7 comments/ 15353 views/ 7 favorites Not One of Those Women By: Cromagnonman My depression started at roughly the same time that my loving wife, who shall be henceforth known as the bitch, transferred her affection to another man. The fact that it wasn't from me to another man but from the previous other man to the new other man that was the final straw. She said that it all started was because I couldn't get it up anymore, this could have been because I had found out that she had been having it off with the first (I think) previous other man. My friends asked me why I hadn't kicked her out years ago when she first started spreading it around. I tried to rationalise it and the best that I could come up with was to say that I was scared, scared that I would never be able to attract another woman. Eventually I got up the guts to confront her. "Look, you're going to have to choose between me and Tom or Dick or Harry or whoever it is that you're fucking now because I'm finished with being here to pick up the pieces when you get dumped and making do with the unsatisfactory sex that you think will keep me interested. So who is it to be?" This brings me to the here and now, the here is I am sitting in a bar, a glass of beer in my hand, the now is some two years after the bitch made her choice and I'm looking at the only other person in here, a woman who in better times would have been called attractive but her eyes let her down tonight. It wasn't just the mascara that had run down her cheeks that detracted from her looks it was the eyes, limpid brown pools surrounded by red rims, she had been crying. Our eyes met for a brief moment before she looked away giving me the opportunity to take a closer look at her. I put her age at around forty but don't quote me on that because I was never good at guessing women's ages. Her dark hair sat in untidy curls around her face and it had that dull look about it that told of lack of recent care. She wore no makeup, apart from the runny mascara and a pale pink lip gloss, so I could see the lines on her face quite clearly. She stood up and walked towards me, heading for the powder room and as she neared me her bag opened depositing some of its contents on the floor. When she bent to pick her things up I was treated to a quite spectacular tit flash, her blouse hung open and a lace supported breast was revealed to me. It got even better when I bent to pick up her wayward compact that had rolled toward me and ended up against my foot. It took a long time for me to straighten up and my eyes to meet hers. I handed the compact to her. "Thank you." She took it from me and in the process our fingers touched. She headed for the ladies. While she was doing whatever it was that women do in those places, I had time to collect my thoughts. Her face set her age at around forty but her breast reduced that quite considerably, the lace held it in place easily and I saw the tip of her nipple poking darkly through a hole. I was still reliving the moment when she emerged, her mascara now removed making her face look so much younger and better. As she walked past I touched her arm. "Would you care to join me?" she looked at me for a moment or two as if to work out if she would be safe with me before deciding to join me. I was the first to break the ice. "I'm Peter." I held out my hand for her to shake, she gave the impression that she wasn't interested in me or my hand but shook it nonetheless. "I couldn't help noticing that you're a little upset, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want, but if you do, feel free to tell me what's bothering you." "I'm Celeste, I don't want to burden you with my problems you look as if you've got enough of your own." There was nothing particularly celestial about this woman that I could see. "Mine are old news, the aftermath of which is taking some getting used to, but yours are more recent and could probably do with a second opinion." "If you must know my husband has kicked me out after fifteen years of marriage, he says it's because he wants children and I'm unable to have any." "I'm sorry to hear that, you must be devastated. I suppose that you suggested adoption?" "Yes, he says that he doesn't want to raise someone else's child, the same goes for surrogacy, he doesn't want a child that has come from someone else's womb, so here I am wondering what the hell to do with the rest of my life." "Surely he's made some provision for you, he can't just throw you out with nothing." "He did and he's told me that if I challenge him in court he will get the best divorce lawyer to crucify me." "Have you done anything that he can use against you?" "He thinks that I have. While he was away on business one of his colleagues came to see me and during the course of the evening he made a pass at me. I rejected him of course, and a well-placed kick eventually turned him off, so he told Wayne that we'd had sex. There was hell to pay and he still thinks that I'm lying to him. It was my word against his mate's and he's chosen his mate's." "That doesn't seem fair." "Tell me about it, but then is anything fair in this world?" "Seemingly not for good guys like us, it certainly hasn't been fair for me until now." She looked at me trying to work out if I was coming on to her or not. "Maybe we can change all that, what are you going to do tonight?" "I don't know, all I know is that I have nowhere to stay." "Where have you been staying?" "I've spent the last few nights in a homeless shelter but the guys there keep hitting on me." "Haven't