My man is my best friend
He listens to me,
Enables
me,
Reassures
me,
Inspires
me,
He
makes me feel special
He
makes me feel sexy
He
understands me
He
is in touch with my feelings
My
man is my best friend?
Is
he bollocks
Gordon’s
is my best friend
Give
me another gin and tonic
I remember way back when,
And my first schoolboys crush
When
just to look at Linda
Was
like being hit with a sugar rush
I
remember when she said
“I
really like your shirt by the way”
Well
I was so in love with her
That
I wore that shirt every day
Kate Marston was 29 years old and had been working in Nettlefield at the St Augusta’s Hospital, and while she was there she had been seeing a doctor, Andy Jordan.
But not for the
first time in her life she realized it wasn’t working for her so after a couple
of months, she ended it.
However when it
ended Andy wouldn’t accept it and he wouldn’t stop pestering her.
So before it got
to out of hand she left, she also moved out of her flat, with some help from
her friends.
Two of the male
nurses emptied her flat and put all her furniture into storage.
Kate took a couple
of suitcases and temporarily moved in with another nurse, Molly Curtis, who
lived in Kiddingstone, until she found something else.
Molly would have
been perfectly happy to have Kate living with her full time but that was
because she was that way inclined.
Molly could easily
have got her a job at the General but Kate thought she would be easier to track
down at a big hospital, so she applied for something that Molly’s girlfriend
Samantha had told her about, it was for a practice nurse position in
Shallowfield.
At the end of
March her friends from St Augusta’s, Duane and Caz collected her stuff from
storage and drove it to her new flat on Teardrop Lake, Flat B Dancingdean
House.
After they had unloaded
the van and moved her in they had a couple of bottles of wine to celebrate and
then Duane and Caz stayed the night.
“Thank you guys”
she said as she hugged and kissed both of them the next day.
“Our pleasure
honey” Caz said
“And trust me, he
is all about the pleasure” Duane added
“You guys are the
best” she said
“Just steer clear
of the Doctors doll” he said and got in the van
“Don’t worry I
will” she called as they drove off
“I love you guys”
Kate meant it when
she said she would stay away from Doctors, her last three relationships had
been with doctors and they had all ended in a disaster of some description.
What she didn’t
know was that she was now living next door to not just one but two doctors.
At the beginning of April Kate started at the
Shallowfield practice, she was welcomed with open arms by the other nurse,
Evangeline because it would lighten her work load.
Eva also thought she was a pretty nurse too,
tall and slim with lovely dark brown hair and a Mediterranean complexion and a
wide bright toothy smile.
Kate soon had the young Doctors dancing
attendance on her, which lightened Eva’s load greatly in that direction as
well.
Although the doctors didn’t know they were
flogging a dead horse with both the nurses albeit for different reasons.
Kate having sworn off of Doctors and Eva
having very definite leanings towards the female of the species.
The two young practice Doctors were Alastair
Phillips and Paul Blair who were not only her new colleagues but also Kate’s new
neighbours.
They were both personable enough and who were
as different from each other as chalk and cheese.
Alastair was the younger man by a year, tall
and dark with classic good looks.
Paul was a short, stocky 32 year old with
close cropped orange hair and Kate really liked them.
But despite the fact that she liked them, Ali and Paul were doctors and
she had played that game before and lost so she was in no mood to repeat past
mistakes.
On the May bank holiday the senior receptionist Lynn Cooper had invited
everyone from the Surgery to a BBQ at Coopers Villa at the east end of Teardrop
Lake.
As all the staff at the surgery were local everyone accepted the
invite.
It was a glorious day, not a cloud in the sky, and a gentle breeze
blowing off the lake.
Paul, Alastair and Kate all arrived together as they all had flats in
Dancingdean House
They were all of a similar age and to the casual observer there appeared
to be a bit of a love triangle forming with the three of them but for Kate
nothing could be farther from the truth.
It seemed like
they were to be an eternal triangle for the whole summer which was why it was a
relief to do something without them.
So when one Friday night in May, Kate’s boss, Claire threw a dinner
party at her cottage in honour of practice manager Olivia Adamson’s 30
something birthday.
Now
the fact that Claire couldn’t cook to save her life didn’t deter Olivia or the
other guests in the slightest though Kate herself was unaware of Claire’s culinary
deficiencies.
