April
Chloe Bulman
was 29 years old and worked in the nursery section at Threadgold’s Garden
Centre in Pipershaven, and although she was quite a shy girl, she was very
popular with staff and customers alike.
Chloe was a
very slim and attractive girl with beautiful long dark brown hair, a dark
complexion, and gorgeous brown eyes.
She was the
only child of two only children and both of her parents were gone now and as a
result she was now all on her own and lived alone in a small one-bedroom flat
in Caxton Court on the outskirts of Pepperstock Green about a mile from the
Expressway.
Which begged
the question why was a lovely slim girl with a personality that was equally
lovely, living alone in a dingy one-bedroom flat?
Her next-door
neighbour in flat 2a of Caxton Court was 32-year-old Kenny Barnhill; though he
had the luxury of a large two-bedroom flat in which to live alone in, courtesy
of a failed relationship some eight years earlier.
Unlike Chloe he
did have living family, two brothers in fact, unfortunately they were both
living in Australia, so he hadn’t seen either of them for over 8 years.
Kenny also
worked at Threadgold’s where he was the warehouse manager.
Chloe and Kenny
were best friends and did everything together, if either of them had an
invitation anywhere, the other was always their plus one.
It would be
true to say that they loved each other, but their relationship was strictly
platonic, and their friendship had been forever, and they were close to the
point of symbiosis.
Coworkers at
the store used to think their relationship was almost comic, but Kenny and
Chloe got each other, and their thoughts and desires were quite esoteric.
However, they
were hopeless romantics and their all-consuming purpose in life, their primary
objective, was finding life partners, soulmates, in particularly a serious
romantic relationship, but their frantic search for love remained fruitless.
Though not for
the want of trying, they tried online dating, blind dates, clubs, pubs and
speed dating, all to no avail and as a result they had both kissed more than
their fair share of frogs along the way and neither of them knew why they
hadn’t struck
gold.
Chloe couldn’t
understand why a good-looking man like Kenny was unattached and he couldn’t
fathom why a gorgeous woman like her was still single, but the search went on
for them both.
As they were
walking home from the bus stop after work one particularly cold Friday night in
October, Chloe was unusually quiet as Kenny prattled on about the arrival of
another delivery of Christmas stock into the warehouse.
“I might have
to cancel Christmas this year” she said out of the blue.
“Why?” Kenny
asked.
“My rents gone
up” she said, “and I’ve just got my Gas and Electric bills.”
“Well look on
the bright side” he said “You might have found Mr. Right by Christmas”
“I’m afraid
I’ll have to put looking for him on hold” Chloe said as they arrived at the
flats “And I’ll have to break into my savings just to get through the winter.”
Kenny didn’t
know what to say and they walked upstairs in silence and when they got to their
floor he said.
“Right, you go
and get changed and I’ll get the supper on.”
“I think I’m
just going to have a bath and get an early night” she replied flatly.
“Are you sure?”
Kenny asked, “We can have a glass of wine and talk it through.”
“Yes, I’m sure
babe” She insisted “I’ll be fine after a good night’s sleep.”
“Ok Hon” Kenny
said and kissed her cheek “I’ll see you in the morning.”
Chloe closed
the door and once inside she decided to skip the bath and went straight to bed
and cried herself to sleep, and while Chloe sobbed into her pillow Kenny
decided to forgo supper and opened a bottle of red wine instead and by the time
he drank the last drop, he thought he had a solution to her problem.
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