A New Beginning

"If you take me to dinner tonight, I will tell all."

"More than you told the cops?"

"Shit, it was obvious that they weren't interested in anything other than convicting you, because they never asked any questions other than Rosie's relationship with you. They were disappointed when I told them that I wished that I had a husband like you."

"I'm sorry George, but I have to be at home with the kids. I see them little enough as it is, and if I go to dinner with you I'll miss out on quality time with them. I don't want that."

"You can't blame a girl for trying. All right, if it can't be dinner tonight, how about taking me to lunch tomorrow?"

"I can probably manage that. You pick the time and the place and I'll be there."

"12:30 at, let me see, do you like Moroccan food?"

"I can't say that I've ever tried it, but I'm game for anything."

"Are you really? We'll see about that. Meet me at the Marrakesh at 12:30. Don't be late, I hate being left waiting."

I didn't much like the way that she said that. I had begun to wonder what price I would have to pay for her assistance, and if I was prepared to pay it.

I left work at 5:00 and drove over to Mum and Dad's place to pick up the kids. I had the strange feeling that I was being followed. I dismissed the thought. I rang the doorbell and I could hear the thunder of kids' feet as they rushed to the door to let me in. "Daddy!" Rhianna launched herself at me as soon as I was inside. I stooped and grabbed her as her arms went around my neck. I stood and grabbed Ryan around the shoulder as he closed the door. "I drawed a heffalump at school." She had a piece of paper in her hand on which was a grey blob with four barely recognisable legs and a trunk,

"That's great, I don't think that I could draw one as good as that. Will I be allowed to take this to work and pin it up in my office for everyone to see?"

"I did it for you, it's yours."

"Thank you Darling." I put her down as I entered the kitchen where Mum was cooking dinner for all of us.

"I see Picasso has shown you her latest masterpiece." Mum said.

"Yes, isn't it amazing?" I turned to Ryan. "What did you get up to today?"

"Ryan got into trouble." Rhianna said.

"You weren't supposed to tell" He told her.

"You're going to have to tell me sooner or later, so what was this all about?"

In answer he handed me a note from the Principal requesting that I should go and see him in the morning.

"You had better tell me all about it, I need to know what is going on so that I can defend you."

"It wasn't my fault. Jason Morris kept yelling at me, he was saying 'Your Dad's a murderer', over and over again, I got sick of it and punched him. I made his nose bleed and he went running off to tell on me. I tried to tell Mister Lawrence, but he wouldn't take any notice of me."

"I'll have a talk with him and see if I can sort this out. What Jason did to you constitutes bullying, and if he does nothing about that I will take the matter further." That seemed to please him, the knowledge that his father was going to support him rather than chastise him.

Dinner was the usual informal affair with everyone talking at once between mouthfuls of food. It was close to 8:30 when I made a move to get the kids home. Rhianna was tired and I had to carry her to my car and strap her into her kiddie seat Ryan, just big enough to graduate to a proper seatbelt, sat in front with me. He was nodding off by the time that we got home, so I shook him awake and gave him the door key to open up while I lifted Rhianna from her seat and carried her inside. I put her to bed and Ryan took himself to bed after cleaning his teeth and wishing me good-night.

I had just settled down at my computer when my phone rang. "This is Patrick, speak to me." I said.

"Hi, it's Rachel." The sound of her voice was music to my ears. "I tried ringing earlier but you must have been out."

"Yeah, the kids and I had dinner with my parents."

"I thought that might have been the case. I like your answering machine message, I didn't bother to leave a message."

(My OGM was in response to the seemingly never-ending phone calls from scammers telling me that they could give me a better deal on my energy costs, or that my Internet connection was about to be cut off because my system was infected and, unless I granted them access to remotely clean the system I would lose my connection. The message said; 'This is a recording, if you are calling me to encourage me to change my Telco or energy provider, or to tell me that you must have remote access to my computer, hang up now. If this is a personal call and you want me to reply to you, leave a message after the tone and I'll get back to you as soon as possible." You would be surprised how many hang-ups I get.)