Apart
from the Hostess and the guest of honour the guests were Evangeline, Siti
Shahara, Lynn Cooper, Chantelle Dooney and Kate.
Evangeline
and Siti sat next to each other and held hands under the table.
Kate smiled to
herself as she watched them, thinking that nobody had noticed and were blissfully
unaware that everyone at the table knew they were a couple.
Along
with everyone else Kate enjoyed three courses of gourmet food and copious
quantities of wine.
The
hostess with the mostest Claire never lifted a finger all night.
All
the food was prepared, cooked and served by Lynn’s daughter Jane who was the
Sous chef at the Brown Windsor restaurant.
It
seemed that Jane moonlighted on her nights off doing home dining experiences.
Claire
announced that she thought it was worth every penny and judging by the way the
birthday girl weaved her way to her front door so did she.
After
the party Eva and Siti went through an elaborate charade of Eva offering to let
Siti sleep on the sofa at her cottage.
Of
course everyone knew that was not what was going to happen.
The
rest of the summer she and her two medical admirers passed some of their spare
time together, but when she could she would get out on her own.
Fortunately
Ali and Paul were late risers and as Kate was always up with the lark she
managed to get out the door well before they surfaced.
Sometimes
she would just set off through the wood or borrow the Cooper Family dinghy and
sail up and down on the lake on other days she would get in the car and explore
the countryside.
At the
beginning of September, along with all the residents on the
Lake, Kate’s triangle were invited to the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel, where the
proprietor’s Rob and Sheryl
Brown were holding their wedding anniversary party as with
every social gathering she was on the lookout for a suitable suitor.
But not for the first time she was disappointed.
The following week there was the obligatory hen
night for Olivia Adamson which consisted of all the girls from the practice
plus famous local actress Amanda Flanders, which was held at the Brown Windsor
Restaurant.
It was another occasion that she enjoyed very much
but again came up short on the prospective partner’s front.
The wedding, the following Saturday was a
fairy tale affair at Olwen’s Chapel.
And every woman present was jealous to the
core.
The Olwen in question was an Anglo Saxon Lady
who was one of the early converts to Christianity but her pagan husband’s tribe
would not accept the new faith and she was forced to worship secretly in the
forest.
Her chapel actually appeared to be just an
assortment of stones on the forest floor arranged around a granite altar stone
in a woodland clearing.
It had been rediscovered early in Queen
Victoria reign and had been lovingly restored and had been maintained ever
since by a local society, who had
prepared the Chapel with flowers and chairs borrowed from the church hall and
the altar stone was dressed with the appropriate finery.
The wedding party
were conveyed to and from the Chapel on a Governess Cart, a small two-wheeled
horse-drawn cart with a small tub body decorated
with flowers, pulled by a heavy set white horse and led by Amanda
Flanders.
When Olivia appeared
on the arm of Major General Cooper there was an audible gasp.
After a very
moving ceremony through which Kate cried most of the way, the Reception was
held at the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel
After
the wedding summer quickly turned to autumn and on the first of October all
the girls from the Surgery were going out for a meal in Childean to celebrate
Siti Shahara’s birthday, at the Mallard.
It was kind of a surprise, Siti knew they were
going for a meal but not where and she wasn’t aware everyone was going.
Evangeline was driving so she picked Kate up on her
way and then went to get the birthday girl from her flat.
They pulled up outside the Bengal curry house and
both expected to see Siti outside waiting, Eva got out of the car and looked up
at the window at the unnatural movement of the light.
“Something’s wrong” she said and ran headlong up
the stairs.
Kate got out of the car and also looked up at the
window and concurred something wasn’t quite right and she followed Eva up the
stairs.
Kate looked at the stairs and could see Evangeline at
the top, fists clenched and shaking.
The she seemed to take a deep breath and entered
the flat.
She reached the landing and looked inside just in time to see Eva stood
behind a small stocky Asian man and with all
her strength hit him hard on the back of the head, with what appeared to be a
Hairy Bikers Cookbook, sufficiently hard to draw blood.
It knocked him off balance and he fell to his knees, then he turned to
look at his assailant Eva swung the book again hitting him square in the face
and breaking his nose.
Eva was still shaking and almost as a second thought she gave him
another whack on the head for good measure.
From the doorway Kate got her first look at a beaten and bloodied Siti.