you any friends?" "No, all of our friends don't want to know me because they were all his friends and don't want to take sides against him." "You could stay in a hotel." "Sure I could if I had money. He has cut me off from his credit cards and our joint account and I never had any funny money of my own, I'm without a cent in the world." I began to get an uneasy feeling about her, one where I saw her as frequenting hotel rooms that were rented by the hour. What the hell, I needed sex and a suitably accommodating professional lady mightn't be so bad. "What if I pay for your room for tonight and in the morning I'll see what I can do to help you out?" "I couldn't accept that, I'm not that kind of lady." "What kind?" "You think that I'm a whore don't you? You think that I'm the type of woman that would give herself to a man for the price of a room for the night." Had I been wrong about her, had I misread the signs? "I don't think that at all, I was just trying to help a damsel in distress, no strings attached." Who was I trying to kid? In my present state of mind I would jump her bones at the slightest encouragement. I tried to read her mind from her expression as she thought about my offer; did she think that it was genuine, and that I was that naive that she could take me for more than she had planned, or was she actually a desperate person who genuinely didn't want to get involved with me or any other man right now? Or was it that I'd tarred her with the same brush as the bitch? "Alright I'll let you get me a room for the night but at the first sign of any funny business I'll leave." I got up to leave and as she got to her feet I noticed that all she carried was her bag with the dodgy clasp. "Is that all you have in this world?" "The rest of my stuff is in a locker at the bus station, not that there's much." There was a small but comfortable looking hotel just down the block and we headed for that. The guy behind the reception desk looked up from his newspaper, a knowing look on his face. "This lady would like a room for the night, can you help her?" "Sure thing, is it just the lady?" I looked at her and she shrugged her shoulders. "It's just the lady." She signed the registration card and took the key. We walked to the elevator and headed for the third floor, her room was at the end of the corridor and it overlooked an alley. "Sorry about the view." I said by way of conversation. "It's better than what I've seen over the past few days." She turned to me. "You can stay if you like." She looked at me, waiting for my reply, her hand touching the top button of her blouse. "I would like to but I don't think I should." "Why not, don't you find me a little attractive?" Her fingers released her top button. "I do find you a lot attractive. It's just that I don't think that I'm ready for this." Her fingers moved to the next button and I could feel him down there stir from his two plus year slumber. "You mightn't be ready but he looks as if he is." Her hand opened the next button and then moved from her button and brushed me down there before returning to hold him. "He is ready and just waiting for you to make up your mind." She gave him a squeeze and my mind was made up. She dropped to her knees in front of me and her fingers drew my zipper down and found him. Her mouth closed over him and I was luxuriating in its warmth when I suddenly had an attack of conscience. Drawing her head back I looked into her puzzled face. "I'm sorry but I can't do this. It's not the right time or the right place, well actually the place is right, but I can't do this because you've in a fragile state having suffered an emotional trauma and I don't think that rebound sex is what you need." I shoved my still hard cock back into my pants. "You get some sleep and I'll call by in the morning and we'll talk about what we're going to do next. "Don't go, please, stay with me tonight, we don't have to do anything just talk, please." "No, I don't think that I can trust myself not to, you know. I want to make love to you more than anything and I can't guarantee that I won't give in to temptation, so it will be better if I leave. I'll see you in the morning." Closing the door behind me I left and as I walked down the corridor I asked myself if I would be back in the morning. I was still pondering this when I arrived home to my lonely, cold and miserable apartment. Many times during a sleep interrupted night I called myself a fucking idiot for not staying with her and just as many times I congratulated myself for my strength of character in not giving in to her invitation to stay. At just past 7:00am I found myself outside her door, but there was a problem, she didn't answer it when I knocked. I could hear a radio playing inside, a news service was on air, but there was no reply. I was worried and went downstairs to reception. "Has the lady in 342 checked out?" "No sir, she has not." "Well I think we might have a problem, can you open the room for me?" He dinged the bell on the desk and when the night manager came out he asked him to accompany me up to Celeste's room. As soon as I saw her I knew that there was a problem, the way that she was sprawled across the bed with her head hanging over the edge was a dead giveaway, and the bottle of pills lying on its side on the bedside table was another clue. I grabbed the phone and dialled 000 (the emergency call number in Australia) "Ambulance please, and hurry." The voice on the other end asked for details of the location which I gave and then. "Do you know what