Mack's Progress Ch. 04

I think it was one cold wet and windy night sometime in early February that Mike, Julia's husband, turned up at the pub. We hadn't seen a real customer for an hour or so; the twins, Millie and myself were sitting by the fire playing cards. Beverley was upstairs in her lounge watching one of her soaps, I believe.

Anyway the door suddenly opened and in walked a very wet and bedraggled Mike. You know what body language is like; it was obvious to me that Millie had met Mike before. Those ten minutes that Millie took before she spoke to me that day Julia had visited, sprung to mind.

Mike would have had to drive Julia up to the pub (Julia always had had zero sense of direction and could get lost driving to the shop on the corner) and I recalled that there had been two coffee cups on the table that day.

Whilst Mike and I said hello, and I had pulled him a pint, Millie and the girls had quietly disappeared. I wondered whether Millie had been expecting Mike's arrival; I was well aware that she had been in correspondence with my sister from the Christmas card that Julia had sent her.

Mike and I settled by the fire and he explained he was on his way back from Kings Lynn where he'd been working for a few days.

"Just thought I'd drop in and see you whilst I was passing!" Mike explained.

'Passing! Come off it, Mike,' I thought. It was some detour from his route to call in at the pub. But on reflection, it wasn't that far out of the way that I wouldn't consider making the same detour myself to visit a member of the family if I were in his position.

For some time our chat revolved around mundane things, like everyone in the family's health, etc. But then Mike seemed to take a deep breath and changed the subject; for a little while I had no idea where he was heading.

"Mack, that mate of yours, Tony!" Mike said and then as if reminding me of who Tony was. "You know the guy you were always going fishing with."

"Yeah, what about him?" I asked.

"Well, I ran into him and a couple of your other fishing friends over the new year." Mike looked at me as if this statement was meant to mean something significant to me.

"Yeah?" was all that I could think of in reply.

"When we were talking they told Julia and me that you came home early from that last fishing trip you went on with them. Well, they said as the fishing was off on the Saturday you went back home again on the Friday night."

"Yeah, there was a storm brewing and I couldn't see much point in staying down there just to get pissed," I informed him.

"Yeah, well, you didn't go home that night, did you? You went to Lindsey's place and thought that you saw her with another bloke, didn't you?" Mike was speaking with conviction now, as if he knew better than I did what I'd seen.

"There's no thought about it, Mike! I did see Lindsey with another guy. A squaddy on leave, he'd just flown back from Belize."

I thought that this bit of information took Mike by surprise, the fact that I knew some details about the guy and where he'd just returned from. He seemed to think for a few seconds before he continued.

"I'm not sure what you saw or what you think was going on between Lindsey and Jeff, but I know for sure it wasn't what you assumed it was."

"Oh, no? Well, I know what I saw, and I watched them together for nearly two days!" I was getting a little pissed off and my tone of voice possibly informed Mike of the fact.

"Hang on, Mack. Don't go getting out of your pram. Let me tell you what did happen that weekend. You might want to think about some of the decisions you've made, again. I know that at home none of us, even poor Lindsey, had any idea what was going around in your head."

"Listen to what Mike has to say, Mack, and please keep an open mind." Millie had reappeared from the kitchen again and put her oar in; possibly I'd raised my voice again.

"Go on then, tell me what I didn't see when I know what I did see!"

"Jeff is a cousin of Lindsey's. Did you know that?" Mike said as if that was going to explain everything.

"No, I didn't. So he's her cousin, so what?"

"Well, he's a jungle training expert or something and he'd been stationed out in Belize for a while."

"I think I'd worked that one out for myself, Mike!"

"Yeah, well, I don't know what details you do or don't know, Mack. But let me explain what happened that weekend. If you'd spoken to Lindsey at the time she probably would have explained it to you all herself. None of us had any idea that you were in town that weekend so neither Lindsey nor Julia and I had any idea why you'd got out of your pram. You know Jeff's stuff was still at Lindsey's place when Julia and I went around to see her."

Mike stopped speaking again, possibly waiting for me to bite, but I remained silent.

