What 'appened Was

Well, it must have worked; they were married the following year. I've a hint here for you guys out there - "don't trust women".

It was at Margo's wedding that Kathy and I were forced together. Somehow Kathy and I were seated at the same table. All cleverly worked out, no doubt, by Margo. Everyone else on our table were, to put it bluntly, boring old farts. That virtually left Kathy and I with no one but each other to talk to.

So we danced together most of the evening. I noted that Kathy kept turning other guys down when they asked her to dance. I remember thinking, "How different from that Hunt Ball."

Just before Margo and her new husband left the reception to catch the plane for their honeymoon, Margo decided it was time to throw her bouquet over her shoulder.

You know the idea is the unmarried girl who catches it is supposed to be the next one who is going to get hitched. I'll give you one guess as to who caught the bleeding thing. Then she turned around threw her arms around my neck and kissed me.

To be honest, I'm not sure what came over me, but I kissed her back. In doing so, I caught Margo's eye, she winked at me and mouthed something to me but I have no idea what it was.

As the reception ended, Kathy asked me if I would give her a lift home. I explained that I didn't have my car with me as I only lived a stone's throw away. I told her I would call her a cab but Kathy looked disappointed. Then she asked if she could stay over at my place. I told her that would be fine as I had a spare room she could use.

There you go. You see, for all my bad boy reputation, I am a gentleman no matter what anyone says. What gets me is how she helped me make up the spare bed, showered in the guest bathroom and then waited until I was fast asleep before she sneaked in my room and crawled into my bed. Well, that's how I think it went. I'd had a few more than usual that night as I knew I wasn't driving home.

I really became compos mentis whilst Kathy was doing her cowgirl impression and one fine cowgirl she made. I suddenly realised what was going on and coming to my senses realised that I wasn't wearing a condom.

"Christ, girl, I hope you're on the pill." I said to her.

"I am at the moment, but I coming off them as soon as we are married. I want to have lots of children with you."

You know the strangest thing? I was quite happy with what she had said to me. I think that the thing I had never been able to get my head around was that I had fallen for her the first time I ever saw her. I can only assume it was some kind of prejudice thing that had kept us apart.

Well, we stayed in bed for most of the day. Not making love, just fucking the life out of each other. In the weeks that followed we made slow tender love but all that Sunday we fucked like bloody bunny rabbits.

After that day, being together seemed natural. I wasn't interested in other girls anymore, just Kathy. So Charlotte never did get what she wanted. She still holds it against me.

Kathy somehow persuaded her parents to accept me. Only I'm not sure they ever did really, but they loved their daughter and what she wanted, she got. Now that should have been a warning to me.

The wedding six months later was a big affair. Not my choice but it was what Kathy wanted and we moved into a nice house that Kathy's father gave her as a wedding present. No, I wasn't asked whether I liked the idea, but what idiot is going to turn down a bloody new house for free.

Kathy and I were extremely happy during the first couple of years of our marriage. The only problem we had was that Kathy wasn't getting pregnant. We both wanted children in the worst way and I think we were both becoming frustrated at our inability to get Kathy to conceive.

By the end of our fourth year of marriage we were into everything we could think of. All the tests had been done and we were both fine in that department. We were into keeping a close watch on her cycles and going crazy having sex when in theory she was at her most fertile.

But all our efforts came to nothing. Kathy's father even paid for IVF treatment but that was a bloody disaster as well. Our hopes were raised and then nothing.

By the end of our sixth year of marriage things were really falling apart. For some reason, somewhere along the line we had started blaming each other for not having any children. Now we both really knew that was stupid but that's what we did. Frustration, I guess.

We didn't make love anymore - we fucked when the timetable said we should and besides that we hardly ever spoke a civil word to each other. Well, you can guess where we were going and I think we could both see it months before we actually got into the divorce court.

Irreconcilable differences, that's what it said on the decree nisi. Kathy and I went our separate ways. She, of course, kept the house as her father had paid for it in the first place. To be honest I took very little with me when I left. It was a few years later when I actually realised how little I took and exactly what I left had behind; but that comes later.