has been taken?" "She has taken," I looked at the label on the bottle, "Temazepam, 20mg, I don't know how many she's taken, she's breathing but unresponsive. Oh shit, there's another bottle here, Diazepam 10mg and there's some missing from it as well. I know that she's been depressed lately but I don't know how long she's been taking this medication, plus the fact that she had a bit to drink last night." "Can you stay with her?" "Yes." "An ambulance is on its way, if she stops breathing you will have to administer CPR, are you okay with that?" "Yes." It was then that I noticed a piece of paper pushed under the bedside lamp, it was addressed to me. "Dear Peter, 'I can't go on like this, you were so kind to me but when you wouldn't let me repay you I realised that you didn't care enough for me, or that you didn't find me attractive, no-one finds me attractive anymore, my husband doesn't and if you had we could have been together, and maybe I wouldn't have felt that there was no hope for me, but you left. Good-bye Peter I could have been yours, Celeste.' Fuck! Why did I have to listen to my stupid conscience? I heard running feet coming down the corridor and two paramedics rushed into the room. One of them picked up both tablet bottles and placed them in a plastic bag while the other began to check her over. "What is your connection to this woman, is she your girlfriend, or wife?" He saw the wedding ring that she still wore. "She's neither, I met her last night and, as she had nowhere to stay I brought her here. She wanted me to stay with her but my prudish conscience got in the way and I left her here on her own. I wish now that I hadn't." "Did she show signs of depression last night?" "Yes, she had recently been thrown out of her home by her husband and she seemed to have taken it badly. She had no money and no friends that she could rely on so she was just drifting around from shelter to shelter and this dragged her down even more." "Yet you left her alone?" "Don't rub it in. Yes I left her, I did promise to come this morning and discuss what her next course of action would be. I obviously misread the severity of her condition." "It's not your fault." He had placed a drip into her arm and they lifted her onto a stretcher. "We're going to have to report this to the police, if you like you can come with us to the hospital and speak to them there, they're going to want to speak to her anyway." I rode in the back of the ambulance with Celeste, holding her hand and whispering nothing to her. By the time that we got to the ER she was showing signs of recovering, her eyes flickered a couple of times and then stayed open, looking at me. At first I thought that she didn't recognise me, it was a blank stare, but then a smile of recognition crossed her face. "Peter, you came, I didn't think you would, I was so lonely after you left that I just couldn't stand another night on my own. I did something silly, didn't I?" "No, you didn't do anything silly, you acted on an understandably irrational impulse, and I've been known to have them. It was not your fault that you weren't thinking straight, your mind was just confused, that's all." The door opened and she was wheeled into triage where what details that were available were taken and she was taken to a treatment room. I sat in the waiting area looking at a sign telling me that the current waiting time for treatment was two and a half hours and that priority cases would be seen before non-urgent cases. I had just picked up a dog-eared magazine and read two year old celebrity gossip, (that turned out to be totally wrong) when two police officers approached me. "Peter Roberts?" She was young and slim and reasonably attractive and it was obvious that she was more than a partner to the young, male, handsome fellow officer. "Yes." "We need to ask you about the lady that you came in with, what is your connection with her and what do you know of her?" "My connection is that I met her last night and she had nowhere to stay so I took her to the hotel and left her there. As for what I know of her, there's not a lot. She told me that her name was Celeste and that her husband had recently kicked her out of the family home without any money. She's been living rough for some time and I felt sorry for her. That I'm afraid is as much as I know." "Why were you there this morning if you didn't stay?" "I promised her that I'd come back this morning to discuss what her next step should be and when she didn't answer the door I figured that something might have been wrong." "Didn't you notice any signs of depression?" "Yes, what I didn't realise was how deep her depression was and how my leaving her made it worse." "What makes you say that?" I took her note from my pocket and handed it over. "I feel wretched now but all I was thinking about last night was myself and what an arsehole I would have been if I'd stayed and given in to temptation and had sex with her. I'm not the type to indulge in casual sex, I need to have feelings for any woman before going down that path." "You obviously don't get much." These were the first words that the male officer spoke and it brought a sharp reaction from his partner. "How much or how little I get has no connection with this matter, and it's none of your business." I glared at him and this made him realise that there were now two people glaring. The doctor came out. "Can we speak to her?" "In a minute, Peter she's asked to speak with you, if you'd come this way." He led me to the treatment room, pulling the