"Anyway Jeff's wife was expecting a baby and as he was out of the country, they thought it would be better for Rachael to have the baby down in Bath where her mother could look after her. But when Rachael was changing trains in town, apparently her bloody waters broke a month early. So she was rushed into one of the big teaching hospitals."

"St Leonard's!" I said.

"Yeah I suppose so. How do you know? Oh, yeah, you were watching, weren't you? Anyway the hospital got in touch with Jeff's unit and Rachael's mother, who in turn called Lindsey as she lived in town. There were complications with the premature birth, so Jeff was rushed back home. He met Lindsey at the hospital and well, we guess that you saw them together when Lindsey took Jeff back to her flat so that he could wash and change. Jeff had come straight of off an exercise and jumped on a plane.

Lindsey told us that they spent the whole weekend either at the hospital with Rachael or on the Saturday night when Rachael and the baby had been declared safe and out of danger, wetting the baby's head with Jeff's brother and sister, and Rachael's sister and her husband."

"We figured that you saw a crowd of people having a real old fashioned party and didn't understand that it was all very innocent. Poor old Lindsey didn't put two and two together because she said that you two had had a few words - well, she said that you had a real ding-dong about you going fishing for the weekend and leaving her alone, on the Thursday evening. None of us realised that when you couldn't go out fishing, you'd come back to be with Lindsey and saw her with Jeff. Is that about right?" Mike asked.

"Near enough to how things went that weekend, yeah," I replied.

"Well, there it is. It was all a big misunderstanding on your part. Look, I know Lindsey's willing to give things another try. Why don't you give her a call and speak to her?"

"I don't think so, Mike. That isn't all there was to it, you know."

"I don't understand. I thought I'd just explained to you what happened that weekend. It's obvious that it was all a big misunderstanding."

What Mike didn't know, and I for some reason - bloody mindedness I suppose - had no intention of telling him was that I'd found Lindsey's birth control pills that Friday evening. So I knew that she'd been having sex with someone, even if it wasn't Jeffrey O'Toole.

"No, something made me lose all trust in Lindsey that weekend and if she thinks about it, she must know what it is. I have no intention of being her fool again anytime in the future, Mike. And you can tell Julia that as well."

"But, Mack..." Millie said obviously intending to join in the argument.

"Leave it out, girl!" I said to her. "This is none of your business. I don't tell you how to run your life, so don't go trying to tell me how to run mine!"

Millie must have decided that her best move was to do as I requested, because she asked Mike if he wanted anything to eat after that. I assume it was her way of changing the subject.

Mike took the hint from Millie and for the next hour or so whilst he ate the steak Millie cooked for him, what conversation there was returned to mundane things. Mike left about eleven without mentioning Lindsey again.

I spent that night alone in my bed. Whether Millie was annoyed with the way I had spoken to her, or she decided to leave me with my thoughts, I don't know. Whatever the following morning everyone behaved as if Mike had never stopped by, and his visit wasn't mentioned to me again. I can't be sure it wasn't discussed amongst the girls though.

So the weeks rolled by, but before we prepared for another summer season at the pub, my twentieth birthday came along. It was just before Easter and the girls organised a bit of a party for me. Julia, Mike and one of my brothers turned up bearing gifts from the family. I tried to act as if a great void hadn't opened between us, but that "little pervert!" chide kept rising to the fore of my mind.

To be truthful, if they had any idea of what I was getting up to with the four women in that public house, they probably would have called me a pervert again. But that's really irrelevant, isn't it. That insult had hurt when I needed understanding and support. They had all appeared to take Lindsey's side, the moment they discovered that we or rather I had a problem with our relationship.

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After my birthday party Julia had taken to calling me on the telephone most Sunday mornings. I must assume that someone in the pub had told her that it was a good time to catch me whilst we had our breakfast. I couldn't use the excuse that I was busy in the cellar or anything to cut the call short.

Once the summer boating season got underway we got very busy in the pub again. The twins finished their studies, Patricia taking a full time job in an office in a nearby town and Michelle working full time in the pub with Bev, Millie and myself.

