21 comments/ 19880 views/ 18 favorites An Ordinary Bloke By: Cromagnonman Up until now my life has not been riddled with self-doubt. In a life this ordinary there are no doubts. I could only be described as handsome by the blind. I could only be described as musical by the tone deaf. In stature, only midgets look up to me. My whole life has been spent being an ordinary bloke. So what has happened to change that? She has happened. She it is that has cast doubts on my ordinariness. The she in question is Mary Thornton. I met her in my local supermarket when I was spending my meagre budget on one of life's luxuries, food. At my time of life one has few luxuries, and food was one of them. I came around the corner pushing my trolley when I bumped into her, literally. "I'm sorry, they should fit these things with brakes, along with wheels that point in the right direction. Are you all right? I haven't broken anything, have I?" "No, I'm okay. I was meaning to hang a left here but this damn thing took it into its head to turn right. I think that we can state in our insurance claims that it was the fault of these." And I couldn't take my eyes from her face. "Are you new here, or is it that this is your first time at this time of the day?" I couldn't believe that I was asking her this, what business was it of mine? "How perceptive of you. I am new to the district, and I can't believe that I'm doing this, but can you show me what is what and where is where? This will save me flapping around trying to find things." "Flapping around is good, you find things that you weren't looking for. But, if you want, I'm prepared to flap with you. You never know, I might find something new that I wasn't looking for." Yeah, like I wasn't looking for you, was I? "I only have to pick up a few more things, shall I meet you out front?" "I'm just about finished here myself, and I have a trick that makes life more interesting at the checkout. For starters I never use the self-serve checkouts, not because I can't, but because I have my favourite checkout operator. She's not only cute, but she can actually say things other than 'hi, how are you today?', 'do you have a rewards card?, and 'enjoy the rest of your day'. Whoever thought up this crap obviously thought that using banalities like this meant that they didn't have to think of things to say. This girl didn't hesitate to join in when I spoke outside the square, and forced her to think of a response. Now we have semi-intelligent conversations, we talk about what we're doing and are going to do. It turns dull and boring into interesting for both of us." "I agree, sometimes I wonder whether or not these girls are lip-synching to a recording half the time." I grabbed the few things that I had left to grab and we walked to the express checkout together. I gallantly allowed her (I hadn't gotten around to asking her name yet) too precede me. Soon it was my turn. "Hi Janie, how's life in the fast lane today?" I asked her as she took my cool bag from me and slipped it over the frame. I stacked my goods on the conveyor in the order that she should place them into the bag. "I don't know how I'll be able to stand another six hours of this excitement. How are things with you? I noticed you chatting up that lady, are you going to hit on her?" "Are you suggesting that I have lustful intentions towards her, or are you just jealous? We only just met when our trolleys collided in aisle 7, I have to take her to the doctors to see if there's anything broken." "Me jealous? No way, I've got you exactly where I want you." "And where is that exactly?" "On your side of the checkout. That comes to twenty three dollars and seventy five cents." I waved my rewards card in front of the scanner and then held up my debit card so that she could activate the card scanner. "Any cash out?" "Nah, if I take any out I'll only spend it on frivolous things." Her register printed out my receipt, and she handed it to me with a smile. "Go for it mate, she's actually waited for you to finish, and hasn't walked off. She's interested." I smiled at her, picked up my bag and placed it in my trolley and walked towards Mary. "By the way, I'm Roland, Roland Stevens." I said as we headed for the car park. "Mary, Mary Thornton. Shall we dump our groceries in our cars and then have a cup of coffee. I assume that you know the best coffee shop in this centre." "I have my favourite, yes." My car came first and she waited while I opened the hatch and stowed my bag. "I like your hatch support, what is it and why?" "It's a pitching wedge. The struts aren't strong enough to support the hatch. They worked after a fashion before I stuck the Vitesse spoiler on the back, but it's as heavy as lead." (I should point out that I currently drive an old (1985) Rover SE VanDenPlas because of my penchant for old and unusual cars.) I dropped the hatch and wheeled my now empty trolley towards her car, which turned out to be a similarly unusual car from the same era, a SAAB 9000 turbo hatch. "I'm impressed, we seem to have similar taste in cars." "I claimed this to piss off my ex-bastard. He loved this car more than he loved me, so I wouldn't agree to his demands until he gave it to me. He needed the money from the sale of the house to save his sorry arse, because his business was going down the tubes. If he wasn't shagging his secretary I might have let him keep it." We dumped our trolleys in the collection bay and headed inside to my favourite coffee shop. I chose this one because it concentrates on making simple coffee well, rather than having a squillion different flavours, none of this half caff cap with a dusting of cinnamon for me, I liked mine plain and simple, a flat white. "What would you like?" I asked Mary as we reached the front of the queue. "Flat white please." "Two flat whites," I told the guy behind the counter, "and a couple of slices of that lemon cheesecake." "How did?" Mary began to ask. "This is weird, our tastes are so similar it's not funny." "Yeah, I had noticed. You bought pretty much the same stuff as I did back in the supermarket. This is going to simplify matters in the future." "Are you suggesting at this early stage, how long has it been, half an hour, that you and I are destined