Sketchbook

Half expecting to see an orgy in progress, I was disappointed to find Anastacia sitting, fully clothed on her sofa and Trix in an armchair next to her. I was completely non-plussed at the scene I was presented with.

Anastacia looked at me almost in pity. "Josh, we cannot take this any further. The picture you drew; what you said to me last night about a girlfriend. It cannot be Trix or I, you understand. It has to be someone you have real feelings for -- not just fantasy feelings. It has to be love, not lust. If one of us took your 'V' you would feel empty and lost soon afterwards."

I looked from one to the other. Trix's face was a mask of sadness. I tried to appeal to her. "Trix, I would love it to be you..."

She shook her head sadly. "She is right, Josh. It needs to come from you, not us." She gave me her crooked little smile. "But we may be able to help!"

Anastacia went on. "Trust us Josh -- it may take a little while, but we have a plan to help you. Once we are ready, we will be in touch. Then it will all be down to you."

Trix rose and took me by the hand. She led me back through the house and out into Metcalfe's Corner. I was stunned and unable to say anything. She reached up and kissed me softly. "If it works, it will be wonderful and you will thank us all the more than if we were the ones, Josh. I promise, I swear."

She handed me a small bag. "Get some practice -- hopefully you'll be needing it soon." She kissed me again and I walked away across the garden feeling every bit as empty, lost and bereft as Anastacia had said I would.

Once upstairs, I took the Fleshlight from the bag Trix had given me, wedged it hard into the bars at the bottom of my bed and fucked it like a madman, cursing the names of Anastacia Keltner and Elodie Truffaut as I imagined Izzy Napier-Jones screaming under my onslaught.

Chapter 11: Flea

The next few days were horrible. I had finished my work at Anastacia's and had seen nether hide nor hair of her since my rejection. My cricket at the weekend suffered as a result and the poor old Fleshlight was getting a right old battering.

The following Wednesday I was heading for an early practice session with some of the guys at the club when I saw Anastacia's front door open. She waved cheerily as if nothing had passed between us. "Hi Josh, glad I caught you. Got a minute?"

To my horror she hugged me and gave me a kiss on the forehead. "Thanks for the great work you did -- the garden is looking wonderful." She handed me an envelope. "Cash in hand -- there's a little bonus for you as well."

I stammered something in gratitude and made to go back indoors to deposit the envelope somewhere safe when she stopped me. She handed me another envelope -- this one A4-sized and stiff-backed. "Follow the instructions carefully and to the letter. Someone else has a similar copy to this. Trix told you we'd come through for you Josh. Now it's down to you."

I took the envelope from her. "Thanks -- I think..."

She leaned towards me and hugged me once more. "She's gorgeous, Josh. One of the sweetest girls you could ever meet. She's a lost soul like you. Help her find herself and she will help you. Trust me - you were made for each other."

And with that she was gone, striding off down the path to where her bicycle was chained to the fence. I was left with a huge wad of twenty-pound notes, some sort of instruction pack and a very slack jaw.

In what was a very strange summer, that encounter with Anastacia was right up there on the weird quotient. I had no idea what she had planned for me and I was still hurting badly at what I perceived to be her rejection of me. All that build-up and then nothing. But at the same time, a small voice inside had to agree that she was right - it should be down to me how it all panned out.

I ran upstairs and threw the envelope containing the money onto my bed - it was completely immaterial to me at that moment. It could have been pennies or a million dollars for all I cared: all that mattered was the other envelope. I wanted to tear it open but if there was something Angelfire had produced inside, I couldn't risk damaging it. I peeled back the top and felt the thickness of quality art paper within. I pulled it out slowly and when I looked at it, I was as puzzled as I had been at any time I had known Anastacia.

The folio was completely blank other than a few words in Anastacia's unmistakable hand at the top. Beneath there were five panels that looked like they should peel away from the backing paper. I read the words five times, simple as their import was, to make sure I didn't ruin what was about to happen.

'Gently peel back the first panel only.'

My fingers felt numb as I tried to grasp the little tag that was the key to removing the panel. It fell away easily and I found myself looking at two cartoon faces, both beautifully drawn, as would be expected by anything created by Angelfire. I had almost come to think of her and Anastacia as separate entities.

