Love: A Messy Business Read Free Page B

a cheeky grin, which made Kate chuckle.  
    “Touche.  We may have lice but at least we don’t have any of those parasites that you get down there – all those investment banker wankers.”
    “Oh God yes. I couldn’t agree more.  Bunch of rogues, the lot of them.  I’m all for making money but some of those bonuses are completely unethical, aren’t they?   I much prefer to be among honest, hard-working folk up here.”
    “Ha!  Probably more honest than hard-working.  But we do like to call a spade a spade, there’s no doubt about that.   Why are you up here anyway?  What do you do for a living?”
    “Oh, I suppose it would be fair to say that I have a finger in quite a number of pies.”  A smile was playing in the corners of Colin’s mouth which indicated that he had just made a private joke to himself that he was enjoying hugely – but of course Kate had no idea what might lie behind it.  She was just about to enquire further when there was an almighty crash, followed almost instantaneously by some very rude words.   Peter, his senses dulled by a copious intake of celebratory alcohol had accidentally banged into a table full of nearly-empty pint glasses and sent half of them crashing to a fragmentary fate. 
    “Oh shit…”, said Kate, executing her well-rehearsed routine of grabbing a mop and bucket in one hand and a dustpan and brush in the other and dashing over to clean things up.  Rather than be chivalrous and help, Colin simply sat and watched, enjoying first the view of her rear encased in her tight leather skirt and then, as she adjusted her position, an unhindered sightline down her top, revealing a mesmerising combination of jiggling and swinging that in just a few seconds forced Colin to dismount from the bar stool to allow for greater mobility in the groin area. 
    Eventually, Kate returned from her disaster recovery exploits to continue the conversation that she had been quite enjoying.  But there was no sign of Colin.  In fact, the only evidence that he had been there at all was in her tip jar – a brand-new and deliciously crisp twenty pound note.
     
     

CHAPTER THREE: AN ACCIDENTAL MEETING
     
    There was no sign of Colin at the pub for the next few days either.   Kate found that she kept looking at the door every few minutes to see if a new arrival happened to be him and she was disappointed at the end of each shift when, again, he hadn’t put in an appearance.  It was partly due to the fact that there was no opportunity for another welcome donation to her anti-poverty fund, but it was more than that.  He was good-looking, there was no doubt about that – quite tall and he obviously looked after himself, which was more than could be said for most of the blokes around the place, for whom grooming, diet and personal hygiene seemed to be quite alien concepts.   Intelligent conversation wasn’t part of their repertoire either, and Colin seemed pretty articulate and ready to talk in more than grunts and expletives.  Kate reflected that she couldn’t remember having a decent conversation with a real, live male since she had left University.
    She hoped perhaps that she might bump into him in the village, but the reality was that there was little reason for most people to be out and about, unless you wanted a takeaway from The Golden Star chippy or needed to pick up a few groceries from the local Spa.    Most people did their big shop in Gatley, a few miles down the road.  But Kate usually couldn’t be bothered going that far, and anyway her parents did most of the shopping for food.   Besides, her best friend, Liz, worked in the Spa and picking up a pack of gum, a tin of soup or something else was a good excuse to go and have a natter on most days.  They had gone to school together, both junior and senior school.  Then Kate had gone off to University and Liz had stayed behind as, like most of her peers, she’d never had much interest in academics.
    Liz had been