to marry?" "Like you said, it's early days, minutes actually, but for some reason I have this urge to forget that I have very little to offer a prospective bride and put myself out there while I have the balls." "I'm glad you have balls. Am I to hope that as well as having the intestinal fortitude, you have a couple occupying your pouch." "I have indeed. They may be atrophied from lack of use, but they're there." "I see that I'll have to rectify that." We had found a table and were seated waiting for our goodies to arrive. "But getting serious for a while, I can't believe that I could bump, literally, into someone who I found instantly attractive. I don't mean in the film star sense, but someone who is not full of himself and has an unforced sense of humour." "I can't believe that I have met someone who is so easy to talk to. I don't have to pretend to be someone that I'm not to attract your attention." "No you just had to maim me with your reckless trolley driving." "You're going to make me apologise for that for the rest of my miserable life, aren't you?" "No I'm not. Realistically, if you hadn't bumped into me, or was it the other way around, I don't know, and I don't care, anyway if we hadn't bumped into each other, we wouldn't be sitting here having this ridiculous conversation." Our coffees and cheese cake arrived. "Saved by food, I think I'll shut up for the time being." We chatted about this and that as we ate and drank, all the time skirting the issues touched on earlier. As we walked down the mall later Mary took my hand to stop me. "Roland, do your friends call you Roland, or is it Rollo?" "Roland. The few friends that I have call me Roland." "Okay Roland, what do you think of this?" She pointed to an LBD in the window of a dress shop. "I think that you would look great in that, all you would need is somewhere to wear it, and someone to take you there." "If I were to buy it, would you take me somewhere where it would not look out of place?" "I think that I could manage that." A quick mental calculation of whether my bank account could wear that, and I realised that I might have to starve for a week, but what the heck, I needed to lose weight anyway. "Come on, I'll try it on and you can tell me what you think." She literally dragged me inside and minutes later appeared from the change room wearing it. She pirouetted around. "Well, what do you think?" "I think that you look amazing." It was then that I realised that she wasn't wearing a bra. Okay, so the dress was tight under the bodice, but even so, there was no strain on the top from floppy tits. "Actually you look better than amazing, close to perfect, but then I might be a tad biased." "Aren't you sweet. It's not to young for me, is it?" "The dress is like you, ageless." Gees, I can lay it on thick, can't I? She smiled at me, I noticed something else about her, when she smiles at me I go weak at the knees, and trotted off to change back into her ordinary clothes.. After paying for it we recommenced our mall stroll, stopping from time to time to look at something in a shop window. She pointedly, I think, stopped outside a Menswear store to admire a couple of trouser/jacket combinations. Oh well, at a stretch I could manage two weeks without eating. I tried on a pair of dark blue trousers teamed with a darkish blue/grey jacket that I could wear my good blue shirt with. "You look positively handsome in that, we'll be the best dressed couple wherever you take me." What could I do? I bought the trousers and jacket, and armed with a large shopping bag advertising the store, we continued our walk. Back at her car and I stood close to her, not threateningly close, but a friendly close. "If I make reservations for a restaurant for this evening, where will I need to pick you up from?" She took a pen and notepad from her bag and wrote down her name, address and phone number. "I could have told you, but there I would be, between now and then wondering whether or not you've had a seniors moment and forgotten all about it. What time would you like me to be ready?" "How does 6:30 sound?" "I think I could manage to chisel a new face by then." She moved closer and kissed me lightly on the lips. "That's to lessen the chances of you forgetting." "It's already etched on my frontal lobe. I'll see you at 6:30 then." I kissed her back, not her back, I returned her kiss. "You too are a senior, I don't want to rock up at yours to find you in your jimjams and with your hair in curlers." "For your information, I have neither jimjams or curlers." She slid into her car and fired up the engine. Back at home I had the beginnings of a panic attack. What the fuck had I let myself in for? To say that I was out of practise at this sort of thing presupposes that I had done it previously. It certainly felt as if I'd never been in this situation, but then I must have, I was at one time a married man, but that was now a faded memory of a time long ago. Since then I have avoided the possibility of entering into even a casual relationship with another woman, so why did I, when this opportunity presented itself, jump headlong into it? After telling myself that I was a fucking idiot, I set about tarting myself up and preparing to meet my doom. Promptly at 6:30 my trembling finger applied pressure to the front door button and the happy peals of my fate rang through the house. A vision in a new black dress appeared as the door opened. My breath came to a screeching halt for several seconds as I took this all in. "Come in, I've just got to layer on a second coat of make-up, it shouldn't take long." "Take your time." I was used to, in a previous existence, waiting positively ages for the preening to finish. Thirty seconds later she emerged from down the hall clutching her small clutch purse and wearing a smile a mile wide. "Well, how do I look?" When I hadn't yet managed to get my mouth into gear within twenty seconds she decided to interrupt my thoughts. "So, from your lack of response, am I to gather that my beauty has left you speechless?" "What? Yes, speechless am I. And I'll stop doing my Yoda impersonation now, I shall?" "That's the best compliment a girl can get. And you've scrubbed up pretty well yourself. Shall we go." "Yes, we