Kim Pt. 01

I hurried out of the building and saw Kim in the distance, walking away from the building with a man. As they passed under a street light, I recognised him as one of her regular alpha drones, one who'd been around a lot the last term. That's when I recalled that I hadn't seen him recently. With a sickening thought, I wondered if his absence had been the only reason Kim spent as much time with me.

I hesitated at the top of the steps, indecision and fear causing me to pause. Kim and her companion continued to walk away, forced my hand. I needed to know what was going on. I followed the pair, keeping into the shadows, and they headed towards the visitor car park. They stopped by the entrance, and I moved close enough to overhear what they were saying.

Kim's companion said, "I understand what you are saying, but I'm only telling you what your father told mine. He's heard a rumour that you've been going out with that coloured guy. I told him what you told me, that he was just helping you out with your art project. But from what I've heard earlier, I'm not so sure that's the truth anymore."

"You can believe me or not; that's your choice, Martin. Ben is just someone who's been helping me out on an art project, nothing more than that."

"So we are good for tonight?"

"I'm here, aren't I, and yes, I'm looking forward to it."

Her words sent cold chills down my spine. This was just what I'd been expecting ever since our first date. A line from that damn song that haunted me came to mind.

Make a new plan, Stan.

It looked like all my fears had been justified. I was just a way station in Kim's relationships. It seemed that Kim had made a new plan. I must have made a noise as Kim looked over in my direction. She was in time to see my ashen face before I turned away and hurried off.

I briefly returned to my room; I'd packed up most of my belongings and put them into storage, as I needed to vacate the room for the summer break. It took me a few minutes to finish packing the last of my stuff into my rucksack. I locked the door behind me, shouldered the rucksack and left. I made it to the station in time to catch the last train. My phone chimed, announcing an incoming text from Kim. I deleted it and switched off the phone.

My parents had expected me to spend the first week of the summer break at home, something I'd not been looking forward to, given my painful relationship with my overbearing mother. She has always been the powerhouse in our family, a reflection of the power she wielded as the head of a major financial think tank. I've been a disappointment to her for most of my life.

My father used to be a mid-level manager for one of the big commercial banks but was one of the casualties of the banking collapse of 2008. He took refuge in his workshop, licking his wounds and only making brief forays into the real world. My mother had become the family's breadwinner and never let my father forget. I once heard her telling him that the only good thing he'd ever done was donate the sperm that gave them their daughter.

"What about Ben," he'd retorted.

"Christ, he's no better than you; he'll never account for anything, not like Olivia."

That summed up my family life: a dominant mother, an arrogant, self-entitled sister, and a father who'd given up.

When she heard about my family, Kim had taken pity on me and suggested we go away up for a couple of days before we headed off to our respective summer internships. Kim's father had got her a position at an art museum, while I was supposed to be going to Devon to be part of the team working on restoring a sixteenth-century manor house. An internship I'd managed to sort out for myself, with no help from my mother.

Under the circumstances, I decided to call the head of the restoration company and offer to start as soon as possible; in reality, offer wasn't the right word; beg was a better one. He was willing to let me start immediately if I agreed to go to a project in Ireland. I said yes, and two days later, I was helping the stone mason clean and repair a set of limestone lintels.

The estate was set deep in a valley, with a small hamlet close by. Most of the residents were employed on the estate and estate farm. The restoration team was a mix of professional craftsmen and volunteers like myself. The owner had inherited his father's title and the run-down estate. He was halfway through a five-year restoration project of the sprawling fortified Manor House.

As a canny businessman, he'd come up with several schemes to reduce the cost of restoration, and internships like mine was one of them. Interns got room and board, pocket money, and, most importantly, course credit. Work at the manor house for the next few weeks followed the same pattern--lessons from the master artisans in the morning and hard labour for six hours in the afternoon.

In the evening, the six interns, or the 'indentured serfs', as we called ourselves, would walk down to the pub in the hamlet. The beer was brewed locally and was good and, more importantly, cheap. There were two women in the group, but any thought of a summer romance was quickly crushed as it turned out they were a couple.

Cell phone coverage was spotty at best and non-existent most of the time. Because of this, I'd not bothered to switch my phone back on, and it was quickly consigned to my backpack. I had no idea if Kim had been trying to get in touch, and I'd convinced myself that I'd only ever been a fad for her. So I'd mentally washed my hands of her, not that it didn't hurt; I had begun to think that Kim was that special person.

A month later, I started feeling a lot better about myself. Watching sections of the building transform under my hands was highly satisfying--understanding how the fabric of the building had been created and changed over the centuries. And my companions were no longer six individuals; we had become a close-knit group. Kim had become a distant, if somewhat bitter, memory. So I wasn't expecting what went down that evening in the pub.

Dave looked over my shoulder and gave a low whistle of appreciation.

"Christ, will you look at that. I hope she's on her own," he whispered. I started to turn around to see as he'd suggested, but Dave hissed, "Don't turn around; she's looking over here." He sat up straighter, physically a handsome, powerful man and the self-proclaimed alpha male in our group. He was used to using his presence to attract a woman.

He preened and raised a hand and then grinned. "She's coming over, looks like I've still got it." He started to rise, then stopped with a shocked expression as a hand rested on my shoulder, and a soft pair of lips brushed my cheek. A familiar scent tickled my nose.

"Hi Kim," I managed to say without my voice breaking. I didn't need to see her; there was only one woman I knew that could create that degree of interest in a man.

Kim slid into the hastily vacated chair beside me. She casually greeted the rest of my companions before turning her attention back to me. I was frozen in place, both hands wrapped around my pint glass.

She put a phone down on the table. "Do you recognise this? I know you've got one, it's called a phone. So why is yours switched off? I had to wait for your mother to get back from her vacation before I could find out where you'd disappeared to."

