Old Friends in Paradise Ch. 03

"I can't even think about losing my virginity to someone as big as you Chris," I said leaving it open ended and an indirect link to Rachel.

"She didn't seem to mind at the time," he said dipping his head under the water to rinse off.

"Are you OK Christian?" I asked hoping I hadn't spoilt anything.

"Yeah," he said, "believe it or not, while I never had any bad feelings towards you I did have a few towards Rachel..."

I stood and stepped closer to him,

"What?" this was tiny slim sexy Rachel, "Really?"

"Yeah," he said with a hint of a chuckle, "Don't forget almost all of the shit I went through was down to her. Of course I never really found out until we started dating at college.

I told her about all of the shit I'd had from Simon and his cronies and when, and her face went rather pale and she went quite quiet."

Oh fuck.

What now? Had I ripped off a plaster to help it heal or just reminded him of his crappy schooling.

"She admitted to me that she really hated Simon and thought that you could have done much better. Initially she wanted to split you up and tried everything, eventually using the things that she'd heard in our various kitchens about how close we were, you remember how that ended up." He pressed the 'off' button on the power shower, "She cried and hugged me, said that she was really sorry and that she must have brought everything down on me, how it was her fault."

"Oh shit, Christian I'm sorry I brought it up, sorry I reminded you of it."

"History honey," he said slipping an arm around me and pulling me close, "it happened, you not talking about it won't make it go away, I rather think that while we both had strong feelings for each other she knew that I'd suffered because of what she'd said, and I knew I'd had a few good smackings because of her and he trying to get one up on Simon," I hugged him, "she was different after that chat, distant."

"Christian, I..." I felt terrible.

We'd had the most wonderful couple of days together and I really hoped I hadn't trashed what we'd built up.

"Christina," he pulled me close again, "Baby, it was never Rachel," he looked at me, "I've more feelings for you in the last few weeks than I had for Rachel in two years. I broke up with her far too easily Baby - I've got you back and don't even want to think about not having you in my life."

"Thanks Christian!" I mouthed to him and hugged him.

Well-well, that explained a lot.

She'd said how much into him she was during our chats but there was obviously a large lump of guilt involved. Chris had glossed over them 'just drifting apart' when they left for their separate universities with such ease.

Poor Rachel. Poor Christian. My ex-boyfriend stuck in the middle of both of them.

But it was history.

That was obviously that then. 'Don't mention School or Rachel Christina for fuck's sake, it's done and dusted he's TOLD you that'.

We dressed and I cooked chicken for dinner and didn't make such a bad job of it considering I hadn't really cooked since I joined up, and that I was dressed up in one of my prettier dresses I was working really hard to keep it clean.

Chris was in his chino's and a linen shirt and was very complementary of both my dress and my culinary skills and we sat up to the table in the villa and chatted and drank more wine, just boring couples stuff that we could do because of how well we knew each other, but was completely growing on me.

We retired to the large lounge and the huge TV and selected the box set of 'The Mummy' movies from their extensive DVD library and had a great time watching them, drinking a few Cokes and eating ice cream with me in his arms then kicking off my shoes and resting my legs on him.

In an homage to one of our pool garden bench moments, I asked him if I could sit on his lap.

"Oh yeah," he said pulling me towards him and held me. It's now my all-time favourite seating position.

We went to bed and made that most exquisite love again, reducing me to tears.

The following morning I woke fully refreshed and virtually leapt on to his morning wood, dragging on a condom before we screwed each other silly.

We got up, swam in the pool, showered, had a huge brunch made up of what we had left in the fridge and did a bit of a tidy up and repacked the few clothes that we'd worn before enjoying a final kiss and cuddle on the sofa.

We called a local taxi that collected us from the villa and drove us back to the Sovereign base and dropped us at the gate. We showed our ID's and walked in and towards our accommodation blocks, ignoring the cookhouse as we already eaten quite well that day.

"Well Chris," I said, "I really don't want to let go of your hand," He seemed quite quiet, and looked across at me, "You OK?"

He smiled at me,

"I'm perfect Chrissie, I've finally got you, and I'm even more in love with you now than I was all those years ago."

