A Pause Is Worth The Wait

Episode five of Mrs Sunderbury And The Gold Earring. The story starts here

Jane looked at Ben as they passed twenty minutes in the little bar at the end of platform fifteen. He was a handsome man, tall and neatly muscled, and she loved the way a certain vein on his strong neck bulged sometimes when passionate speech animated his even English features. She like to kiss that part of his neck when they were making love. He was manly for 23 - could have been a rugby player, though he was no meat-head. His fitness came from trekking and climbing, and to persuading him to compete in any testosterone-fuelled competition was a lost cause, and several frustrated PE teachers had tried and failed. Ben was into nature, climbing trees and sea-cliffs; he liked skinny dipping and brewing up on the shore, and he loved Jane.

Jane considered herself not bad; she wasn't a vain girl, but she knew that she looked better in riding boots than in the slimming strips of a fashion store. She had the hourglass shape, robust healthy complexion and shiny hair of a woman completely ready to bear children, with sharp, elegant, Italianate features, and a sardonic curve to her smile. Ben had relaxed her, and his gentle, unconditional, undemanding affection had produced a purpose in her which she welcomed. She was more experienced in love than Ben; but he was the One, she had realised after two romantic dates, when he had kissed her, held her hand, and taken her effortlessly to the place she knew existed in books and films without doing anything more than gazing into her large, dark eyes, and listening to her, actually listening, like nobody had ever done before.

"It's going to be easier for me," he said, "I'll have Joe, and a million things to distract me, and you'll just be slogging through your last three terms, submitting papers and polishing up your Polish!"

She smiled. "I don't know.. at least I won't have to worry about getting evil diseases and being eaten by pirhanas!"

"Or running out of supplies in the Andes and being eaten by Joe! Clarice... Tell me, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?" Ben twisted his face up and did a passable Anthony Hopkins impression. Jane laughed, then said, mock seriously,

"Do you think you'll be able to contain yourself for that length of time, or shall I supply you with Bromide?"

Ben looked levelly back across the brown plastic table. "I don't know," he said quietly. "Those latin women are crazy.. the music.. the coca.. the heat.. it may prove too much for a young man to bear. I may have to turn to... Joe!"

Jane erupted in mirth at the thought of ultra-straight Ben making advances on his less-than handsome best mate, and Ben threw a gloriously camp sniff, then glared at her mock-offended, eyebrows raised, nostrils flared, eyes twinkling. Then he relaxed his face, and said,

"You know you are the only one, don't you."

"Yes..." she replied, slowly.

"In my heart, I mean," continued Ben, then coming close to her whispering in a lisp, "and altho in my pantth!"

"Yes. I hope so," replied Jane, suddenly defensive. The slapstick joking had contained Buster Keaton elements of pathos and surprise, and a shadow passed over her. She had never thought of losing Ben sexually, she realised, and suddenly it seemed very possible. Ben seemed oblivious to her change of mood, and remained camp and affected to amuse her. How Ben, she thought, briefly envious of his certainty and easy charm.

"Come on," she rose, grabbing Ben's arm, "the train is in!"

"Tally ho!" cried Ben, "Orft we jolly go to Brightington!" and they linked arms as they left the bar.

End episode five.