"I'm glad that you called. Have you given any thought to what we spoke about this morning?"

"Yes. I spoke to some of the other girls and we are going to put together a Website to get this problem out there and see what sort of reaction we get. How about you?"

"I rang one of Rosie's old work mates, she's not old, just that she used to work . . . . I think I'll shut up and tell you what happened. She told me that Rosie did have something bothering her in the weeks just before she was killed, and that the police weren't interested in that. I'm having lunch with her tomorrow and she has promised to tell me all."

"I don't know that I'm happy with that."

"Why, it's perfectly straight forward. Oh." Call me slow, but it had taken a while for her meaning to sink in. "Don't tell me that you're jealous?"

"All right I won't, but I am. I did a lot of thinking after I left you, and I came to the realisation that you were the first man, that I have had a private conversation with, who not only didn't try to get into my pants, but actually helped me. This was a new experience for me and I liked it. I like you, and don't give me that bullshit about our age difference, you're not that much older than me."

"How old are you? No, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"I'm 22, and in my final year of Uni. This isn't the first time that I have had a prof hit on me, but this is the first that has been so blatant and persistent. The others took 'fuck off' as my final word and left it at that."

"As for me not wanting to get into your pants, that's not entirely true, I want to, but only if you want the same thing. I haven't yet worked out the logistics of this, but I will try to entice you into my boudoir at some time in the future."

"Can you give me a time-line on this future? How long is my freedom going to last?"

"Only as long or short as you want it to."

"Just make sure that you stay right away from the clutches of that other bitch."

"You have no worries there, she gave me the creeps." This was true, she did. It would not have surprised me if she was the one that followed me from work.

"I promise never to creep you out. As for the other thing, it has been a long time since I have felt this way about a man. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against sex as such, but I want so much for it to mean something other than having my primal urges met."

"It has been a year between drinks for me. I have come to realise that a family really needs to have more than one parent, and that the two parents should at all times be a good example of love, so that the kids can grow up knowing the difference between love and sex."

"So there's no pressure on me then? You and I can have sex as long as it's with love."

"That's how I feel, no love, no sex."

"Well then, we had better hurry up and get to know and love each other."

"Is this the same girl I met this morning who was so weighed down with the cares of the world that she could hardly speak?"

"Yes it is, and I have you to thank for my transformation. I think that I might take up another of your ideas, punk sounds good."

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to."

"I know, let me think about it some more. When am I going to see you again?"

"I have a bit of time in the morning, after I've dropped the kids off at school and before I have to be at work. I could meet you where we met this morning. You do remember where that was, don't you?"

"If you're going to be insulting forget it." She laughed, that was nice, the first time I've heard her laugh and it sounded so good. "I'll see you then. 'Bye."

What the hell is happening to me? It's been twelve months since I've had a meaningful conversation with a young woman, and now I have one that I want to see again so badly that it hurts, and one that I have distinct reservations about, but that I have to see. With that in mind I shut down my computer and went to bed.

The morning ritual was in full swing, the kids had scoffed their breakfast while I made their lunches for them. They brushed their teeth while I cleared up the dishes, and just as I reached the front door my phone rang. "Hello."

"Hello lover, it's George. I just rang to remind you of our lunch date."

"I didn't need reminding. Look George, I've got to get the kids to school, I'll see you at 12:30 okay?"

"Do you know where the Marrakesh is?"

"My SatNav will guide me. Look I've got to go." I turned off the phone and climbed into the car.

As usual there was a queue at the drop-off zone outside the school and I was forced to wait forever to drop the kids off. "See you at Grandma's, 'bye." I kissed Rhianna, Ryan was too old for that sort of stuff, he waved to me as he ran to catch up to a couple of his mates. It didn't take me long to get to where I met Rachel yesterday, and she was already there. Her face lit up when she saw me get out of my car. Today she was in jeans and a shirt, and she still looked great. "Hi." She reached up and kissed me. She even tasted great.

