Make Me Hate You Ch. 03

She had freed him of his anger and guilt, and he'd taught her real passion - a fair swap indeed.

He drove back to his flat and parked his new car; it was a great car, his first ever new one and it had air conditioning, a great stereo and was really fast and manoeuvrable. He switched it off and just sat there feeling good about the car but just the tiniest bit lonely and thought about contacting some friends and having an evening out. Most of them were married or in relationships though - even Liam - and probably wouldn't want to have to chaperone him around and he hated being the third or sometimes fifth wheel in a group.

He opened the car door and stepped out, looking to his left at a very familiar but unfamiliar sound. It was a bicycle, the faint clicking of the freewheeling back wheel ticking away and he looked. There was a girl that looked just like... shit, it WAS Julia riding up onto the kerb and swinging her leg over the frame to gently coast to their... no to his front door.

Her hair had grown longer and hung around her neck rather than the smart business-like, easy-to-manage Bob she'd always had, with an unruly cowlick hanging across her pretty face. It lacked the lighter lowlights she'd had put in previously. He'd never seen her with this dark brown, almost black hair so long and sexy looking before, almost framing that pretty face.

Christ, she looked perfect.

For the last few months and bowing to Liam's increasing nagging he had been 'thinking about trying to see If there was a way he could contact her, or at least someone he could contact that could 'contact her and then contact him' - sort of - convincing himself that it was because he had been so busy before and was seriously thinking of moving house now and he still had some of her stuff on his shelves and in the garage.

Her parents had been in the process of moving house when they'd split up so he had no way of just 'dropping by' and asking them, they didn't shop in town on a Wednesday any more, he'd already tried that - even if he'd managed to convince himself it was unconsciously. He'd driven past her old workplace and hadn't seen her bike chained in their garden rack in over a year, he'd changed surgeries soon after the split not wanting to see her or 'him' for that matter.

He didn't want to be as obvious as just ringing her mobile, and wasn't even sure he had her number on his phone after a night of pissed self-pitying and removal of her from his life, after all he still had an amount of lonely pride but more than that it would be horrible if she was happy in a new relationship, that would be like breaking up all over again.

But here she was.

She saw him.

"Oh!" she spluttered, "John!" She stood holding the handlebars, her mouth hanging open in surprise. She took an almost stumbled step back.

"Julia!" he said trying to keep any kind of pleasure at seeing her again out of his voice, as was she, evident from the wrinkled lips fighting not to smile.

"I'm really sorry..." she said, "I didn't recognise the car... I thought you'd be at work, I can come back..." she looked extremely embarrassed and stared around for anyone else that might take exception to her being there, "I've come for a couple of CD's..." she dropped her eyes breaking the contact, "Just my Beatles and Stones collections - the ones that I know you hate," she smiled a tiny, shy, almost embarrassed smile back at him flicking that stray lock of hair back around her ear, "I'll wait here if you want to go in and get them..." her voice all but tailed off.

This was the first time he'd actually seen her to talk to since she'd cycled off to work that morning over a year ago, except when he saw her through the frosted glass naked next to her lover of course his psyche reminded him, but he ignored it.

"Don't be daft, come in and get them," he said, "I'll put the kettle on."

The had both agreed she keep a key until all her stuff had been removed but there wasn't enough room at her parents' place and the room she had rented since was quite tiny and she lacked storage or the money to rent any. It was only CD's, books and movies and he had told her to drop in when she wanted them and she had, always while he was out. He'd had the option in the back of his mind to change the lock or get his key back when he got into his next relationship, but that never happened for some reason, and there was a touch of magic when coming home and he noticed a slight smell of her perfume or bodyspray, and he would check and see that her DVD collection had changed layout or her books had moved around.

She stowed her bike in the front garden chaining it to the railings, and he could see her looking towards the garage she had always stored it in before. He watched her as she walked, that perfect arse of hers shifting in the most perfectly feminine way as it always had done. It was the first thing he had noticed about her all those years ago when he'd gone to a new dentist and the petite elfin beauty whose name badge read 'Julia' smiled a perfect smile at him and said "Won't you follow me Mr Daniels?"

He would have followed the gorgeous little thing anywhere!