“Oh my God” Kate said “is she ok?”
“Go and call Lynn she'll know what to do” Eva
said
Lynn was receptionist at the surgery and her
husband was a police Chief inspector
Eva turned her attention to Siti who was bloody and
barely conscious.
As Kate ran down the stairs she heard Eva say
“I’ve got you now babe”
When she reached the pavement Harjeet from the
Bengal appeared from the Restaurant and asked
“Is everything ok?”
“No, it’s not” Kate said with the phone to her ear
but before she could elaborate Lynn answered
Harjeet went up the stairs and asked
“What has happened?”
“She’s been beaten up” Eva said and tears welled up
in her eyes.
“Give her to me” he said, he was a great bear of a
man and he scooped her up as if she were a child.
He carried her down and Eva followed when she got
to the street.
Katy was just finishing on the phone.
“The police will be here in five minutes, but the
ambulance could be half an hour”
She said
“Ok let’s get her into the car” she said to Harjeet
who still held her effortlessly in his arms
They got her into the car and she thanked him
“There’s a man upstairs in the flat Harjeet, don’t
let him leave before the police get here”
“No problem” he said “you look after your friend”
“I’ll drive” Kate said “you get in the back with
her”
Eva nodded in response and got in
As they drove out of town they saw a police car
going the other way and a few moments later Eva said
“She isn’t just my friend”
“I know” Kate replied
“You do?” she asked
“Everybody knows” Kate told her
When the PC’s, Jennings and
Lowis, arrived at the Bengal they found the owner Harjeet and three of his
waiters preventing the assailant from leaving.
“Thank goodness officers”
he shouted
“These men are holding me
prisoner”
Ian Jennings addressed the
melee directly while Catherine Lowis took Harjeet to one side and
got the full story she knew that he was a straight up and down character and
she knew his account of events could be relied upon.
“Thank you” she said and signalled her colleague who
then read the assailant his rights and put handcuffs on him.
“But I have been assaulted
I tell you” he insisted
“No sir you have been
arrested” PC Lowis said
Between them Kate and Eva got Siti into the emergency
department and as soon as they saw her they took her straight through, that was
nothing to do with the fact that the Sister knew them both professionally it
was because it was serious.
They sat down in reception and Eva broke down so Kate
put her arm around her to comfort her.
“I really love her” she sobbed
“She knows” Kate responded
“But I’ve never told her” she admitted
“But she still knows”
After about half an hour later Eva suddenly sat bolt
upright and said
“The restaurant, everyone will be waiting”
“Don’t panic, Lynn has phoned everyone” she said.
Kate had never seen Eva like this before, vulnerable,
she was a tour de force, nothing phased her, nothing derailed her, she was the
all singing all dancing practice nurse.
Just then the police arrived to take their statements,
it was the same two PC’s who had arrested Izhar Azrul for the attack.
PC Jennings took Kate to one side and
Catherine Lowis sat down next to Eva.
She was a skinny freckly girl of about nine
stone who looked about three stone heavier in her stab vest and utility belt,
and her straw coloured hair was tied in a bun.
“Did you know the man who attacked your
friend?” Catherine asked
“My girlfriend” Eva corrected her
“Excuse me?” she asked
“She’s my girlfriend” Eva said
“Have you got him?”
“Yes he’s in a cell” Catherine replied
“Did you know him?”
“No I’ve never seen him before tonight”
“What about the name, Izhar Azrul?”
“No” she said shaking her head
“Ok” she said and then took down her statement
of the evenings events.
“Will I be charged?” Eva asked
“What for?” PC Lowis asked
“I hit him” she stated “hard”
Catherine leant in close and whispered
“Good! He deserved it”
And she squeezed Evangeline’s hand.
PC Ian Jennings was a tall man in his late
twenties and also suffered with the unflattering uniform.
And as if being six foot four inches tall
didn’t make him stand out enough, nature had also endowed him with flame red
hair.
Kate was tall herself so it made a nice
change to talk to a man who was taller than her and she had always had a
weakness for red hair.
She felt a bit guilty under the
circumstances because she was flirting with him shamelessly and she couldn’t
help herself.
She inclined her head to one side and
played with her hair and behaved like she did when she was still at school.
It didn’t take long to take her statement
as she was very together and very precise.
