Chapter 9
It was at the beginning of the month of September, in the year of our Lord 1982 - three years into the Thatcher era - the Mary Rose would see daylight in less than a month, 437 years after ignominiously sinking below the waves in the Solent, and the Country was still bathing in the reflected glory of the Falklands War (unless you were the Argentinian Ambassador that is) - and it was when Suzie met Shaun.
They met on their first day at University, she wanting to study all things related to Interior design and Architecture, so becoming the best Interior Designer on the planet, and he wanting to study anything with a zero or a one in it, typically Computers and Mathematics, and end up ruling it. What she didn’t want was to let any of the grubby little cretins that were starting to make a bee line for her as soon as she stepped into the reception, get inside her knickers. Quickly getting fed up with swatting them away, she cast around for someone of the male gender that was not drooling all over her, and finally spied an acceptable looking person, reasonably dressed, and reading what looked like technical magazines on his lonesome, and was oblivious to everything going on around him. Dragging her case and rucksack behind her, she sat beside him and told him that he was now officially her friend, and that his first job in that capacity was to defend her honour against all the masses that were gathering to rape and pillage her. The first announcement went clean over his head, but after removing all magazines from within his reach she repeated the spiel and got the desired result, and they became instantly inseparable. After registration, and everything else that goes with getting ‘sorted’ for the next 5 years (both, it turned out were setting their sights high and going for loads of letters after their names) Shaun helped her to find her new room in the Hall of Residence, unfortunately first years had to share, but hopefully next year she would be assigned a single room she informed him. Finding the door slightly ajar she entered her new home from home and almost ran off to join the WRNS (Lady Sailors). In the middle of the room sat a person of indeterminate origins, of hugely ample proportions, covered in tattoos, wearing an off white string vest over a luminous pink bra reeking to high heaven of booze and B.O. and surrounded by its personal debris – over both beds.
‘FUCK OFF BITCH’ it screeched in a high pitched voice and Suzie turned and looked at Shaun in complete panic, all her plans and aspirations were about to be flushed down the toilet by this creature.
‘Follow me’ her new knight in shining armour (well a green woolly pulley) ordered, and they departed the Halls, never to return.
They found his car, a fairly respectable Mk2 Escort, bundled her luggage into the boot and drove off in reasonable comfort, but only for a few minutes. Pulling into the front garden of a mid-terrace town house he sheepishly admitted that he had gotten lost on his trial run and thought the University was farther away than it was.
She entered the house, which was pre-war, but had survived the blitz intact, and found that it had been recently converted into three reasonably sized student rooms, one bathroom, two loos (one upstairs and one outside), a communal lounge with a large TV and comfortable looking furniture, and a kitchen with all mod cons and three large lockable cupboards. Out back the small garden had been concreted over to allow bikes and such to be safely stored – and it was heaven.
‘Who owns this place’? She asked him.
‘I do, well not exactly me, but my parents. They had a few bob to invest in property so they got it for me, so that I don’t have to live in the Halls of Residence; I can study in peace and pick my own tenants’.
‘Who lives here at the moment’ she tentatively asked.
‘I have the front bedroom, you can have the middle one if you want it, it’s bigger than the back room, and we can look for someone else later’.
‘How much’ she asked, her parents were going to help towards the dorm in the Halls but she seriously doubted that she could really afford this luxury.
‘How about we split the bills and see where we go from there’ – she couldn’t believe her ears, and that was the start of the best years of her life (so far).
Shaun never got around to finding a ‘third’ to share, but that posed no problem as the ‘bills’ were only shopping, electricity and the phone, his parents covered the rest, either knowingly or otherwise, although Suzie did take on the cleaning, at first out of guilt, then because she found it very therapeutic, quite the little housewife she thought – I THINK NOT, and they both found common enjoyment in cooking.
They both agreed that their first priority was to be studying, so no wild parties, then to find part time jobs to support themselves. Shaun easily found one in a recently opened electronics/computer shop and Suzie in an upmarket haberdasher.
