Old Friends in Paradise Ch. 02

She looked like even though ten years had passed and she was happily married, she really hadn't enjoyed her boyfriend of the time telling her about another pretty girl, I knew the feeling that was for sure.

"Being mates with Simon meant he couldn't so much as look at you Chrissie." said Amy.

"Wh... what? Why?"

"Derrr?" she said as if it was obvious, "Simon was psycho about you Christina?! Prettiest girl in school, you had to be HIS girlfriend and no one else's!" She sipped her coffee and looked at Chris, "why do you think Chris had such a hard time of it?"

"Excuse me... what?" I almost snapped at the commissioned officer.

"Chris?" said Amy looking across at him.

"He hated me because we were old friends Chrissie," he said softly not making eye contact with me. He looked up apologetically, "Rachel told me that she'd mentioned to him once how we'd grown up together and in your kitchen our Mums' had referred to us as 'his girlfriend Christina' or 'her boyfriend Christian' and how you always referred to me as 'my Christian'; Rachel reeeeally didn't like Simon."

My mouth flapped a moment and I could see where this was going.

"Rachel stirred the shit with him about it for ages then half way into Year Ten him and half of the school rugby team waited for me in the service road with Gav stood at the back watching. I got smacked about a bit and I was told on no account was I to go anywhere near you. Brett and Russell Toms pinned me to that self-same garage wall that I pinned him to that afternoon, and he got all Norman Bates and slapped my face repeatedly whispering in my ear - told me I was fucking scum and you where HIS girlfriend; I was scum, my Dad was thieving scum, my Mum was an evil lying fucking bitch for even thinking you might be my girlfriend!"

You could have heard a pin drop.

Amy spoke again feeling a bit responsible for the change in atmosphere,

"Hence Gavin just admired you from afar Chrissie," she looked across and up at Chris, "Terrified that you might find him one day and pay him back Chris, very pleased you were at the other college!" she sipped from her coffee mug, "He had to take the pre-teaching degree Maths and English test at your college Chris, he wore dark glasses and baseball cap all afternoon because you might have been there taking the same tests because you were going to be study teaching as well."

"What?" I spluttered in some shock.

"You haven't told Christina obviously Chris?"

He grinned,

"No, I must confess I haven't." He looked at me, "when we were all signing shirts Gav came up to me with that stupid grin on his stupid face, held out his hand and said 'no hard feelings mate?' as loud as you like - as if all of his jokes at my expense, two years of nasty puerile insults and stupid comments, broken glasses and a two centimetre puncture wound to my thigh and a kick could be laughed under the table.

I took a firm hold of the front his shirt, pinned him to the wall and said I had a new bruise on the back of my head, another on my ankle where he'd literally JUST kicked me and another by the scar on my thigh he was responsible for, which I was adding to the broken glasses and the two years of cheap childish insults and nasty put-downs.

He spluttered and laughed that 'they were only jokes mate' and he hadn't meant to kick me so hard.

I said it was funny how he used to hate me and look down on me but suddenly wanted to be friends now his bodyguard of rugby players had all left him.

I told him there were lots and lots of hard feelings, hundreds of them in-fact, one for each nasty, stupid comment he'd made at me because he thought he'd get away with, with more added because we had been good friends once. So many hard feelings in fact that if he came anywhere near me anytime in the next five to ten years I'd break his fucking nose too, and stab him in the thigh if I could find something sharp, and I would be actively working on a way of paying him back some of the fucking misery he'd put me through, and I'd even ask my Policeman Uncle how to best do it and get away with it. Just as I thought he was going to start to cry, Mr Hobbs came over and rescued him from me with a 'now then Christian,' and peeling my hand from his shirt. Gavin pointed at me and made to open his mouth.

"That Mr Mills," Mr Hobbs said to him, "is what we call 'you made your own bed, now you've got to lie in it! Good afternoon chaps."

He ran home by all accounts"

"Gavin?"

"Yeah," he said coldly.

"But... he was harmless!"

"And I wasn't?" he grinned back at me.

"He was very keen to find out which university you were going to Christian, had mates at your college asking around for weeks trying to find out, was really chuffed when he found out you weren't going to Manchester!" said Amy taking a long pull at her coffee and smiling down with a pleasant surprise, it was excellent quality after all.

