Where the Climate's Sultry Pt. 13

29

Back in England, Hunter had a problem. He had managed to crack one of his rear teeth on those nuts they give you as snacks on budget airlines. One of the first things he did when he touched down at the airport was to call Dr Lee's surgery so he could make an appointment for as early a date as possible. Fortunately - the receptionist told him - there had been a cancellation and Dr Lee would be able to fit him in tomorrow.

When Hayley got back from work she asked her dad about his trip, having already got the lowdown from the girls (especially Julia and Tina - Briony had been strangely quiet) about his various escapades. As expected, he talked about his snorkelling, the rocks and the cliffs; the only mention he made of any woman was meeting a nice American with whom he went dancing so that the girls could mix with people of their own age. When Hayley played along by asking her name, he father faltered for a moment, as if he couldn't remember, then told her that her name was Chloe and she came from New England.

He then asked Hayley about what she had been getting up to - pleased to take the attention away from himself. She told him about her work and her boyfriend Jack, before dutifully telling him that she'd missed having him around the house. She said she'd spoken to the girls and arranged for them to come over at the weekend for a barbecue with their boyfriends. She'd also invited a few other friends, most of whom Hunter knew. Hunter was a bit taken aback that he'd be meeting them all again so soon - and their boyfriends! - but immediately volunteered to look after the barbecue if Hayley would buy the meat and anything else she wanted to grill.

When Hunter got to the dentist's the following day, he found it difficult as he was sitting in the waiting room to dismiss from his mind the dream that he'd had the night before. He had entered the room where Dr Lee saw her patients and instead of the reclining chair he had been faced with a double bed. On that bed was lying his dentist wearing nothing but a negligee which hardly covered her modesty. She had beckoned him towards him with her finger. When he looked about for the dental hygienist, he saw not the regular middle-aged woman, but another Asian woman of about the same age as Dr Lee but considerably more curvaceous. He wondered whether they might not be sisters but never got to find out. He was walking towards the bed following his dentist's instruction when he woke up.

When he was finally called into her surgery, Dr Lee greeted him as usual, although she was (for the first time he could remember) wearing neither mask nor visor. She was even more lovely than he had imagined. Embarrassingly he felt that familiar stirring in his loins, which he tried to deal with by turning to the corner where the hygienist typically stood. He must have let out a noise of some kind, because Dr Lee asked him if he was all right. Standing there was not the frumpy woman but a much younger Asian woman, who Dr Lee introduced as Siu Yee, or something like that. She smiled at Hunter, doing nothing for his heartrate nor for the swelling in his trousers, which he was afraid would continue to grow and become very obvious unless he was able to do something about it.

Sensing his discomfort, Dr Lee asked him if he was okay with the temporary hygienist, who had stepped in just this morning after Maggie (that was her name) had called in sick with the flu the previous evening. Hunter swallowed deeply and said that it was absolutely fine. He respected her people for their work attitude and dedication. Dr Lee smiled and told Hunter that in fact Siu Yee was originally from northern China (he didn't catch the name of the place but it sounded quite exotic) while she had been born and bred in England of Hong Kong parents.

Hunter took the correction in good part but part of him felt upset that Dr Lee must think he was a typical insular Englishman. He wanted to tell that he was from Australia but decided he'd done enough damage for one day and lay down and waited for the dentist to perform her preliminary check-up. The prognosis wasn't very positive: Hunter would get his teeth cleaned today, then two fillings done the next visit and after that there would be a minimum of two weeks' work preparing and fitting a cap on his cracked tooth.

As usual, after the cleaning had been done with that drill-like machine, Dr Lee told Hunter how to brush his teeth properly, and instructed him to use an interdental brush and also dental floss. He wondered how many other patients got this lecture. He seemed to get it every time he went to the dentist, which was why he only went once a year these days, since Mia had passed away.

Hunter hadn't bothered to ask Hayley for the names of everyone who was coming to the barbecue on Saturday, just the numbers. He was a bit surprised when she said there would be 25 to 30 people there, but it wasn't a problem: the garden was big, the weather had been pretty good and was set fair for the weekend and he'd cooked for larger numbers, most memorably when he and Mia had celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary. But it was nothing like the surprise he got when among the guests at the barbecue he saw Dr Lee!