The import of what he'd just said bounced through my 'end of the weekend' sadness.

"You love me?"

"Of course Chrissie, from that moment you took my arm and looked up into my face outside the station on our first Friday night out, when you SAID you were trying to annoy Huss, right there and then, couldn't have stopped myself if I'd tried."

I leaned in for another kiss.

"Thank Fuck," I hissed at him, "thought it was only me being in love with you for a minute there."

"Nah," he grinned and held me tight, "definitely both ways."

We kissed goodnight and made for our own rooms to unpack and prepare our gear for the next day that would see me back on duty and Chris across to the other sovereign base for a couple of days for more training and to discuss training sessions in Aikido, a martial art form he'd trained in since he was... ahem... sixteen and had a black belt in, with the CJPU second-in-command.

I unpacked and was able to put most of my clothes back into my dresser still folded as over that wonderful three day break, I'd hardly worn any of the far too many clothes Penny and I had packed on the Thursday night before.

She came in after having been to the bar for one of the DVD movie nights.

"So Christina!" she said with a very suggestive look and looking down at just bikini, my crumpled body suit, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt and a couple of pairs of panties in my laundry basket, "I'm guessing you two... shall we say... err... got on?"

I smiled back at her.

"Like a house on fire Pen!" I said hoping to leave it at that.

"You look..." she folded her arms and looked me up and down a few times, "relaxed Christina, you have a bit of a look about you that I can't quite put my finger on." She rolled her eyes and smiled, "but I'm guessing that the marine did?"

I relented and gave in to the girly chat.

"And then some Pen..." I said quietly, slipping on my T-shirt nightdress before she noticed that my white patches weren't quite as white as they had been before.

Penny sat on her bed and stripped out of her jeans and removed her bra from under her T-shirt and leaned forwards conspiratorially,

"Was he great in bed?" she said quietly, "He has the look about him, like one glance and you'd be creaming your jeans."

"Not quite one glance Penny," I said, "But fuuuuuuck, he was AMAZING in bed, never better! I don't know if it's something they teach at PTI school but there are some muscles that got a workout this weekend I never knew I had." I put my hand to the flat of my stomach and soft aches that I wouldn't forget in a hurry.

"Awwwwww Christina?!" screeched Penny, "I'm so pleased for you!" She stepped across and gave me a hug, "And... well, is it going to go somewhere?"

"I certainly hope so," I said verbalising the thought I'd been having since Christian and I had our first dinner date, "Neither of us are going anywhere for the next five months at least."

I tucked my toes under my duvet and pulled it up, and Penny climbed into her bed and did the same, turning off her bedside light as I did mine.

"Sleep well Babes," she said as I closed my eyes and ran through the entire weekend in my mind, hugging myself with an occasional hand across my well exercised puss, feeling the slightest bit tender around my labia and clitoris thanks to the attention they had both received that wonderful weekend.

I rang Mum on the Tuesday evening knowing she'd be desperate to know how the rest of our weekend went. I had some lovely mother/daughter time with her that I'd never had before, and even she mentioned that we'd never chatted about John and only about Paul the week before he came to stay at our house then never again after.

Ever since I'd mentioned that Christian had come to Cyprus I'd been talking to her about him and expressing how I really liked him, fancied him, had gone to dinner with him, gone to the beach with him and finally that not only had I been promoted he'd kissed me - rather we'd kissed each other and it was really nice.

On Sunday it was to tell her that we'd spent two nights together, and tonight I was bubbling inside when I told her that Christian had said that he was in love with me. We both cooed and Mum promised not to mention any of it to Julie.

I giggled,

"Like Christian is going to tell Julie anything about his girlfriend Mummy, I might be crazy about him but he's still a bloke!"

"It's so lovely to hear you talking about a boy Christina, even better when I know him and what a lovely boy he is!"

"So what have you and Julie talked about since he took me out to dinner?" I said rolling on my side and hugging myself just a little bit.

"Weeeeeeeell we might have discussed it a bit," she said with that maternal giggle of hers that indicated mischief and pride in equal measures, "discussed what lovely kids you were and how you were so close to each other."

