(Part 01)
Neil Etherington was an average man approaching his thirtieth birthday not that he was a bad looking man, he wasn’t, but he wasn’t stunning, sexy or buff, he was strictly middling but his girlfriend
Samantha Barraclough was anything but, she was an absolute beauty three years younger, elegant, daintily petite, intelligent, funny, sexy and with a perfectly beautiful angelic voice, pure Carrington Chase educated perfection, Carrington Chase being Downshire’s version of Roedean, although those in Downshire thought it was the other way around, and it was a voice that made Charlotte Green sound common.
He pinched himself at the start of everyday, especially the ones on which he woke up beside her, just to check he wasn’t dreaming.
Because the good fortune that brought Samantha into his life was the type of thing that didn’t happen to him, and everyone who witnessed them together unanimously agreed that he was punching well above his weight.
They first encountered each other at a business meeting at the Abbottsford Regents Hotel, where she was a potential new client and he was trying to win a new account, but the meeting was unresolved as it was love at first sight.
Neil worked for a firm of architects called New Horizons whose head office was in Sharpington by Sea while Samantha Barraclough was approaching her 28th birthday and was a project consultant for the family business, Barraclough Ventures and the project that Samantha’s company was heading up was the regeneration of the former Industrial Power House of the county, Northchapel.
The love that bloomed between Samantha Barraclough and Neil Etherington in Abbottsford in June went from strength to strength
However things had not been all plain sailing since they had met, though not between the two of them they were completely simpatico.
The problems stemmed from a different quarter entirely and from those who should have been the most delighted for them, their close friends and family.
Neil and Samantha were the victims of snobbery, inverted and otherwise.
Her family thought she had set her sights to low while his nearest and dearest believed he had set his too high.
Her friends thought he was common while his thought she was a snob.
Only their closest friends Jonathon Hardman and Isabelle Decoene stuck by them.
So as a result they had found it difficult to fit inside each other’s worlds, but the couple believed that love will out and Samantha drew a line under the difficulties when she said
“If you can’t live in my world and I can’t live in yours we shall just have to make a world of our own”
If he hadn’t been in love with her already he certainly would have been after that speech.
So having overcome their initial difficulties of not being accepted in each other’s worlds and having set out to make a world of their own, they made the decision, after spending two weeks together on a narrow boat on their first holiday together, that they should move in together.
Samantha asked “In Tipton or in Brocklington?”
Her house was up in Tipton, although she was rarely in it as she spent more time living in hotels than she did her house so it had never felt like home to her, but she thought it might if she had someone to share it with but Neil had a nice cottage in Brocklington and that would also be lovely so when he replied.
“Neither”
To her question, she was taken aback.
“Neither?” she asked
“I think we should buy somewhere new, a blank canvas, somewhere that will be ours and not yours or mine” he replied and a she exclaimed
“That’s perfect”
(Part 02)
However as perfect as that solution was it didn’t solve the problem of where they should set up home.
Samantha was from Tipton in the north of the county but when she fell in love with Neil she also fell in love with the Finchbottom Vale so they considered buying a house in the area and they almost bought one in Forestdean but it fell through at the last minute.
At the time they were quite upset about it but every cloud has a silver lining because they found a place in Applesford that needed a bit of TLC but by the time they completed and took possession it was almost a year after they started courting.
Neil spent a lot of time doing up the house, he was good at DIY, and there were things they wanted to do before they moved in completely, so he had been staying in the house all week decorating and doing some repairs while Samantha was away on business.
He was up early on Friday morning which was just as well as at 8 o’clock Samantha arrived at the house dressed in joggers and a T-shirt, not her normal apparel at all, in fact he had never seen her dressed down to that degree and he was quite surprised that she actually owned a pair of joggers.
“Can I help?” he asked
“It’s me you fool” she replied
“Who’s me?”
“Your girlfriend” Samantha said
“No, no, not dressed like that you’re not” he said
“These are my working togs” she said
“And it’s no good putting on that posh voice either” he said and laughed and then he kissed her
“What are you doing here?” he asked “I wasn’t expecting you until tomorrow”
“I wrapped it up early so I could come and help” she said
“And I missed you”
“I missed you too” he said and kissed her again
“So how have you got on?” she asked
“Pretty good, the dining room and the lounge are done they just need tidying and the furniture putting back” he said “So if we do that I’ll let you take me to lunch”
“Well the sooner we get started the sooner we’ll be finished” Samantha said cheerily.
So Samantha set about dusting and hovering the lounge and dining room while Neil started carrying things in from the garage and by eleven o’clock they were almost finished, there was just one small sofa to bring in and then they were done.
So the two of them set about the task and having maneuvered it through the hall and into the lounge all that was required was to push it into place and with both of them pushing, it moved easily into position.
Which was when with the job done he said
“Thanks Sam, it would have taken ages without you”
Samantha leant back against him and he kissed the top of her head,
“Welcome to your new home” he said and she turned around and kissed him.
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