Lucky Jack Ch. 01

"The truth?" I persisted. "Tell me the truth...PLEASE!"

"YES!" She almost sobbed her answer. "Yes, I wanted you! Yes, I enjoyed having sex with you! It must have been some sort an emotionally induced madness but if you had asked me to stay in that bed upstairs with you forever... I would have done so willingly!"

"Can I see you again? I could drive down...or we could meet in London." I already knew that I was clutching at straws.

"No Jack. It would not be right. We need to let this go...right now!" She stated firmly. I knew that she was right but the thought of never seeing her again gave me a cold feeling in the balls.

"OK, but can I give you a goodbye kiss?" I asked and waited for her to give a little nod before stepping up and brushing my lips against hers in a delicate fluttering kiss that was almost chaste but left the lingering taste of her lipstick on my mouth. That faint rose petal taste would always remind me of Audrey Chalmers.

Then she was gone.

*

*

I was seated in the Costa Coffeehouse in Leicester Square prompt at six o'clock on Friday as promised, nursing my second cup of coffee and mauling the corpse of a blueberry muffin that I had ordered but didn't really want. I found it was mildly entertaining moving the crumbs into patterns with my finger, certainly less depressing that reading one of the BREXIT filled daily newspapers scattered around the café.

"Won't you ever grow up, Jack?"

"Hi, Paula," I stood up as she slid into the seat opposite me. "Have you ordered?"

"Yes thank you, the barista is bringing it over." She smiled, her eyes twinkling and confiscated the plate of muffin crumbs and leaned back to place it on the empty table behind her. "So how did the trip to Surrey go... Where was it, Woodley-something-or-other?"

"Absolutely unbelievable," I told her honestly. She raised her delicately plucked eye brow seeking enlightenment. "I got pissed... A lot! I renewed a couple of acquaintances, discovered I have a godmother and managed to get my grandmothers cottage cleared out and my share of the estate back to my flat. I spent the whole day visiting Mum at the care home yesterday after the delivery men left Grans stuff at my flat. Oh, and I took up smoking again on the strength of being able to afford the extra cost with the incredibly high salary you are about to offer me...!"

She carefully ignored my probe. The barista interrupted with her frothy latte and a biscotti and I ordered another double espresso.

"Are you sober now, Jack?" She asked seriously. "If I take you on I need you on top form, bright eyed and bushy tailed and committed to the job 24/7. You are no good to me pissed as a fucking newt and punching out everyone who bends your dick out of shape!"

"Dry as the Sahara," I told her, "Haven't had a drink since I left Woodley Hill... I sort of promised somebody that I would cut down."

"Are you sure?" She knows me really well does Paula. But she knows that I have always kept my promises to her when it comes to business.

"Scout's Honour," I swore giving a mock three fingered salute.

"You were never a bloody scout, Jack... Too organised and disciplined for you." She chuckled.

"No I wasn't, but I did hang out with a couple of Girl Guides once... God but those blue uniforms were sexy... were you ever a Girl Guide, Paula?"

"Yes I was actually...did my Duke of Edinburgh's Gold Award and everything... Loved it!"

"Have you still got the uniform... Does it still fit you?" I teased. We both burst into a fit of the giggles and she spluttered and sprayed coffee froth across the table like a teenager.

"Get serious for a minute, Jack" She said and flicked her fingers delicately over the screen of her i-Pad provoking a ping in response from my telephone. "I have a job for you if you want it... I've sent the contract details and salary to your phone but I need you to confirm back to me tomorrow at latest if you are interested."

"That is great, Paula... But how did you swing it with Global... I thought that I had worn out my welcome there?"

"It's not with Global... We are moving going to a new company who have offered me the Director of Client Management job...a big new firm on the block, Morgan Krepps Europe."

"Holy shit! So who are this 'WE'...?" I knew that it wasn't some sort of personal proposition but the thought of the possibility of running off and shacking up with Gorgeous Paula was enough to make my balls ache.

"Well, I want to take you as the senior Customer Care Analyst, reporting directly to me, you are the best I know at the job... It is a big hike in salary, smart new offices in Dockland and we get to travel about Europe a lot."