should." I led her to my car and held the door open for her to get in. There is something about a black stocking clad leg that turns me on, and hers were working wonders with my libido. What can I say, the evening got better and better as it progressed. "Well, what would you like?" I asked, looking up from my menu. "It all looks so good. I think I'll start with the deep fried sardines, and, keeping with the seafood theme, the Barramundi and salad looks good." "This is to much of a coincidence." The waiter came over to hover, pen in hand. "We'll have two serves of my usual thanks." His eyebrows shot up, I always ordered the same thing every time I went there, every two weeks or so, but to have two people order the same thing, especially when there didn't seem to have been any comparing of notes between us, was too much of a coincidence. Our conversation over the fine food was a continuation of our light-hearted banter of earlier on in the day. I was enjoying myself and found myself relaxing in Mary's company. A bottle of good Savvy B (Sauvignon Blanc) helped us along, not that we really needed it, but it gave us something to do with our hands seeing that neither of us smoked, not that we could in the restaurant. By the end of the meal we were both laughing at just about anything that was said. I led her from the restaurant, and as we reached the street Mary took my hand. I stopped and turned to her. "Thank you so much for a pleasant evening. I needed this." She moved closer and kissed me. I moved back and leaned against a light pole, I needed all the support that I could get, seeing as how my knees had deserted me. "Thank you. I can't remember the last time that I enjoyed myself this much. I should be thanking you. I have all but given up on attracting the attention of a woman that I felt comfortable with." "You're one up on me. I had given up on men." "That bad huh?" "Let's not spoil a perfect evening." I opened the car door for her and she slid into her seat. I don't know whether it was my imagination or not, but I'm sure that I was shown a little more leg this time, and, as the car sits relatively low, a decent glimpse of cleavage. The evening was getting even more perfect. Then there was the seat belt between her breasts, I had a hard time concentrating, but I managed, just. I pulled into her driveway and turned the motor off, slipped out of my seat belt and around the her side of the car. "We are here Madam." I said in my best Chauffeur's voice. This time it wasn't my imagination. She swung her legs out and just before she stood up, her skirt had risen up alarmingly. Her smile told me that it was deliberate. "Thank you Roland, would you care to escort me inside?" She replied in her best 'Lady of the manor' voice. "Certainly Madam, as you wish. I would enjoy that." She took her keys from her purse and handed them to me. I opened her door for her and stood aside as she entered. I got less than a metre inside her door when she flung her arms around my neck and kissed me, really kissed me. I would have said something, protested that this was moving much too fast for me, but my lips were sealed, by her lips. In the middle of this contact I realised that she was not wearing a bra, I snuck a feel just to confirm it, her nipples were hard, a situation that my cock was attempting to emulate. Eventually she eased back from me. There was that look on her face again, her hand went between us as she copped a feel. "Let's cut to the chase. I want so much to make love to you tonight, all night." "You won't hear me complaining. Lead on." She led, down the hallway to her bedroom. "The loo's in there," she pointed to the door to the en-suite, "if you need to have a leak and freshen up." "Do you have a spare toothbrush?" "Seeing as how we've just been swapping spit, I don't see any problem with you using mine. I'll buy you one in the morning." "You don't have to do that, I've got a couple of spares at home. The last time I bought a new toothbrush it came in a pack of three. So, you have one for when you stop over at my place." "My you are organised, you would seem to have done this sort of thing before." "Nah, I'm just a cheapskate, they were on special, better than three for the price of two." All the time this was going on we were getting out of our clothes. In the wash of moonlight filtering through the curtains she looked even more spectacular. I finished undressing before her and went into the en-suite to brush my teeth. Mary followed me in, and with the light on, I noticed a small scar on her left breast. She saw me noticing it. "Yes, it's what you think it is, It's all gone, the last three examinations have proven negative, so I feel that I've made it out the other side. I used to be self-conscious about my breasts after the operation, and the ex didn't help me by completely, and conspicuously, ignoring the existence of my left boob, it made me feel even more self-conscious of my scar. I bet his Secretary has perfect tits." "I think that they are perfect, the scar gives that one a touch of character." I said as I kissed the scar gently. It was as if I was scared of hurting her. "Roland, I know that this is going to sound weird, seeing as we only met this morning, but . . ." She paused to gather her thoughts and put the words in the right order. "When you have had a close call with death, as I have, you come to realise that time, our time on this earth, is precious. I have missed out on a great deal of happiness over the past couple of years. I have been frightened by the diagnosis, and rejected by my husband. I think I deserve a little happiness in the time that I have left. Even though I have been given the all-clear for now, there is that chance that it will come back to bite me in the future. I do not intend to sit here waiting for the inevitable that might not come. I fully intend to have a fucking good time, and I know that you can help me in this." "Wow! I think that I've known that there was a ticking time bomb behind this fun and frivolity that we've had today. There were moments when a cloud came over your face. It was as if you were deciding whether or not you should include me in what was happening to you. Count me in, I have nothing better to do with