The day began early
for Jerry as he reluctantly left the arms of his lover, it was first light and
the dawn chorus were in full voice.
His full name was Edwin
Jeremiah Dootson, which he always thought was like something out of Charles Dickens
novel, a villain more than likely knowing his luck, and he hated his name,
Edwin was so old fashioned, so he used his middle name Jeremiah which he didn’t
like much better so he shortened it to Jerry and everyone assumed falsely that
it was short for Jeremy, but he didn’t enlighten them.
As he prepared to slip
out of her bed his companions rolled over and put her arm across his chest.
“Don’t go Jez” she
implored
“I have to Zyggy” he
replied “I’ve got a long drive ahead of me”
They were in her University
digs, which was a room in a house she shared with three friends.
“Oh, stay a bit
longer” she begged, and he kissed her on the forehead
“I wish I could
darling” he said, and she kissed his chest
He really did want to
stay with her, but he had a wedding to go to, a family wedding that required
his attendance, on pain of death, according to his mother.
Before getting out of
bed he picked up her phone from the bedside table and tapped in his own number
and sent a text to himself so they then both had each other’s numbers.
He had only met her
the day before and he’d fallen head over heels for her.
Jerry arrived in the
Seaside town of Sharpington-By-Sea on Thursday for a stag do and he had met
Zyggy, who was wearing a floral dress, on the following morning at a coffee
shop on the pier.
He was preparing for
the long drive home with an Americana to go and she was in front of him
ordering a Macchiato, as they waited for their orders they got talking and sat
and drank their coffees at a table outside and ended up spending the whole day
together, and the night.
They hit it off immediately
and it was like they’d known each other all their lives.
On the long drive home
Jerry couldn’t get Zyggy out of his thoughts.
It was funny how thing
worked out he hadn’t gone to Sharpington to meet someone, in fact if truth be
told he hadn’t really wanted to go at all, he wasn’t particularly close to the
groom, but he was family and according to his mother that was what counted.
But having met someone,
which was unexpected in itself, everything that followed was not only
unexpected it was completely out of character.
He was not the sort of
person to do things on a whim, he was an accountant and therefore by definition
a planner, very definitely not a make it up as you go along kind of guy.
Nor was he the sleep with
the first girl you meet type of guy so the event’s in Sharpington the day and
night before were quite significant for him, and he hoped for her also.
Because he was convinced,
she was “the one”, as she fitted “the template” perfectly.
He had carried the template
with him in his brain almost since the moment of his sexual awakening.
Long brown hair
falling across her shoulders in generous waves.
Hazel eyes,
intelligent, warm and full of familiarity that screwed tight shut when she
laughed.
A pretty face, which
hers was, pretty but also full of imperfections, an aquiline nose, a small scar
above her right eye, a lopsided smile and freckled cheeks, an exquisitely
defined jawline as if chiselled from marble and a strong and resolute chin.
She was very tall, almost
as tall as him in her heels and he was six-foot two, and slim as a willow and
lithe as a dancer.
But all of that was
superficial, just an accident of heritage, what made Zyggy special and by
extension “the one” was that she was funny, intelligent, insightful, caring,
romantic and grounded
In fact, she ticked
every box, plus numerous other boxes he didn’t even know existed.
Jerry wasn’t exactly
sure where that template came from, but he had always had it and he had begun
to wonder if he would ever meet the girl to fit it or if indeed such a girl
even existed, but that was before he met the girl in the floral dress.
He got back to his
flat in plenty of time to change for the wedding and drive to Childean to pick
up his mum, who was wearing a spectacularly ridiculous hat.
The wedding at St
Andrew’s Church passed off without a hitch and the reception at the Dancingdean
Spa Hotel was very lavish, but he spent much of that happy day in Childean wishing
he was somewhere else and he cursed his luck at having to be there.
“Why did I have to
meet her this weekend of all weekends” he pondered, but then if it hadn’t been
that weekend, he wouldn’t have been in Sharpington in the first place.
“Why didn’t I invite
her to the wedding then?” he asked himself
“No that wouldn’t have
worked either” he concluded as he wasn’t ready to introduce her to his mum, he
thought that might frighten her away.
He decided to just
feel grateful that he had met her at all and to look forward to the moment he
would see her again.
However there was a
fly in the ointment because although the wedding all went off according to plan
there was from his point of view a distinct downside on the whole day and that was
that he couldn’t get a phone signal which drove him crazy so he wasn’t able to
get through to Zyggy at all.