By ‘year two’ everybody assumed that they were an item, in exasperation they had given up denying it almost from day one, but on its first mid-term break a situation arose. They both had individual friends both male and female (But nothing like that of course) and a growing number of joint friends, and it was one of these that invited them down to her family’s home for the break. Without even pausing she showed them into a double bedroom and as the door closed behind her they sat there for a minute, stunned, then burst into laughter. Although nothing ‘happened’, by the end of the second day they were both completely at ease with each other’s nudity, and on the final day, amid all the panic to get away on time they even showered together, soaping each other and generally bumping into each other’s bits and pieces.
After that both of them would wander around the place naked, or almost, and quiet often they would shower or bath together, especially when in a rush to get out or when there was a water shortage.
By ‘year three’ even their parents accepted that they were ‘at it’ and regularly gave contraceptive advice to both of them as they visited their families’ homes together, (and of course being allocated double bedrooms).
When Suzie’s parents came to stay for a few days during a cold spell, ‘to do a couple of shows’ it was simpler for her to just move in with Shaun and let them use her room (the spare bedroom was now Shaun’s computer workshop) rather than try and explain their lifestyle, and when they left, as if on que it started to snow, so without even making a conscious decision they just stayed in his room, cuddling together for extra warmth. Winter and Spring passed and in early Summer the temperature unseasonably rocketed and they took to sleeping naked, with just a sheet at the bottom of the bed just in case - then it happened - they went to sleep on their sides and Shaun somehow ended up spooned tightly into Suzie’s back and nature started to interfere. The first thing that Suzie became aware of was a pain developing in her backside, in took a few seconds to gather her thoughts and realise what was happening, then she shouted ‘SHAUN’ and tried to pull away. Shaun, still asleep, but fully aroused, grabbed her tightly and plunged fully inside her rear. Her scream woke not only Shaun but also the neighbours. Shaun was mortified and was still sobbing when the police arrived, but Suzie although still in considerable pain managed to explain it away as a horrible nightmare. Neither of them spoke of the incident again and Suzie put it down as her first sexual experience, although not a very pleasant one, ‘well at least she was still a virgin’.
As Shaun’s room boasted the only ceiling fan in the property they perhaps unwisely decided to remain sleeping together, but with Shaun facing the other way, then several weeks later, as the outside temperature returned to normal Suzie cuddled up to him for a bit of extra warmth and in her half asleep state inadvertently allowed her hand to brush his penis, it wasn’t the first time that this had happened and they always made a joke about it - until now, now it was fully erect. Still half asleep she continued to move her hand and fingers gently around and they both became fully awake, but neither stopped the other. Finally the inevitable happened and he rolled away and again cried himself to sleep.
The next morning was a Sunday so they decided to have a ‘Duvet Day’ and sort things out. Suzie was already a stunner to look at and Shaun had more th
an his fair share of admirers, but neither considered that they were very ‘sexual’, but unfortunately their bodies were now starting to tell them something different. As they lay there they both genuinely agreed that although they were not IN LOVE with each other ‘per se’, they loved each other as special friends, but how special – Suzie certainly didn’t mind occasionally fooling about with him ‘if it kept it away from her derriere’ (embarrassing pause), ‘surly that is what friends are for?’, but what else might come up (figuratively speaking) in the future was the real question, so for the rest of the day they explored the possibilities, and tried to find out the boundaries, although most of the time when they started ‘going any further’ they just ended up collapsing in stitches. Half way through the second bottle of wine they started a play fight, Shaun knew all her ticklish spots so it wasn’t long before she was on her back and pulled him on top of her to stop the tickling, then her legs wrapped around his back, and just as the thought ‘is there really any point in being the oldest virgin in town’ entered her head, Shaun leapt of the bed as if electrocuted – they had found a boundary.