Which was a blessing and a curse because he
rather liked her and although the way she gave her statement made it easier for
him to transcribe it meant the interview was over too quickly.
He thought it was a shame he was on duty as
he would have asked her out under any other circumstances.
“Can I call you?” she blurted out “in case
I think of anything else”
“Yes” he said “and perhaps I should have
your number in case I have any more questions”
Kate sat down heavily next to Evangeline
“I’m sorry” she said
“What for?”
“For flirting with the PC I don’t know what
came over me” she said
“Did you get his number?” Eva asked
“Yes”
“Well then no harm, no foul”
“What does that mean?” Kate asked
“I have no idea” Eva replied “but my
brother uses it a lot”
It was midnight and they still hadn’t seen
Siti, she was getting scans and x-rays and sutures, so she persuaded Kate to
take her car and go home.
“Are you sure?” Kate said as they stood by
the entrance
“Yes” she insisted “one of us has to be at
work tomorrow”
“Everything is going to be fine” Kate said
as they had one final hug.
Siti made good progress over the following weeks with Eva’s help, it was
a very busy time for Kate as she took on the bulk of the workload so Evangeline
could spent as much time with Siti as possible.
In fact she had been so busy she hadn’t had time to wonder why she
hadn’t had a call from the big redheaded policeman.
As for PC Jennings he had been struggling with the moral dilemma on whether
it was appropriate for him to “hit on” a girl who was a witness to a serious
assault.
“It’s no wonder you’re still single” his partner Catherine Lowis said
“Just call her, before someone else does”
It was the middle
of October when Kate had been visiting Siti at the Churchill Hospital.
She was in the
lift ready to go down and was just waiting for the doors to close when Ian
Jennings stepped into the lift.
He wasn’t wearing
his uniform but it was definitely him.
She wasn’t going
to say anything after all he didn’t bite two weeks
earlier when she was wearing her best frock and looking gorgeous so why would
he approach him now she was wearing her dreary utilitarian uniform.
“Hello
Miss Marston” he said “I didn’t know you worked here”
“Oh hi”
she said feigning surprise “I don’t, I’ve been visiting my friend, you know the
one that was attacked”
“Yes
Miss Shahara” he confirmed “I called in to see her yesterday”
“Oh,
is there a problem?” Kate asked
“No
not at all” he said “I always look in on vic… people I’ve dealt with”
“Is
that normal?” she asked knowing full well that it was not
“It’s
just something I like to do” he replied
“That’s
a good thing that you do” Kate said genuinely impressed
“Not
really” he said modestly
“Is
that why you’re here today?” Kate asked
“No
I’ve been visiting my sister, she’s just had a baby” he replied proudly as the
lift came to a halt and the doors opened.
“Well
it was nice to see you again Miss Marston”
“Please
call me Kate” she insisted
“It
was nice seeing you again, Kate” he said
“Do
you have time for a coffee Ian?” she asked hopefully
“Absolutely”
he replied and led the way to the
Hospital Café
It was one of those awful cold and sterile,
impersonal self-service places, selling everything pre-packed, that have sprung
up all over the Health Service which squeezed out the old WVS Cafes that
offered homemade cakes and a friendly smile along with your cup of tea.
Ian suggested Kate
find them a table while he got the drinks and a brief discussion about who
should pay followed before Ian gave in.
They were sitting
at a table and chatting when they were interrupted.
“Well hello
stranger” said Dr Jordan
“Oh” she said and
went pale
“So this is where
you ran off to” he continued
“Not really” she
said uncomfortably which Ian was sensitive too
“Perhaps
introductions would be in order” the doctor said
“This is Andy
Jordan, my Ex-boyfriend” she said “and this is Ian...”
“Her current boyfriend”
Ian said and stood up to shake his hand.
Ian was a tall man in
his late twenties and stood six foot four inches tall so he towered above the
diminutive Dr Jordan who quickly took his leave of them.
“That was kind of you” she said relieved to see him go.
“Not at all” he said “I had an ulterior motive”
“Which was?” she asked suspiciously
“To have you in my debt so that you can’t say no when I ask you out to
dinner” he said
“Well you had better ask me then” Kate said grinning from ear to ear.
