Afraid the situation hasn’t improved! I still haven’t written anymore … so this chapter is as far as I’ve got … so I’m going to try so hard next week to get it sorted so that we can have an update next Friday as usual … fingers crossed! Thanks for keeping with it xx

 

Chapter 5

 

I examined myself in the full-length mirror for the fourth time in as many minutes. 

 

Walking up and down past my reflection I tottered around, trying to keep my balance on the tiny heels that I was wearing.  They looked pretty good when I managed to keep upright on them and with the new black skirt that I was wearing they made my legs look much longer than they really were.  I liked my top too; it was pink and glittery and had a low scoop neck line. 

 

For once I was pretty happy with my appearance, I knew that I wasn’t ugly, if anything I was Mrs Average; average face, average hair, average build, but in this outfit may be I could pass for Mrs Slightly Above Average. I smiled at my reflection as I swept a brush through my long thick dark hair and applied some base colour to my pale completion.

 

“You nearly ready?” Mum shouted up the stairs for me.

 

“Yep,” I replied, setting off down the narrow stairs at a slow pace.

 

“I’m so glad you’ve decided to come out,” my Mum beamed at me as I reached the bottom. She passed me my coat and we all left the house to start the short walk down the road to the pub.

 

The Horse Inn was very well known, not only to the locals but also to people all over Norfolk.  I had learnt from experience that if you get in a taxi and say “Horsmere” the driver has no idea where you mean but if you say “The Horse Inn” he’ll start launching into excited chatter about how amazing the food is.  I normally went on autopilot when this happened – nodding politely and talking about how much I loved the fish dishes.

 

For this reason it was always packed with people, the large car park awash with vehicles parked in awkward angles – all desperate to cram in and find a space.  Those who couldn’t quite make it always parked up our road.  My Dad liked to moan every Sunday about the amount of cars lining up the pavement.

 

Credit where credit is due though, the place was something to be proud of.  From the outside it looked wonderful – the cream coloured brick matching the dark roof perfectly and the inside was even better.  It was pretty large and split into two sections, a small restaurant and then a huge bar with tables crammed into every vacant area.

 

Every Valentines the Horse Inn held a special Valentines Evening, everything was themed for the day and dinners were available at a reduced rate, every year my Mum tried to make me go, and every year I said no.  I wasn’t sure what made me change my mind this time, just something to make her shut up I guess.

 

“You are really going to enjoy this,” my Dad beamed at me, “its one special evening.”

 

My parent raved about the event every year, small villages like Horsmere always take their community events very seriously, nearly the whole village would be in the pub tonight. 

 

We reached the door and the smell of hot food immediately crept out on the pavement to greet us, making my stomach rumble in anticipation. 

 

“Hello!” A friendly voice greeted us as we reached the door; it was my village friend Gillian, who worked in the pub during the evenings and at weekends.

 

“Heya Gill,” I greeted, happy to see a friendly face.  “You working tonight?”

 

“Yep, official Valentines duties, they’ve gone completely OTT, we’ve been made to wear red outfits,” she smiled as she turned round to show me her outfit. Her slim figure looked fantastic in the low cut red top and tight black skirt.

 

“You look great,” I commented.

 

“So do you,” she said, looking at my outfit and grinning.  I felt myself blush a bit, it wasn’t often that I went out wearing anything quite like this, I was very much a jeans and T-shirt girl.

 

“So what’s your job tonight then?” I asked, desperate to take the focus away from me.

 

“To kiss all the men that come in,” she laughed.

 

“Really?” I asked, thinking she was joking.

 

She replied, by leaning over towards my Dad and giving him a quick peck on the cheek before offering him a reduced drinks list in the shape of a heart.

 

“Wow, nice job,” I said sarcastically, “bet you are loving spending your evening kissing old farmers.”

 

“Well that’s the Valentine rules,” she replied, “No kiss, no entry.”

 

“Well who do us ladies kiss?” my Mum asked, looking behind Gillian to see if an eligible young man was anywhere to be seen.

 

“Ahhh,” Gillian replied mysteriously, “you ladies are in for quite a treat tonight.”

 

“Why?” I asked.

 

My question was answered before Gillian had even opened her mouth to reply.

 

Ben appeared out of the shadows dressed in black trousers and a red shirt, it looked pretty good set against his dark hair, and I was ashamed to feel myself shiver slightly as he approached us.  This was soon replaced with a feeling of disgust, firstly at myself for feeling something for Ben and secondly at the thought of having to kiss him.  I looked behind me, desperately looking for an exit.  There wasn’t one, my parents were both stood behind me, trapping me in.

 

He stood in front of me grinning, smiling at me like their was no animosity between us at all, like he hadn’t spent the last five years blanking me and treating me like a bit of dirt on his shoe.  Dare I say it, it was almost like I was 11 again, he was looking at me like we were friends.