‘Year four’ was a good year for both of them, their ‘friendship’ if anything grew even stronger, they both now knew the boundaries, and were more than happy to accept them. Their studies were going ahead in leaps and bounds, and their ‘part time’ jobs were turning into money mills. Although Suzie had not got the requisite qualifications yet, everyone knew that she was a star in the making, and working in the up-market haberdashers lead to invaluable introductions into the ‘rich and famous’ set. Her first foray into pure interior design came when a conversation with one of her Uni friends was overheard by a customer in the shop, ‘are you an interior designer?’ the smartly dressed middle aged lady asked when her friend left.
‘Not quite yet, I finish the extended course next year’. She truthfully replied.
‘Well, I have a small problem, it’s not worth spending an absolute fortune on the big guns, but perhaps you could give me a few hints to help me solve it. I will make it worth your while’.
Suzie realized that she was being used ‘on the cheap’, but it would be good practice for the future, and she was assured that it would only take a few hours.
The next day (Sunday) she arrived at the appointed time and the BUTLER showed her into the drawing room. After being introduced to her husband – who she instantly recognised as a very senior member of Mrs Thatcher’s cabinet – client number one showed her the problem, and it took her a lot longer than two hours, but that evening she and Shaun sat in the spare room to give the computer programme that he had written as part of his course, but with her in mind, its first real test.
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Several months earlier whilst they had been visiting her parents he had been chatting to her father about an idea that he had about making portable computers (the term laptop had not been coined yet) more portable. Up until that moment her father had been slowly succumbing to his desire to drift off into the land of nod, but when Shaun mentioned that he might send his ideas off to one of the big companies, to seek their advice, suddenly he was wide awake. Daddy was a Lawyer that specialised in trademarks, copyrights, patents, and all things in-between, so when Shaun finally sent his idea off they bought the shop that he worked for part time with part of the proceeds.
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The following Wednesday Suzie had a spare couple of hours so she proudly rang her first client and told her that she had completed the task and could she come round and show her the results. To say the least her client was not impressed – but invited her around anyway. As a puzzled Suzie laid out her designs it became clear why her client had not been impressed over the phone, she had contacted three of the leading interior designers of the day in London, who had eventually submitted quotes for half of what Suzie had laid out in front of her, of considerably inferior presentational qualities, and TOLD her that it would take them six to eight weeks to do it, at least.
A hour later Suzie had three new clients, who were more than willing to wait a few days, and then client numero uno (she had a Spanish friend) asked the fateful question ‘and what is the damage’ and that stopped her in her tracks, she hadn’t given it a thought.
‘Err, I will have to get back to you on that’ she said.
Realising that Suzie had indeed not given it a thought she looked at the designs, and taking in all the small print on the bottom of the pages (thanks Dad), she made Suzie an offer.
‘As you are unqualified, and if you promise not to let my friends know, how about 50% of the average quote from the professionals?’
‘75%’, my designs are still better than theirs, AND you have them now’.
‘Alright, but on condition that you never tell a sole that you haggled with the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer - and won’
‘Done’, and to her surprise she then received a hug along with ‘you are going to go far young lady’.
Suzie was still in a daze when she found Shaun deep inside a computer programme in the library and handed him the cheque for £4,655:27p.
‘Year five’ was a problem, they had to make big decisions, they both had more than enough credits to collect the minor qualifications but they had always had their sights on the top ones, so they agreed to complete their fifth years, which really surprised everyone as when they finally left the hallowed portals for the last time Suzie and Shaun were already millionaires, between them they had almost a thousand employees and had offices in four Countries, but they still padded around naked in their student digs, although they could now pad naked twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, it now boasted central heating and air conditioning, but eventually they relented and moved into the penthouse flat on top of a rather flash skyscraper, but they could still walk to Uni work, their offices took up several of the floors below.
