Martin Price was staying at the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel at the head of Teardrop Lake as he did every summer as the view of the lake from the Hotel was spectacular.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its name, and surrounded by the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forrest.
It wasn’t a huge body of water, just over two miles long and almost a mile at its widest point.
It was beautiful and relatively unspoilt which was one of the reasons he chose it.
A lot of fishermen, walkers and avid bird watchers gravitated to the Finchbottom Vale.
Teardrop Lake and the surrounding woodland was privately owned and divided into twelve parcels of land, each with one significant dwelling on it, although there were a number of cottages dotted around the forest as well, some in use and some not.
It was both idyllic and peaceful, and there was little or no noise pollution and although the lake was used there were no speed boats or jet skis, only rowing boats, canoes, dinghies and skiffs.
But he wasn’t there just for the scenery and he had spent the first week of his holiday reacquainting himself with some of his old friends while making some new ones along the way, that was after all what he loved, he was first and foremost a social animal, but the one thing that Martin definitely hadn’t gone to Teardrop Lake for was to fall in love, but he did so nonetheless, not once but twice.
But it wasn’t just socializing that brought him back to Teardrop Lake year after year, because he did enjoy the Dancingdean Forest and his Lakeside walks immensely.
On one particular occasion he took a longer than usual walk owing to the larger than usual lunch he had consumed when he ran into Paula Rees, who worked at the Lodge along with her best friend Kerry Long.
She looked rather lost and lonely without her outgoing and bubbly sidekick Kerry.
Paula was a quiet, caramel skinned beauty who lived in the shadow of her more confident pale skinned friend.
The fact that she was adrift was evidenced by the rather pathetically forlorn creature that was ambling towards him.
“Hello Paula” he said
“Oh hello”
“You a bit fed up? Are you missing Kerry?” he asked
“Yes” she sighed “and she’s only been gone a few days”
She looked rather sad, which was possibly what tweaked at his heart strings, but unbeknown to him this chance meeting was anything but, because despite her being a fresh faced 20 year old student she was no innocent.
Being make up free made her pretty rather than beautiful but she knew how to use what she had with subtlety.
However Martin’s only thought was to cheer her up and put a smile on her soft lips, while she was lost and alone, he should have known better as he had fallen into that trap already with her friend, but he thought it truly serendipitous to meet her at the time.
Her friend Kerry on the other hand was cut from different cloth which was the most fundamental way in which she differed from Paula.
Kerry didn’t do things by chance, and she never went out without make up and when he had met her a few days earlier walking down that lane from the lodge it was because she had planned it that way whereas Paula was more haphazard.
Kerry was more calculating and when he had met her a few days earlier on the jetty by the lodge it was because she had planned it that way.
They ended up becalmed in the middle of the lake where she seduced him and once she had him body and soul, she cast him aside.
So he should have been a little more cautious with her friend but on that day fate had taken a hand.
“I’m just going for a walk” he said “would you like to keep me company?”
“Yes please” she replied
They walked the full length of the Northern perimeter road, from the Shallowfield Lodge all the way to lovers leap.
Once they had ooh’d and aah’d at the wonderful view out across the Dancingdean Forest proper Paula spread her towel on the flat rocky surface and lay down on her back.
Martin lay down beside her and she began caressing his hand and moments later they were kissing
So he made love to the dark skinned dusky and exotic Paula on the rocky outcrop of lover’s leap, her beautiful caramel skin glowing with lustre, only a few days after having the pale skinned peaches and cream Kerry steal his heart and break it in the same instant out on the lake.
He knew he shouldn’t compare them but he found it hard not to, being that they came as a pair and were both of the same tender age of 20 but he did so, and found that brash calculating Kerry failed to measure up to sweet quiet Paula in every way imaginable.
And on that day Paula took his heart and cherished it for a lifetime.
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