Chapter 16
“What’s a Long Island iced tea?”
“Alcohol, choose again” William said, without looking up.
“Oh…that citrus crush we had last night was lovely”
“They do something similar…there, look, under ‘non-alcoholic cocktails’, bit pricey though”
“A blend of Florida Orange, Pink Grapefruit, lemon and lime juice, made sparkling with soda water if required. $10 per jug, still, $12 sparkling – Geez, that much bought you half a cow last night!” She then continued…
“Jeez, $20 for a Burrito!”
“Uh huh…It’s $24 for lasagne and salad…shall we go out instead?”
“Yeah…come on, it’s a rip off here!” They left the Café Bar, and went out into the night. They had a walk around, found a nice looking little Chinese restaurant in a side street that was quite full of studenty looking types. William looked at the menu.
“Hmm, seems very reasonable, shall we?”
“Ooh yeah…I can hear the chicken with ginger and green onions calling me already!” Buffy pushed open the door. An elderly Oriental bowed and showed them a table for two.
“So…you want chicken with Ginger and green onion?”
“Hmm…don’t know now, it all looks nice…ooh, what’s that?” Buffy asked a passing waiter carrying a sizzling platter. He deposited the food in front of some customers then came back to their table.
“That was sizzling Szechwan beef, miss” he bowed and went about his job.
“How about if we have the set meal, for two, the second one?” William said.
“Let me see…Chicken with straw mushrooms and onions, beef in black bean sauce, barbecue ribs (4) sweet and sour king prawn, Egg fried or plain rice, prawn crackers…yeah, ok, great, more choice that way” Buffy nodded. William called a waiter to take their order.
“Which rice?”
“Egg fried” Buffy said.
“Set meal no. 2, with egg fried rice and a pot of jasmine tea for two, please” William said. The waiter wrote this down, bowed and took the menus.
“Oh, I forgot I like that! It’s nice here, not too pricey either, seems popular with the students”
They enjoyed their meal, it came to $20, including tip. Their waiter was young, a student himself. He thanked them and said to come again.
“We will…oh” They opened the door, it was pouring down, and neither of them had bought a coat as they’d thought that they were going to eat in the hotel, and hadn’t bothered to go upstairs to fetch one.
“You sit, wait ‘til the rain stops”
“Thankyou” They sat back down where people waited for the take out.
“Do you go to Harvard?”
“I will be, in September” William said.
“And you?”
“Me, gods no, Will is the brains of the family” Buffy said
“Oh, she not your girlfriend?”
“My sister”
“Very pretty!” Buffy blushed, and chided softly,
“Shut up!” William just grinned.
“I was adopted by her family when I was 5 years old, she fell in love with me at first sight!” William said grinning.
“And she still does, as you love her…you can see it!” The young Chinese man said.
“So, what you study?”
“Computing…languages, AI”
“Me too! You in Bateman College?”
“I will be, yes!” William said, nodding.
“This is good, I make friend before college! Oh sorry…I am Benny Yip” he wiped his hand on his apron, and offered it to William. He shook it and smiled.
“William Campbell-Summers, and this is my sister, Buffy Summers” Benny shook Buffy’s hand too.
“Pleased to meet you!”
“You enjoy meal here?” Benny asked
“Yeah, it was great…lovely ribs, got a thing for them lately!” William said.
Benny nodded.
“My uncles restaurant…”
“Where you from?”
“Sunnydale, in California, but originally I’m from London, England”
“I’ve been to London! – Great city!”
“Yes…haven’t been back now for thirteen years, I moved to Cali when my parents were killed in a car accident. Might take Buffy next year if she wants to go”
“Oh yes!” Buffy nodded enthusiastically. Benny smiled. A couple came in, and Benny said,
“I better go”
“Sure, we understand, nice meeting you”
“And you, see you soon, I hope!”
“You will”
“He seemed nice”
“Yes…stopped raining do you think?” Buffy stood up, looked out into the street.