"I'm in!" I announced immediately, it sounded like the bloody dream job, and I still got to be around Paula as a bonus. I had heard of Morgan Krepps they were a go-ahead marketing and PR company who were becoming big in Europe and had just opened a London operations centre. "So who else?"

"I have head hunted three from the old Global PLC team... Gillian Miles, Teri Pirelli and Mike Musson as team manager."

I couldn't have picked a better team myself. Mike was forty-ish, a first class team manager with years of experience and lots of enthusiasm. I wasn't jealous, Mike and I got on well and we both supported London Welsh RFC. I am good at my job but would make a crap manager, all that worrying about people, doing appraisals and sweating over deadlines... NO BLOODY THANKYOU Mike was welcome.

Gillian was a really sweet girl with a fantastic arse and long shapely legs but a mind like a steel trap, she had just split up with her boyfriend and was probably ripe for a move.

Teri Pirelli and I had worked together off and on for a year or so. She was a top customer care agent and a fantastic shag! We had hooked up for a one night stand after a Christmas drinks party, she had followed me home and stayed in my bed all that Friday night and most of the next day, she was close to being bloody insatiable! We had flirted a little since, and I had touched her up a bit in the stairwell, neither of us were looking for any sort of permanent relationship but had promised each other a return match sometime in the near future. I know that it was shagging Teri that had pissed Neville Short off with me... he had been trying to get into her knickers since she joined Global.

"Text that form in tomorrow without fail..." Paula instructed me and report in at the new offices on Thursday next week. She stuffed her computer back into her briefcase and made to go. "Any questions of problems then call me!"

"Can I buy you dinner or something?" I offered.

"Thanks Jack...but not tonight..." She said and leaned over to give me a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I haven't told you my big news yet..."

"What?"

"I caught my husband screwing his receptionist on Tuesday...!"

"Oh fuck, Paula," I was genuinely surprised, who would want to fuck a receptionist when they already had Gorgeous Paula. "Do you want me to duff him up for you...?" I wasn't really that aggressive but I was fit and had boxed some at university to impress the girls and could be a bit tasty with my mits if I got going and stayed off the booze.

"I've already taken care of that," she chuckled. "I kicked him in the nuts and threw him out into the street... But I need to get home now to make sure that he hasn't ransacked the place whilst I was at work."

I watched her arse as she walked out of the coffee shop. Paula was absolutely gorgeous, she was early thirties with honey blonde hair which she usually wore tied back in a ponytail at work but which she sometimes had styled and allowed to flow around her face in a silken cascade. Her face was striking rather than cutsie pretty with classic high cheek bones and a neat pouting mouth below a straight nose and the brightest blue eyes imaginable.

I guess that her figure was what they call 'athletic' her body was curvaceous but firm from her regular workouts and her squash; her tits were neat and pointy and her buttocks rounded but not overly large, just the way that I liked them. Paula always wore top quality clothes and make-up, I guess that she could afford to, and many nights I had fallen asleep to horny fantasies of her seducing me wearing one of those fantastic figure hugging skirt suits that she favoured. But Paula was more than the sum of her physical parts she was frighteningly intelligent, a powerhouse in the working place and spoke a half a dozen European languages.

So she had dumped her husband! That didn't mean that I was in with a chance of getting into her bed, but it did shorten the odds a bit. I had known her for a couple of years now and we did seem to gel on a personal basis as well as business.

The new job seemed to be everything I wanted. It was top dollar pay and it was full time, I wouldn't need to work split shifts anymore which would do wonders for my sex life, I would be less tired, have more free time and the energy to spend it shagging. The pursuit of pussy has always occupied a large portion of my life since I got my first erection. I am just one of those guys who cannot pass an attractive woman in the street without wondering what she is like in bed. Great fun but bloody exhausting if you are working two jobs.

Thinking about Gorgeous Paula had started me feeling randy again. I glanced around... the Costa was one of my regular watering holes but there were no girls present that I knew to speak to and none of my favourite waitresses were on duty, mostly the baristas were boys in the evening.

I needed to do something...I didn't want to go out drinking... I was determined to stick to my promise to Paula and to Mrs. Chalmers and so I fetched my car from the Global PLC carpark... my staff parking permit had not been cancelled yet and so I had chanced using the free parking for a couple of hours and headed out towards Guildford to visit with Mum for a couple of hours. My mother was not a problem patient and so the clinic allowed flexible visiting hours and I often drove down for a short visit in the evening if I was not working.