On the longest day in June
The
songsters croon
Beneath
the summer moon
But
lovers play a different tune
In
the quiet of the dune
Finds
loves passions strewn
Where
lovers fondly spoon
And
Terry makes love to June
He
begs the morn not to come to soon
She
similarly begs him to attune
Lonely girl by the window
Looking
out on the world
As
ever alone in her room
By
the window sits the girl
She
watches from the window
As
the world passes her by
As
always alone in her room
She
sits by the window and cries
Lonely
girl by the window
Sits
at the window and dreams
And
hopes that life for her
Isn’t
as despairing as it seems
She
watches from the window
Wishing
in her lonely solitude
With
all the hope in her heart
That
one day she will be rescued
It
was the long hot summer of 76, and Paul Cooper was still courting the love of
his life Shallowfield girl, Lynn Fletcher.
Their
relationship was almost concluding its third year and was showing no sign of
abating.
Since
he had arrived home from school for the summer break he had worked in the Addison’s
Tea Shop with Lynn as he had almost every holiday for the previous two years.
There
was a significant difference this time however as he was would not be returning
to boarding school at the end of it.
Because
that autumn, by hook or by crook, he intended to join the police, though as of
the beginning of that summer he had not told his father.
Paul’s
relationship with his father, the Colonel, however was deteriorating with every
passing day and it seemed to be fast approaching terminal velocity.
Paul
was 17 and his father had hopes of him joining the Downshire Light Infantry as
his elder brother had.
However
Paul was in no hurry to emulate his brother Simon who did indeed follow Harry Cooper
into the regiment and was rewarded with three tours of duty in Northern Ireland
for his trouble.
It
was in 1969 that Simon followed Harry into the Downshire regiment.
He
did not return from his third after he was shot dead while on patrol on the
streets of Londonderry in 1972.
But
that wasn’t the reason he didn’t want join the Army, it wasn’t fear, it just
wasn’t his dream, it was his fathers.
His
aspirations lay with a career in the police force and not the military.
The
Colonel was very disparaging about the police and quite brutal with his opinions
on his youngest son’s lack of moral fibre.
Colonel Harry Cooper was on sick leave for the
duration of the heatwave, due to injuries received during an IRA bomb attack on
the Downshire Light Infantry barracks in Nettlefield.
And all summer long Harry took out his frustrations
on his son Paul.
If it wasn’t the Army it was the length of his hair,
the music he listened to, or the clothes he wore.
But the final straw for Paul was when he attacked
Lynn, not physically, but personally.
It happened one day at the beginning of August when
he was on his way out.
“Where are you going?” Harry snapped
“I’m off to see Lynn” Paul replied
“What again?” he barked “you see her everyday”
“Yes and I’m seeing her today as well” Paul retorted
“You spend far too much time with that little tart”
Harry said
He regretted the words almost the moment they left
his lips but once said they were hard for a proud man to take back.
He didn’t know if it was the blistering heat, his
enforced convalescence, his stubbornness or his need to hurt his son.
But whatever the reason he had said it.
He had nothing against the girl, he liked her, and
he certainly hadn’t seen anything that suggested she was a tart.
“You are unbelievable” Paul said
“She’s just a common little forestry girl” Harry
added “you can do better than her, someone of your own class”
“You bastard” Paul said coolly and slammed the door
behind him.
“Why
did I say that?” Harry muttered to himself
He
sat down heavily in his chair and remembered when his father had used those self-same
words against him, when he was courting a local girl.
His
family disapproved of his choice as well, he hadn’t listened to them either.
He
and Paul were more alike than either of them would have admitted in fact they
were like two peas in a pod.
Lynn had been to Coopers Villa many time over the
three years she had dated Paul and she had met Harry on at least half of her
visits, and their exchanges such as they were had always been without
exception, perfectly amicable.
So nobody was more surprised than she when Paul told
her what his dad had said.
They
were up at one of their favourite places, up above the northern perimeter road
in a patch of meadow in front of the row of derelict woodman’s cottages.
The view of the lake from there was spectacular.
The lake was shaped like a teardrop, hence its
name, and surrounded by 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 normally.
But it had shrunk considerably during the summer
drought.
However it was just as beautiful and unspoilt place
as ever, which was the reason they loved it.
Teardrop Lake and the surrounding woodland was
privately owned and divided into twelve parcels each with one significant
dwelling on it, although there were a number of cottages dotted around the
woodland as well, some in use and some were not and some were near to collapse.
