Geoff and Marie Go Visiting

"True," Megan conceded, unperturbed by my profanity. "But a landlord has to cover additional contingencies; electrical safety, insurance, maintenance, management fees and the like." She shrugged. "We are actually not stiffing Eddie. If he can't afford to pay, I guarantee we'll have a family in here paying that per month, within three weeks of taking possession."

"Eddie can't afford that," Lucy observed, without satisfaction. "Even if he stopped drinking and gambling, he'd barely be able to cover the rent. He'd just about have pennies left to live on."

"That's as may be," Megan replied, acerbically. "But much of my professional life has been spent dealing with people who ignored the consequences of their actions." She listed some examples on her fingers. "Drunk drivers, offspring contesting their parents' wills after years of ignoring them, vandals, shoplifters, idiots who thought it was okay to defraud insurance companies and, yes, cheating spouses." She shook her head in despair. "Nobody made them act that way; they made choices, just like Eddie. He could have managed his money instead of blowing it on booze and horses. He could have treated his wife with respect. He did neither; he made his choice, so he gets to own whatever that brings."

We were contemplating her words when one of the movers knocked on the kitchen door and announced that they were finished. He suggested that Lucy go through each room before they left, to confirm that the guys had collected everything that she wanted taken. It was a sombre moment as we five checked each room in turn.

"Is there anything of yours in the garage?" I enquired, remembering that Lucy sometimes sculpted in metal.

She smiled and shook her head. "I moved my welding gear to Megan's last week. They had room in their garage and I knew that Eddie would never notice that it was gone." She took one more slow look around the living room. "No. That's it. This is Alison's house now. I've lost two husbands here. I won't say that the wrong one died; but I'm close. Fuck it. Let's go."

We followed her out and watched as she locked up and gave her keys to Megan. We stood and waved as the two of them got into their cars to follow the van to Lucy's new home. I think we all realised that this day had been long coming, but even knowing that, we still knew that Lucy had to be hurting inside.

We three went home. Lucy, Charles and Megan needed time together to reach some sort of accommodation about, well, Lucy's accommodation. Our presence wasn't required. We grabbed a light lunch and I turned the TV on. Dear God! There were adverts on already for Christmas. I turned to my wife to see if she found it as irritating as I did, only to pause at the thoughtful expression on her face.

"Angie," she said. Our fiancée looked up. "You like stately homes, don't you?" Angie agreed this was, in fact, the case. "Well how do you feel about a trip to Derbyshire?"

"Because...?" Angie prompted.

"Because I think you'd love Chatsworth," Marie suggested. "And in November there's a Christmas market in the grounds and the house will be beautifully seasonally decorated." My wife turned her attention to me. "Geoffrey?"

"Sounds good to me," I agreed. "I'll book three tickets."

"I'll book us somewhere to stay," Angie offered. "Somewhere nice."

So that was agreed. Finishing our lunch, we decided that we ought to get some fresh air, so we went for a stroll together. Marie assumed her place holding my right hand and Angie holding my left. Without really intending to, our return path took us past the pub. We decided that, as we were obviously people of low moral standards, we might as well go in.

Tony, the landlord knew us well enough; Marie and her friends are there every other Friday after all. We chatted as he pulled my pint and poured the girls' white wines. I remembered there was a function room upstairs and asked to see it. It didn't take long. It was just a large rectangular room. On the plus side, it had a small, raised stage at the far end and there was a bar near the door. On the other hand, it was a bit tired.

Tony saw my expression. "I know," he acknowledged. "It desperately needs repainting, but since Covid, it's been a Catch22. We need new business but we don't have the cash to invest to attract it."

I paced out the room and we went back to the lounge. "If the walls were just white," I suggested. "Then you could mount a projection system on the ceiling and have an almost infinite selection of décor for any occasion."

My girls listened to our conversation with interest. Tony considered my idea. "So, instead of choosing a colour scheme for the room, I just paint it plain white and project whatever the customer wants for their occasion," he mused.

"Exactly," I agreed. Gender reveals, weddings, kids' themed parties or Goth Halloweens; hit enter on the computer and the room's personalised."