Although their businesses were independent of each other, their lives weren’t, and it started to get complicated, not for them, they had never been happier, but for the people around them. Both sets of parents were starting to talk wedding bells and grandchildren, and not for the first time had the subject of ‘living in sin’ been raised, even by the legal beagles. They were both well into their twilight years (according to their parents), and almost getting too old to have children, and slowly the constant bombardment was starting to have the desired effect. For Suzie’s twenty-fifth birthday Shaun flew her off to Las Vegas and booked them into the honeymoon suite at the newly opened MGM Grand, it was the only suite available at such short notice and it bothered Shaun not a jot - but the effect on Suzie was cataclysmic. She had been quiet all the way across the pond, but as soon as she stepped into the scrumptious suite she burst into tears and threw herself onto the huge bed. The hotel staff beat a hasty retreat and Shaun tried to console her, but he didn’t know where to start, this had never happened before, and finally, as the sun started to set over the strip it all finally came out.
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She had been living a lie for the past seven years, YES she agreed that they were not ‘in love’ when they set up home together, they only ‘loved’ each other as very special friends, and YES sex in the conventional way was not important – even now, BUT now, as I look forward hopefully to the rest of my life with you, I cannot bear to be without you, not even for a single night. When you are away making your deals, or I am off doing my thing in far off places, I cry myself to sleep at night, wishing for you to walk through the bedroom door. To me the distinction between ‘in love’ and ‘special love’ has become blurred – I just don’t want to be without you - ever, and the sex thing, I don’t need or want a physical relationship, god knows I have enough offers, I just want your baby – and that shook them both to the core – there - it was out in the open.
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Shaun was the first to recover, ‘how about A.I.?’
‘Artificial Intelligence’ I don’t want one of your robots’. Sh
e knew that this was one of Shaun’s pet projects, on the back burner of his mind so to speak, but both knew that what he really meant Artificial Insemination.
She threw her arms around him and kissed his tear soaked cheeks; lips were another one of the boundaries.
Suddenly he jumped up off the bed, ‘give me your watch’, which she gave him. It was a very expensive ‘state of the art’ model that he had given her on the plane as it entered ‘today’, his birthday present to her, and she loved it. He walked over to patio doors, slid them open and threw it over the edge of the balcony.
As it disappeared from sight she thought ‘now I have really pissed him off’.
As he walked back inside, heading for the door, he grabbed her hand, yanked her off the bed and said ‘now let’s go and get you a birthday present you will really remember’.
Two hours later, as they settled down to watch the hotels late stage show she couldn’t help but glance down at the plastic ring on her finger and give a little chuckle, she would indeed be remembering the look on her husband’s face when he was told to ‘kiss his bride’ for the rest of her life, and her lovely new watch was returned, unharmed, to her the next morning after it was found in a flower pot on the balcony of one of the rooms below.
It took a lot of doing but finally they convinced their parents that their wedding was in fact legal, but they were still mortified at missing the event ‘even if it was held in the middle of a dessert’, so to console them they held a belated reception at the Ritz six weeks later, and yet again they reduced their parents to tears. The first attempt at A.I. had gone swimmingly, so to speak, and all indications were that everything was fine, so unable to contain herself she blurted out that she may also be pregnant – which she was – but from then on she was never able to look at a milk bottle again without blushing.
Shaun never even attempted to bond with Simon, he supported her ‘in a fashion’ during her pregnancy, which was perfectly normal, due in no small part to Lightning, her horse. She may be a virgin but due to him she was no longer ‘intacto’.
After the birth, which he failed to attend, (important business meeting) they for the first time since that winter in year three, slept in separate rooms, ‘only temporary’ he said, ‘until the wailing during the night is over’, but he never moved back.
They still happily co-existed - when Simon was not around - so it became the norm for their nanny to disappear with him whenever Shaun arrived home, and then when he was old enough he was ‘shipped off’ to boarding school, although Suzie didn’t quite see it that way, she was piggy in the middle and wore blinkers to perfection. She just blamed it on her career.