By that time I was a respected designer within my company. After the divorce was final, I moved to my company's headquarters in Zurich, although I was never really happy living there. It did however get me well away from Kathy and all our mutual friends. And, of course, my oh-so-nice in-laws who were telling all and sundry that the divorce was all my fault.

So for the next couple of years, I did little more than work and sleep. Oh, I did the sightseeing thing around Zurich, but I was never at home there. I dated a couple of girls but my heart wasn't really in that either.

My newfound dedication to work had an unexpected influence on my career. After I had been in Zurich for some two years or so, I was summoned into the chairman's office one day where he informed me I was going back to England as head of the design department over-there and with a seat on the board of directors.

The next thing he told me was that my management team was flying in that very afternoon from England so I could be introduced to them. A pointless exercise, as they nearly all knew me from when I'd been one of the minions over there. Still if that's what the old boy wanted, that was what was going to happen. He said that it would help to establish my authority.

So that same evening, I was holed up in his office next to the conference room, waiting whilst the chairman and his cronies talked to my soon-to-be staff. When he decided it was the right time, I would make my entrance and he would introduce their new boss.

The light on the desk flashed and I opened the conference room door and walked into the crowded room. Crowded it might have been but there was only one face I saw. Kathy was sitting at the back and our eyes met instantly.

Oh, I did manage to get out my little speech. I had that well rehearsed. They all welcomed me and told me they were so pleased I was jumping right over their heads and that they would now all have to call me sir. And they told me how they were all going to jump through hoops for me. Christ, you all know the kind of bullshit I'm talking about.

But I wasn't really listening to any of it. I suppose most of it was or could have been sincere. But I was watching just one face all the time.

After all the formalities were over, we all went out for a meal. No, I didn't sit near Kathy. I sat with the big knobs and she sat with the minions. However when the dancing started later I noted that she wasn't on the floor, so I went over and asked her to dance.

Do I have to tell you how the rest of the evening went? Well, we danced and then we danced again. I, of course, had to circulate a bit, but after a little while I found myself back at Kathy's table and we danced again. And then again later.

We didn't talk whilst we danced, we just danced together and drank to much. Embarrassingly we woke up the following morning in my bed together. We both said it had been a silly mistake and we shouldn't have slept together. We decided that we would pretend the evening had never happened and then I rushed her to the airport to catch her plane.

Two weeks later I moved into a hotel in London. I was soon finding my feet as the boss of British design office. Kathy was in the same building somewhere but I never saw her as I was on the top floor nowadays.

Then one morning a few weeks later, it happened. My phone rang and a voice that I knew so well said. "Peter, I'm pregnant! What the hell am I going to do?"

"There's only thing you can do, girl"

"And what's that?"

"Marry the bloody father, of course; I would say that would be your best bet."

"Do you really mean that?"

"Yes."

"How long will it take to get a licence?"

"Buggered if I know. You'd better call the legal department and ask them."

"Bugger the legal department, are you coming home to dinner tonight."

"Steak?"

"Steak!"

"Meet at my car ASAP. You can leave your car here and I'll drive us home. Oh, and you'd better tell your boss that I've said you've got today and tomorrow off; I'll tell my secretary the same thing. And Kath?"

"Yes?"

"I love you!"

"I love you, too!"

++++++++++++

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since that day. I guess the stress of trying to conceive can sometimes prevent conception. The more frustrated you get, the harder it becomes to get pregnant. Remove the pressure and, hey, presto. We've got five children and seven grandchildren so far. Kathy and I had two boys and three girls.

The in-laws tried their hardest to get into my good books but I'm afraid I'll always bear a grudge. Kathy stays silent on the issue. Oh, and my company bought out Kathy's father's company when it got into financial difficulties. As I'm on the board of the parent company, I was his bloody boss until he retired. Something the old bugger never could get his head around.

Margo's been my PA for some years now and Charlotte - well her marriage to Mathew didn't last that long. Neither did her next three marriages from what I can make out, but I hear she took them all to the cleaners in the process.

Life goes on.