His first impulse was to look around for Siu Yee, but she didn't seem to have been invited. His second impulse was to check in the most casual way possible if she had brought any S.O. with her. She didn't seem to have, but then he couldn't be sure, since he had his head down looking after the steaks, the chops, the sausages and the shrimps for much of the time. He wasn't without company, though, as Briony had walked over to say hi almost as soon as she arrived, with a muscle-bound white man of around 30 in tow. The beefcake was called Gary and Hunter thought the name suited him. Whatever else he achieved in his life he wouldn't be appearing on QI or Countdown. He greeted Hunter very cordially, so obviously didn't consider the older man a threat. Hunter didn't know how to take this: on the one hand it made life much simpler for him but on the other it made him feel as if he had one foot in the grave.

30

After a while, Hayley came over to the barbecue station to introduce some people that her father didn't know. Three (two women and a man) were from the clothes company she worked for, while two other women (who appeared to be an item - one had short spiky hair with nose rings, while the other had long hair and nothing out of the ordinary in the jewellery department) were involved in some way with the modelling that Hayley did.

The spiky-haired one was actually a lot of fun and stayed on to keep Hunter company after the others had moved on. Her name was Jeanie and she was a fashion photographer. Hunter joked that she should take some shots of him and Jeanie replied that she had actually stuck around to talk with him about a possible photo shoot that was coming up where they were looking for a 'more mature' man for the online catalogue of a top-end fashion company.

'Strewth! Does that mean I'd have to dress up in tweed jackets and all that sort of thing?' said Hunter.

'It's actually quite possible,' said Jeanie. 'We'll be shooting items for their autumn catalogue so there will be thicker materials for sure.'

'You can get my number from Hayley and get in touch when everything is fixed. That is, if you still think I'll be right for the job.'

'I'm sure you will be satisfactory,' said Jeanie, with a glint in her eye, causing Hunter to rethink his initial evaluation of her.

Perhaps half an hour later, when much of the food had been done, Dwayne, the boyfriend of one of Hayley's secondary school friends, came over to relieve Hunter, ceremonially donning the apron that he had been wearing. Hunter took the opportunity to go indoors via the back door to clean up and - now that Dr Lee had arrived - to change out of his smoky clothes. He chose the gear he thought he looked youngest in: a light pink heavyweight T-shirt and a pair of dusty olive chinos, with a pair of more or less matching canvas espadrilles.

He grabbed a couple of bottles of pale ale from the fridge and went in search of the good doctor. He found her near the apple tree at the bottom of the garden talking to Julia of all people. Maybe she was her dentist too, he thought. As if he had planned it this way all along, he passed the beers to the girls and said he'd be back in a minute with one for himself. He realised as he moved back to the house that he'd only looked at Julia while he was addressing them.

'God! Dr Lee must think I've got a schoolboy crush on her.'

In a way, of course, he had.

When he got back ten minutes later (a couple of groups had engaged him in a bit of a chat), he found Dr Lee on her own. His reaction was to turn bright red.

'So Julia is another patient of yours,' he said, trying to be as gay as possible. 'I hope she flosses every day!'

'Actually, I was at school with her sister.'

'Her older sister,' she added, seeing the look of shock-cum-disappointment appear on Hunter's face.

'So you don't actually do her teeth?' said Hunter, sounding a bit like Basil Fawlty trying to work out how many doctors he was welcoming to the hotel.

'No,' she replied, 'some people have the audacity to go elsewhere.'

'You're looking very, er -'

'Different without my surgical paraphernalia,' Dr Lee finished the sentence for him.

'Well, yes, that of course. But what I meant, Dr Lee, was that you're looking very nice in that dress.'

It was a lemon wrap dress with a hemline a couple of inches above the knee, worn with red sandals with a low heel, which Hunter thought was quite daring and suggested an independent if not wild side to her character.

'Thank you, but please call me Jade. And you're looking very smart yourself, Mr Jarvis.'

'I think she noticed I changed,' thought Hunter.

And to her, he said, 'Please, Hunter. Mr Jarvis makes me sound so old.'