“Just a light drizzle now, come on, it’s not far” William stood.
“Night then Benny, thanks”
“Night Buffy, night William” they trotted back to the hotel, just in time too, the heavens opened, and a huge streak of lightening lit the sky as bright as day for a fraction of a second, then the loud boom of the thunder seemed to make the walls vibrate.
They went straight up to their room. William knew Buffy didn’t like thunderstorms, when she was young; she used to go flying into William’s bed and hide under the covers.
She went into the bathroom and took off her makeup, the lights suddenly dipped and a huge clap of thunder rent the air. She quickly came out into the main room; she looked a little scared. William went into the bathroom, came out after just going to the loo and washing his hands. Buffy was sitting on her bed.
The lights dipped again, and another clash of thunder. William got into his bed and lay on his side. He reached to switch the lights off, and suddenly there was a loud almost explosion like boom of thunder, and everything went black, all the lights went out, the TV, everything.
“Oh gods!” Buffy said. Outside the lightning flashed, and a commotion could be heard outside in the lobby.
“It’s ok, love…” William got out of bed, went to the door and unlocked it. There was a few people milling about in their pyjamas, the fire exit lights had come on, and somebody was trapped in the lift.
“Um…don’t panic…please everyone, there’s no cause for alarm…” One of the staff said, slightly out of breath from running up the stairs.
“Please try and keep calm…lightening has struck the main electricity station…there is no…(cue huge clap of thunder) ………alarm, please, everybody, return to your rooms, I repeat, lightening has struck the main electricity station, there is no cause for alarm” Somebody said that there was someone trapped in the lift, and the staff said that they had a ‘hand cranking facility so not to worry.
William shut the door. Buffy was standing right next to him.
“Did you hear that?”
“Um, uh huh” William took his robe off and got back into bed. He looked across at Buffy; her face illuminated for the briefest second, she looked scared.
“Buffy”
“Yes?” William said nothing, but lifted the covers, and Buffy gratefully went across and slipped in next to him. Another huge clap of thunder and Buffy sort of shrank in a little closer.
“Will”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks”
“Well, promised to look after you, didn’t I?”
“Yeah”
There was a lot of noise outside in the lobby, somebody shouting ‘help’ to get out of the lift.
Meanwhile, the mother of all storms raged outside.
“Night Will…love you lots and always”
William squeezed her arm gently.
“Night Buffy…I’ll always love you, loads and loads” He said sleepily, and then he turned over, so his back was to her.
He thought it best, there wasn’t a lot of room it being a single bed, and he didn’t want to embarrass himself in the night by waking up with a hard on.
Buffy smiled at what he’d said, and what he’d said earlier, and it was true, it HAD been love at first sight for her, she just knew, even at the tender age of nearly five, she knew she’d always love him.
She too turned over and cuddled his back. She woke at about five thirty, looked at the clock. She got out of bed, went to the bathroom. It was quiet, she ventured over to the window to look out.
Dawn was breaking, and the sky was spectacular, all pinks, purples and oranges, it looked so vivid as to be un-natural.
She turned and went to get back into bed, then thought she’d better go in her own, as the storm was over.
She got into her own bed, shivered at the cold sheets, but soon fell back to sleep. William woke went to turn over, then remembered, just turned his head, saw she was back in her own bed. He lay on his back, thinking.
He could think of a hundred guys who would have loved to have been in his position last night, in bed with Buffy. He just wished with all his heart that things were different. At eight, he got up, tried to put the kettle on, but it didn’t work.
“Oh, terrific!” he muttered quietly to himself, flicking the useless light switch. Seems like the power was still off.
“Power still off?” Buffy asked yawning, propping herself up on one elbow. He came and sat on her bed.
“Yeah, that means, no hot water for tea, no hot water for a shower, and more than likely, no hot breakfast, either!”
“Rats, I was looking forward to my brekkie…I’m always ravenous after a Chinese!”