curtain back he ushered me in. She held her arms out to me and I went to her, holding her to me, listening to her soft sobbing. It gradually stopped and a small voice whispered to me. "Thank you for saving me. I'm sorry to have caused you all of this trouble." "Hey I would have been in more trouble if I hadn't decided to come to see you, you mightn't have survived and the police would have suspected me of complicity in your death. You saved me from all of that by staying alive and I think we should work to keep you alive." "What do you mean?" "Having saved you do you think that I'd allow you to get into a state like that again? No, I'm going to do my best to help you, after all you're not bad looking, in fact you're quite attractive. My only concern is that when you get better you'll look elsewhere and I'll be left on my own again, not something I'm looking forward to." She took my face in her hands and looked deep into my eyes. "I'm not that type of woman, if I love someone it's for keeps." She kissed me. "I'm not saying that I actually love you, but I can see that happening if we both let it. I'll try, it's up to you." "I hope that we can make it work, but you'd better get well again, it's not going to happen overnight." "I know." "I'll help as much as I can but I'm not an expert on depression and I might occasionally do or say the wrong thing, and if I do I want you to tell me so that I can learn how best to look after you." I kissed her good-bye. "I'll come back this evening." "Thank you, I'll look forward to that." The doctor must have been listening to what had been said. "That was what she needed to hear, that she's not on her own. If you're not going to help her you'd better tell us now so that we can break the news to her gently and make sure that her meds are appropriate to the situation." "I'll be back." I was back for the evening visiting time and Celeste was looking much brighter, she even had a little makeup on. "Hi beautiful." I kissed her and her arms went around my neck stopping me from standing up again. "Hi yourself." She whispered to my lips. "I'm glad that you think that I'm beautiful because I don't feel it." "You will, give it time. How are you feeling, you're looking much brighter than I've ever seen you." "I'm still feeling drowsy. How many of those rotten pills did I take, I can't remember?" "I don't know. How come you had two different pills that do the same thing, did you really intend to end it?" "I went to two different clinics and got prescriptions for them, and yes I guess I did intend to end it, and when you left I must have been so down that I went ahead with it. I'm glad now that you came back and found me so don't blame yourself for my stupidity." "How long are you going to have to stay here, have they told you?" "A day or two at most, I have to talk to the shrink tomorrow and it's up to him or her from there." "I tell you what, if you want something that is, I hope, positive to look forward to, when you get out you can come and stay at my place at least for the time being." She was about to say something but I held up my hand to stop her. "I do have a spare room that can be yours so don't think that I'm doing this just so that I can have sex with you, I'm not that type." Not One of Those Women "I know, but that's not what I was going to say, but thank you anyway you don't have to put yourself out for me like this." She reached for me and I went willingly, I hope that the kiss wasn't just to convince me that her taking me up on my offer wasn't her agreement to sex. We talked and held hands until it was time for me to leave. I promised her that I would be back in the morning and her kiss was one of passion. I could feel a stirring in my pants as I left. I arrived the next morning anticipating her greeting but my hopes were dashed by the sight of her empty bed. Where was she? Fear overcame me as I walked to the nurses' station. "Where is Celeste, the lady in room 19?" "She had an appointment with the Psychiatrist this morning, obviously she's not back yet, but you can wait for her over there." She pointed to some lounge chairs in an alcove off the corridor. "We'll let you know when she's back." I tried to settle my mind but it was no use, I succumbed to the temptation of old gossip mags and sat staring at the pages as I flicked through them without taking in any of the bullshit. I heard feet hurrying down the corridor and looked up as Celeste launched herself at me, clinging to me. "I can go home." Then she looked at me. "Only I don't have a home to go to." "Celeste, my home is your home for however long you need it. Come, your chariot awaits." I led her to my car, it was nothing special, just your run of the mill small hatch (Mazda 3) but it was mine and I liked it. I put her big bag with the dodgy catch in back along with her stuff that I'd retrieved from the bus station locker, and we set off. I lived in a small block of five single storey units two streets back from the main road so it was relatively quiet. It was furnished with stuff that I'd saved from the wreck of my marriage and a new flat screen TV and surround sound speakers, my one concession to modernity. I showed her the spare room and helped her stow her things away before heading for the kitchen and making us both a cup of coffee. "I don't believe it!" I looked and she was searching through my collection of DVD's. "You've got 'Sleepless in Seattle', how many men have that?" "I confess. I watch it from time to time because I'm a hopeless romantic and for its message of