There followed an awkward silence while Hunter wondered why Hayley had invited their dentist to the barbecue. Well, obviously she hadn't come with someone else and he couldn't believe she was the gate-crashing type. Hayley and he talked about Dr Lee from time to time but only in her professional capacity and as far as he knew she wasn't in Hayley's circle of friends. In the end, it was Jade who came to Hunter's rescue.

'You're wondering why I'm here, aren't you?'

'Oh, no, not at all. Hayley didn't give me the names of everyone she invited - just the numbers, so I'd know how much to cook and all that sort of thing.'

'She wanted us to meet outside the surgery setting. That doesn't frighten you, does it?'

'Oh, gracious, no! I'm so happy you are here. I've been a great admirer of your eyes for several years now.'

'You haven't seen me in my glasses yet. Not so becoming.'

'I think you should let me be the judge of that. You're all out of food. Let me get you some more.'

'Let's wander over together. I'm so hungry I could eat a dog!'

'A dog!' cried Hunter. 'Ah, I see, you're having a little joke at my expense.'

'Actually, it's Koreans who are really keen on eating dog, although it's eaten in China too.'

'But you Japanese think they're too cute to eat, I suppose?'

'Touché!' said Jade, helping herself to some sausages and potato salad.

'This is very good,' she said. 'Lots of bacon. Can never go wrong with bacon. Pity about the celery, though.'

'You don't like celery? Okay, I'll remember that for next time.'

'I'm just teasing. It's very good, like I said. You needn't change your recipe next time. Not for me anyway.'

Hunter was so enchanted with Jade that he forgot to top up his plate and wandered back to their spot with an empty plate. When Jade teased him about it, he shrugged it off and asked her if she'd like another pale ale or something else. When she said the pale ale was excellent, she went up several notches in his estimation. He leant across and whispered in her ear (quite unnecessarily, as no one was in the immediate vicinity) that these were part of his personal supply, which he kept in the fridge. He hadn't offered them to the riffraff at the barbecue. They could make do with lager.

She laughed easily and watched him walk off, stopping here and there to talk with members of the exclusively young crowd - predominantly, she noticed, with the females. She'd heard a bit about his trip to Santorini from Julia, who seemed a little unhappy about something. Jade imagined that she'd seen him flirting with an older woman at the pool and had been jealous. How she would have felt if she knew the truth about his trysts is anyone's guess.

Jade had been amused more than anything when Hayley tried to set her up with her father, what with the age difference and all, but now that she was spending some time in his company she was changing her tune rather. She hadn't had a regular boyfriend for a couple of years now (partly from pressure of work, partly from one disappointing experience too many with men) but now, having just turned 30, she felt ready to dip her toes into the water again. There was only so much a vibrator could do for a girl!

When Hunter came back with the drinks, he was accompanied by Hayley, who kissed Jade on each cheek and complimented her on her dress. Her father made all the right noises and seemed very comfortable in his dentist's presence. After a while, Hayley went off to talk to the people she hadn't yet spent time with and Hunter, aware that he was monopolising Jade, said not to stop herself from mingling on his behalf. She touched his arm in response and said she enjoyed talking to him and wasn't a big one for small talk. Hunter asked her if she would like a garden chair and when she said yes disappeared round a bush briefly before reappearing with two stacked white plastic seats.

Buoyed by the way things were going, Hunter decided to be bold. Faint heart and fair lady, after all, he thought.

'You spoke earlier about a next time,' he started.

'I think I was talking about potato salads,' she replied.

'Indeed, but how about we keep the potato salad for the next, next time?'

'Meaning?'

'Meaning, if you can bear to deny yourself the pleasure of the potato salad, perhaps you might like to join me for dinner at a local restaurant one day soon. Perhaps next Friday?'

'Next Friday?' she repeated, secretly hoping he might say tomorrow.

'Well, if that's not convenient, we can always make it another day.'

'No, that suits me fine.'

'I'll call you when I have made the reservation. You don't mind travelling a bit?'

'Not at all. But I'd better give you my number. Otherwise you'll have to make the arrangements through my receptionist, and she has a big network and is not shy of informing them of information she thinks they will find interesting.'

'Especially personal information about her boss?'

'Especially personal information about her boss.'