"My parents just found my old CD player in their storage stuff and it's just something else to occupy my..." she slowed down, "something to else to do in the evening."

"Cool," he said with a smile, "How are they by the way, has you Mum retired from the bench?"

Julia giggled,

"Yes, she's not a judge anymore but still dabbles with some private jobs, Daddy is way too busy playing golf of course," a thought struck her, "Oh! Congratulations by the way," she gabbled nervously as she stepped across to the large shelving units that still held their joint music collection, most of which was hers anyway. "I saw all the write-ups for the book! I keep telling people that I was... err..." she stopped, "that I know the famous writer John Daniels! Oh, I have read it by the way."

He was pleased by that,

"And what did you think?"

"It was greeeeat!" she said with a sexy purr, "a mate at the job before last had it and read it over a weekend, so she brought it into work and loaned it to me," she had a bit of cheeky look in her eye, "had to read it at work initially as my landlady is a bit of a bible basher and would probably have evicted me if she knew that I had it under her roof. Eventually I had to sneak it home so I could... err... read it in bed?" She gave a rude laugh letting John know that she had read it, or parts of it at least, one-handed.

"Thanks," he said from the kitchen door with a satisfied smile, "my new agent Liam has just managed the release of the next one."

"Really!?" she said with a delighted smile.

"He told me yesterday that some people were arguing options on the film rights to the first one now."

"Liam AND movie rights!" she giggled, "Is it... erm... as cheeky as the last one?"

He thought about the next set of pornographic tales from his Mrs Booth recordings and how he'd chopped and changed them, beefed them up and added them to a Battle of Britain/Blitz situation, "Yes," he said, "I'll send you a copy."

"Liam won't object will he? You giving away his hard earned 10%?" She giggled cheekily her fingers clasped before her.

"No!" he chuckled back.

"I always liked Liam, how is he?"

"Doing fine and working hard to make me, and by implication him, lots of money!" He thought about saying 'and trying to get me to contact you' but left that bit out.

"Wow!" she said bending down to a lower shelf and making her still splendid arse, by far his favourite one ever, stand out from the thin cotton of her rather washed out scrubs trousers and the band of her rather boring panties to rise above them. Now THAT was an arse he could spank...

She noticed him looking,

"Oh don't," she said running a hand over the two layers of thin cotton that covered her still perfect curves slimmer than before. He was sure she had noticed his scrutiny and detected a blush to add to the one when she spoke of her bed time reading, "this is the nasty cheap agency uniform, not the posh stuff I used to get from Cohen's."

"You've left Cohen and Palmer?" he said with some surprise. She had been a mainstay at her last employer, but he stopped himself from asking what had gone wrong. He could probably guess.

"Yeah, ages ago," she said looking down, "Slept with someone who then went on to 'be in a relationship' with Annie. She couldn't stand the idea that I'd... shall we say, 'been there first' and out of nowhere just started bitching about me, everything I did was wrong; I was mean to patients, I was a danger to patients, she even contacted the Society of British Dental Nursing to have me kicked out. Think the bitch was psycho come the end!"

"But you where her favourite nurse anaesthetist!" Indeed Annie had been a regular dinner guest to that very room.

"Yes, I know," she looked sad, "Come the end she kept breaking down whenever she saw me and threatened to leave taking him with her, and he was a bit of a new favourite with the lady clients by then. So David Palmer offered me a settlement if I would leave. I did.

Spent a month sleeping on various friends' sofas until I got a 'maternity cover' contract at the Clinic in the Princess Mary Hospital, been agency working ever since. Same kind of work, lots of nice people but a lot less money, I'm on a zero hours contract. You remember the Golden Lion over by my Mum and Dad's old place?" He nodded, he had almost headed in that direction several times as he liked to listen to the bands that played there. "I work there most Saturdays as well!"

He locked that bit of knowledge away just in case, and she smiled at his concentration.

Fuck but he has missed that pretty face, those big brown heartbreaker eyes and just stood there staring at this woman he'd missed so much, now back in the living room they'd shared for so long, stood there like she was just back from work and picking out some music to listen to while they prepared dinner.