hope." I put the coffees down on the coffee table along with a plate with slices of my world famous boiled fruit cake. "If you really want a real tear jerker this is the one. I defy you to sit through it with dry eyes." I gave her a DVD. "I've never even heard of this." She turned the case over and read the blurb on the back. "What a strange name, August Rush." "If you like I'll put it on." "I'd like that, I need a good cry." She picked up a slice of my cake, sniffed it and took a bite. "Wow! What's in this?" "Ah, I'll let you in on my secret recipe. The first step takes place two to three days before the cake is baked, you get a large microwave container and into that you put about 500 grams of dried mixed fruit, some butter, a large spoonful of ginger marmalade some honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You then cover it with Port. Then you nuke it in the microwave until it boils, you take it out, and this is why you have to have a large container, you add a heaped teaspoon of baking soda and wait until the frothing subsides. Then you cover it with cling wrap and put it in the fridge for a couple of days so that the fruit really absorbs the juices." "Now for the cheating part. After you prepare the cake tin, empty the fruit mix into a colander over a bowl so that the liquid will drain into it. Then you take a dark chocolate cake mix and follow the instructions up to the part where you add the liquid. Measure that amount of the liquid from what's drained from the fruit mix, add a little water if there's not enough, and use that to complete the batter, it should be a little thicker than a normal batter. Then the fruit is folded in and it's poured into the prepared cake tin and placed into a slow oven for about an hour and a half to two hours or until a skewer comes out dry." I put the DVD into the player and we settled down on the sofa to watch it. By the time it had finished she had her face buried in my chest and I could feel her tears soaking through my shirt. "That was so sad but so happy as well, and the cast were so good you would think that they actually played those instruments." "Guess what? They did, it took months of practise to get it right but they actually played the songs." "Even the cello recital?" "Even that." "You are full of surprises, do you know that?" "So I've been told. I consider myself pretty dull and boring." "I think that I can learn to like a dull and boring hopeless romantic, it sure as hell beats someone who has to be the dominator." She sniffed and wiped away the tears that had tracked down her cheeks. "Will you kiss me?" I obliged to the best of my ability, it was a soft kiss, no pressure and definitely no tongue. "Now will you make love to me, I want to see how a hopeless romantic makes love." I kissed her again, a little harder this time and she responded. I kissed her neck and her ear lobe and her neck again and my hand moved to cup her breast. She made no attempt to stop me so I opened her top and caressed bare skin. A sob escaped from her lips as she reacted to my caresses. I took my time allowing her to savour every touch, every caress, a shiver ran through her every time I touched her as I removed her clothes until she was completely naked and then when my tongue entered her pussy her body convulsed through an intense orgasm. "Oh my god that was amazing!" She sobbed. "Haven't you ever had an orgasm before?" "Well yes I have, but never that strong. When I first started going with my husband, before we were married, I would have regular orgasms, not every time but often. Then after we got married all of that changed, he changed. It was all about him, the start was always with me sucking his cock, then he'd fuck me and once he came that was it. And then he started on the rough stuff, he preferred to do it doggy style and he would really ram it in hard, I would be sore afterwards. Then he started smacking me on the arse, at first a gentle smack but then it got harder and harder until he would leave red welts on my arse cheeks. Then he began on my face, I couldn't go out for days after that because of the red marks. I decided that enough was enough when he wanted to choke me, he said it would give me and orgasm but it did the opposite, so I told him that I didn't want to have sex with him anymore. It was then that I also broke the bad, or good depending on whose side you were on, news that I couldn't have children." "And that was when he told you to get out?" "No, that came a couple of months later. He had started staying out all night and I was certain that he was having an affair so I confronted him. He admitted the affair and threw me out. You know the rest." "That doesn't really explain why you were so depressed." "I was depressed because I had no-one to turn to and the very thought of a relationship with another man was so scary because I thought that all men would be like him. And then I met you and you have been so gentle and so kind to me that you've pretty much restored my faith in men. Now will you finish making love to me, please?" The intake of breath and the raising of her hips that accompanied my cock's entrance into her pussy was the start of her new experience, of being made love to by a hopeless romantic. I maintained a slow steady beat, pausing at the top of each stroke before pulling almost out of her and starting again. While I was doing this I kissed her lips, her throat, her nipples, I suckled on her, I gently nipped her neck and she had two sobbing orgasms before her third that coincided with