he was not, at least at first. It was also important to find out why Geraldine had so suddenly appeared in his life, was it happenstance or contrivance? He wanted to understand what it was about this woman that had so captivated him, that had made him forget so many years of proper

Chapter 3 p 11 ‘He may not have noticed you before,’ Edward thought to himself, but after I speak to him in a few moments he most certainly will in the future.’ Smiling pleasantly, he responded “No. Thank you, but no. I don’t want to be a pest or a nuisance, as much as I would love to say yes, I shan’t. I really hope that you enjoy the flowers and is your answer for Tuesday available now, or shall I await your call?” “If you won’t come in, then you can wait for your answer. But I’m glad, in a way, that you aren’t coming in. I do prefer a little advance warning for visitors, you know, so I can wash up the odd cup, shovel a path from the door, sweep the dirty underwear to one side, all the usual single person reasons and so for that reason, I thank you for not accepting my invitation inside.” Edward smiled and putting aside the knowledge gleaned from his trip to the office, responded as a man who could not have known what he knew would, and asked, “Single?” “Yes. Single. No cur

chapter 3 part 10 “That’s the feller. Do you know what he does?” “No, I only really know him to say hello to, take in parcels for, that kind of thing.” “He’s my accountant. He is my appointment tonight, and yes it is a Saturday, and yes I am seeing my accountant on a Saturday evening, that’s why I couldn’t see you tonight. I lead such a sad existence. ” “Maybe so, Edward the Actually Not So Sad Stalker, but that doesn’t explain how you knew my address.” Knowing that the best way to hide a lie was with another lie that was actually a truth but not connected, Edward smiled and bowed slightly before responding. “After I left you earlier this morning, I was on the phone to Roger, just making the final arrangements for seeing him tonight, when you drove past his house. He happened to comment that ‘Geri was coming home’, and I said that I’d met a Geraldine today, and well one think led to another, and after two and two had made four, a quick trip to the florist and here I am.”

chapter 3 part 9 The tinny voice from the phone sparked Geraldine into action. She put the phone back into its cradle and walked to the front door, looked through the spy hole and laughed. All that she could see was flowers Geraldine opened the door to see a huge bunch of flowers with a hand wrapped around the stems, and a big grinning face belonging to Edward. “I had such a lovely morning that I wanted to thank you personally, and then I thought how useless I am with words, and so I decided to say it with flowers.” “But how did you find out where I live?” “Oh I engaged the services of several hundred trained sleuths and demanded that they find the location of the most beautiful mini cooper driving auburn haired golly speaking woman in town.” “Somehow, I suspect that may not be quite true” “Gosh, you’ve caught me out in a lie. Actually, it was nothing quite so dramatic, and actually you wouldn’t believe the luck of it. Chap two doors down.” “Roger?”

chapter 3 part 8 “Hello?” “Ah, the stalkee.” “Oh, the stalker.” “Don’t sound quite so disappointed.” “Don’t be so silly. I was just about to phone you and …” “…I know, put me off? Well if you were then I would like to change your mind.” “I rather suspect that you won’t want to change my mind.” “Aha now that sounds highly promising. May I just say a little something? “You may” “May I just say thank you personally for a wonderful morning?” “You may, and thank you.” “Well you need to open the front door” “What do you mean?” Well I can’t say thank you personally if you don’t open the front door.” “What do you mean?” “Open the door and you’ll see.” The phone went dead and Geraldine just stood for a moment, not entirely sure what was happening. “The other person has cleared. The other person has cleared”