 

I shuffled slightly, looking down at my feet, I didn’t want to look up to meet his gaze, I was rather worried that I was going to start finding him attractive again, it was hard to resist those huge blue eyes when they started making a connection with you…and more than anything I wanted to hate him, I couldn’t do anything but hate him after the way he had been towards me.

 

“You planning on coming in Kim?”

 

Ahhh he said my name!  So he does remember me and he does know who I am.  I felt a bit ridiculous thinking that, but sometimes it had seemed that he didn’t know who I was, he had blanked me so often it was like we were complete strangers.

 

“Eh?” I replied, in a complete state of daze.

 

“To come in you need your kiss,” he prompted.

 

I struggled to get some noise to come out of my mouth, and ended up with a gargle of sounds that almost sounded like an “okay”.

 

He leant in towards me, and immediately the smell of his aftershave went up my nose and reached out to all of my senses, he smelt wonderful.  I felt almost light headed as his lips reached nearer to me, I put my hand on his arm to steady myself, closing my eyes in anticipation for what was about to come.  Then I felt them, his warm soft lips pressed firmly on my cheek, before being taken away again just as quickly.  He handed me the drinks list and I crashed back to earth with a thud.

 

Walking past him I made my way into the pub.  It looked amazing, all of the tables had large red candles on them and the ceiling was draped in garlands of hearts, there was a singer walking around serenading everyone to love songs and a few couples had even got up to dance.

 

Glancing behind me I saw that my parents had followed me in and so chose a table and sat down.

 

“What a nice young man,” Mum commented as she sat down.

 

“What?” I replied.

 

“Come on honey, don’t be so cagey,” she pressed, “now your father has gone to the bar we can have a girly chat.”

 

“I don’t need one,”

 

“So you don’t fancy young Ben then?” she asked, the disappointment in her voice was evident.

 

“No,” I replied, “I can’t stand him!”

 

“Who’s that?” My father asked, returning with the drinks and placing them in front of us.

 

“Ben,” Mum replied, filling him on what we were talking about.

 

“Ahhh Ben,” he said grinning at me, “think our Kim has a thing for him.”

 

I blushed red in annoyance, why did they always insist on showing me up in public?

 

Picking up the menu I quickly hid myself behind it, eyes scouring for something to eat.

 

I was relived that by the time our food order had been placed the topic of conversation had changed.  Admittedly my Dad talking about his garden wasn’t that interesting, but it was better than talking about Ben.

 

“And then I was thinking about building a pond,” my Dad finished, smiling at us.

 

“Great Dad,” I commented, personally I didn’t see the point in pulling up all the grass to put in a patio and a pond, but if that was what he wanted then so be it.

 

“How’s school?” he asked, seeing that we were both bored with the garden topic.

 

“Fine, we have a quite a bit of work on though.”

 

“But you can handle it?” he asked.

 

“Yep,” I replied confidently. 

 

I had always been pretty good in school, I wasn’t amazingly intelligent or anything, I was just lucky enough to have enough natural brainpower to pull me through with minimal effort, and as I was good at English it tended to pull me through other subjects as well.

 

“Oooh, food’s here!” Dad said, his eyes lighting up.  He picked his napkin up and tucked it into the front of his shirt. 

 

I turned and saw Gillian heading over with a couple of plates balanced on her arms.

 

“They giving you a break from door duty Gill?” I asked.

 

“Yep, we are now onto waiting tables instead and then later will probably end up washing up as well.”

 

She put the plates down in front of my parents and to my horror I saw Ben heading over to the table with mine.

 

He smiled at me as he leaned right behind me, putting the steaming dish on my place mat.  He was so close to me, I felt myself begin to flush, the red glow becoming even stronger as I noticed my parents watching in interest.

 

“Can I get you guys anything?” Ben asked politely.

 

My ears pricked up in interest.

 

“Can I have some vinegar?” I asked.

 

I couldn’t resist making him do a bit of running around, pay him back for the way he had treated me in the past.

 

He brought it back and placed it down on the table.

 

“Anything else?” he asked.

 

“Could I have a clean fork?” I asked, holding mine up and pointing to an imaginary bit of dirt.

 

“Sure,” he replied, taking it off me and returning a few moments later with a fresh one.

 

“OK?” he asked.

 

“Sorry, could I have another roll as well?”

 

I grinned to myself as he went rushing out again, I could see that he was beginning to get ever so slightly annoyed now, I enjoyed being in power for a change.  It wasn’t often that I had any kind of hold over him.

 

“There you go,” he said, placing the bread roll on my plate.

 

“Anything else?”

 

“No thanks Ben,” I replied, smiling sweetly, “that’ll do for now.”

 

I felt warm with the satisfaction of it all – in a very small and tiny way I had irritated Ben the bastard, just as he always irritated me.