my first and that filled her with years of pent up sperm and emotions. It was my turn to sob. "What's wrong Darling?" "I've never felt so much pleasure with a woman as I've just experienced with you, thank you. I had almost given up hope on ever being with a woman that I could love like we've just made love. That wasn't sex that was the real deal, Celeste, I know that we've only just met and we were both what you would call damaged goods, but I believe that I'm in love with you." Her hug that almost succeeded in squeezing every bit of breath out of me confirmed that she shared my feelings. I led her to my bedroom and she joined me in my bed. We hugged for a while and kissed often and then she went to sleep in my arms. My brain was spinning at a hundred miles an hour, how was I going to break the news to her that our meeting wasn't a coincidence? Eventually her gentle breathing lulled me into a deep sleep. I woke to sounds from the kitchen, it was now dark and the luminous dial of my clock radio told me that it was 8:55, I had slept for almost five hours. I scrambled out of bed, threw a robe on and headed for the source of the noise, Celeste, naked Celeste, was busy cooking something that smelt delicious. "Hi, that smells nice, what is it?" She turned and came into my willing arms. "You can get rid of that for a start." She untied my robe and helped me take it off. "This is just a little something that I've thrown together from the little that's available in your cupboard. We are going to have to do some shopping if you want me to stay here." She served up the meal. "Have you any red wine?" I got out a bottle and opened it. The meal mightn't have been haute cuisine but it sure as hell beat my humble efforts, I find it difficult to cook for one person and tend to make lots of stuff that can be frozen for later. The meal and wine finished and the washing up done we adjourned once more to my, our, bed. This time it was almost an hour before we were ready for sleep, an hour of sublime love making. I woke in the early hours of the morning and the thoughts of how I would explain our meeting to her kept me tossing and turning for some time. "What's the matter Darling?" Her hand reached for my face and drew it to her lips. "We can't do anything about it at the moment so go back to sleep, we'll deal with it in the morning." Her hand reached down and encircled my cock. "Or, we could always make love again." She began to stroke him and my problems disappeared, for now. "Darling," she was buttering toast while I made the coffee, "how is it that you're not rushing off to the office or building site or wherever?" "I'm currently on sick leave. I've got several weeks' worth of accumulated leave that I'm working through before I resign." "What will you do then?" She was curious. "How would you like a trip into the country?" She was even more curious. "I'd like that." "Right, as soon as we've finished here and had a shower, we're off to the wilds of the country." Celeste looked great in a pair of my shorts that almost fitted her and a shirt that was way too big for her. After an hour's drive we pulled off the road, through a gate onto a gravel track that led through the gum trees to a clearing about a kilometre away. The house looked as if it had been there for centuries but was new, built to an old plan. Behind the house was a row of sheds behind which were yards enclosed in high wire mesh fences. A woman came out onto the front veranda as we pulled up. "Hi big brother, what brings you out here today?" She saw Celeste getting out of the car. "And who's this person and why is she wearing your clothes?" "Amy, this is Celeste, Celeste, Amy, my little sister and the person who looks after this place for me." They hugged and kissed each other on the cheek. They gave each other a quick searching look before smiling at each other and it wasn't a courtesy smile. "Come in, I'll put the kettle on and then we can give this lovely lady a guided tour of the farm. We walked to the sheds. Along the front wall was a row of flaps, under which were nesting boxes. I lifted a flap and in the nest of straw was a couple of eggs, I took one out and felt that it was still warm. "This is what it is all about, these are classified as free range eggs because the chooks have free range grazing in the yards out back, they come in here to lay and they're locked in at night so the foxes can't get to them." I opened the door at the end of the shed and led her inside, along the back wall were several rows of perches with fresh straw underneath. "We clean this out once a week and a truck comes from a local mushroom farm and collects it, they use it as the basis for their growing medium. We produce all our own straw so all we have to buy in are the layer pellets." "Is there a market for your eggs?" "It started off small but it's growing as more and more people see the benefits of free range eggs over cage production, we don't have to put dye in the feed to produce orange yolks and we use shell grit to strengthen the egg shells rather than crushed marble, although it could be argued that they are pretty much the same." I led her back outside and around to the back of the sheds. "You'll notice that the yard here is divided into two sections. There's a flap leading from the shed into each yard and one can be closed off. What we do is to close one yard and plant wheat in it, while that's growing the chooks are in the other yard scratching around and eating fresh green feed, that's what gives the brightest orange yolks. The