Two smiling faces looked out at me from the folio. The one on the left was unmistakable - Trix had been captured in all her glory by Angelfire's genius and once again with a few simple strokes of a pencil she had rendered the girl almost perfectly. The second face was similar, but slightly younger; maybe more innocent. The lopsided, wide-mouthed grin was in evidence but there were subtle differences. This girl had the same shaggy hair as Trix, but there were short braids in there wound around with ribbons. As with Trix she looked alive with joie de vivre and my heart skipped a beat.

Above Trix's portrait was the number '27' and over her counterpart's image was the number '19'. Knowing Trix was twenty-seven I took it to be their respective ages. Between the two was a single word.

'Cousins!'

In tiny writing at the bottom of the panel it said, 'When ready, remove panel two."

I took a deep breath and did as I was instructed. I blinked in disbelief as what appeared to be four unrelated images were revealed. The first was a calendar with a red ring around Friday's date, two days from now. The second was of a digital clock showing 17:00. The third was a replica of the pub sign of the White Lion. It took me a moment to take in the last image. Five women were sitting around a table in the pub - Anastacia, Trix, Izzy and Josie Napier-Jones and the new girl. Thanks to Anastacia's skill there was no doubting any of those depicted.

Once again, tiny writing gave me my next instruction. I tore away the covering on the third panel to reveal another series of images. In the first, the four women other than the new girl were standing, waving at her as if in farewell. In the second, she was alone, sipping her drink. In the third, she had relocated outside to the beer garden and sat with her hand on her chin. She was wearing a very worn sleeveless denim jacket that seemed to be embroidered with familiar emblems. If my favourite band was Deep Purple, my second was Led Zeppelin by a mile. Even with a magnifying glass, I couldn't be entirely sure but I'd have given very generous odds that her jacket was adorned with the symbols from the cover of Led Zeppelin Four.

As instructed, I tore back the penultimate panel. The first image showed a young man leaning in towards the girl, gesturing to her empty glass. The second showed her smiling shyly, obviously accepting his offer. In the third, they were in animated conversation across the table and the fourth showed them laughing with tiny lovebirds swirling around their heads. Above that image was a huge question mark.

Beneath the panel were the words, "Leave the fifth panel - you'll know when..."

It was a long and frustrating two days until the Friday evening and the Fleshlight got plenty of use. At four thirty on the fateful day I made sure I was showered, smelling nice and suitably attired. My Houses of the Holy t-shirt had usually been met with derision from the Taylor Swift, Stormzy, George Ezra and Ed Sheeran fans of my own age, but I was hoping that tonight's audience may be more appreciative of my attire.

I was used to rejection and failure. I had no real expectation, but there was a faint hope. After all, the girl was Trix's cousin and I had connected in some small way with her. It was a lovely summer evening as I approached the White Lion but I felt as if I was swimming through the Sargasso Sea to get there. I thought I would sink beneath the waves and never be seen again. Or that Nigel Pygge and his band of merry psychopaths would be waiting for me tapping baseball bats on their pudgy hands.

I fought down those negative thoughts. Two years earlier I would never have believed I could score a century. I'd done things with Anastacia and Trix that had been beyond my wildest hopes and dreams. I saw them sitting in the bar and chose a seat near their table but tucked away so I would not be easily visible to them. I sipped my cider and felt confident I could cope with anything the evening could throw at me.

Then reality struck and the serial loser that I was felt like running until I was nowhere near the White Lion. There were five women sitting yards from me. Despite my best intentions, four of them were still on my fantasy list. The fifth girl was facing away from me and seemed quiet and reserved in their company.

I'd had some previous with Trix and Anastacia. I now knew Izzy and Josie a little better and could almost get past thinking about them without erotic fantasies entering my fevered mind.

No, it was the new girl that scared the proverbial out of me. She was the one that two of the people at that table were determined I'd fall in love with. No-one ever gave Josh Adams a second look. Why should this girl? It was back to reality and I was in no doubt I'd bomb out as usual tonight. Anastacia and Trix would disown me in disgust and I'd be back to business as usual.

Thank God someone saw things differently.

