Winter Fires Ch. 03

When Marianne returned, Simon had stripped the top cover off. Marianne had located the washing basket (in the bathroom) and wordlessly took it from his arms. He grabbed another cover from his drawer and put it on, Marianne returning to help.

"Well, now, isn't this a picture? Normally I have to make your bed, Simon!"

Simon turned in shock to find his mother in the doorway, leaning against the frame, a smile on her face. "MUM!"

But his mother just looked at Marianne, smiling. "Hello, my ignorant son hasn't introduced us. I'm Jackie, his mother."

Marianne glanced at Simon, grinning at his discomfiture. "Hi Jackie, I'm Marianne. Um, I hope…"

"Oh, you're fine. It's lovely to see a girl with him, to be honest. I think you're the first one he's brought home. Unless he's sneaked some in that I haven't found out about. But I'm fairly sure I'd have noticed."

"MUM!"

"Oh, you would have done, I'm sure," Marianne returned, "if it wasn't the smell, or the noise, it would have been that sappy, satisfied I've-just-got-laid grin he has on his face. It'd be a dead giveaway."

"Marianne!"

But he was grinning, now. "You two are far too much for me. My feeble masculinity is going to wilt under the attack, so I'm just going to surrender and go make some tea. You both want some?"

The two ladies in his life both nodded. Simon left, leaving them to make fun of him on their own.

- - - - - - - - - -

"I can't believe you and my mother," Simon told Marianne as they walked to her friend's flat.

"Well you'd better believe it. She's all but issued a formal invitation; you're allowed – almost commanded – to have me stay over whenever you want. Though, of course, in practice that means whenever I want!"

Simon walked on in silence for a while. They came to the door of the flat, Marianne hunted for and eventually found the key in her handbag, and they went in. Marianne deposited the bag she was carrying in the kitchen, while Simon took their overnight toiletry bags into the bathroom. If Marianne noticed that Simon was brooding she didn't say anything.

He was in the bathroom looking at his reflection in the mirror when he dimly heard Marianne's voice saying, "I'm all set up in the kitchen, we can eat in an hour or so. It's just a casserole with some salad, nothing spec – what's wrong, Simon?"

The last was said as she rounded the doorway into the bathroom to find him just standing there.

"Simon?" she asked, again, this time with considerable concern.

"Ah, it's okay," he eventually answered, turning to face her, opening his arms to embrace the lovely brunette. "It's just what you said on the way here, and the way you and mum were talking. It's just… I felt like I was being taken for granted, you know?" Marianne began shaking her head, but he persisted, "You wouldn't like it if it was me taking you for granted."

She pulled back a little to look at him.

"Simon, I'm sorry. I guess we were taking you for granted, a bit. It's kind've assumed that you guys will always take an advantage of an offer like that – sure sex – but I guess that you're not always in the mood, either."

"No."

Marianne made a moue: on her it looked sweet and lovely, almost innocent.

Not quite innocent, though. Her eyes gave her away. She was in the mood for some loving, and meant to get it.

Marianne stepped back, put her hands behind her, arms straight down, tilted her head down slightly and with knees tucked together swayed slightly from side to side. She looked up at Simon through her long eyelashes.

"No, not now, or no, just sometimes? Because if it's okay, mister, I'd like some more…"

Simon rolled his eyes. "Witch! Spells such as that would've had you burnt at the stake three or four hundred years ago!" he said, then reached for her. Marianne playfully swayed out of the way, but he lunged again and caught her around the waist with one long arm.

"Gotcha!" he cried.

"Whaddya gonna do to me, mister?" Marianne asked in a quaking voice.

Simon grinned like a shark. "I'm going to have my wicked way with you, of course!"

Laughing, the two of them ran into the bedroom.