my time." I led her back to her bed. She slid between the sheets and held them apart for me. I might not have done it for a while, but I hadn't forgotten what to do and how to do it, and if the noises she made were any indication, Mary was very appreciative of my efforts. "Whew, that was something else again, and again. In all of the time I was married, I have never had it that good. Do me again, please." "You'll have to hold that . . ." She grabbed him. "Thought, not my cock. Scratch that, you can hold my cock while you hold that thought, he's not ready for another just yet, but if you hold him, yes like that, he'll let you know when he is." He didn't take long to rise to the occasion. It was one hell of a night. I lost count of how many times that we made love, one seemed to merge with the next. In spite of my exhaustion, I felt more alive than I have felt for a long time, and looking down at Mary, a smile of contentment on her sleeping face, I felt that she had enjoyed it as much as I had. An Ordinary Bloke Her eyes fluttered and opened, her smile widened, her hand reached out to my face and a deep throaty chuckle emerged from her lips. "I've been dreaming, an impossible dream, one where this handsome man has made love to me several times during the night. The man looked exactly like you, and by the feel of my pussy and my matted pubes, it was no dream. Just to be certain, would you make love to me again." I had heard this term years ago, where prostitutes would charge less for what they called a 'stand up start', in other words there was no foreplay involved. Why this came to mind was that, as I watched her smiling face come to life, he came to life. I kissed her lips good morning, I told her good morning as I descended to her pussy, my tongue licking the remnants of last night from her lips. As I positioned him at her entrance and slowly pushed him into her, her smile brightened. "Don't you ever leave me, I want this for the rest of my life." "I have no intention of going anywhere in the foreseeable future. Do you have any plans for today?" "I have to go see Erica, she's my daughter. I want her to meet my new man." "You aren't wasting any time, are you?" "I have no time to waste. Don't worry, I have no intention of going anywhere either, it's just that my life to now has been wasted, totally wasted. The last two years of my marriage may just as well not have happened, for all the good it did me. Now I'm just going to join you in making love. You can push a little harder, I won't break." I pushed a little harder until the dam broke and her insides were flooded." After breakfast we climbed into my car and drove to Erica's house. "Hi Mum, I wasn't expecting you this morning, and who's your chauffeur?" "Erica, this is Roland, and he almost literally swept me off my feet yesterday morning." "Almost, what does that mean?" "Our trolleys collided in the supermarket, and we got talking and I have found my perfect man." "No, don't tell me that you and him have been, you know? It's not possible for things to advance that fast, is it?" "Yes it is." I said. "Mary is an amazing woman, you are lucky having a mother like her." "So what happens now?" Erica asked. "You are going to make us a coffee and we'll talk about this and that for a while, and then we are going to leave you and go home to Roland's place, I want to road test his bed." "Mother! I'm shocked. I have never heard you speak like that in my entire life." "You'd better get used to it because my man makes me feel so sexy. For an old sheila like me, who's had a rough trot over the past couple of years, I need to do a bit of catching up. I need to feel like a woman again." "Don't let me stop you. I have never seen you as happy as this." Erica kissed Mary and me and pushed us towards the door. "Go, go home and crew your hearts out." We did as we were told, and it was a sublime experience. In the early hours of the morning with Mary's soft breath beside me, my mind drifted back to my previous life. I didn't have an ex-wife who tossed me over for a new man. I had a now deceased wife who left me devastated. The doctors told me that it was unusual for a woman that young to have a stroke, and to have one as massive as the one that Jill had was almost unheard of. The one redeeming feature, if you could call it that, was that she wouldn't have to suffer through the paralysis, or the slurred speech, or the lop-sided face because the muscles on one side wouldn't work. But that didn't help me. I lost the plot there for a while, and it took a massive jolt to get me back on track with my life. I made the decision that I would not put myself in that situation again, I didn't want to go through the loss of a wife again. I was a coward. I didn't shut myself off totally from the world around me, I had casual friends that I talked to, like Janie at the supermarket. But none of them were visiting friends, I didn't get invites to dinner from any of them, and I didn't invite anyone to have dinner with me. I did think that I could invite Janie and have my ego boosted if she accepted, but I was too much a coward to even attempt that exercise in futility. My reverie was interrupted, I had just reached the point when Mary and I collided, by a hand sliding up my leg and caressing him into life. "I want him inside me now." She leaned over and kissed me. "You do realise that I have had more sex in the past forty-eight hours than I had in the past three years." She climbed on top and fed him into her wet pussy. "Oh my god that's good. Never let it be said that us oldies don't appreciate lovemaking." "I know that I do, I don't want this to stop, ever. But then if we don't at least slow down we will wear ourselves into a frazzle, and we can't have that now, can we?" Some time later she had her orgasm, shortly before mine, and climbed off and out of bed, and headed for the bathroom to clean herself up. I lay in bed for another minute or two just luxuriating in the afterglow of the most amazing time that I've ever had. "Come on lazybones, get out of bed, the shower's lovely and I want you here." Another new experience for me, whoever coined the saying; 'save water, shower with a friend' obviously had this in mind, although this definitely