It was well past five o'clock and my drink was almost finished. I was desperately holding on, willing them to leave when I saw Izzy stand and shake down her long, lustrous hair. As the others joined her, Anastacia gazed around the bar area and as unobtrusively as I could, I held up a hand to her. She smiled and nodded at me. Trix glanced over and held up both hands, her fingers crossed for me. She blew me a kiss and I saw her mouth, "Good luck!"

They left in a bubble of excited conversation, no doubt heading to a weekend of debauchery down in Brighton. My gaze burned into the back of the girl now sitting by herself, willing her to move to the beer garden. I could see her denim jacket more clearly now she was not surrounded by the others and I was sure they were the Led Zep glyphs. She was absently fingering a short pigtail as she tapped at her phone. At last she got up and puffed out her cheeks, swallowing hard, unaware I was watching. I could see she was as nervous as I was and it made me feel a lot better. She strode towards the door to the beer garden, passing so close I could have touched her. I saw a brief glimpse of her face and she and Trix could have been sisters. I almost came out in a cold sweat when I saw she was wearing the same type of leggings Trix had worn during our little tryst in the gallery. Over them was a short red-checked skirt and beneath her denim jacket was a plain white t-shirt.

So this was the girl I had been set up with on a blind date. She had a tousled mess of dirty blonde hair with at least two straggly little pigtails that I could see. Her face was too wide to be beautiful, her neck too long. She was scruffily dressed in denims, wet-look trousers and big clunky sandals with massive soles. I wasn't sure if I liked the ribbed ring in the middle of her bottom lip, but her nose stud looked cool. I watched her as she crashed down into a seat at one of the outside tables and rummaged in her big shoulder bag. She produced a vape-pen and sat sipping her drink, puffing on it nervously, tiny wisps of vapour escaping her pursed lips. She put on a pair of big, red-framed glasses and began to tap at her phone once more.

As I looked at her through the open door, I added up all the strange little anomalies I could see. Everything about her just seemed slightly off kilter. Then it struck me -- I was looking at her as if through a Trix filter -- judging her on her cousin not her own merits.

Then she smiled at something she saw on her phone. She took a little puff on her vape-pen and her face cracked into a broad smile. It looked like the sun coming out from behind a thunder cloud. It lit up the sky and I realised I was looking at her all wrong.

I got up from my seat, my heart now pounding. All her little anomalies and quirks added up to one thing in my mind -- perfection. I walked to the door and was about to stride confidently over to her and ask her if she wanted a drink when I was beaten to my target by someone I knew all too well.

Jez Baker -- he had been two years ahead of me at school -- another local scholarship boy, but he had embraced the school and thought himself something else. As my mother had once said, he had fallen in love with himself at an early age but at least he had stayed faithful. I saw him leaning over the girl, muscled and tattooed arms on show. I had no chance now he was on the scene.

Or so I thought. I saw her shaking head and putting her hand over her glass. Being Jez, he couldn't take no for an answer so he persisted. I saw the girl bristle with indignation. She took off her glasses, narrowing her eyes, her nostrils flaring. I heard a French accent similar to Trix's carry across the intervening yards. "Which bit of 'no thanks' do you not understand?"

Jez muttered something as he backed off and I saw her smiling. "Yes, of course it is my loss. I must have no taste, huh?"

He said something else and she burst out laughing. "No, I'm not a lesbian. I'm just choosy."

He retreated, fuming towards his friends and they made to leave. She shouted after them. "Hey!" Jez turned and she held up a rainbow badge fastened to her jacket collar. "For the record, I'm Bi and proud of it."

He merely sneered as he left the pub, no doubt in search of an easier conquest.

It was now my turn to stand over her. I hoped my shaking would not be too obvious as I looked down at her tapping away, oblivious to my presence. Here we go -- shit or bust. "Erm, excuse me, but at the risk of being rejected as eloquently as Jez was, may I buy you a drink?"

The girl looked up at me impassively and narrowed her eyes again behind her huge red glasses. "Jez, huh? What a wanker." She held up a finger and said, "One moment, please..." She dug in her bag and I could see her looking at a similar piece of paper to the one Anastacia had given me. She looked between the paper and me for a moment. "Oui, c'est lui!" She gave a little smile and nodded before turning back to me. "That would be very nice thank you. What do you recommend?"