"Did... did she talk about me?"

"What do you mean sugar?"

"Did she say... well did she indicate that she was cross with me about how Chris... Christian was treated at school and whether she thought I was responsible?"

"Can't say we discussed that specifically Darling," Mum took a breath, "Baby, don't worry about ten years ago, enjoy what you have now and what you might have in the future!"

I love my Mum to the moon and back, but at the point it was even more. We were both very quiet and our breathing could be heard.

We both recovered of course,

"So you're going to tell Julie about me and her lovely son?"

"Nah!" said Mum, "I think that's one for Christian - and you of course!"

"Well perhaps you all really need to come to Cyprus for holiday!"

"Do you know what?" she said, "That sounds like a fantastic idea, leave that with me!"

Christian rang his Mum who had a similar arrangement as us. Their chats were fortnightly or monthly and were like ours but with less talk about love, hair and clothes obviously.

It turned out that my Mum and his Mum had been chatting and along with a list of available weeks they'd decided when they would take their holiday and posted the joint cheque to me and we booked the villa for a further two weeks so my Mum and Dad, and his Mum could fly out for a long overdue holiday for them all.

It was an easy decision for us and we were able to book two weeks leave at the same time as them for a wonderful joint holiday in the sun.

My Dad sent money for us to hire a seven-seater MPV, and after a chat with the lovely Ex-pat owner I ordered food deliveries for the first week, having gotten a list of Julie's favourite things, which were extremely close to my Mum and Dad's favourite things.

*

Through her own hard work, grit and determination, things had turned out quite well for Julie. With both of her boys grown up, graduated, well-established and happy, Julie's life had changed and for the better.

Although never to reach her previous high-earning, high-risk life of the financial services professional and finally discharged from her bankruptcy, she moved on and re-trained and was now a medical secretary working at the local GP's surgery and on a much steadier income.

She never saw any of her money from her missing then imprisoned ex-husband but she did benefit from one of his misdeeds.

Old, slightly batty but terribly maternal Mrs Pearce that had been there for Julie and a kind of surrogate Granny to the younger Stevie. His benefactress had stayed in regular contact with the family, especially Stevie who despite his bad start, she nagged into doing his homework, even tutoring him herself at one point.

With his good results she nagged him into college then into University. In Stevie's third year they heard that Mrs Pearce had passed away suddenly and were amazed when told she had left Julie the holiday home in Devon in her will.

Julie was still enough of a financial specialist to know that while selling it would provide a lump sum, rental would provide smaller amounts over a longer time and also meant that she had somewhere to go for family holidays or even just long weekends. So Julie rented it out to the same people for similar amounts, just like her benefactress had.

So with a reasonably regular three to four hundred pounds a week rolling in on top of her wages, Julie had bought a two bedroom flat in our old village and could finally have my Mum do her hair for her.

Stubborn, hard-working, charity hating Julie would only stop into Mum's salon for a natter and a coffee but still wouldn't let Mum do her hair unless she could afford to pay for it.

My Mum argued and bantered with her but no, three years went by until she sat in a salon chair again rather than in Mum's office or kitchen, wouldn't even accept it as a birthday or Christmas gift preferring Mum's company as a friend than what could possibly be considered 'pity'.

Being my Mum she waited until after closing time, set up a chair with flowers and balloons, wine and cake and both in tears she finally got her hands on her old friends hair.

The condition was OK seeing as quality hair products were never high on Julie's shopping list, she admitted to using washing-up liquid a few times which had my Mum in hysterics.

She recovered though and by the time she'd finished with scissors, colour to hide the grey roots, highlights to bring out the style, all resulting in a look that according to Mum took ten years off of her, and they both cried, with Mum taking a few notes from her friend in payment. They both finished the wine and the cake and when Julie headed for the bathroom Mum silently put the money back into her friend's purse, squished down and out of the way in one of the credit card holders.

But those days were long past and they met three or four times a month now seeing as they had more to talk about and our photos to share.

We waited at Larnaca airport seeing four delighted faces not three. Julie was accompanied by her long-term boyfriend Rob, a paramedic that worked with her.