wasn't a two minute shower, so we probably ended up using more water. But we both enjoyed it, taking turns to lather the other up and rinse off. "What are you thinking about?" Mary asked. "I was thinking that we've been behaving like a couple of randy schoolkids, not responsible adults." "And this is a problem, how?" "No problem, just an observation." "Well observe this." She dropped to her knees and took him into her mouth. Breakfast occurred sometime later, and then we sat around and talked for a couple of hours. I learned something of the train wreck that was her previous life, and she learned more about me than anyone other than me. "I can understand why you decided to withdraw from the world, and being selfish, I say thank you that you did, otherwise some other lucky woman would be doing what we are now, and not me. Now what are we going to do for the rest of the day?" "I usually go for a walk along the bike trail. You run the risk of being mowed down by feral cyclists, but the scenery's good and there's a good café at the end of it, where you can replace your past and future calorie consumption." "Sounds Idyllic, but I haven't come prepared for such an activity." "Well, I could take you home to change." An hour later we began our walk. Okay, so we made love again when we got back to her place. The following week there was no trolley collision, we shared a single trolley and Mary was with me as I pushed it towards the express lane, Janie was on duty again. She smiled as we approached. I began to unload the trolley. "Hey Mister, can't you read?" Pointing towards the sign that said 15 items or less. "These aren't all mine." "Okay, I'll let you through this time but don't make a habit of it." She turned her attention to Mary. "I'd watch out for this dirty old man if I were you, no good can come of this." If I didn't know her I would have been offended. "Don't I know it." Mary told her, "I need a vacation already. Insatiable he is, he wants it all the time. You should count yourself lucky, if it wasn't for me he'd be hitting on you." "Don't I know it. I've had to threaten to report him for sexual harassment over some of the things he says to me." "Do you two mind?" I looked from one smiling face to the other. "I'm offended by this talk." I had decided to play their game. "I'm the innocent party here, you two are talking about me as if I'm not here. I say enough is enough, okay?" "Since when did he get so touchy?" Janie asked Mary. "I don't know, he's probably entering that time where he becomes old and cranky. He might be feeling his age because he's having problems keeping up with my demands." "If that's the case then he'd be no good for me, at least five times a day, and I can get pretty hard-core." "That's it! I'm out of here, and Mary, you can pay for all this, I'll meet you at the car." Mary stood in front of me so that I couldn't leave and then she kissed me. "Oh all right, I'll pay, but I expect you to repay me when we get home." "That wouldn't even get you a blow job." Mary whispered to me. "We'll see about that." I whispered back. "Ahem." Janie interrupted, "That all comes to forty-seven dollars and thirty cents." "Pay the girl." Mary said as she hoisted the bags into the trolley. "Any cash out?" Janie asked. "Yeah, give me ten dollars, I'll have to pay the lady for her services." Janie gave me the ten dollar note. "I won't tell you to enjoy the rest of your day, because it's obvious that you're going to. You two are great together, and Mary, don't lose him, he's a great guy." "Don't worry, I won't." She smiled at Janie, then looked at me. "Come on slave, don't just stand there, let's go home while I'm in the mood." A pattern was soon established. I would spend a couple of days a week at her place, and she would spend a couple of days at mine. That way we could spread the load on our beds and bedding. We discussed whether or not to sell one of the houses but decided against it. This was partly because Mary had this impression that Erica was in the process of making up her mind as to whether she should persevere with her marriage. If she decided to end it she would move in to Mary's house and Mary would move in with me. "Having you around me has made me realise how much living I have left in me. I want to be there for Erica, and while I love her, I can't make love to her." Mary and I had just finished a performance test on my mattress. "Don't look at me. I'm not going there." I had to remove my tongue from her pussy to reply. "I don't expect you to, you have your work cut out for you just keeping up with my demands." "I meant to talk to you about that. I've noticed that your recovery time is a little longer than when we first got together. Is there a problem that I don't know about?" "There is. I got the results of that check-up I had the other day. It's not looking positive. I have to have more tests in a couple of days." "I'm so sorry Darling, come here." I took her in my arms and hugged her to me. "Look, I want you to know that I am with you every step of whatever way this thing plays out. If the other tests come back with the result that this fucking thing has reared its ugly head all over again, I am here to support you, and if that means cleaning up your vomit after chemo, then so be it. I can put up with whatever shit this thing throws at us. This is an us thing, and don't you forget that," "I know you will, and that is why I chose you to love, and chose to love you." "So it wasn't my dashing good looks that did it, eh?" "Shut up. Okay, it was that as well. And the fact that you are, to all intents and purposes, as blind as a bat." "I'll have you know Madam, that my eyesight is as close to perfect as I can expect at my age, and a damn sight better than yours. If you could see properly you would have missed my trolley." "And missed meeting the one man left in this world willing to fuck me?" She kissed me. "Can we get serious for a while?" "No. I refuse to be serious in the face of this serious news. Now kiss me again and see if your passion can stir some reaction in him." Following some more serious loving we did eventually get around to having that serious discussion. Mary would move in with me permanently, and Erica would move into her