"Hi to you. Have you been waiting long? I got caught up in the school drop-off log jam."

"No, I only just got here myself. Would you like a coffee, my treat?"

"Sure, I'd love it." There was a cafe across the road, so we headed for that. We ordered and found a seat at the back where we could have a little privacy.

"What time do you have to be at work?"

"My time is pretty flexible, but I should be there by 9:30, we have a meeting at 10:00 that I have to be at, so that gives us a little time together. How is the Web site going?"

"We've got some of the IT students designing a page for us with links to Facebook, Twitter and we're planning something for You Tube. We want to cover as many bases as we can."

"Sounds like you're really getting in to this thing. Please, don't let this campaign distract you from your studies."

"Don't worry, I won't." She was about to say something else but was interrupted by the arrival of our coffees. I want to be successful, not just for myself, but for my family, and you."

"Don't you think that you're rushing this a little? After all, we've known each other for all of a day."

"I know. Don't worry, I'm not going to get all possessive and ring you all the time and stuff like that. I just want to keep myself in the loop."

"I don't see that as a problem. Look Rachel, I like you, a lot. But you have to remember that I've been out of circulation for a year now, and I'm afraid that if we rush this we might end up making a mess of things and split up. I don't want that to happen. I want to give this the best shot at succeeding."

She reached across the table and grabbed my hand. "You want what I want, that to me is a good starting point. Don't worry, I'm not going to pressure you into doing something that you'll regret."

"Thank you for that, and for this, all of this. Now I'm going to have to make a move." I stood to leave and Rachel stood. It seemed so natural when we kissed that we held it for longer than we had intended. "I'll call you tonight, 'bye." My arm was around her and I gave her body a squeeze in parting. Her smile said more than any words.

The meeting with the Principal was thankfully short and to the point. "Ryan told me that you wanted to see me."

"Yes. I had to discipline him yesterday for punching a fellow student. We just cannot have that kind of behaviour in this school."

"But you do nothing about bullying."

"What do you mean?"

"Ryan told me that the reason that he punched Jason Morris was that he was taunting him by shouting at him that I was a murderer. Now I realise that my arrest and trial was the focus of attention for some time, and that, even though I was acquitted, because there has been no further arrests, this has left the whole sorry episode in limbo. There are some out there that are still convinced of my guilt, to have my son continually reminded of the loss of his mother is beyond a joke. Unless you take steps to see that this sort of bullying does not continue, I will be forced to take the matter up with the head of your department. Do I make myself clear?"

"I wasn't aware of this."

"I suggest that in future you investigate the whole story before you punish one person. You will ensure that this doesn't happen again I take it?"

"Yes. I will take the appropriate action."

The meeting at work was a bitch. I was told that I would have to work up redundancy packages for at least 100 workers. Since our company had taken over another company in the same field that we operated in, we had found ourselves with a lot of functional duplication. I was given the task of reviewing the current staff and identifying under-performers that could be culled. I hated this part of my job, it meant interviewing staff that had been pre-warned by the grapevine that heads were about to roll. There would be tears, there would be anger, and I would be blamed for all of this, not those higher up the corporate ladder.

I set my assistant the task of pulling all personnel files, starting from the central administrative division. We would work through them, division by division to identify those that we would interview.

12:30 and I was still in a lousy mood as I entered the Marrakesh Moroccan restaurant to have my nose assailed by the spices coming from the food of those already eating. George stood as I approached, my mood was not about to change any time soon, she looked pissed off at me. "Hi."

"Who the fuck is she?" She demanded.

"Who is who?"

"That bitch you had that tête a tête with this morning, that's who."

"She is a client."

"Don't fucking bullshit me you bastard!" The other diners stopped mid dine and stared at her.

"Have you been stalking me?"

"I'm just protecting my interests."

"Was that you that followed me to my parents' place last night when I went to pick up the kids?"

She didn't answer. So it was going to be like that, was it?

