Lust Read Free

you?” I ask, probing for more. She's obviously been hiding this burning passion for him for some reason.
    “Because I don't want you interfering.” Her answer comes back fast and not so hidden. I don't think interfering is the right word. I think she means stealing.
    I laugh as she gives me a warning look.
    “Okay, I get the message. He's yours, period.”
    He may be hers in her mind, but I sense the poor girl is heading for a fall one way or another. And I don't suppose she'll listen to me for a second .
    I sigh in resignation. She obviously needs to get him out of her system. Perhaps the party could make her see he's not interested. It'll hurt, but I can't guard her from that. And who knows, they might even hit it off, I tell myself, unconvinced. 
     
    It's nearly four in the afternoon, thankfully there's no sign of Sean, and the customers are currently zero. Everything's tidy and clean. As I've proven myself to be competent, Charlotte has left me alone for a while, to go to the dental hygienist for a quick polish. I take this quiet opportunity to scour the Internet for jobs, using the till screen. In the past ten months, since gaining my degree, I've done cleaning, pizza delivery and now I'm working in this coffee shop, Coffee Haven, which is the best job so far. But I want to use my education better. I majored in English Arts and Literature, and did a one year post grad in Journalism. I want to break into that field of work, but it may take a while. At an interview I attended recently, for a well known health and fitness magazine, they had two hundred applicants for the position of a lowly office runner. And all had a degree. That wiped out my enthusiasm for a while. But I'm up and running again. I'm sure I'll get something worthwhile if I keep trying.
    I find a few decent jobs to apply for and write some details down to send them my resume and a cover letter later.
    I've just finished when the door swings open and I look up to see Sean has arrived, albeit a little late, for his afternoon fix.
    But he's not alone. He's accompanied by an older woman. She's a little bit funky, but also very stylish. Sixty, I'd guess. Her gray hair is cut in an asymmetric bob, with one of those tiny fringes, that suit artistic types. Long dangling earrings sweep her shoulders. As they arrive in front of me I notice her face is made up expertly. Her smart charcoal gray dress looks like it could be a designer label. The cut is just so perfect, and fits her very slim body like a glove.
    “Hi,” I smile broadly at Sean and at his companion.
    I can't invite him in front of her. It's kinda awkward. It'll have to wait until tomorrow.
    “Melissa, meet Maxine,” Sean introduces us. “She's my photographer.”
    She turns her head toward him. “Excuse me, darling. I think you'll find that you are ' my ' model.” She tuts at him, rolls her eyes and sticks her nose in the air. I just love her accent. It's upper class English. A little nasal with strangulated vowels.
    “Don't be so tetchy, it was a figure of speech, that's all,” he protests.
    “I know exactly what it was,” she pokes him in the chest with a peach colored fingernail. “You were trying to exert your dominance over me, as usual.”
    I cringe behind the till, trying to look busy, tapping some buttons on the screen.
    “I'm not trying or exerting at all, it just happens, naturally.”
    I cast a glance at her diminutive form, and then his, towering a good eight inches taller and far wider.
    I think he has a point.
    “Well try to be less natural in future.”
    “I'll do my best to suppress any stray male characteristics in public.”
    “As long as we have that straight,” she giggles, and hugs him briefly.
    He hugs her back and laughs at her smiling upturned face.
    Lucky Maxine, I think.
    Surely I can't be envious of a gray haired sixty year old woman? But it seems I am.
    “Don't take any notice of us, we fight like cat and dog,” Maxine apologizes, with a smile.
    “It's