house, as soon as possible. She would tell her husband that she was moving in with her mother because of the return of the cancer. He cared so little for her that he would probably be glad that she was leaving him. I know that she would be lying to him, but he had lied to her when he told her that he was not having an affair, a fact that she knew because the stupid girl had rung her to gloat about it. Mary and I made the most of the time that we had available to us. We managed, between visits to the Oncologist, to take short holidays. We visited seaside resorts where we walked the beaches, holding hands and wading in the water. There was an exhilaration in wading in the ocean, with water washing around our legs, the salt spray in our faces, and the sand between our toes. We visited the wine country and wine crawled through several wineries, doing no more than four a day because we found that, after that, it all tasted the same. We dined on local produce in the local restaurants, holding hands whenever possible and whispering stupid things to each other. We stayed in B&B's in the hills, walking the hiking trails and smelling the bush, listening to the birds and animals. Each new trip was taking its toll on Mary, but she refused to give in to it, and all the time we made love. In time it evolved from the frantic, 'let's not waste a moment' lovemaking, to a slower, 'let's savour the moment' gentle lovemaking. Mary lost her hair due to her treatment. "I can't go out looking like this, everyone is staring at me, I feel so conspicuous wearing this stupid bandana." "Then don't. I think that you look even more beautiful now, and at least you don't have to worry about doing your hair every day." While she was resting I went into the bathroom and shaved my head complete with eyebrows. I crawled into bed beside her sleeping body and drifted off to sleep with her in my arms. "What have you done?" She was looking at my shiny scalp. "I shaved my head, like it?" "I'll get used to it, in time. Did you do that just because I was complaining about my looks?" "I've been thinking about this for some time, I'm sick of my hair, it's fine and, even though there is a fair bit on top, it looks much thinner. So I shaved it all off." "Did you have to do your eyebrows as well?" "They were definitely not one of my better features." "I'll grant you that." "You didn't have to agree with me. I thought that they didn't match the rest of my head hair, the hair was coarse, and the wrong colour, so they had to go." "I love you, not just for doing this for me, but for being you. I should have met you ages ago, my life would have been more interesting, and I would have been much happier. If we'd met twenty years ago I could have had kids with you, even if I was married to someone else." "You mean to tell me that you would have had an affair with me, even if you were married?" "Yes. I would have recognised, even then, just how perfect we are together. I would have happily cheated on my husband with you." "You are forgetting one minor detail, I was married myself back then, and I would not have betrayed my wife with another woman, not even you. I'm sorry, but that's how I am." "I know you are. But you could have gone along with my mood, and agreed with me that we would have had an affair." "I suppose that meeting you might have changed my thinking on marital fidelity, I could have convinced her that I was capable of loving two women at the same time, maybe we could have had a threesome." "No fucking way mate, if you think that I would be prepared to share you with another woman you've got another think coming." "Oh, so it's a case of what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, is it?" It was getting harder and harder to maintain our light-hearted conversation in light of her failing health. On days when her treatment really knocked her around, she was sad at having involved me in her life. "Darling," "Yes." "I want you to leave me. I should never have dragged you into my misery, it wasn't fair on you." "Mary, my love," I pulled her into my arms. "I wouldn't want it any other way. You have brought joy and happiness into my dull existence, and I'm not about to forget that, or you. :I mightn't get it right all of the time, but I'm doing the best that an ordinary bloke can do to make your life at least bearable. I want to do it because I love you more than I thought possible. If we had married I would have honoured the vow to love you in sickness and in health, until death do us part. Allow me to do what I want, because my love you can't stop me." Her frail arms went around my neck and she sobbed, her tears running down her cheeks and dripping onto my chest. "Roland, you are the most amazing man that I have ever met. I love you, so much." She closed her eyes, a smile splitting her face. Her phone on the bedside unit completely shattered our mood with it's impossibly happy ringtone. It was Erica. "Mum, sorry to disturb you, but we need to talk." "What is it, what's the matter?" "It's Gordon, look it's hard to explain over the phone, could you come around?" "Yes, give me an hour to get myself organised and get around there." "Great. I'll see you then, both of you. I could use Roland's advice on this." "I was going to bring him anyway, I don't feel confident driving anymore. 