On Sunday there was a
succession of family farewells and hug fests as he waved goodbye to three
generations of his extended family and after the weekend was over it was back
to work in the thrilling world of accountancy on Monday morning.
It was a particularly
tedious start to the week as he began by trying to get hold of Zyggy on the
phone again, but he had no more good fortune than he had done at the weekend.
In fact, all week long
they had kept missing each other on the phone and for the first half of it they
communicated solely by voice mail, if you could call that communication.
Zyggy was in lectures
all week and had several approaching deadlines and for Jerry it was the
financial year end for the company he worked for, so Jerry was having to work
late every night and spend a disproportionate amount of time in meetings with
other accountants, department managers and auditors.
He was reassured
however that she seemed to be as anxious to talk to him as he was to talk to
her.
If it hadn’t been such
a hellish week at work he would have driven back down to the house in
Sharpington to see her, but that wasn’t an option, firstly because he was just
too busy, but the main reason was because she wasn’t there, she had gone home
so she could work on her assignments without any distractions.
By Thursday he was
getting increasingly frustrated by his failure to make contact with her and he
could tell by her tone that she was too.
Then he had a brain
wave and he texted her his email address and then he cursed himself and his
stupidity for not thinking of it earlier.
He just hoped she
would see it in the same light as he did, and they could finally converse and
makes plans that didn’t consist of talking to each other’s voice mail.
Luckily he needn’t
have worried, Zyggy thought it was a great idea and wished that she had thought
of it and then the email traffic flowed between them and the volume and content
was quite epic and were tantamount to love letters and woven amongst the
sentimental words of love were the minutiae of the everyday, the mundane and
the ordinary that would make up the fabric of their budding relationship.
But despite the
fluidity of the email traffic they were still no nearer actually seeing each
other face to face.
On Saturday Jerry had
to work a 12-hour day to put the finishing touches to the yearend accounts and
on Sunday it was his mum’s birthday, so he had planned to spend the whole day
with her.
He had at least
succeeded in talking to Zyggy and it turned out she was tied up all weekend too,
but they were hopeful that the following week would offer an opportunity for
them to actually get together.
Jerry picked his mum
up from Childean on Sunday morning and took her to St Andrew’s Church and
afterwards out for lunch to The Huntsman’s Lodge restaurant and from there he drove
her home and then went inside to have tea with her.
“Put the kettle on
Edwin” she said, and he winced at the sound of the name, but he duly obliged.
While he was in the
kitchen there was a knock at the door.
His mum answered the it
and an exchange of exited chatter ensued, he recognised the other voice as that
of Aunty Edith, she wasn’t really an auntie just a family friend who was particularly
close to his mum.
Jerry hadn’t seen her
since he was at school, but throughout his childhood she and her family had
featured heavily.
“I thought I would
just pop in and wish you a happy birthday dear” Edith said
“And I brought Alex
along, she’s just back from University”
Jerry’s heart sank, he
remembered Alex very well, she was younger than him by about 3 years and she
was a clumsy gawky girl who used to trail after him, and she had been a blight
on his childhood summer holidays.
“Oh, it’s so lovely to
see you Alex” his mum said
“Edwin is in the
kitchen”
Just at that moment Jerry
got his first sight at the young woman called Alex, narrow hipped, round pert
buttocks, small breasts, firm to the touch and soft-silky skin, and that last
part wasn’t wishful thinking on his part either, he knew this to be true and
not to be a fanciful notion, because it was her bed he had reluctantly vacated the
previous weekend, and as if to dispel any doubts she was wearing the same
floral dress she wore when they first met.
“I thought it would be
nice for them to see each other again” Edith said
It was nice to see her,
he thought but not as nice as the last time they met.
So, it was Alex,
Alexandra Zygmunt, he didn’t realise the Alex of his childhood was the same
girl who called herself Zyggy.
So, it turned out they
really had known each other for ever, that’s why she seemed to fit the template
so well, because she was the template.
“So, you’re Edwin” Zyggy
said
“And you’re Alex”
Jerry responded
“It’s nice to see you
again” she said formally “After all these years”
“Yes, perhaps we might
go out while you’re home and catch up” he replied and then whispered
“Did you know?”
Zyggy just shook her
head in the negative and said
“Yes, that would be
nice”
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