chooks are happy and happy chooks lay the best eggs." "Where do you sell them?" "Our market is primarily to the restaurant trade and small supermarket chains, we have stalls at farmers' markets and they do well. One of the major supermarket chains has been sniffing around to see if we can provide the number of eggs that they're looking for, and we're talking huge numbers, we'll need to expand to almost twice our current size to meet that demand." "Are you going to supply to them?" "I don't know. They're trying to beat us down in price and that will cut our margins significantly, the other condition that's causing headaches is that they want exclusivity, and that will stop us selling to anyone else. We have built up a loyal following that I don't want to disappoint." "Would I be stepping out of line if I told you not to sell to that supermarket chain?" "No, I've almost come to that decision myself. One of the other reasons for choosing not to sell to them is that they sell eggs now that are labelled 'free range' that are at best barn raised." We went back to the house where Amy had prepared lunch for us, not surprisingly the meal contained eggs, a quiche. "I suppose that he's told you all about his plans for the farm, about the supermarket and all that?" "Yes, we've been discussing it." "Did he tell you that I'm against it?" "Hey I'm here too. Yes we did discuss it and we've both reached the decision not to sell to the supermarket chain, satisfied?" Amy got up and walked around the table and gave me a huge hug. "So, when do you plan to move down here full time so that I can get on with my life rather than slave away looking after your chooks for you?" "So Bill's finished fitting out the motorhome he's been working on for the past couple of years and you're setting off on your big adventure?" "It's ready, all we need is for you to get shot of your lousy job and move down and we're off into the wild blue yonder, at least the whole of Australia yonder." "That sounds great, I'm jealous." Celeste said. "If you ever get sick of boring old Peter you can always give us a ring and we'll tell you where you can find us." "That's not likely to happen." She reached for me and gave me a big sloppy kiss. "If you two want some privacy I've got plenty of work to do, like gather eggs and grade them and pack them and load them into the van for the delivery run in the morning." She was fishing for us to help out so we did. Celeste entered into the spirit of the work and seemed happy collecting the eggs from the nesting boxes and placing them into baskets on a trolley before I pushed it into the cleaning and packing shed. Before dinner I had enough time to go over the books (computer spread sheets) that told me that our market had grown by ten percent in the past month, we were doing quite well and making a healthy profit. Amy came in. "I like Celeste, she's really nice. When are you going to tell her about your job?" "In a couple of days, I need to finish up what I'm doing. What I'm going to suggest is that she stays here for a couple of days while I get it sorted and I'll tell her when I get back. I need you to promise not to say anything and to look after her, I don't want to lose her." "Okay, I'll help you, but don't stuff this up, she's your last chance at happiness, I don't want to have to pick through the debris of your life to save you again." "Thanks Amy, I don't know what I would have done without you over the past couple of years." "Yeah I didn't want to be the one who told you that the bitch wasn't for you, you probably wouldn't have listened, she was a slut that you thought you could reform but it was never going to work and when she went back to her pimp and started that blackmail scam. It was only a matter of time before it came to a sticky end. You were lucky that you got the guts to get out before that happened but you still took it hard. This one is different, she's better. She's been put through the wringer and came close to losing it, but you've stepped in like the knight in shining armour that you are and saved the day. Having done that, look after her she's a keeper." Celeste was happy to stay with Amy while I went back into town to finalise a few things. We were just about ready to pounce on her husband and a whole bunch of other guys in the porn ring that he was running. I needed time with him first to sort out a few things. Michael Martin ran a business in two parts, the one that faced the street was a normal DVD hire store, but the section into which entry was gained through a discreet doorway leading from the rear car park dealt in a totally different kind of DVD. He catered for a wide spectrum of tastes from straight porn to gay porn, BDSM and a variety of fetishes, but his main trade was in child pornography and this was where the police (me and others) were about to strike. "Mr Martin, you former wife attempted suicide last week and when she was able to give us a coherent story of her life with you we discovered that you kicked her out of your home without a cent to her name, and you threatened to crucify her if she did anything about it. She has seen a lawyer who is preparing the paperwork for her divorce application in which she alleges a history of physical violence. Her lawyer is confident of getting at least eighty percent of joint property. What I'm proposing, with her lawyer's agreement, is that you sign over to her half of the value of the joint assets and she'll change her application to incompatibility." "What makes you think that anyone will