Despite the situation life progressed surprisingly well, they were wealthy, healthy, popular and content with life (unless Simon was around), but then the dreaded mid-life crisis struck, although it arrived a trifle early. First it was gambling, Shaun began betting on anything, and all he would say when the subject was broached was ‘I can afford it’ (what happened to the ‘we’?), and to be truthful they ‘could’ afford it, at the moment, but then his parents were involved in a car crash, his father died instantly and a few hours later his mother, on her deathbed, made him promise to seek help and give up the gambling, which he did, but unfortunately that help involve Nigel, an orderly at a residential facility which specialised in treating those bitten by the gambling bug (no - he was not addicted, he just needed a little help re-adjusting). Whilst in a drug induced sleep Nigel ‘outed’ him, and after almost a quarter of a century of fighting the inevitable Shaun saw the light, and it shone brightly – for three weeks, until Suzie found out, then Nigel was history, albeit with a handsome ‘severance package’ provided by herself, to ensure that he disappeared from her husband’s life forever.
Suzie knew that things would never be the same again, but still she couldn’t bear to be without him, so whilst he finished his re-hab, now surrounded by nurses of the female persuasion, she made plans to drastically change their life style. London took part of the blame (she took the rest) for his ‘distraction’, gambling was rife, and it was almost obligatory to be gay so she decided to relocate them both to the Broads.
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Wroxham was where Lightning was stabled, it was close to where their lovely Nordic Folkboat was moored, but more importantly it was where their wedding present from Shaun’s parents was. When they first saw it they were not overly impressed to say the least, it was a derelict Phoenix ‘prefab’, circa 1947, in the middle of a desolate field. His father said ‘think of the bigger picture’, his mother said ‘it should scrub up quite nicely’, which it did, and to be truthful they bother liked the view of the river. Originally it was their bolt hole, somewhere away from the hustle and bustle, but finally they realised what his father had meant and relocated, then converted the prefab into a very comfortable stables for Thunder (Shaun’s horse), and Lightning; much to the disgust of the local historical society. They then had the plot landscaped, and had a very fine bungalow built – which had prospects to enlarge - which over the years it did - but what really made the difference was what they did with their river bank. When it was finished it was huge, and absolutely to die for, and the envy of all around.
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Suzie quickly had two of the bedrooms rooms converted into offices, it was blatantly obvious that no more little Simons were going to come along, and with the aid of some bright young geeks in Shaun’s firm it was as though they were sat in their old offices, but unfortunately not their old apartment. On release from the facility Shaun never returned to their London penthouse, and for the first few weeks it was hell on Earth in the bungalow, but inevitably, with time, things slowly settled back down. More and more they took Halcyon - their Folkboat out, and went for long early morning rides, but neither of them wanted to get involved with the neighbours, or the local community as a whole, until they met Charlotte and Franklin. She was seriously involved with the local Animal Rescue Centre and Franklin had just become Area Manager for their bank. Both Suzie and Shaun had started to let standards slip, Suzie especially, putting on a few pounds, living in baggy jeans and jumpers and with not a hint of make-up, but their new friends didn’t seem to mind one little bit, in fact they seemed to relish in the fact that they were now BFF with the ‘odd couple’, after all Franklin knew exactly how much they were worth.
As she walked around the spotlessly clean kennels for the first time, with her new friend as her guide, Suzie couldn’t help but fall in love with all those doleful eyes and instinctively knew that this was for her, and she even brought a small memento of that visit back with her – Whisky – although Shaun didn’t bond with him either.
Whilst the girls did the rescue thing, Shaun and ‘Frankie’ started to ‘mess about on the boat’ together and Frankie found an unexpected release in varnish; marine varnish to be precise and ‘Halcyon’ began to sparkle as never before. She was a small (25 foot ‘ish’) all wood clinker built boat, sloop rigged, with an open cockpit and a ‘very compact’ cabin. She had been built by a reputable Swedish builder in 1962 so her pedigree was impeccable, and although not the largest boat on the pond she certainly turned her fair share of the heads. As ‘the boys’ started to spent more and more time together Suzie started to get twitchy, was this another Nigel in the offing? But after paying them a surprise visit at the small marina close to Great Yarmouth where Halcyon was kept, after surreptitiously observing them from afar for two hours, and not observing even the merest hint of a ‘man hug’, she started to relax, perhaps it had been a passing phase after all.
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