What the hell was she up to? "Why are you here, Kim," I asked. "I heard what you told your boyfriend that evening, that I was just a friend, and that's all I'd ever be. I assume I was just a fill-in while he was away. I wish you'd been honest with me from the start."

"You are an idiot. You were never a substitute, all you had to do was wait, and I would have explained everything."

I gave her a sceptical look. "You were making plans for your date with him. What makes you think I would want to hear about that?"

"The so-called date was dinner with him and his parents. I didn't even know Martin would be there as he'd left the term before. He just turned up as I was leaving my class and was waiting for me outside the office. His parents were in town, and I was expected to join them. I couldn't say no as Martin's parents are good friends of my parents, and they always used to ask me out to dinner when they visited Martin."

"So why didn't you wait for me after the class? I was only one floor above you; the least you could have done was leave me a message."

"Martin wouldn't leave me alone, and I couldn't let him know about us! He would have told his parents, and my father would have known the next day. The best I could do was quietly ask the secretary to tell you I'd been called away while I signed out."

I was about to reply when I noticed we were the centre of attention. The five sitting with me were silently watching the pair of us, hanging on every word. Hell, half the pub was straining their ears trying to hear.

"Let's talk outside," I said as I stood up. Kim was instantly on her feet and followed me as I headed out to the pub's garden.

"Ben," she said as soon as we were outside. "I never meant you to hear what I said to Martin. He turned up unexpectedly, and I told him what he wanted to hear to keep my relationship with you under wraps. I didn't want Daddy to know about you until I was ready. Martin had been my first boyfriend, and Daddy still thought we were very close and the perfect couple for his ambition."

"What's changed? Why are you here?"

"The simple answer is that I love you. When I looked up and saw you standing on the steps, the expression on your face made me want to curl up and die. The secretary was supposed to tell you that I'd been called away due to a family problem and that I'd see you later that evening. She decided to screw with me and tell you my boyfriend had picked me up."

"So why didn't you come after me?"

"I wanted to, but I couldn't; Martin's parent's car pulled up just then."

I shrugged; I wasn't sure what to say. I still couldn't forget how convincing the secretary sounded when she told me Kim had left with her boyfriend, not a friend, but her boyfriend.

Kim pulled me over to a bench, and we sat down. Then she took my hand and drew it up and kissed it. "It got bizarre after that," she said.

"Weird, how?"

"When we got to the restaurant, my parents were waiting for us at the table. That was the first time I'd seen the pair of them together at the University; usually, it's only my mother."

"And that weird?"

"Not that, well, not really. I could sense that something was going on that everyone at the table knew about except me. It was what happened at the end that freaked me out." She gave a shiver and shook her head. "I still can't believe what they were up to."

"The food and service were good, almost like the restaurant had been told it was a celebration, but only I wasn't in the loop. Both sets of parents seemed intent on enjoying themselves, but Martin was on edge, and it looked like something was on his mind. I found out the reason at the end of the meal. The dishes were cleared away, and a magnum of champagne was brought to the table. Then Martin got down on his knee, and as our parents softly applauded, he proposed to me."

"What the fuck!" I looked at her hand, but there was no ring on her finger.

"I couldn't believe it; the whole evening was a setup. I'd never given my parents any indication that Martin was anything more than a good friend. I discovered afterwards that my marriage to him would be the final part of a business deal. Our fathers wanted to merge their respective businesses. The marriage was supposed to seal the deal. I was expected to be the dutiful daughter, smile, say yes and be happy."

"Did you say yes?"

"Christ, you can be an idiot. Of course, I didn't; I stood up, poured my glass of champagne over my father's head, slapped my mother, told them what I thought of all of them and left. The stupid bastards were so sure I would agree that they'd already sent an engagement notice to The Times. It was printed in the paper the next morning. I thought you had seen it or someone had told you, and that was why your phone was switched off."

"I switched it off because I didn't want to talk to anyone. Not that it makes much of a difference, this valley is a cell phone black spot."

Kim glanced down at her phone and saw the no connection symbol. "Oh."

"But that still doesn't explain why you are here?"

"I came here to tell you I wasn't engaged because I was scared that's what you thought had happened to me. That I'm so sorry you had to hear what I said to Martin and that I'm in love with you."

And the song was right; all my fears were in my head. Kim was sitting next to me, professing her love. She was the girl of my dreams, and I was in love with her. But she was so much more than me.

Kim retook my hand and squeezed it, "Say something, Ben, say you still love me."

"I do," I managed to get out.

"Thank god, I thought I'd lost you. You will never regret that for the rest of your life."

I didn't, well, not for another eight years. When we told our families we would get married; we had to fight both sets of parents, mine less so than Kim's. I think my mother was honestly surprised at Kim's intelligence and beauty, and for the first time in my life, she saw potential in me. Kim's father's business suffered as Martin's father pulled out of their deal. Ultimately my mother came to his rescue; she found him an alternative business partner who transformed the business. But the result of the transformation was that Roger's standing in the company was slowly marginalised, and as he watched his influence fade away, his resentment towards me grew.

After university, we both got our ideal jobs. Kim was part of the acquisition team for an international art auction house. I was a junior partner at an architectural firm that specialised in restoring listed buildings.

A year later, we bought our first home in a tiny village in the Sussex Weald. A small three-bedroom cottage that needed a lot of remodelling. We thought about children but decided to hold off for a few years until we were financially stable. A few months ago, we decided that it was time, and Kim stopped taking her birth control pills.

Kim was constantly telling me how happy she was with me. But I couldn't help feeling that I was always waiting for Kim to come to her senses, which leads us back to where we came in, with her presenting me with evidence that she had finally found someone better.

To be continued.