"Or Star Wars weddings," Angie contributed. "Nice thinking Geoff."

I bowed, modestly. "Peter works in IT," I reminded the girls. "This isn't directly his field but he may know someone who could advise us." I turned back to our host. "Would you be interested if I could find out what an installation like that would entail?"

Apparently, he would and, after discussing the practicalities of hosting our celebration there, we resumed our walk home in a rather more excited mood. We were still talking about the logistics when Colin arrived, with Mia in tow, and asked what we were arguing about. We'd moved onto the timing by then. Angie favoured March but Marie was concerned that our student friends needed more time to design and create our growing collection of outfits. My wife thought a summer wedding would be nicer, possibly even outdoors. I was on the fence.

Colin looked at us with a mixture of surprise and, it hurts me to admit this, disappointment. "Surely you know the date. There's only one day it can be." He looked sadly at our blank stares. "For goodness sake grandpeople. Star Wars Day! May the Fourth."

I confess: I hung my head in shame. I glanced at Angie. She was shaking her head, muttering, "So damn obvious that a child could see it. What's wrong with me?"

Marie was bemused. "What's going on? What do you mean; Star Wars Day? Is that a thing? Do people send cards?"

Mia took pity on her in the face of Colin's despairing silence. "May the Fourth sounds like the Jedi blessing, you know, May the Force be with you," she explained patiently. "May the Fourth; May the Force."

Marie 'got it' then. "So if there's one day in the year to do Jedi stuff, it's May the Fourth." She gave a deep sigh. "God! But nerds are weird." She looked fondly at Angie and me. "And I'm stuck with two of them."

It was Marie's turn to cook and Colin asked if Mia could eat with us as her mum was working late. Of course, she was welcome and Angie volunteered to help in the kitchen. The two women left us, with Marie making very clear who was in charge as they went.

That left me with the two teens. "Homework?" I asked.

"Did it at lunchtime," answered Colin.

"Me too," Mia added.

"Right then. Go amuse yourselves. You can have the TV if you want."

"Well Grandad. The thing is... We were talking about 'The Talk', and we have some questions."

"Oh you do, do you?" This wasn't quite how I'd visualised this going. "To be honest, I don't think it would be appropriate for me to have that particular discussion with Mia." I turned to address my comments directly to her. "Mia, sweetheart, this is a conversation that you should really be having with your mum. Even if it makes her too uncomfortable and there are no aunts or older female cousins to ask, it should still be a woman you talk to rather than me."

"But why?" She asked.

"Because if anyone found that a man had been discussing sex with a young woman not related to him, they might think that he was grooming her. Can you imagine how being accused of that would change all of our lives?"

"I suppose so," she conceded.

"How about this?" I suggested. "You ask your mum the same questions that Colin has for me and you can compare notes. But," I put on my laboratory manager voice. "No personal research!" They nodded, grinning, and I told them to clear off: I'd deal with that problem later. I sloped off to read my book; I felt as though I'd not has a minute to myself in ages.

Marie and Angie had excelled themselves. When Linda arrived, we sat down to a dish of roast Mediterranean vegetables served with potato wedges, fetta, pitta bread and smoked garlic mayonnaise. I hadn't heard a single cross word from the kitchen either. The kids demolished their meals and asked for second helpings. Marie made sure that there was some left for Wendy, who was coming to collect Mia on her way home from work.

When she arrived, Wendy was so apologetic about Mia staying for tea. Marie told her that, rather than watch TV or play on their phones, both kids had helped prepare the meal. I quietly wondered if that explained the lack of temperament from my wife's sous chef, as Angie admitted she could be a diva in the kitchen. In fact, Wendy was almost in tears when Mia brought out the plate that we had set aside for her. Colin, our sommelier, offered her a glass of the red that Angie and I had shared earlier over our meal. It was only a Grandeza Gran Tradición from the local supermarket but Colin though that a Spanish wine would go well with a meal that didn't stint on the garlic. He chose well.

I left the women to chat and went back to the works of the late Terry Pratchett. Colin joined me. "Grandad."

