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Chapter 16.
"What?"
""You just called me Jennifer!"
"How can I call you anything when I'm kissing you?"
"You did! How hopeless can you get?"
"Pretty hopeless, I suppose," I mumbled and sat up.
"Much as I find your wavy fair hair charming and desire for your strong hands to caress me all over, she shuddered, I can't cope with being called Jennifer while you are doing it."
"You could gag me," I suggested hopefully.
She paused, seeming to consider the suggestion, and my expectations rose. But she was only deciding what to throw at me and her conclusion was - everything so I was forced to retire rapidly under fire.
I wondered whether to grab the book on obsessive personalities that bounced off my chest but decided I'd had enough bad news for the day and went to bed.
Some things in life should be simple and sleeping is one of them. But it isn't. If you're sleeping with someone, you've got problems, if not, you've still got problems thinking about someone you want to be sleeping with. I had two problems that night. Gerda was close by and if I hadn't been so screwed up would have been available to warm my dreams. Jennifer was not close by and not available because somebody else was screwed up and therefore she was screwing everyone else ... but me.
None of this helped me to sleep. The drunks shouting outside didn't help either and they were falling all over the plants Smokey's keeps to make the street look a little more attractive when the bar is overflowing so we keep their custom even though they're not actually in Smokey's. Ron was not on the premises so I reckoned I had to do something.
"Oy," I yelled through the open window. "There are people trying to sleep in here."
A volley of poorly aimed plants splattered against the brickwork around me. Some of the soil went in my hair. There were three of them and the biggest looked a lot bigger than me so I closed the window and left them do their worst. It seemed a safer option from the plants point of view.
I trudged into the bathroom meaning to shower the soil out of my hair. The shower heater bore a new and very official looking sign stating the gas company during a routine inspection had condemned it for being dangerous. Eventually, I managed to brush most of the soil out of my hair into the bath. The thought had occurred to me that I could shave my head but I decided that having two bald guys chasing Jennifer might just push her over the edge. Or, even worse, perhaps she wouldn't be able to tell the difference between us.
By now, Gerda was out prowling, also unable to sleep. She'd wasn't throwing stuff at me just at the moment so we went down to the bar and she showed me some twirls she had been practicing to the sound of piped bar music. Then we danced together. It was good just to hold someone who wanted to hold me. I didn't say anything to her - at all. It was safer.
After a while, I noticed three sad faces pressed against the glass of the bar window. It was the drunks. I wondered what they thought they could see. Was it two young people rocking backwards and forwards in their dressing gowns or had they conjured up a story of passion and love. On the other hand maybe they were hoping to get lucky with a real floorshow?
I squeezed Gerda's hand and pointed with my eyes. She gave a puzzled look and then a look that said 'what the heck' as she saw them and we went back to shuffling around to the music.
Some time later they left, and then a long time later, still not talking, we went back upstairs. Gerda's room was first in the corridor.
She put her finger to my lips to say that I mustn't speak. She then put her finger in the air to signify 'one'. I looked puzzled then hopeful. She tilted back her face and gently pulled me down to her. It was one kiss that went on for a very long time and it was as if all the good things in life flooded into my mind all at once leaving me strangely content.
Still without a word, she opened her door - and closed it leaving me outside.
For the second time that night, I went to bed by myself but this time I didn't mind and I quickly fell asleep. Tomorrow was another day and I still suspected things would get worse before they got better. But tomorrow was tomorrow and another day.
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