He handed her the coffee he'd made as she searched through the hundreds or CD's. His blend, the way he'd always made it for her with half a spoon of sugar and a splash of milk and he could see that she was revelling in the taste. She closed her eyes and savoured the exquisite flavour she had forgotten after a year of not having it.

"Hmmm," she purred, "that's still so lovely!" She closed her eyes and sipped some more.

"Don't you buy it?" he said.

"I can't afford this!" she exclaimed loudly and laughed.

She stopped laughing, and sipped more of her coffee, her face telling that perhaps she felt she had taken rather more pleasure in the moment than she was entitled to.

"It's cheaper online," he said, breaking the silence and holding up the package to show the Amazon delivery label on it.

"Won't be cheap enough for me to buy!" She looked down hiding her embarrassment, "I drink good coffee at Mum and Dads, or Starbucks if it's a good month." She looked back at him, "I try to save my money for some little luxuries, fortunately I can get books and CD's in charity shops, I even bought your book, paperback of course so I could hide in it my bag, from a British Heart Foundation shop just after Christmas."

"Paperback?" He said with some affected distain, then stepped into his tiny room/large cupboard sized office where he had done much of his writing until she left. "Here," he said reaching down into the cardboard box and standing up with a hardback copy of his book. He took a pen from the cup on the tiny desk and wrote on the inside cover.

'To Julia,

whose gorgeous bottom I wrote into every wiggle and spank,

John Daniels.'

He handed the book across and she took it with a smile, her mouth dropping open when she read the inscription, her cheeks flushing.

"John Daniels!" she screeched as she read it.

"Genuine first edition of your very own," he said, "and perhaps it wasn't quite every spank."

She looked at it and chuckled slightly, holding the book lovingly to her chest, then her face took a longer, more placid look.

"I can't blame you for that," she sighed her voice trailing to a whisper, "John, I'm so sorry for... my... well... cheating..."

"Julia, you don't have to..."

"I do!" she said with that flexed knee-almost stamped foot that she always did when agitated and paused. "I've only really contacted you via email and... well... that really isn't..."

"Julia..."

"Just let me say this John please." She took a deep sigh and looked at the floor, "you deserved so much better than how I treated you; with the benefit of hindsight it was... lust; straight up, nothing sweet or romantic about it; I was charmed by a good looking but wholly superficial younger man..." he wasn't a 'bloke' anymore John noticed, "He played me like a virtuoso and I fell for it. He knew just what buttons to press and did so, and I was naïve enough... no STUPID enough to take all the attention and the flattery and compliments and the charm just as I was ovulating, and threw everything away for two shags, and they weren't even that good." When she looked up again he saw that she had tears in her eyes, but she managed to scrape together a smile, "I lost everything John; you, my lovely home, my self-respect, my parents respect, our friends and then my job... and there hasn't been a single day when I haven't regretted it." She fought back her tears, smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

It went quiet as he took it all in. He struggled for a reply for this woman that had been so much of his life, something even vaguely positive,

"That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger Jules," he said falling back to his pet name for her.

"Stronger and lonely!" she said with a sniff and sort of half giggle, wiping her eyes and then her nose on some blue paper towel stuffed into the sleeve of the blue, now rather bobblely and worn cardigan that she always wore for work, he could almost feel how soft it was when he'd cuddled her in it.

It sounded like she was still single, so he thought he'd check for sure.

"Never found anyone that could match my high standard?" he said jokingly.

"Not one!" she said and laughed. Genuinely this time, and he felt like the fences were coming down and part of who they had been before came back for a moment.

"Tough act to follow!" he said polishing his fingernails against his T-shirt.

"Hell yeah," she said giggling again and he saw her smile genuinely now that the air was cleared a bit; that slight tilt to the head, her huge brown eyes framed by her pretty, pretty face, a touch thinner than he remembered it. He forced himself to stop looking.

He took her cup, stepped into the kitchen and poured more coffee into it. He took a breath, it was time to reciprocate and give some information back.

"Me neither," he shouted, "if it's any consolation."

He didn't think that Mrs Booth/Jo counted as a relationship. But then what about that? Hadn't he been wholly out of character doing things he hadn't done before or since and felt ashamed about? Hadn't that been straight up lust with nothing sweet or romantic about it? Hadn't he decided he wouldn't fuck the cougar again, but then proceeded to do it three more times?