She put her mug down and grinned at my still shocked expression, "You can't blame him for being scared Christina, the whole school heard that Chris broke Brett Cox's nose and half of the upper school, including Gav's little sister Ellie, watched him kick Simon's arse that afternoon," added Amy.

"And... you were there?" I gasped.

"Yeah," she grinned, "best end of season special ever, the Kardashian's couldn't have beaten that nail-biter! Twat was asking for it," she looked across at Chris with a cheeky grin, "we were so impressed that a load of us girls were hanging around to walk home with you Chris, until Mr Maguire put your bike in the back of his car of course."

"I totally forgot about that!" he said, "he drove me home, dropped me off and gave me his phone number in case the police did get involved, complimented me on my moves but told me not to get into the habit of fighting my way out of things. Turned out he was good friends with my Uncle Pete, like everyone was I suppose."

"I loved Mr Maguire!" said Amy, "You were always his big favourite though Christina!"

I shuddered,

"The last thing he said to me was... after the fight... he shouted at me and told me he'd always thought better of me; took me years to get over disappointing him."

I stared at the table and my almost empty coffee cup.

I saw Chris and Amy exchange glances.

"But you dumped that twat eventually mate," said Amy putting a hand on mine then looking up at our hot friend pouring more coffee, "anyway, all's fair in love and war Christina." She nodded discretely at Christian's back.

We had another coffee and shared a few more laughs about the old days, I refrained from calling them the 'good' old days because they weren't as far as Chris was concerned, but we exchanged phone numbers and Facebook-friended and talked about other old friends.

She said she wanted to take a photo of us and one of the desk girls came through and took pictures, three of our old school's best, all in our uniforms.

"I want one of you two!" she said as the desk officer went back to her work, so Chris stood behind and with his arms around me, his green Royal Marines Commando beret and the dagger badge on his muscular right shoulder particularly noticeable, the red 'MP' squares on our right arms inches apart with my hands on his big strong forearms, almost cheek to cheek and beaming.

"I'm friends with Gav's sister Ellie, she's bound to see it Chris," she giggled, "it's bound to make its way back to him!"

He grinned the same wicked grin he'd had winding up the training course I'd watched in the cookhouse,

"Tell him Christian sends hugs..."

We all laughed and I slapped his arm for that.

I made that photo my profile picture and it remained there for at least three years. I had minimal make-up on but my cheeks had the nicest colour just because I as being hugged by a man I was crazy about.

With just that one FB friending I must have gained another 10 names on my page (including Ellie who I remembered through Gavin). Schoolteacher Gav didn't do Facebook, and everyone commented on whether that was really Christian and how nice it was to see us together after all those years!

We wished her a good night, happy that we'd probably meet her on shift at the hospital.

A few weeks later she was kind enough to invite Chris and I to her married quarter for dinner and we got to meet her surgeon husband James, a Medical Corps Captain who I'd met a few times at Bastion doing some after-action reports there.

We walked slowly back to the offices, Chris for an hour of writing up the training he'd carried out that day and the debrief on a lad that had used several unarmed defence moves to bring down the pissed grunter they'd taken to hospital on Monday where he'd met Amy, me to a late meeting with the Unit RAFP senior officer to discuss the final steps for my promotion.

There was a silence between us and I felt I needed to break it.

"So do you dislike Gavin even more now you know he had a crush on me?"

"The boy had eyes Chrissie, can't knock him for that, besides," he stopped walking and took my hand, "I had a massive crush on you from the end of year nine."

"What?" I moved just that bit closer to him.

"True story," he said with an embarrassed grin, "Remember when I was having a bit of a hard time come the end of year nine, and you took my hand and walked me home?"

I nodded, I could remember that very afternoon.

Christian was always quite tall for his age but was still very thin. A couple of very aggressive year nines from a different house that skinny Christian towered over, took exception to him standing and chatting so casually to me, the blossoming blonde whose curves were really starting to show, and they figured in the way that pubescent boys often do that the best way to impress me and show me how manly they were was to jostle then threaten to beat up my best friend.

"From that day Chrissie, I lost my heart to you," he stroked a single stray lock of my hair that had escaped its normal uniform tidiness, tucking it back behind my ear. "We walked to your front door and you gave me the biggest hug and kissed my cheek. You were wearing a school cardigan, it was really soft and... well... so were you. You'd blossomed that year... you were so beautiful Chrissie and from that moment on that was it."

