When Ben felt love for the trippie Bailey – 01

I came clean or told her I’d met somebody, it was like a bolt of lightning. I don’t know where it came from. I told her exactly what happened. I went dizzy. The lady fell over and the man next to her held her up. And we met on the Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem on Friday morning.

That sort of thing doesn’t happen in real life, it only happens in Hollywood.

Nothing happened, I told her. I didn’t even know her name, where she came from or which company she worked for. I told Rosalie I loved her and I would not cheat on her. I would not see the Olde Trip girl again.

I told her everything including how the Olde Trip girl changed what she called the chap who was holding her up from fiancé to boyfriend almost like she was trying to distance herself from him.

I confided in Rosalie that what bothered me was that the Olde Trip girl said she’s not strong enough. What little time I had to think about it on the way home I wondered, amongst other things does that mean she’s not strong enough to go on, or not strong enough to stay as she was, or to carry on with her boyfriend.

I even gave her the note the Olde Trip girl gave me.

Rosalie looked at me, she had pity in her eyes. “That’s been worrying you since Friday?” She asked.

“No sweetheart, it was how to tell you what happened.”

She was crying, tears were pouring from her. Were they happy tears or sad tears, I took her hands leaned forward and kissed on the cheek. She stood up, wiped her face with the back of her hand, sniffed, smiled at me and went upstairs without saying a thing.

Now I was confused. When she came back down she’d repaired her makeup. She poured herself a large glass of wine and drank most of it. She got down on her knees in front of me and took my hands, she said to me. “Yes, my sweetheart, it does happen.

“It happened to me when I first saw you, I was getting the tour around the hangar seeing what you spanner monkeys do. I saw you, you looked at me and smiled. You had to be mine.”

“That sort of thing doesn’t happen, I don’t believe in love at first sight. Lust yes, but not love.”

“Oh, it does. I have to let you into a little secret, I saw you walking across the hangar floor, you smiled. I nearly fainted, I almost fell over. I decided there and then that you had to be mine. Even though I’d never spoken to you, I didn’t even know your name and didn’t know where you came from. But in that split second I knew that you were going to be mine. When you came and talked to me in the Coffee shop, I felt fate had given me an opportunity.

“But I had to let you fall in love with me, not make you fall in love with me. I had to be normal, do you know how hard that is?

“If I had gone out of my way to entice you, then it would have been a lie, and I couldn’t live a lie with the man I loved.

“If you didn’t love me, it would have hurt but I would have moved on.”

“So you did nothing special for me, anything out of the ordinary?”

“Oh, I’m not that strong either.” She said, “Yes, there were small things I did. I found out which beer you liked; what food you liked. I didn’t get it for you especially. I didn’t get stuff for you. I just made sure it was available wherever we went, if they didn’t have your beer we didn’t go there and when we became intimate, I learned quickly what you liked. In most cases.” She smiled at me. “You still can’t have my bum.” That was an in joke of ours, I didn’t want her bum.

I pulled her up into my lap and gave her a big hug, I did love her with all my heart. We had developed a partnership over the years. “Does this change anything?” I asked her.

“I don’t think so. You’ve been completely honest with me and now I can see why you’re distracted.”

She looked me in the eyes. “It must be a bit of a surprise, being married to a conniving bitch all these years?”

I smiled at her. “No, you’re not, you’re just a woman who fell in love.”

“What do you want to do about it?”

“Absolutely nothing, I love you, you love me. I know nothing about her, not even her name or where she comes from. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over. In fact, it never started. There was nothing to start.”

“It must have been a bit of a shock to you though?”

“Oh yes it was. Initially I was completely out of my depth, it took me a while. My biggest problem is I didn’t know how to tell you. That was why I was bothered, nothing happened, but how to tell you so you weren’t upset?”

“Well now you know my little secret there’s nothing for you to worry about. You’re honest and faithful. I do trust you, and it’s not so bad now I know why you were on cloud cuckoo land.

“I can understand her feelings. I feel sorry for her, and Darren, her boyfriend, former fiancé, he’s going to be hurt. But there is nothing we can do about it.”

It was about three months later when I started to get strange phone calls on my mobile. The phone would ring. As soon as I picked it up the other person would hang up. I told Rosalie and she told me that was the same, she was getting missing phone calls on the landline and then hanging up.

We had a caller id but when she phoned back nobody answered. I started making sure that the house was closed, the windows were shut, the shed, the workshop and the garages were closed and locked. I think people were trying to see if we were home and break in.

Then Rosalie changed things, not much, she started going out every other week of an evening with friends. I got worried, like a lot of men. If people change what they are used to without a good reason, we start to worry. It did cross my mind that she’s having an affair. But apart from the meals out there was no other change, I know I looked for any change. There were none.

She repeatedly showed me how much she loved me, both in and out of bed and on the sofa, kitchen table and the back garden. That was a bit risky. Was this guilty sex?

I will admit that once or twice I did follow her. On one occasion after she left I walked to the restaurant. She was there with a woman, I couldn’t see her face. She was facing away from me. But I could see her hands and they were obviously a woman’s hands. I did see there were no rings on the fingers of her left hand.

I did follow her again a few weeks later but she was sitting on her own, although there were two place settings. I couldn’t see there would be anyone else in there to attract her. They were with partners, were too young or groups of men that were too old. I waited outside for half an hour. Nobody turned up and I felt guilty. She was a bit late after that evening, she apologized and told me her friend ‘Lauren’ was late getting there and they had a lot to talk about.

It was a Wednesday when Rosalie told me to make sure I was home on time on Friday. She had a surprise for me. I must have looked worried because she came and gave me a big hug and said, “I love you sweetheart, don’t worry, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

That actually made it worse. I was worried all day Thursday; Rosalie could tell I was worried all evening. She took me to bed early and she made me forget for a while. She assured me there was nothing going to worry about.

Friday came around and I couldn’t park the car on the drive. There was another car there, one that I didn’t recognise. I had to park on the street. I walked up to the house but before I could open the door Rosalie opened it for me, she put her arms round me kissed me and again said. “Please don’t worry.”

She took my hand and led me into the living room and there was the girl from Nottingham. I looked at Rosalie. I was about to ask what the hell was going on. Rosalie put her arms around me and kissed me.

She looked at me. “Please, there is nothing to worry about.”

The girl from Nottingham stood up, Rosalie spoke up. “Ben, please meet Lauren.”

Lauren put her hand out. “Hello Ben, nice to meet you again.”

I staggered. Rosalie took hold of my arm and stopped me falling.

I didn’t know what to say or do.

Part 2 coming soon.