She saw his contemplative look as he returned with her mug.

"Sorry John."

He had to ask,

"So where are you living these days?"

"I rent a room in a maisonette on The Redpath Estate," she said.

"Oh," he said with very little enthusiasm, "Lovely!" The Redpath estate was an early seventies council estate full of badly built, badly maintained houses, masionettes and flats that had all of the charm that inner city problem areas have the world over.

"Yes! And I must be getting back there," She looked at her watch, "All of the bike lock-ups will be gone." She sighed and looked longingly at the mug of hot coffee still two thirds full. "Jeanette will bitch to buggery if I have to bring the bike into the flat again."

"Jeanette?"

"My landlady that insists she's a roomie," Julia closed her eyes and sighed, "Christ but she's hard work, 50 going on 80..." He read her body language and saw her shoulders drop to 'virtual abject misery' level. She made for the door.

He had a great idea now, easy way to get her address,

"Jules," he said, "leave your bike here, I can drive you home."

"No," she said looking at the floor and wiping her eyes, "I can just about make it if I leave..."

Shit!

"Sit down and finish your coffee," he said with a tone.

She smiled and perched on the corner of the sofa; not too hard to convince but not sure she was entitled to make herself too comfortable. He turned on the TV and threw her the remote, asking if she was up to date with the two or three series she had previously been addicted to.

"Oh no," she said, "Mum and Dad used to record them for me, but they changed their cable package when they moved and I don't get that option anymore."

"Haven't you got Netflix?"

"Can't afford it, and it's really hard watching catch-up TV when your neighbours finally realise that you've been poaching their WiFi and password protect it.

"Your Roomie doesn't have anything like that?"

"No... as I said, Jeanette is rather old fashioned and the one TV in the living room is an original cathode ray tube set that's old enough to vote and has a rather old Freeview box that has to be retuned most weeks. The TV goes off at ten o'clock no exceptions and my limited mobile data doesn't allow for me to go too mad."

"Bloody hell," he said with a smile as she sipped more of her coffee. She broke eye contact with him again and leaned forward for a moment and he saw she had a thin gold chain around her neck, and the tiny shape he could see was the small 'Good luck' gold shamrock nestling in her cleavage, the one that he'd brought back from Dublin for her some months into their relationship. She saw him looking at her tits and smiled at him, her look telling him it was OK, "Still looking good though Jules," he said.

"Not looking so bad yourself John," she grinned back at him. She looked into her cup seeing that there really wasn't that much coffee left in it and the jug was empty. She grimaced knowing that this was the end of the evening and much as it had been wonderful to see him after more than a long, lonely and threadbare year this was obviously it.

But then he was trying to think of some way of stopping her from leaving; dinner, a glass of wine perhaps and he stepped forward in tongue-tied desperation just as she stood up, straight into his personal space. So close that she could feel the warmth of his body and smell his deodorant, the one she chose for him, she could feel her heart racing.

So close that he could look straight down the front of her scrubs shirt to her cleavage and the rather washed out bra squashing her still perfect tits in place. He knew her body language so well and picked up the almost imperceptible flexing of her upper arms and shoulders, straining to not reach out to him.

They just stared at each other, the want in both of their faces unmistakable.

"John..." she started to say but an instant later they were arms around the other, their mouths crushed together in a kiss that had been suppressed for far too long. He slid a few fingers into that lovely dark hair of hers, pushing that loose lock that had been hanging over her face so teasingly for so long, she sighed softly.

In no time at all they had stripped each other naked and he was over her and pushing the erection he'd been trying to control since he first saw her bending over, up and into her wet pussy as she clung to him gasping his name and telling him how she'd missed him as he powered into her.

After the most restful sleep she could remember in far too long she woke to a darkened room, lost for a moment as to where she was. She knew that it wasn't her tiny bedroom; the bed was large, soft and warm and the huge duvet all enveloping, and to her left were the familiar/unfamiliar green numerals of John's alarm clock radio telling her is was gone 6PM, while to her right the large bay window with the slowly disappearing early summer sun on its way to setting slowly in the west behind the tall slide and the climbing frame in the kiddies park across the road.