After a few calls Julia dropped the bit of gossip that Lindsey had moved back to town, into the same flat, as she still held the lease and she had managed to get her old job back. I told Julia that the information was of no interest to me whatsoever.

"You bloody fool, you're going to lose the best thing that ever happened to you in your life, if you're not careful," Julia chided me.

"Julia, what you think is the best thing that happened in my life and what I think is the best thing that's happened in my life are two entirely different things," I replied, looking around and smiling at the four women sat at the table with me. They all smiled back at my compliment, although they had no idea what Julia had said to me

It wasn't very long after Pat started her job that she developed a boyfriend from her office. I had been getting together with both girls quite often up until that time. Um... well, let's put this in its proper perspective; both of the twins had been joining me in my room when they thought they could get away with it. But after Patricia found her boyfriend, she didn't visit me again. Although there were occasions when she'd snuggle up against me behind the bar and tell me she was missing my company.

"Damn it, Mack, John could do with some lessons from you on how to make a girl feel good," she'd whisper in my ear.

"I've been missing you as well, girl," I'd tell her.

But being truthful, I do believe it was only the slight damage to my ego that losing one of my harem had caused me that I was worried about. Don't get me wrong; I was very attached to all four women, but I was not in love with any of them. Our relationship was one of convenient partners to enjoy sex with, and that's all really.

Patricia although she had a full time job outside of the pub still helped out there most evenings and weekends when we were busy, that is when she wasn't out with John. Although he seemed quite happy to sit up at the bar and get in everyone's way most of the time.

"Damn it, Mack, I warned you, Lindsey's got some guy chasing after her and I think she's going to go out with him," Julia said on one her now regular calls.

"Good luck to the bugger, Julia. I hope he has better luck than I did."

"What's that meant to mean? You hope he gets into her pants?"

"It could, or it could mean something completely different."

"I can't understand you, Mack, do you realise that. You know that girl's nuts about you."

"Yeah and Prince Charles was nuts about Diana."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Dunno, Julia, I think they call it a metaphor or something."

"You're insane, Mack, you're going to lose her, you know!"

"Bye, Julia! Thanks for calling."

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Tasha, a German or maybe an Austrian girl -- I'm not sure which really - who'd married one of the guys from the village, helped out in the kitchen that second year, instead of the ever grumpy Marge.

Tasha was a little on the heavy side, but had a pair of Bristols on her that probably matched Millie's in dimensions. Only Millie's small frame accentuated the size of her boobs and made them look ginormous, as I've said before.

Would I? Yeah, I probably would of, if Tasha hadn't been married, that is. She even hinted a couple of times that she was available if I was interested. But I had no intention of upsetting the apple cart by banging her though. That honour fell to one of the other local guys from the village and her hubby found out about it, so Tasha was to be on her way back to Germany - or Austria - soon after the following Christmas anyway.

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"We met him last night. Lindsey came round with a birthday present for the baby and he drove her."

"So?"

"Well, he's very nice, taller and older than you though. Look, Mack, you're running out of time. At the moment it's all very platonic but he would like to get serious with Lindsey, it's obvious."

"Time ran out over a year ago, Julia. Why can't you let it rest?" But Julia wasn't listening to anything that I said.

"Look, Mack, he works at Lindsey's office. I get the feeling he's fancied her for some time and was possibly instrumental in her getting her job back. At the moment it's reasonably safe because he's waiting for his divorce to come through," Julia babbled on.

Suddenly it all fell into place in my mind. So that was what it was all about, I was Lindsey's cover. She'd been fucking this guy from the office who was married and little old me was the smoke screen. No wonder she was always dragging me off to have drinks with the girls and go to those damned parties they held. I can just imagine how the gossip went around the office. "What? Lindsey having an affair with a married man? Don't be silly! She's madly in love with Mack. You've seen how she's all over him all the time."

"Julia, I really don't give two monkeys who Lindsey goes out with, or who she shags anymore. Now thanks for calling, I've got to go. Goodbye."

I do believe as we built up to that summer the pub was busier than the year before. But it might have been because we didn't have Patricia around full time after the college year ended and old Bert was showing signs of his age. When the old bugger did turn up -- which was most days really -- Beverley or I took to driving him home again in the evening. Or we'd con one of the regulars into doing it.