I was so worried that Julie would hold some grudges about my treatment of her beloved son, but her screamed 'Kissie Baby!' (her nickname for me for most of my growing up) and her run across the concourse of the arrivals lounge to grab me and pull me into just the biggest hug and repeatedly kissing my face, both of us beaming through our tears, convinced me that I might just have gotten away with it.

"Oooooh!" she sighed, "I love you Kissie!" she said like she always used to when hugging me.

"Love you more!" I said, in the way I'd always replied.

She caught her breath,

"Look at her Rob," she said to her boyfriend but not letting go of me, "Isn't she gorgeous!? Should be a bloody fashion model not an army cop!" I was wearing short shorts and a cropped top and looking particularly shapely and let her get away with the 'army' reference. She tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear "this gorgeous girlie is the closest I ever came to having a daughter," she hugged me again and leaned back looking towards Rob, "And I couldn't love her any more or be any prouder of her than if she was actually mine!"

It became evident that some booze had been consumed on the plane, but I still loved her for what she said.

At the same time I was being hugged like a long lost child, Chris was being hugged by my Mum and shaking hands with my Dad and receiving a similar 'Oh Christian, just look at you!'

We took them straight to the villa in our hired people carrier and lit the barbecue, me getting everyone settled into their rooms while Chris cooked, both of us stripping down to our beachy best.

Our visitors showered-off the travel and plane journey and emerged in beach clothing, my Mum leaping straight into the pool in a bikini just marginally larger than mine.

I broke out the wine and poured some for everyone, conscious of my tiny yellow bikini bottoms not really covering my bottom at all and my Dad, Rob and Julie looking on. Mum looked as proud as she ever did.

As Chris started to circulate with the hot, expertly cooked food his bronzed, slightly shiny-looking chest, shoulders and arms looked divine. We shared some loving glances.

"Oh look Jen," said the still sexy, black-swimsuited Julie over the top of her wine glass, a cheeky smile on her lips, "Christian and Christina are obviously playing house again..."

We sat around the pool in the evening, and as he so often did Chris pulled me on to his lap, and I could see Mum and Julie smiling at each other and watching us. Mum gave me one of her wrinkled nose smiles and the slight nod of the head that said 'follow me in a bit'.

I did so, moving through into her and Dad's bedroom and she was opening her suitcase.

"Here you go Baby," she handed me a Sainsbury's plastic carrier bag. I took it from her and peaked inside.

It was a selection of some of my racier, sexier undies and dark blue silk chemise that I had bought as a bit of sexy nightdress sort of thing for when I went to stay with Paul at his parents' place but never wore because he 'didn't think it was appropriate'.

Oh yeah!

Mum grinned, "I thought you might appreciate some of your prettier stuff now you have someone to appreciate you in them!"

I picked through, and there were lots of my favourite posh, sexy and sophisticated undies that had graced my more intimate regions for dinners in long dresses, nights out and the occasional night in and Mum, no stranger to sexy underwear herself, had picked out the very best of my collection, even including a couple of new black stringy looking things she'd bought me that looked strange on the hanger but three nights later when our guests were in the town and having a grown-ups dinner, they had my boyfriend positively panting with lust!

We took them to Nico's on their first Friday and the largest of the balconies for the most amazing dinner. Mum had brought my expensive little black dress and when I stepped out of their room in it with hair and make-up beautifully done, it was worth the 'extra luggage' fee Mum had paid for another of Christian's many dropped jaws that holiday at my simple,

"Hey Chris, what do you think?"

I thought Mum and Julie would cry - again.

We had a great holiday and showed everyone the sights and they all got tans nearly as good as ours.

Chris got to know his Mum's new boyfriend Rob and on one of our morning runs stopped for some water and he admitted that he was very impressed with the paramedic that had stood down from his blue light work for the nine to five normality of a general practice.

He was awfully sweet and paid attention to Julie even though Mum and I were walking around the pool in our blonde teeny-bikini splendour most days even going topless one afternoon. Even Chris noticed that!

We even got permission to take them onto the Sovereign base and to our bar. I introduced Mum to many of my girlfriends and as usual with Mum they all instantly adored her and her usual ebullient self.