believe her, she's crazy." "I think that this will be sufficient to prove her story." I took a DVD from my case, it was of the both of them having rough sex, it was obvious that it wasn't consensual violence that was going on between them, she was pleading with him to stop it but he wouldn't. It was also obvious that she wasn't aware that the whole episode was being recorded. This was only one of many examples of this type of sex on his shelves, many of them involving him with Celeste, this was one sick bastard and I wanted so much to bring him down. But first things first. "What do you want?" He glared at me, I was his enemy right now. "I want you to crank up your computer and access your banking records, then you are going to transfer this amount into this account." I showed him the paper with the amount and account details. He flinched at the amount but complied. The transaction processed I put the DVD on the desk in front of him, I never wanted to see it again, and walked out. The reason that I did this was because when what was to follow happened his assets would be frozen, including his bank accounts. Not One of Those Women In the car park were several cars, as I approached a couple of men got from the nearest car. "He's all yours, crucify the bastard, you have all the evidence that you need on his computer, there'll be details of where the child porn has gone so that these sickos can be caught. Enjoy yourselves, this is my last day on the job." The next day I tidied up details at work so that I didn't have to give evidence. Then I arranged for the sale of my unit and my superannuation funds. Then I went home. Celeste was out the door and into my arms as soon as my car stopped and I got out, she almost knocked me over with her enthusiastic welcome. 'Oh Darling I've missed you so much." "You'd better believe it, I don't know how many times she asked me when I was expecting you home." Amy gave me a sisterly peck on the cheek. "How did it go?" "How did what go?" Celeste was curious. "My Darling, you are now a quite wealthy woman." "How?" "Let's just say that I applied a little pressure on you husband and he coughed up what you would have been entitled to. The money's in your account. But there's more, he was arrested yesterday on child pornography charges, it seems that he was one of the kingpins of an international ring. Many more arrests will follow." "Wow! He kept that a secret. I knew he ran a video store but I thought that it was legitimate. Boy he certainly had me fooled." "And a lot of other people, but we'd been watching him for some time. Darling I've got a confession to make, in fact several confessions." She looked at me and there was fear, real fear, in her eyes. Amy sat beside her and held her. "It's all right Celeste, my brother has told me all and you should listen to him with an open mind because he's done the right thing when it comes to you, believe me." "Darling, I'm a policeman, or at least I was, and the last case I was working on involved one Michael Martin. We knew about his fetish videos but there was little that we could do about that unless one of the parties wasn't consenting to the, in your case, violence. At first I thought that you were one of those, you know porn stars that liked it rough, now I know better. I was to try to get close to you to see if you'd give evidence against him and we were almost prepared to make our move when he kicked you out. I knew that you were upset by this and it wasn't because of any love for him, we were certain that you'd lost that long ago. When I spoke to you in the bar that night I'd already decided that you needed help, what I didn't realise was how deeply depressed you were. I would have never been able to forgive myself if you'd succeeded in ending it. Even at that early stage I was falling in love with you and just had to help you." "You'd better believe him dear, while you were in hospital he spent hours on the phone to me trying to work out what to do next. In the end I told him to do whatever his heart told him to do. I for one am glad that he did." "Oh God the thoughts that were going through my brain as you talked! At first I was angry that you even considered using me to get to him, and then I was angry at myself, it wasn't your fault that you didn't know how depressed I was but it was my fault that I didn't believe you when you told me that you'd be back in the morning and then when I woke in hospital you were so kind to me and I was angry again that I'd put you through all of that and then when you took me home and made love to me I was so happy. And now I want to forget all of that and think only of the future and how long we'll have to wait before we can get married." She came into my arms and kissed me, hard, on the lips. "Ahem, I'm leaving you now I've got work to do, you know like running the farm, so I'll leave you two to do whatever you feel that you have to do, and when I've finished I'll be quiet until dinner's ready and then I'll give you a call, I wouldn't want to walk in on anything, would I?" "Don't just stand there talking about it, go, do your work, we've got work of our own to do." "Work, what do you mean work? Is making love to me a chore for you?" I kissed her to tell her that it wasn't any imposition on me to make love to her and then I carried her to our bedroom to show her exactly how I felt about her and making love to her. Somewhere in amongst all of that I asked Celeste to marry me and she said and emphatic 'yes'. I am glad that she wasn't 'one of those' women.