Julia's now regular weekly phone calls were becoming a bit of a pain in the arse for me. Yeah, I didn't mind hearing about the family and what had been going on, but she kept on dropping in little bits of information about Lindsey and Conway, this new bloke of hers.

You know I really thought that my sister was falling for the slimy git as well, the way she went on about him so much. As if I would be interested in the bastard anyway.

I'd pretty well worked it out that all of the family were still in regular contact with Lindsey and that she was probably visiting with my parents and siblings on a regular basis. But then Julia really dropped the bombshell on me.

"My god, Mack, you'd never believe it, but we discovered last night that Conway and Brian (my eldest brother) know each other. They were best friends and classmates back at Brunel (read Brunel University just outside London)."

I probably answered something like, "That is of no interest to me, Julia." But over the next few weeks, I was to learn that Conway was becoming an integral part of my family whether I liked the idea or not. I did voice my concern that my ex-girlfriend's new man appeared to be replacing me in my family and possibly their affections.

"Don't talk silly, Mack. Yes, we see Conway when he's with Lindsey. But he's Brian's old uni friend and they've hooked up together again. Conway takes his children round to play with Brian's two when he has them at weekends. You know, keeping close ties with his children is quite a problem for poor Conway. His wife is being a real bitch about their divorce," Julia ranted on at me.

Did you catch that bit, "Poor bleeding Conway!"

'Bloody hell what a con artist that Conway fucker must be?' was the thought that passed through my mind.

Yeah and I could see it all, from the distance that I was looking at events. It became very clear to me what was going on and the true sequence of events.

If Conway was at Brunel University with Brian, that would put him at least in his thirties and make him, over ten years older than Lindsey at least. Well, ten years at minimum I'd say.

The whole damn scenario wrote itself out in my mind. The reader must understand though that this is all supposition, the likely scenario of events as I assumed it had happened, drawn from the circumstantial evidence that I had available at the time. This scenario had been slowly growing and changing in my mind ever since I'd first discovered those bloody birth control pills of Lindsey's in her flat that night.

Lindsey finishes her education and by chance of circumstance was offered a damned good job in town through the kind auspices of one of her college lecturers, whose brother was one of the managers at the company. The lecturer spotted Lindsey's talent and informed his brother about her.

This lecher Conway spots the pretty new eighteen-year-old employee probably as soon as she starts working for the firm. He seduces her and they start an ongoing passionate affair. But Conway is married, so they need to be careful and require some kind of cover to cloud the issue concerning their affair.

Consequently Lindsey goes hunting for a prize mug to pretend to be in love with, and picks up muggin's here; then she cons me into thinking that she is crazy about me. I, like a complete dumb arse, fall head over heels in love with the bitch

But Lindsey for all her protestations of love for me, won't let me bed her! Even heavy petting is a bloody no no most of the time. She fobs me off with the old, "I want to wait until we are married, it'll make it so special," line and, like the bloody clown that I am, I bought the tale hook line and bleeding sinker, for a long time. No, the honour of bedding Lindsey fell to only Conway! Shit, I must have been a prize fucking idiot not to see what was going on under my nose sooner than I did.

Everything goes along very nicely for the two lovers until I figure out that something ain't quite kosher and drop out of the picture.

For some reason - I don't know maybe, Lindsey had got a little more attached to me than she had intended to - she threw a wobbly; of course there was the chance that was an act as well, intended to keep everyone off the scent. I should imagine Conway must have consoled her a little too much, maybe a little too often or a little too closely, and Mrs Conway starts putting two and two together on her own account, much in the manner that I did.

Yeah, I should imagine that Mrs Conway was going to be somewhat pissed when she discovered that her loving husband had been making whoopee with a woman over ten years her junior, for god knows how long, wasn't she?

So she's bound to get a little on the awkward side about Conway taking the children out. Especially if they are going to be in Lindsey's company. Must be really hard for a woman to see the man she loves -- or did love - trying to wheedle his new woman into her children's affections. Who'd blame her for being a pain where access to the children is concerned? I know that I wouldn't.