Mum was the same as usual, totally unresponsive but I sat with her on her balcony in the warm evening sun and told her about my new job, and that I had met Mrs Chalmers but obviously left out the lurid details of that night. There was a library book on the table by her chair and so I guessed that Audrey Chalmers had been to visit her earlier in the day. It was a Philippa Gregory novel...Mum liked historical fiction and so I open it and read to her for an hour. Oddly I found it very relaxing even if my mind kept drifting and I was constantly looking up in case Audrey Chalmers came back. I assumed that she must have a car unless she came out here on the bus but she probably only visited Mum during the day...I had certainly never run into her in the evening.

As I replaced the book on her small table I noticed for the first time a handwritten envelope addressed to me. Perhaps the nurse or one of the carers had left me a message. Maybe there was something that I needed to bring in for Mum.

I tore it open and found a single sheet of writing paper inside with a neatly written memo in an obvious female hand and a key wrapped in a fold of paper.

_____________________________________________

MY DEAREST JACK

I FORGOT TO LEAVE THE KEY TO THE BACKDOOR.

YOUR LAUNDRY HAS BEEN WASHED BUT I WILL UNDERSTAND IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO CALL AND COLLECT IT. I WILL KEEP IT FOR YOU ANYWAY

DODO

______________________________________________

I read it through twice and then again for a third time. 'Dearest Jack'! What the fuck was that all about? And laundry...what laundry?

Then it dawned on me...when she had left on Wednesday morning she had been wearing one of my tee-shirts to cover her ripped dress. She was welcome to keep it after the way that I had treated her, but she must have washed it out and was now inviting me to go and collect it. Why would she be doing that? She had been adamant about not seeing me again

I thought that in knew why... I hoped that I knew why... Perhaps she had been thinking about the same thing that I had for the past couple of days... In truth I had not been able to get her out of my mind; it might have been guilt but my body was telling me that it was lust. It was imagination, a trick of the subconscious but I was convinced that I could still taste the rose petal perfume of her lipstick every time that I wet my lips.

I needed to be sure that we were both looking for the same thing...the rapist and his victim. I was tempted to drive straight over to Woodley Hill immediately but if my assumptions were wrong then I would just freak her out and cause her more misery. She would probably think that I was stalking her!

I searched through Mum's room until I found some sheets of paper and an envelope and scribbled a quick note

_______________________________________________

DODO

CALL ME ON MY CELL PHONE TO ARRANGE TIME TO PICK UP THE LAUNDRY

JACK

________________________________________________

I appended one of my printed sticky labels with my address and telephone number and then sealed the note into the envelope and tucked it into the book as a bookmark. She would need to collect the library book and would be sure to find it.

Shit it was like we were having a clandestine affair, passing cryptic notes to each other in bloody library books. I had been there once with Louise Adcock in the accounts department when I was a temp at London & Glasgow Insurance. She was married and we had started passing little notes back and forth thinking that nobody else knew. Of course everybody knew... we were the office joke for a couple of weeks. I eventually got to shag her on the landing at the very top of the stairwell by the door to the office roof one evening after everybody else had gone home... everybody that is except the security guard who nearly caught us. Lou was so frightened and embarrassed that she broke our relationship off the next day. We remained civil but generally avoided each other after that until my contract ended and I moved on.

I would drop in to see Mum again a couple of days to see if my reply had been collected. I was not certain if 'Dodo' would call me or respond in any way at all. I was probably totally misreading the meaning of her note but one thing I did know for certain was that I wanted to see Mrs Audrey Chalmers again, she had got well and truly under my skin. My godmother had infected me with an emotional itch which I couldn't scratch to which there was only one remedy and I was not going to be able to rest until I had taken the cure.

Walking back to my car I unconsciously ran my tongue over my lips. It was there... It was impossible, just some sort of psychological thought association but I was sure that I could still taste the rose petal lipstick she wore. I smiled to myself, suddenly I was absolutely positive that I WOULD see her again soon... the idea was already starting to give me a hard-on.