'Bye." An hour later Erica was letting us into the house. "Mum, Gordon call in this morning on his way to work." "What did he have to say?" "That there was no affair, there never was an affair. The girl had lied when she rang me. Apparently it wasn't the first time that she had a crush on an exec in the company that she worked for. It was all a scam, she would hit on the man, in this case Gordon, and then threaten to go to his wife with news of the supposed affair unless he coughed up money. At first it was a small amount, but then, once he had started to pay, she increased the amount until it was quite large. As soon as he told her that there would be no more money, she would ring the wife and then sit back and watch the destruction of the marriage. Gordon got suspicious, it all seemed so easy, so rehearsed, that he suspected that she had done this before, so he contacted a previous company and spoke to a previous victim. The upshot is that she is under investigation by the police." "And you believe all of this?" Mary asked. "I have no reason to doubt it. And I want to save my marriage. Look Mum, I've seen how happy the two of you are together, and I've come to realise that I need that sort of happiness too, and I'm not going to get it on my own. I saw how it dragged you down when you and Dad split up, and I don't think that I'm strong enough to go through all of that." "If that's your decision, then I say go for it and I'll, we'll be behind you all the way." "Thanks Mum." Erica hugged her. "Mum, are you feeling okay?" It was as if, having cleared up her own problems she now turned her attention to Mary and her condition. "I've felt better, and if it wasn't for my gorgeous man here, I would be feeling much worse. You interrupted a very tender moment with your phone call, he was just about to show me how much he loves me." "God, I hope that I'm not as randy as you when I get to your age, Gordon's several years older than me, he'll never survive. It's all that he can do to make love to me more often that every second day, I don't know what that girl thought hitting on him, he'd never have kept her satisfied." "That's all well and good, but I can do with a coffee." "Coming right up, and I don't need to ask Roland if he wants one, I've never seen either of you having coffee without the other. Can I interest you in some cake? It's still warm, I baked it this morning." "I thought that I smelled a fresh baked cake. I need a sugar hit so I'll have a thick slice thank you." "What about you Roland, cake?" "You two have a slice and leave the rest to me, I'm famished." "No way," Mary said. "He'll have a slice just like the rest of us." "Spoilsport." I grumbled. While Erica was getting the coffees and cake, her phone rang. "Yes, it's okay, come on round." She ended the call. "That was Gordon, he's coming around to talk." An Ordinary Bloke "He must have been sure of himself." Mary said. "He was. We'd already made the decision, but because this involved me moving back in with him we felt that we needed to discuss it with you guys before I moved back with him." "You didn't need to go through all of this, I, we, would have supported any decision that you made, no matter how bad we thought that was." "But you needed to know that this is the right decision for us." "Okay, I can see that." I got to meet Gordon. He was sort of half-way between Erica's age and mine. He was handsome, well dressed, but with a care-worn face that made him look older. After the formalities of introductions were over and the discussions between Erica and Gordon had been dispensed with, the conversation circled around Mary's condition without touching on it. "Roland, can I have a word with you, in private?" "Sure." I stood and followed him out into the back yard. "How's Mary getting along?" "Not well, she has her good days and her bad days, today hasn't been good. I don't know how long she has got but I fully intend to make them as easy and happy as possible. I have to do this because I love her very much." "I can see that, and Erica has told me all about you, and how Mary has really been happy since meeting you. We can't thank you enough for bringing that back into her life. She was hurt badly by her husband, we were worried that she wouldn't get over it, especially that he had kicked her out at a very vulnerable time. I never had a lot of time for him, I tolerated him because he was Erica's father, but after the separation I've had little to do with him, even though he's my boss." "Ouch! That must take some doing." "I've been thinking about quitting and finding another job. In a more buoyant labour market I would have left ages ago, but there's little call for middle level managers these days, especially one who probably won't get a good reference." "How is he towards you?" "He tries to act as if he's done nothing wrong, but we both know that's not the way that I see it. If he thinks that I'm siding with Mary he can make it very hard for me, I try my best to remain neutral when it comes to family matters. Having said that, when Mary goes I'll not hesitate to tell him what I think of him, I don't want to start any family feud while she's still alive." "Thank you for that. Now I think that we should be getting back so the girls won't start thinking that one of us has killed the other." Gordon smiled to Erica as we came back into the room, just to let her know that we were cool. Erica and Gordon got their act together and he moved into Mary's house with her while renovations were being carried out on their house so that they could sell it. At least that was the story that they gave him for the move, and it wasn't really a lie as it turned out. Mary had always planned to leave the house to Erica, it was written in her Will. At least that will give him a bit of breathing space while he looked for a new job. I had a real problem. I really didn't like seeing the love of my life slowly losing her battle with cancer. My first wife died suddenly, and while it was a shock, I think in hindsight it was preferable to a slow decline. My other problem was that it was getting more and more difficult maintaining a positive outlook on life. I was giving it my best shot, When she was able to get around I took her out of the house. We went on day trips, trying as far as possible to avoid crowds of people. I took her to the supermarket and decided to avoid Janie's checkout, but that didn't work. She had seen us and made sure that we didn't go to another checkout. "Hi Mary, how is our man treating you?" She asked in her usual bright manner. "If he's not looking after you properly you just let me know and I'll give him a good talking to." "No he's fine, better than fine, he's great, I couldn't ask for a better man, I just wish that he was fifty years younger so that you could take him off my hands, he's loving me to death." "I'll stop loving you if it's killing you." "Don't you dare." Janie said. "She needs your love now more than ever. Anyway, don't get your hopes up, I have no plans to fall for an old fart like you." "How to hurt a guy, I'll just go away and sulk while you two crucify what little respect I have left." I paid