"I thought as much. Why?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"Years ago I was in love with this guy at work, and he told me that he was in love with me. This was before Rosie started with us. When she arrived he dropped me like a ton of bricks and went panting after her. She totally ignored him, told him that she was happily married and would never think of cheating in her wonderful husband. She never stopped telling me just how wonderful you were, it was nauseating. But he never gave up, he started ringing her at home after she left to have Ryan. It got so bad that she had an answering machine installed and vetted all incoming calls, refusing to answer when he called. He even took to disguising his voice, but she saw right through that one. It got worse after Rhianna was born, he was so angry with you that he told me that he could quite easily kill you. I suggested that he should get help and he reluctantly agreed. It didn't last long, and he was back ringing her and stalking her. He would be at the supermarket at the same time as her. He never let her alone, he was always there, following her. I think that he was responsible for her death, he wouldn't have had the guts to do it himself, but he could have hired someone. I think that's what was in the papers that she left at the bank."

"Do you know which bank?"

"Yes, it was the Federation Bank around the corner from where we worked, where she used to work. She knew some of the staff there, so it was no problem getting safety deposit box."

She had ordered when she had arrived, a lamb tagine with cuscus, and it arrived. We tore of bits of flat bread and used this to scoop up the slow cooked spicy lamb dish. It was a bit messy but tasted better than I had expected. I thought that I would bring Rachel here when I got around to inviting her out for dinner.

I glanced at my watch. "Look, this has been nice, the food was great, but I've got to get back to work. You know what they say, 'no rest for the wicked', that's me, the wicked one." I stood to leave, but she fore-stalled me.

"Don't I get a kiss?" I kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Come on, you can do better than that, you did this morning." I kissed her on the lips and extricated myself her grasp. "I'll have you yet." She called after me.

There's something not quite right about what she told me. If he was so obsessed with Rosie, why would he have her killed. Surely I would have been the target. I was going to have to access that safety deposit box to see what was in it.

All thoughts along those lines were pushed to the background by the job at hand. I arranged for my staff to drop everything and help me to short-list likely redundancy prospects. These were divided into two piles, those reaching retirement age to whom a package would appear to be an attractive proposition, and those who had been identified as under-performers. The job got worse at this point, we didn't have the required numbers. This meant a review of each division of the company to identify the areas where there was the most fat. If there were staff in those divisions that we did not want to lose, then we would have to create positions in other divisions by trimming from the lowest performers in them.

This work kept us totally focussed all afternoon. At 5:00 I called a halt. "That's it for today guys. Thank you all for your efforts, you have done a great job. Go home and get a good night's sleep, we're in for a long day tomorrow."

I tidied my desk, locked the files away and left. I hadn't been imagining things last night, I was again being followed. I decided that no purpose would be achieved by trying to shake off my tail, my routine was too well known, so I headed straight for Rosie's parents house. I was greeted by the kids at the front door, Ryan holding it open for me and Rhianna waiting for me to scoop her into my arms. They both chattered away, vying for my attention. Eventually a calm settled over them and Ryan won out. "Dad, you must have said something to Mister Johns, because he came to our class and gave us a long talk about playground bullying. Jason had this smirk all over his face until Mr Johns told the class that what he was doing to me yesterday was just as much bullying as me punching him. While he said that what I did was wrong, he understood what had led to me hitting Jason, and that if it occurred in future I was to go straight to him and let him sort it out."

"Me now." Rhianna said. "Miss Prince gave me this for you to sign. She's taking us to a petting zoo to see the baby animals and you have to tell her that I can go."

"Sure Honey, you can go." I took the paper from her and signed it.

We didn't stay for dinner with Rosie's parents, they both had meetings to get to, so we went straight home. The kids watched kids TV while I cooked their dinner for them and we watched a couple of sitcoms until it was time for them to go to bed.

As soon as they were safely tucked up in bed I went to my study and rang Rachel. "Hi, before you ask, apart from this morning, I've had a shit of a day."

"Your lunch didn't go well then?"