“Just have to stick with cereal I suppose”
“Or a continental, those croissant thingies or a bread roll”
“If they’ve been able to bake, that is”
“Oh, gods, didn’t think of that…still, it was some storm last night, wasn’t it” Buffy lay back down.
“Sure…hurray!” The lights, TV and clock radio all came on. William stood, turned the lights off, and switched the kettle on. Everything suddenly went off again, and you could hear a loud ‘oh’ from outside in the lobby.
A few seconds later, the TV came on again, and this time it stayed on. William made tea, sat on Buffy’s bed, passed her a mug.
“Thanks for last night, I know I shouldn’t be scared at my age, but…” Buffy looked at William, thinking how many girls would have gladly swapped places with her last night!
“It was rough, worst storm I’ve ever heard, anyway”
“You slept through it!”
“What time did it end?”
Buffy shrugged. Don’t know, I went to the bathroom about half five, it was all quiet then. Thought I’d better get in my own bed…it was cold!” William smiled.
“I woke about quarter past six…I was thinking…” he smiled
“What?” Buffy asked, putting her mug down on the night stand.
“I was thinking there was a hundred blokes who would have gladly swapped places with me last night!”
“Oh yeah? Funnily enough, I was thinking the same about you, there was hundreds, no, thousands of girls who would have swapped with me!” William didn’t smile; he just looked down at the carpet. He finished his tea and stood up.
“Will?”
“Hmm?”
“I haven’t……… upset you, have I, I meant that thousands of girls would be jealous of me being with you”
“I know what you meant,” he said quietly, nodding briefly. He wanted to say how nobody could hold a candle to her, how he wanted her so much…but she was his sister…well, in the eyes of the law she was.
And her mom and dad were his mom and dad…well, in the eyes of the law…he wanted to shout sod the law…
“Shall we go to breakfast?”
Buffy nodded, she knew something was wrong…
Ten minutes later, they went downstairs. The kitchens must have had gas cookers, as there seemed to be a full compliment as regards breakfast items, all except fresh bread rolls, but there was plenty of toast available, so they had that instead.
“What times our first viewing?”
“10 o’clock, Place called Kennedy Heights, little way out though, we’ve got to get a bus.”
“And then?”
“Well, I’ve given us two and a half hours, next appointment is 12.30, then 1.30, but they’re roughly ten minutes away from each other”
Buffy looked at William. The agent beamed at them, leading them in off the miniscule hall. So tiny, that there wasn’t enough room for the three of them!
“And this is the…”
“Broom cupboard?” Buffy ventured
“Second bedroom! – Compact…um, neat…and you also have an inter-connecting door to the other bedroom”
And here we have the bathroom, again, compact…I shall wait in the car for you, you can get a better feel for the place” She bolted out.
“You can’t call this a bathroom, there’s no bath!” There was a small shower cubical, a hand basin and WC, and about a foot square of floor space in between.
“Now I know what a sardine feels like!” William said.
“I swear the Barbie House I’ve got at home is bigger!” Buffy said, then added,
“How much are they asking?”
“Um…hold on…$550 a month” William said, looking at the info sheet.
“For a shoebox? Geez they’re kidding!”
“It’s the location…come on, let’s see if we can bum a lift back into town”
The agent did indeed drop them back in town. It was only ten to eleven.
“Shall we go that way for a change, we haven’t been down there, yet?” William pointed south of the hotel.
“Ok” Buffy agreed. They walked and found some more shops; a music shop, on three levels, it sold instruments too. Next-door was a bookshop, a big notice in the window stated that it bought and sold second-hand college books.
“Hmm, that’s useful to know” William said.
“Oh, look” Buffy said.
“What?”
“It’s thingy…Benny”
“Oh yes!” Benny looked up, saw them through the shop window, he grinned and waved. They decided to wait for him, as he was next to be served.
