Sharpington-by-Sea is a traditional seaside
resort complete with a Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, the
Palladium ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade, theatre and
illuminations, all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as
well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park.
The Fun Park was the first purpose-built
amusement park to open in Britain, which had an assortment of rides, like the
Rotor and the Wild Mouse, The Cyclone and the Morehouse Galloper, all very tame
compared to 21st century roller coasters, but still fun.
It was also a popular resort for retirees
and boasted a number of static caravan parks and one of them was the Whitecliffe Hill Caravan Park which overlooked the tow, and just beyond the Park was the Jubilee Heights Industrial Estate and one
of the biggest companies on that estate was Martlesham Merchandise.
Martleshams had begun life
as a mail order catalogue goods business in the 1960’s, but in the 21st
century they were exclusively an online company and Claudia Strohmeier was the Human Resources manager and Laurence Dalby was
the Finance Director.
It was the seventh day
of Shrovetide, shrove Friday also known as kissing Friday or Nippy Hug Day.
In bygone days the men
of Leicestershire could demand a kiss from any woman of his choice on that day
and by custom and if she was to refuse he could then pinch her bottom.
But after World War Two
it quite understandably fell out of favour so in 21st century
Downshire Kissing Friday no longer applied or is even remembered for that
matter, and in the case of Claudia and Laurence it was something that they were
blissfully ignorant of and if they had known of it they would have been horrified
by it.
Claudia and Lawrence
both lived in the grand neighbourhood of Granite Hill, which in a nod to San
Francisco, the locals had nicknamed Nob Hill, she in the huge house she grew up
in, and he in the home he bought with his wife when they were newlyweds.
Apart from the fact
they both worked for the same company and lived on Nob Hill, they were also
both thirty-eight years old, both single parents to two children, her because
of divorce and him because of breast cancer, their children attended the same
schools, and they moved in the same social circles, but despite the fact that
they had so much in common they didn’t really connect on any level.
Which is why the events
of the evening of Nippy Hug Day took them both by surprise.
It was one of the rare
occasions when either of them got to have a couple of days of grown up time but
even rarer for them both to get a weekend off at the same time.
Laurence had taken the
Friday off and drove the children to Highfinch to spend the weekend with their
grandparents and then met friends for a round of Golf at the nearby Lily Green Hollows
Golf Club.
Claudia meanwhile had
a pampa day, with her sister and they had a full day’s beauty treatments at
Mazzone’s in the Dulcets, facials, manicures, pedicures, waxing etc. in fact
the whole nine yards.
Laurence played his
first round of Golf for more than a year so as a result by the time he got back
to Granite Hill at the end of the day he was exhausted, unfortunately when he
got to the house he needed to go straight out again to walk the dog.
Claudia on the other
hand was feeling totally relaxed when the taxi dropped her off, thanks to a
combination of the pamper day and the 6 cocktails that followed it, in fact she
was so relaxed she had the taxi drop her off outside the wrong house.
Laurence really wasn’t
in the mood for a walk, but it had to be done, his neighbour had taken him earlier,
but he always got a walk in the evening, come rain or shine, it wasn’t Pongo’s
fault that his master was tired, but it was only going to be a ten-minute walk.
It had been a very
pleasant day earlier but by the time he got back to Sharpington a mist had
rolled in off the sea so when he set off from the house visibility wasn’t great
and the fog was diffusing what light was being emitted by the street lamps.
Added to that was the
fact that he was fatigued and didn’t really want to be walking in the fog, so
those things combined contributed to his walking blindly around a corner where
he was violently knocked off his feet by a figure coming in the other direction
out of the fog.
He had no time in
which to brace himself and he finished up horizontal on the ground and his
assailant ended up laying on top of him,
In that instant a car
turned the corner and the headlights illuminated the face of his assailant and he
was surprised to see that it was Claudia Strohmeier, and the surprise was echoed
in her face just before she kissed him full on the mouth.
When Claudia got out of the taxi and realised her mistake, she walked briskly to where she actually lived, and wasn’t watching where she was going when
she bumped heavily into another pedestrian and they both fell to the ground
with her victim on their back and her on top of them, and when she was lying
there nose to nose with them the smell of their aftershave was delicious and
when the car headlights shone on him and she glimpsed the face of Laurence
Dalby, a man she had never looked at twice, who nonetheless looked gorgeous,
smelt delicious, and was right there beneath her, so in her cocktail fuelled
state she kissed him and he kissed her back, and it was lovely.
When it was over she
said
“Well that was
unexpected”
“I’ll say”
“I should say I’m
sorry” Claudia said “but I’m not”
“Nor am I” he agreed
“But I think we should get up now”
“Yes, yes” she said
“I’m sorry”
“Don’t apologize” Laurence
said “I just think we should get up, so we’ll be more comfortable when we kiss
again”
“Oh ok” Claudia said
as she got gracelessly to her feet and then he got up as well and took her in
his arms and they kissed again in the fog.