for our groceries and wheeled the trolley with Mary leaning against me, and holding the handle. I looked back, Janie wasn't smiling today. We made our way slowly to the car park and home. I unpacked the groceries while Mary had a lie down in our darkened bedroom. At around 5:00 I made her a simple meal and took it in to her. "I don't feel like eating." Her quiet voice greeted me as I entered the room. "But you have to eat something to keep your strength up. Here, I'll feed you." I sat on the bed and spoon-fed her the mashed vegetables. She struggled to keep it down, but managed to eat some. I placed the tray on the floor and lay beside her, holding her frail body in my arms. "Mmmm, that feels nice, hold me please." She drifted off towards sleep, her breathing becoming disturbingly shallow. When she was fully asleep I slipped out of the room and called her doctor. He came straight away and his diagnosis wasn't good. "I'm afraid that she should be in hospital, I'll call for an ambulance." While he was doing that I called Erica to let her know the latest. "Hi Erica, it's Roland. I've just had the doctor here and he wants your Mum in hospital straight away. We're leaving as soon as the ambulance gets here." "Thank you for calling Roland, I'll meet you there, don't let her die until I get there." "I'll try not to, I'll see you soon." The ambulance arrived and she was lifted onto a gurney and wheeled out to the waiting vehicle. There was a group of neighbours that had been attracted by the ambulance's flashing lights, there were tears among the watchers as she was loaded into the back of the ambulance. I climbed in after her and sat by her, holding her hand and kissing her. Not good-bye kisses, but I love you kisses. The walk down the hospital corridor from the Emergency entrance to the Intensive Care Ward was the longest that I have ever taken, with each step another part of my life disappeared behind me. There wasn't a lot left when she was lifted onto bed and hooked up to the monitors. Erica arrived minutes after we had and was standing beside the bed. Mary smiled a welcome to her. I sat in a chair beside the bed, after smiling at Erica, she turned her attention to me. Mary held my hand gently, the strength had gone from her body now, and she was preparing for the end. "Darling man," Her voice struggling to reached me, even though my face was next to hers. "You have told me many times that you are an ordinary bloke. Let me tell you that you're not. You are an extra-ordinary bloke, and I've known that, even before I bumped into you, deliberately by the way. I saw you in the supermarket before that day. I saw the way that you interacted with Janie at the checkout, and the way that she smiled to herself as she watched you walk away. You made an impact on her, I know that it was only a little thing, but little things mean a lot. You were not just another customer passing briefly through her life. "You made her feel that life had a purpose, just as you made me feel that I had some life left in me. . . . . You made me the happiest woman in the world for a short time, by simply doing the little things. You gave me true love for a short time, and for that I cannot thank you enough. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end, and my time with you has come to an end. . . . . I hate to leave you like this, and you have to promise me that you'll look after yourself when I've gone, don't cut yourself off from the world again. . . . . . . I don't want you to be sad when I'm gone, but then I don't have any choice in this matter. . . . . . I know that you'll be sad. . . . . . Please don't hate me for this, please." The effort to get the words out had taken a heavy toll on her remaining strength. She closed her eyes, but the monitor told me that she was still with me. "Mary, my love. I will never hate you, but I have a confession to make, I have been a very naughty boy. I have kept something from you." Her eyes opened. "I have not told you about the result of my last medical. I will not be apart from you for very long. I will not have to bear the pain of loneliness for very long, six months tops, that's how long I have been given. I have avoided the doctors, even though I knew in my heart that what I had was terminal, But you were so happy just being with me that I couldn't bring myself to cloud that happiness with my bad news. I knew that the mole that I had on my back was a bad one, that the melanoma was well advanced, and that it was too late to operate. It had reached the lymphatic system and was in my lungs, It is only a matter of time now, you won't have time to mss me. So my beautiful Darling, do not feel sad about leaving me, remember me and the good times that we had together." She smiled at those memories. "I am pleased that you won't suffer for long." "Let me hold you one last time, let me kiss you one last time. This is not forever, I will be with you sooner than you realise." I bent to her, I pulled her to me in a gentle hug, kissed her smiling lips, and as I held my lips to hers I heard the monitor in the background flat-line. I held her for a moment longer before standing up, my head bowed, saying a silent good-bye to the woman who had given me so much happiness over the past four months. The doctors and nurses came in quickly in response to the monitor. I looked at them as they were about to resuscitate. "Please, no, she has gone. Even if you could bring her back she will not have a good life." Erica had been standing not far away and heard our final words to each other. She came and stood beside me. "Thank you for that." She took my hand in hers. "She would not have wanted to prolong this any longer." She turned to me and hugged me. "You made Mum happy, happier than I have ever seen her, and you made her happy to the very end. Why didn't you tell her about the melanoma before this, she would have understood, she would have . . ." She looked at me. "You don't have a melanoma, do you? You aren't about to die anytime soon are you? You told Mum that so that she didn't feel bad about dying on you, didn't you?" I slowly, silently, and tearfully nodded my head. "I didn't want her dying sad." I whispered. "Mum was right, you are an extra-ordinary bloke."