“Oh I’d like to surprise you Lauren but not with food, give me half hour and I'll be over. Ciao baby”
He hangs up and his words run around my head. What’s with all the Italian I wonder? His surname is Wilde, nothing Italian about that and he certainly doesn’t look Italian and he wants to surprise me, what does that mean exactly? He's going to expect sex at some point, I know he said he would go at my pace but at this rate my pace is taking over his and then what? When I do eventually cave and say yes to his and my own desires, then he will want to get me naked, then he will realise what he is dealing with, a forty five year old mum of two. Not a twenty five year old nymphet and that will probably be the end of us.
“LAUREN” Jo shouts
“Hmmm, yes, what?”
“Christ above woman, where did you go, I've called you three times, what's happening on the food front, I'm starving?”
“Oh…sorry, yeah, food, Gabe will bring something over in about half hour...not sure what he's bringing though .... Jo will you try and do something with my hair before he gets here? I feel like a tramp and the blood is starting to smell”
She runs me a bath and washes my hair for me, we talk girl talk and I tell her how much I like Gabe but I know that it’s too soon to even be considering a new relationship. Jo is very much a live for the moment type of girl, something I have always admired about her, she has a man’s attitude to sex and she doesn’t give a fuck what others think.
“Who says it’s too soon, if you want it and it feels right, then go for it, he obviously has the hots for you, don’t hold back just because you’re worried about what others will think…Seize the day Lauren…what’s the worst that could happen? It doesn’t work out, so, move on; I bet he is a blinding fuck, that experience alone has got to make it worth taking a chance”
I sit in contemplative silence as she uses a jug to carefully wash my hair, trying her best to avoid the glued area of my scalp. The water turns pink and looking at it makes us both cry
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you and the girls what was going on, I really am, I just, I actually don’t know what I was thinking, I have no excuses”
“No worries Darl, no worries at all…just don’t ever make the same mistake again and try and remember, we are here for you, no matter what”
She kisses my cheek and we both start when there's a knock at the door. Jo goes and lets Gabe in, while I wash my self, she comes back and helps me out of the bath and helps me dry off. I pull on the new hoodie and trackies that she bought for me earlier today, run a comb through my hair and feel the best that I have in the last few days. The smell of Chinese food makes my belly grumble as I walk into the kitchen and catch my breath at the sight of him. He's standing at the bench; he’s obviously just showered as his hair is wet. He still hasn’t shaved and I love the way the stubble looks around his chin. He is wearing a light blue shirt with rolled up sleeves, its unbuttoned to just below where his nipples probably are and I would really like to put my hand inside and stroke his chest hair, a pair of lose jeans and just a pair of thongs on his feet, men in jeans and thongs just do things to me, especially this man. He’s pouring wine into a glass, his eyes lock onto mine as I enter the room, he looks, worried? But as he looks me up and down he starts to smile,
“Hey” he says with a gorgeous grin on his face.
“Hey yourself”
“You look a lot better than earlier”
“Yeah I tried my best to look worse but just couldn't compete with that freshly beaten housewife look”
“That’s so not funny Lauren” he scolds
“Oh come on, cut me some slack, if I don't laugh at all of this I will end up in the corner, rocking and banging my head against the wall”
I smile. I am Genuinely pleased to see him, especially when he gives me a kiss and I get to smell him too. My insides liquefy as I breathe him in deeply and he seems to be doing the same to me as he presses his face into my hair.
“God you smell lovely, you just tubbed?” I ask
“Thanks, so do you. Yeah I’ve just showered, I met Zac at the back beach, and we had a surf”
God, I would of paid good money to see that and Jo is obviously thinking the same as she is making rude gestures behind his back and I try not to smile.
We sit and eat, talk and laugh and unlike a love sick teen, I dive in for seconds.
“So you were hungry then?” he says
“Apparently, why who said I wasn’t?” I look across at Jo. Who instantly looks away
“Have you two been talking about me?” I look between the pair of them
“I just mentioned to Gabe that you didn’t have much of an appetite that’s all; don’t get your knickers in a knot”
“My knickers aren’t in a knot, because I’m not wearing any; actually I don’t have any knickers if you must know…” I smile at her.