“Yum, I smell doughnuts,” Buffy said, as they leant on the wall, waiting for Benny to come out.
“There’s a bakery on the end, oh see, it’s a coffee shop too”
“We could grab a cup before our next appointment” Buffy said. Benny came out of the shop, carrying three books.
“Hi!”
“Hello Benny!”
“Bad storm last night, kitchen got flooded!”
“Oh dear…will you be able to open today?”
“Oh yes! All cleaned up now!”
“We were in darkness, Electricity station got hit”
“Ah, yes, we must be another station, we were ok for light.”
“We were just going for a coffee before we and look at the next shoebox, want to come, my treat?” Buffy asked
“I’m sorry, shoebox?” Benny looked puzzled. Until they explained.
“Oh…you not live on campus then”
“No, well, Buffy is going to live with me, so…” William explained. Benny looked thoughtful.
“Will you come – coffee?” Buffy asked. Benny looked at his watch.
“Sure, thankyou, I have half an hour before my shift starts” All three crossed the road and went into the Viennese Coffee House and Bakery.
They made their order, Benny declining a cake.
“I can see me getting sooooooooooooooo fat if I live here!” Buffy said eyeing up a cream and chocolate confection.
“You see Bookshop I was in?” Benny asked. Both William and Buffy nodded.
“It owned by friend of my uncle. Same as this place. During second world war, as they were…um, foreign…aliens, they had to go and sign every week proving their allegiance to the American Government, they all become friends.
There’s Franz, his father is friend of my uncle…Hello Franz”
“Hello Benny! – These your friends?” Benny introduced them. Franz eyes lingered over Buffy.
“So, you’re going to the university?” Franz sat down at their table, throwing an oven cloth over his shoulder.
“Not me, thick as a brick me…my brother is the brainy one”
“You’re not thick!” William said. Buffy ate her cake.
“You like” Franz asked.
“Mmm…I’ll have to be careful, I’ll get fat!”
“So, you have job?”
“Looking, trying to find somewhere to live first” Buffy said.
“I was just going to tell them about the bookshop” Benny said. Franz nodded. William sat forward, stirred his coffee.
“Bookshop?”
“Yes, Carlo doesn’t live above there anymore, I’m sure if we asked him…can’t hurt, I know he not advertise yet”
“You ever served in a shop?” Franz asked Buffy
“Um, I’ve helped in my mother’s gallery, sold pictures and postcards and that” Buffy said.
“Have you ever been a waitress?” Buffy shook her head.
“Would you learn?”
“Why?”
“I would give you job” Franz said. Buffy sat up straight, brows high, smiling.
“You would?” everyone smiled. Buffy grinned and then leaned forward
“Any friend of Benny’s is a friend of mine. You could serve in the bakery side…say 9 o’clock until 11.30, then help serve in here during lunchtimes, then from 2-4.00 back in shop…say, Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday? I close on Wednesday’s, I just clean, and my two nieces help on
Saturdays and Sundays, the coffee shop only on Sundays, I don’t bake”
“Oh, wow! That would be great!”
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen, but I’m eighteen next month”
“Ok, 28 hours a week, at say, $7 an hour…
“Make it $7.50 an hour, and that’s $210 before tax a week!” Benny said.
Buffy would have been happy at $7! Franz smiled.
“You drive hard bargain. Ok, $7.50, but I wouldn’t need you till school starts”
“That’s brilliant –coz I’m not available till then!” Buffy was beaming. She said “Thankyou Benny!” And gave him a kiss on his cheek.
“Oh! Very nice!” Everyone laughed.
“All we have to do now, is to persuade Carlo…”
“Go see him, tell him I give you job, tell him to come and chat with me, I have good bottle of wine!”
“I better go…” Benny finished his coffee.
“You working tonight Benny?” William asked.
“Yes, night off on Wednesday”
“We’ll come see you later, arrange something” Benny nodded and waved goodbye. A very elderly lady called out to Franz from behind the counter.