I smiled at her, relief washing over me. At least I had not fallen at the first hurdle. "Yes, he is what you said and the cider is good."

She pursed her lips and nodded. "Oui, cidre est bon!" Then her face lit up in that smile. "Pint please!"

I had never bought a drink for a girl before and I felt a million dollars as I ordered. With my track record I half expected her to be gone when I returned, but she was sitting there, glasses now off, her phone and vape-pen presumably tucked away in her bag.

I put the drinks down and held out my hand. "Hi, I'm Josh. Josh Adams."

She laughed. "So English!" Ignoring my hand, she leaned across the table and gave me an air kiss on each cheek before sitting back down. "Hi Josh, I am formally known as Félicité Laporte, but I seem for some reason to be known to the world as 'Flea!'

I held my glass up to hers. It was a strange name, but like Trix, it suited her. "Hi Flea, pleased to meet you."

She touched hers to mine. "Moi aussi! Salut!" We drank and she wiped her wide, generous mouth with the back of her hand. She pointed at the paper sticking out of her bag. "Seems some people hope or think we will get along." She reached out and touched my Led Zep t-shirt and turned her back slightly so I could see the glyphs across her jacket. "Good start!"

For the next few minutes, we discussed our mutual love of various classic bands and she was so easy to talk to. I loved the sound of her sing-song French accent; not overpoweringly strong, but so easy on the ear. I tried not to get ahead of myself and think of her calling out my name in joy, but it was difficult. I thought of the final cartoon on the fourth panel of the paper Anastacia had given me and thought it may not be long before the lovebirds were circling - above my head at least.

I had my sheet of paper in my own shoulder bag. I nodded at hers. "Mine was very accurate -- yours?"

She looked at the paper once more and touched the top image. "He's cute!" She looked at me for a moment then put her glasses on. She leaned towards me, peering intently and scrutinising me intensely before breaking out her grin, which I was beginning to fall in love with. "Yes, I think it is accurate!" She nodded towards my bag. "May I see?"

I took out the paper and held it towards her. She took it and smiled. "My older cousin. It was she that first called me 'Flea', way back." She sighed. "She is like a big sister to me and I love her dearly."

"You could be sisters you are so alike."

"Our mothers are twins. We are alike in so many ways, but some others..." She gave a Gallic shrug making the beads in her little pigtails click together. "Anyway, our instruction pages seem to be working so far, so shall we see where another drink takes us?"

As she got up to go to the bar, she looked back at me. "You've not opened the fifth panel, have you?"

I shook my head. "Wouldn't dare."

She gave me her smile. "Me neither - Angelfire can be quite scary sometimes!"

I couldn't believe how well we got along. The conversation flowed and was never awkward. I told her about my schooldays, the work that I had done for Anastacia and my forthcoming job. She was even interested in my cricketing activities.

"I don't know a lot about it, but it is nice and relaxing to watch. Trix and I went to Hove for a game a while ago and the locals were lovely, trying to explain it all to two mad Frenchwomen!"

I found out that she had followed Trix to England aged sixteen as her cousin had raved about her new home and loved the area so much. She had attended a local sixth-form college then gone on to Veterinary school. She was just about to embark on her second year and loved it.

"I think I prefer animals to people." She sipped the wine she was now drinking and I felt a frisson as small fingers closed over mine. "At least, most people..."

We had a few more drinks and I was enjoying her bubbly, fun company. As I heard the Town Square clock chime for nine o'clock, I offered her another drink. To my disappointment, she refused. "No thanks, I'm fine. It's been a lovely night Josh."

We left the pub on the Town Square side and she linked her arm into mine. I had no idea what was going to happen and I thought of steering her towards the benches I had used in my surveillance of the gallery or seeing if she wanted pizza. Instead, I felt her steering me.

Before I knew it, we were in the doorway of Angelfire and her small body pressed against mine. She tasted sweet and earthy from the wine and the vape-pen and I hoped that the erection I felt building wouldn't be pressing too obviously against her. We had left the pub at just after nine and the Town Square clock was chiming the quarter-hour as we finally broke away, breathless and flushed. We had been kissing and exploring each other for way longer than I had kissed girls in my entire life. By the end, I certainly had cartoon lovebirds around my head. I caught my breath and circled my hands above my head. "Tweet tweet!"