He tried to drive daintily through the potholed unmade road but failed miserably, but despite the hard going he eventually emerged into what looked like a poorly maintained Industrial Estate but was actually a ram shackled farm.
With an equally ram shackled farmyard littered with clutter including the rusty metal bits of tractors and the like.
As he drove into the yard he gave a wave to an old-man driving past in his car to go out the way he came in, the old man was Neville Drake and he was the former owner of Drakes Farm.
Anthony Menezes pulled into a second yard with outbuildings on three sides, all of which had seen better days.
He got out of his car and walked across the yard and turned the corner to the farmhouse and that was the first time that he saw the new owner, Jessica Quail, who he found to be haughty and aloof.
That was twelve months earlier, now as he drove along, the unmade road was pothole free and tarmac’d and the formerly ram shackled farm was now a very neat and tidy one.
Which was in stark contrast to how it had looked when he was there the first time, all the clutter that had littered the yard was gone, the mud that caked the cobbles had been washed away and the flaked and peeling paintwork had been completely replaced with gleaming white gloss, guttering had been repaired or replaced and had he not been a regular visitor to the farm he might have thought it was a different farm.
The reason for this transformation was the tall skinny Jessica Quail who was crossing the yard to greet him as he got out of the car.
She was just 32, with straw coloured hair, which was short and unruly.
As she strode toward him she was wearing a baggy tee shirt and overalls, and she looked like a proper tomboy.
“Hello Mr Menezes” she said with a smile and no hint of the haughty aloofness of their first meeting.
But then that was because during the twelve months that had elapsed they had been working at the farm together they had fallen in love.
“Hi Jess, are you busy?” he asked
“I’m never too busy for you” she said flirtily and embraced him
“Good because I want to ask you something” he said
“Ok you can ask me something on one condition” Jess said
“What condition?”
“That you ask me to marry you” she said and giggled
“What?”
“You have to ask me to marry you” she said
“What makes you think I’m going to ask you to marry me?” he asked
“Because you’ve been carrying the ring around in your jacket pocket for over a week” Jess said
“What makes you think it’s for you?” Anthony asked
“It had better be” she snapped and turned to face him
“Ok I admit it, the ring is for you” he confessed
“And so I should think” she said and after a pause she added
“Well?”
“Well what?” he retorted
“You still have to ask me” she pointed out
“Oh yes” he said and laughed and then asked “Will you marry me?”
“I’ll think about it” Jessica said and turned on her heels and headed towards the house
“What do you mean you’ll think about it?” he asked and trotted after her and then she stopped dead and turned around to face him
“Ok I’ve thought about it,” she said and launched herself at him “Of course I’ll marry you”
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