"Yes, Colin?" I replied, putting down my book.

"Mia's mum seems so sad," he observed.

"She does rather," I agreed, wondering where he was going with this.

"Do you think that she's pretty?"

"Yes, I suppose that I do." I admitted.

"I do too," he said. "But she's always saying that she's so fat and ugly that no-one likes her."

"Her husband left her," I tried to explain. "When that happens to someone, they tend to look at themselves and think what they should have done differently. It dents their confidence. It's even worse if someone says it's you that's driven them away."

I decided to share. "Grandma's friend, Lucy, has just left her husband. He's been acting horrible towards her for a while now. He says that she's too old and wrinkled to be attractive any more."

Okay; those weren't his exact words but I wasn't going to describe Lucy's snatch to a youngster. "But he lied to excuse his own behaviour. He's been seeing another woman who's nowhere near as pretty as Lucy but, rather than admit he's been cheating, he blames Lucy for driving him away."

"So is Lucy happy now?" He persisted. Shit! I could see where his logic was taking him. I wouldn't lie though.

"She's happier than she was, because she has her friends to support her and now she realises that he was the problem, not her." I was careful not to take credit for my part in rebuilding Lucy's self-confidence. "She's sad that her marriage has failed but she knows that she wasn't the cause."

"So what would help Mia's mum?"

I thought carefully. Colin deserved an honest answer, if not a detailed one. "Wendy needs to be surrounded by people who compliment her, who support her, who remind her how good a mum she is, people who are just there when she needs a hug. Grandma's friends are like that and," I lowered my voice to a whisper, "I think she's going to invite Wendy to join them."

"Mum likes her too," he added. "Do you think that she might feel better then? It's just that I know that Mia worries about her and I want them both to be happy."

"You're a good lad, Colin. As long as you and Mia are friends, her mum knows that her daughter has someone to rely on. That's one less worry for Wendy. There's nothing else you two can do. Now it's time for the adults to step up and try to repair the damage to her self-image. That's probably starting now." I realised that it was just the two of us; Mia must be with the other women. I suspected that my wife, daughter and lover may be, very subtly coaching Mia in how to bolster her mother's damaged confidence. Wendy was a good natured, fine looking woman who deserved better than the hand that she'd been dealt. Marie and Angie were batting for her so her life was about to change, God help her, though, if they did unleash Lucy on her.

That reminded me. Tomorrow was Tuesday: Cock casting and studio christening day, and Angie was staying tonight; presumably sharing a the bed with my wife and me. Colin was right; it wasn't fair that Wendy was alone and unhappy when our lives were so full. I resolved that, whatever Wendy decided if the girls invited her to join their coven, I wouldn't object.

"What are you thinking about Grandad? You're smiling to yourself."

"I was just thinking that sometimes a good deed is its own reward." I replied, rather disingenuously.

Our conversation was interrupted by the women emerging from the kitchen. Mia seemed happy and Wendy seemed quite excited. Apparently I was in charge of feeding two teenagers on Friday because Wendy and Linda were joining 'the girls' in the pub after work. There was quite a positive buzz as our guests departed. The kids seemed to sense a new energy in Wendy and her main concern seemed to be what to wear. She hugged each of us, thanking us for her meal and, on my turn, I gave her an extra squeeze and whispered, "don't fret about what to wear; you'll look lovely whatever you choose."

She blushed and looked a little flustered as she led Mia to the car.

"Nice one, Dad," Linda complimented me as she gave out her goodbye hugs. "She needed that." Then she and Colin left too and it was just the three of us.

"I agree with Linda," Marie told me. "That was very nicely done. You deserve a reward. What would you like?" she asked with a saucy wink.

I gave the question some serious thought. "I think that my perfect evening would be; a nice cup of coffee, the next episode of the Mandalorian and then an early night with my two best girls."

"That," said my wife. "Was an excellent answer, so that's what you shall have." And within ten minutes I was on the sofa, Marie on my right, Angie on my left, and a coffee made from some of the blend that my wife had begged from Megan on Sunday. By ten o'clock we were in bed together. And I was right, it did prove to be the perfect end to the evening.