They sat there side by side swigging their beers and watching the other people as if they were sitting on the terrace of a Parisian café, where the patrons always face the street.

'I think I'm seeing you on Thursday,' said Jade, who had been waiting to see if Hunter would bring up his next appointment.

'Yes,' said Hunter simply - clearly not wanting to have been the first person to mention it. 'It's the first time in my life that I've really looked forward to going to the dentist.'

'So you didn't enjoy coming to see me the last time, and all the times before?' said Jade, laying it on a bit thick.

'Oh, no, I did. Of course I did. Often it was the highlight of my week. It's just that it'll be different this time somehow.'

'Yes, I suppose it will. I used to look forward to seeing you too. Even when you were married. Does that shock you?'

'Why should it? When I went with Mia it didn't stop me, um -'

'Looking forward to it?

'A bit more than that. Fantasising about you sometimes. No, pretty much every time before I went. Mia knew about it. She said you were not the best looking dentist in England; you were the only good looking dentist in England!'

'What did you fantasise about?'

'Oh, my - that would be telling. Okay, I'll give you one recurrent one. When you leant across me and some part of your body kind of touched me through your voluminous surgical gown, I imagined it was your breast. I would capture your nipple between my teeth and you would tell me to stop.'

'So I was angry with you?'

'No, you were just teasing me - as you like to do in real life. I seem to have got that bit about you right.'

'I used to think your wife was very lucky. Then, when she got sick, I felt bad, as if I had wished it upon her. But I never did. Never for one minute.'

It seemed like she might cry. Hunter took her hand in his, ignoring any prying eyes that might be focused on them.

'I know,' he said. 'Don't feel bad about it. I feel touched you thought about me like that. But Mia knew that you did. She always knew things like that. I think she wanted me to be with someone like you when she knew she was going.'

Then seeing how serious Jade suddenly looked, he added, 'I'm sorry - I didn't mean to put you under pressure or anything. Maybe I shouldn't have said that.'

'Let me get your teeth sorted out first!' Jade joked, pleased that they had had this conversation, awkward as it might have been.

31

Hunter too felt the relief of a laugh shared together. He wondered if he'd gone too far, but then thought 'Life's too short.' If he had learned anything from Mia's early death, it had most certainly been that. Carpe diem, as some wise Roman had said. Their conversation was anyway interrupted by the arrival of Hayley, who wanted her father to relieve one of her friends on the barbecue. A bunch of latecomers had just arrived and they needed to get some more meat going. There were also a lot of vegetables left to cook: zucchini, portobello mushrooms, asparagus, sweet peppers, aubergines and red onions.

The first person to come up to the grill as he was cooking was Briony. She lost no time in ribbing him about Jade.

'I see you've made another conquest,' she said with a smile - whether it was genuine or not Hunter couldn't quite make up his mind.

Hunter laughed it off, a bit like Cary Grant in North by Northwest when Eva Marie Saint tells him he has a handsome face. What Briony didn't tell him (and never would) was that a rumour had followed Jade to town that she was bisexual. Julia it was who had told Briony and she had heard it from an old school friend who had moved to the place where Jade was brought up. Briony didn't know her personally, so couldn't comment, but she wondered anyway whether it would be a bar to a possible relationship with Hunter or a bonus for it. Certainly, Hunter had shown little difficulty in adjusting to the more fluid dynamics of modern relationships when in Santorini.

'Have you been back to work since we got back?' asked Hunter, becoming tumid when he remembered the times he had had with this dusky beauty.

'No, I took the rest of the week off. Just as well, too, given how knackered I felt by the end of the week.'

'Yes, I slept very well when I got back to my own bed.'

'With no one else in it!' joked Briony.

'Quite,' said Hunter, putting one hand in his trouser pocket to try and make his erection less prominent.

'Only one way to deal with that,' said Briony. 'How about you take me up to that bed of yours and I look after it.'

'Too much to do here, I'm afraid, Briony,' said Hunter, maintaining his equilibrium with some difficulty.

'And one dental surgeon you don't want to be pissing off, especially when she's watching your every move.'

'One could only wish!' said Hunter breezily, almost successful in deflecting attention away from his interest in Jade.