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It was still raining
as Lucy left the house to go for the milk; Luke being his normal lazy self had
stayed in bed in preparation for his night shift. There was now 3 days worth of unopened post
in the Hall but Luke wasn’t worried as far as he was concerned there was
nothing better that a warm bed on a frosty morning.
Lucy returned with
the full cream and thumped on Luke’s door, “Are you up?”
“No”
“I have been and
bought the Milk, you were meant to be having a shower
“Well I didn’t, just
relax, there is plenty of time, and your tutorial on Copyright law isn’t till
this afternoon, what is the hurry?”
“Richard is coming to
check the place at 10…”
“And?”
“…The sitting room is
a mess…”
“Chill, I will get
Ben to tidy up later”
“Why should he? Is he some kind of slave to you or what? Just that he wants to live here next year,
there is no reason for you to make him tidy up now! You get up and move your things from the
Lounge, I will…”
“Yes?”
“…I’ll, well I will
do something you don’t want me to do!”
“That sounds like fun”
“It won’t be! Just get up off your Upper class Bottom and
do something for the house not just for yourself for once in your life! PLEASE”
“O.K., O.K., I’m
coming”
Luke appeared framed
in his door, not an inch over 5’4, his Peroxide Crew-cut looking just slightly
rumpled from a night’s rest, and his belly flopping over the top of his Mr.
Happy Boxers, Lucy took one look at him and remembered why she had told him to
get in to shape before they got engaged.
“What is with the
light?”
“What? Well I don’t know! Get dressed and get this place tidy will you,
NOW” and with that Lucy went downstairs and cooked breakfast; two sausages and
a fried egg for her, and 1 Weetabix and a glass of Orange juice for Luke.
Their romance had started almost a year
before in the offices of the Union paper that they both wrote for.
Bright that morning Luke had walked into HKSC
with a letter for the Editor and seen his ex of 8 months all over her new
bloke, and realised that he needed to take timeout from feeling sorry for
himself. He walked in to the Comm.’s office with his letter to be greeted by
the most beautiful vision of black hair and legs he had seen since Lawrence
Llewelyn-Bowen in Fishnets; she turned to him and said. “Em, is out, can I help
you with anything?”
Gob smacked Luke replied “I had this for her
to publish, are you the new…”
“No I am just using the computer”
“Oh, I am…”
“Going to buy me a drink?”
“Erm…yeah!”
“Wait till Em gets out of the meeting then
you can tell me all about you over a pint of something Black”
The relationship kicked off from there. Lucy
had never believed in the stereotypes of tall man short woman, she didn’t see
it made any difference if two people can get on with each other then what was
the problem.
Their
house had six rooms, their two bedrooms, Mark and Roshan, Dave the Aus, the
kitchen and a lounge. It was a small terraced house close enough to Uni to be
handy but hidden away enough that it could be quiet in the garden, where Luke
had spent a lazy summer afternoon planting a bed of Daffodils to remind him of
his Welsh heritage and it cheered up the garden nicely on March afternoons in
the rain.
Dave the Aus was a sad case of sex being the
poison to a beautiful relationship; he had wanted to spend all his time with
his boyfriend, Zed, who had flown him in from Australia and found Dave a job
but then went off Dave’s appetite for intercourse. Since the split Dave had
only eaten brown bread and Value Beans, according to Mark, the beans were the
reason they split up. (Dave refuted that, he said that Zed’s farting was worse
than his by far.) In Dave’s room, there was a variety of evidence of his
“Gymnastic” temperament. Luke had once seen a blow-up chair that was not in
keeping with his pure ‘Baptist’ upbringing, Luke still couldn’t work out what
was meant to go through some of the loops and as far as he was concerned, he
would rather not find out. Dave swore they were for his hi-fi Remotes but the
rest of the house was dubious, especially as the groans that emanated from the
room when people visited were not in keeping with those usually associated with
‘remote’ controlling!
Roshan, short and young, and
years Mark’s junior, (no one knew exactly how old Mark was, but at least 21)
Mark never had birthdays and Roshan’s acne was clearing up nicely. She had
moved into the house straight from school and was known to be bright so it
wasn’t beyond possibility that she had left school at 15. The two of them had
the sex life of rabbits on Viagra. Luke had developed a set of music on his
computer to drown out the screaming, though he secretly found it very erotic
and often used to sit in his room and enjoy it. Lucy realised that this was the
case but she would rather he got his kicks without it involving her being
pressured to do “things”.
“’Shan…” Mark yelled.
“Yeah? I’m busy, I need to
repair the light shade Dave broke, can it wait?”
“Yes, it was just…”
“You said it could wait!
While you’re waiting, do you want to hold the ladder? I’m sure you would rather
not have to visit me in Hospital!”
“Don’t get sarky, you only
had to ask! What happened?”
“Dave said he ran up stairs
and it fell on his head, so it could have been almost anything, it might not
have been him at all, but you know what he is like!”
“Mmm, yeah…better?”
“Much, thanks. I am sorry
but how to you do that with out noticing”
“Not easily”
Roshan passed Mark the globe
shade ripped around 540 degrees and hanging apart.
“I am off to Gypsy Lane, any
one need anything” Lucy asked as she squeezed past the Ladder
“No, I am fine, Mark is
taking me in later to see Bob about a Course for next year, he can do his own
deliveries”
“I can speak for myself”
Grumbled Mark
Lucy smirked “Ok, Mark what
did you want to say”
“Roshan has said everything”
at this both Lucy and Roshan, burst out in uncontrollable laughter.
“Men?”
“Men!”