He paused for breath and it was clear this was coming from the heart, he continued. "Over that weekend I built up the courage to ask my Dad if we could have a chat about something, leaving out that it was how I might go about asking you, my very best friend, out on a date without spoiling everything. He said he was busy but we could have a long chat Monday evening when he got home from work.

But he never did come home and by that time was moving into a rented flat in Estepona to live the highlife and it all rather went to rat shit from then on, and I never built up the nerve to ask you, then... you were rather out of my league and I... well I didn't want to be a bother to you or get in your way, then later on I knew I'd get a beating from the entire rugby team if I did more than sit next to you in class."

With tears in my eyes I pushed my face against his as he hugged me,

"Oh CHRISTIAN!" I half admonished-half sobbed and grabbed him around the neck, "I would have said 'yes' Chris..." I whispered without having to think about it, "honest Chris, it was you, it was always you!" I felt the painful wave of emotion, "I would have said yes Christian!"

All of that wasted time, those years with Simon when even I knew that while he dressed and talked well he wasn't half the boy that my Christian was and I now knew why our break-up never meant that much to him - he always wanted what he wanted and that was me apparently, a pretty girl on his arm - I meant little else to him.

A week before we'd sat in the restaurant and talked through what had happened in great detail but here, watching the Mediterranean sun slowly sink below the trees and buildings and he told me how he'd really felt about me for those years, and it all but broke my heart and Chris could see that. He smiled at me, like always.

"Please Christian, I'm so sorry - I didn't know, I wasn't brave enough or clever enough," I was weeping quite strongly now. I closed my eyes and took hold of his shirt collar, "Ask me again Christian," I said pushing my forehead against his, "Ask me out on a date, ask me to be your girl, please..." I gasped feeling his arms pull me tighter to him, "I want my Christian back!"

"Christina Mair," he said with a soft smile and wiping away my tears - shit, he wasn't going to, was there someone else despite all of the chat we'd had with Amy? "I was so tempted to kiss you on Friday after our meal at Nico's but we were going back to the pool and I was going to get all romantic there, but the best seats were already occupied, had such a great time on the beach and in the bar, still wasn't sure, that's why I said you could go back to your normal life - just in case there was another man, I've wanted to kiss you so many times since then - sorry."

I took his face in my hands,

"Kiss me now and that'll be OK - won't it?"

"I think that would be perfect Chrissie." He leaned down just enough and his hands slipped from my shoulders to my waist, he lowered his mouth to mine and we kissed long and hard, our mouths opening in a way they certainly never had when we'd ever kissed before, we broke for breath. "And just for the record, I've always been 'your Christian'!" He kissed me again. I purred, content to be in his big strong arms, with mine around his neck.

"Step this way," I whispered to him and after a moment we moved into the shadows, and I hoped that neither The Army Garrison sergeant major, Navy Fleet Chief PO or RAF Station Warrant Officer could see us - it had hardly been broad daylight, but it was in full view of anyone walking past.

My mind was racing; this was Christian, my old neighbour, the boy I grew up with, my best friend, until... y'know. OK, I'd been lusting after him before I knew who he was but... IT WAS CHRISTIAN!!

My Christian...

It was perfect and I felt a few more tears, but for the very best reason this time.

"Is it allowed for a sergeant to kiss a corporal?" I hissed feeling his warm hands stroke and caress my back and my sides through my uniform as I wrapped mine around his neck.

"I've only just been promoted Chrissie, stripes are a bit new so I'm still enough of a corporal for it not to be a problem."

"I'm acting up as a sergeant for every other duty, does that count as well?" I grinned at him.

"Then it's virtually a command from the Provost Marshall! Anyway, I was only going to be acting up for this tour but somehow Pay and Records made it substantive and the civvy Chief Clerk at Southwick Park told me to shut up and not worry about it, adding that I'll be too far away from Commando Training Centre Admin office for anyone to notice or lose much sleep about it!"

"That'll do for me," I moved my open mouth back to his. We just stood there hugging and kissing and it was so lovely.