Only
a few of the houses around the Lake were thriving, a lot of the houses had been
rented out and those that hadn’t were in a poor state of repair, some too such
an extent they were little more than ruins.
Things
were changing though, there was a new optimism in the area and only two years
earlier the Shallowfield Lodge Hotel Opened.
“He didn’t mean it” she said after a moment’s
thought
“He’s just trying to hurt you”
“I know” he said
“But I don’t think I should come to the house
anymore, not for a while anyway” she suggested
“But I’m not ashamed of you” he said indignantly
“I know that” Lynn said and kissed him.
On the walk home from the meadow they
came upon a scene that put their problems into perspective.
They walked down the hill from the cliff
top down to the eastern end of the lake.
It was the end of August 1976, and the
summer had been the hottest, driest summer ever recorded and there were severe
droughts across the whole country as a result the water level in Teardrop Lake had
dropped dramatically.
In fact it fell so low it resulted in the
discovery of a body, or at least the remains of a body.
There were a number of policemen, in and
out of the water, and Paul and Lynn paused for a while to watch them work,
until the remains were brought to shore.
Those discovered remains were later
found to be those of a local woman, Christine Turner, who disappeared in 1915.
A few days later the first of several
thunderstorms hit the area and to some degree cleared the air.
The associated rain led to flash
flooding but they were short lived and caused no lasting damage, but the level
of water in the lake did begin to rise.
Though as a period of generally wet
weather followed in the weeks after the storms there was another storm brewing
which would prove to cause damage that would last for many years.
At the end of September the impending storm
finally broke when Harry once again raised the subject of Paul’s joining the
army.
“I have spoken to the adjutant at the Military
College and providing you get your application in this week he will guarantee
you a place” he said and tossed an application form onto the table.
“I have forms of my own that require a
signature” Paul said in response and waved them briefly in the front of Harry
before slamming them on to the table next to the other one.
“You are not joining the police” Harry
yelled “I’ve told you that before, and I am growing weary of saying it”
“And I have told you, I’m not joining
the bloody regiment” he yelled back
“The Coopers are a military family”
Harry shouted “you have no respect for tradition”
“I suppose I don’t” Paul said in a quieter
tone
“But your bloody tradition has already
cost you one son”
“Simon was proud to join the regiment,
there was no argument from him” Harry said proudly
“He joined the Downshire’s to please you” Paul shouted “and if he
hadn’t been so obsessed about seeking your approval he might still be alive
today”
After a few minutes of awkward silence Harry said quietly
“If you defy me in this matter Paul and join the police force you
will do so without a penny’s support from me”
“I can live with that” Paul said and left
Those were the last words they said to each other for many years.
Harry re-joined the Downshire’s the
following day and in October Paul turned 18 and no longer needed parental
consent, At 18 he was legally a man so his first act as a man Paul disappointed
his father by not joining the army and joined the County Constabulary instead.
It was half day closing and Paul had
just posted his application in the sack at the post office and was waiting
outside Addison’s for Lynn to finish work.
He was taking her for lunch at a new
Beefeater Restaurant that had just opened in Childean called The Mallard.
They were going on his newly acquired
Yamaha which was to be his mode of transport now he had burned his bridges with
his father,
They sat in the salubrious surroundings
of the converted pub and perused the menu such as it was,
Starters comprised of Prawn Cocktail or
Avocado Pear and the mains were basically Steak, Chips and Peas or Place, Chips
and Peas and desert was Black forest Gateaux.
But it wasn’t the food he was there for,
he had just ordered them Irish coffee and steeled himself for what he had to
say.
“Lynn” he said abruptly and she jerked
like a startled dear
“Lynn” he said less forcefully
“With us being so far apart over the
coming months” he continued, “maybe even longer”
Once her heart had stopped racing Lynn
listened with increasing dread.
“It would be difficult for anyone” he went
on
“I don’t like where this is headed” she
thought
“Long distant relationships are hard” he
said “at the best of times”
“He’s going to dump me” Lynn was
thinking
“Which is why” he began
“Oh God” Lynn thought “here it comes”
“I think we should get engaged”
“What?” Lynn asked
“I think we should get engaged” he
repeated
“Really?” she asked
“What do you think?” he said doubting
her response
“What do I think?” she said shaking her
head in disbelief
“Yes is what I think” she squealed and reached across the table to kiss him.