Just as I was really getting into it, Chris looked at his watch and reminded me I had a meeting with my Squadron Leader about MY substantive promotion in sixteen minutes so hand in hand and giggling we ran to the offices.

Chris went to do his paperwork, I stopped into the bathroom and bathed my eyes with cool water and took out just enough redness, then stopped at the Boss's door, knocked and on the commanding officer's shouted 'enter!' I marched in, halted and saluted.

"Aaah Corporal Mair!" the Squadron Leader said leaning forward, "I'm really pleased with what I'm hearing from the Warrant Officers, flight and staff sergeants about your section." He stood up, "I'm not going to drag this out any longer, SERGEANT MAJOR?!" he shouted, and I could hear 'Sir!' shouted from along the corridor and heard the clumping feet of the CJPU Company Sergeant Major (Royal Military Police) who swung in behind me, stepped to one side and saluted like I had. "Sah'Major," said the Boss with some Cranwell drawl, "I'm minded to promote Corporal Mair, thoughts?"

The RMP warrant officer second class looked me up and down with one raised eyebrow, his pace stick glued under his arm at a perfect 90 degrees.

"Weeeeell, I suppose if there's reeeeeeally no one else Sir!" he grinned at me and I relaxed a tiny bit, he was of course joking, at least I hoped he was. "Total agreement sir, Corporal Mair has been acting in that capacity since she arrived and I have no doubt that she is totally worthy of her third stripe."

I blushed.

The Squadron Leader stood and extended a hand,

"Well done Sergeant Mair!" he shook my hand then handed across three MTP slides, each with three stripes on.

I pocketed two.

"May I sir?" I said reaching for the rank tab in the centre of my shirt.

"Would be disappointed if you didn't Sergeant!"

I unbuttoned the tab and slid off the two-striped corporal slide that I'd worn for almost seven years, pocketed it and slid the new one in its place.

"That's better!" said the Sergeant Major with a pointed finger, "Now don't do anything stupid and lose it!"

"No sir." I said pulling my shoulders back. "Permission to carry on sir!" I said loudly to the beaming Squadron Leader.

"Carry on Sergeant Mair!" he shouted back.

I threw up a salute which was matched by the sergeant major, turned to the right and marched out the door, just hearing the officer say, 'I still love doing that Rick!' to the CSM and his laughter in return.

Feeling ten feet tall I walked along the corridor to the large report writing room where Chris was logged into a PC and typing at speed.

"Chrissie!" he hissed seeing as another two MP's were in the room.

I held my arms out to my sides,

"That's SERGEANT Chrissie now!"

"CHRISSIE!" he leapt out of his seat, picked me up by my waist and swung me around, "Oh that's fantastic, congratulations!" I put my arms around his neck as he lowered me down.

When my face was level with his I squeezed him tighter,

"This is rapidly becoming the best day ever!" I whispered and kissed him again, long, hard open-mouthed and completely joyful with the toes of my brown boots still inches from the floor. He returned my kiss full well and eventually put me down.

"Pull up a chair, give me five minutes and then we'll go celebrate!"

The two MP's came across the room.

"Got your third Christina!?" said Debbie, I noticed the person sat across the desk in the report writing room was Griff, the same boy she'd been kissing so passionately the Friday before when Chris and I had made for the pool for 'a sit down'.

I nodded, sticking out my chest and the new shiny rank slide I'd just been given.

Debbie gave me a hug and Griff shook my hand. They went back to their reports and I could see some quiet chat and looks that I guessed were about Christina having kissed the new PTI with such passion.

We went to the bar where I disturbed the Satellite TV football when I rang the brass bell indicating it was a drink for the entire mess and soon we were cheering and carousing. Griff and Debbie joined us and as I consumed my third glass of wine I slipped and arm through Christian's and squeezed up close to him.

The fact that we'd been in each other's company and almost stuck together since the previous Friday night hadn't passed anyone by, but no one really seemed to object as there were a few other inter-unit romances going on and seeing as our story was so cute.

My team found ourselves at the local school the next day doing some road safety training with a couple of the primary classes while Chris was at the Sovereign base hospital with one of our crew recovering from knee surgery.

The Medical Corps physio was very impressed with Chris' knowledge and with appropriate notes taken he swore he would ensure the right exercise at the right time with some manipulation. Job done.