“Franz…Franz!”
“Excuse me, that’s the crusty rolls cooked, that’s my mother, she is at last retiring at 82, her eyes are getting worse. Say bye before you go”
“We will” Franz went.
“Clever old you!” William squeezed her arm.
“Clever old Benny, you mean! And it would be brilliant if we could persuade this Carlo bloke! It would be so close and handy for both of us!” William’s mobile rang. It was the agent who had shown him the last place, asking if they wanted any more addresses of property.
“Tell her no!” Buffy said.
“Hold on…we better not burn our bridges…William whispered to Buffy, then said, We’ll get back to you either this afternoon or tomorrow and let you know, thankyou, bye”
He looked at his watch. His phone rang again, it was a man called Simon Charles, he was the agent due to show them the place at 12.30, but he was running late.
“Can we make it 1.30pm?”
“Sorry, looking at a place in Woodside then”
“Can we reschedule, I’m very sorry about this”
“Sure, don’t worry, anytime after mid-day tomorrow” William said.
“Great, I’ll get back to you, I need my appointment book and that’s back at the office. I do apologise”
“No problem, thanks for letting us know, bye” William flipped his phone off.
“Next one’s cancelled, until tomorrow”
“Could be a good omen!”’
“About?”
“This Carlo’s place…let’s go see him, now” Buffy said.
“You think?” William said, then looked up as Franz came back to them.
“I phoned Carlo, he said can you go now?”
“Yes!” William and Buffy beamed.
Franz nodded, and said,
“Good, see you soon!”
“Ok, um, can I have the bill?” William took his wallet out.
“S’on the house, bye!” Franz raised his hand in a wave, without turning round.
“Cheers, bye”
They both got outside.
“This is great!” They went to the bookshop. A youngish man say late twenties, early thirties, with sandy hair and glasses smiled at them.
“Hi, we’re William and Buffy, I believe you’ve just spoken to Franz a the coffee shop?”
“Yup …s’cuse me, I’ll just serve this chap…” the man said. He had a strong London accent. They both nodded and stood to one side.
When he’d served the customer, he followed him to the door, locked it behind him, and put a ‘back in 10 minutes’ notice on the door.
“Right, I believe Franz just gave you a job”
“Yes, with Benny’s help!” Buffy said.
“Ah, Benny Yip, yes, he was here earlier”
“We saw him…are you from London?”
“Yes, how can you tell?”
“I am too, originally” William went on to tell him the whole story.
“It was my grandfather’s shop originally, my father ran it briefly, but wanted to go to London, I came here when I was nine, keep meaning to go back! – So…it’s not very tidy at the moment, but I’m sure we can tidy it up…if you’d like to come this way, I have only been moved out three weeks and hadn’t thought about advertising the place yet, thought I’d do it nearer term time, but, well...”
They followed him to the back of the shop, walked up one flight of steps, to which there was a door at the top marked ‘private’.
Taking a bunch of keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the door and said,
“Come on through, there won’t be all the books up here if you want it, and any furniture you don’t like we can put in the loft………Right, this is the bathroom, I’ve got a bit of a thing about green, as you’ll see, but you can paint it if you want” Buffy and William looked round a large bathroom with a nice big bath, walk-in shower, hand basin and toilet. On the wall next to the bath was a mural to make it look like underwater, with a cave and fishes and a huge shark!”
“Wow! – Did you paint that?” Buffy asked, grinning.
“No, my sister, she lives in Australia now, she married a sheep farmer…ok, um this is the sitting room, as you can see, it’s the length of the shop, nearly 22 feet, it could easily be divided with screens or something…kitchen is a bit small, but, well, it’s cheap enough to eat out really, even on student grants.
The kitchen was about 8ft by 7tf, and had a sink unit, a cooker, a fridge and lots of cupboard space.
And a nice long work surface.
“Mind you, knowing Franz, he’ll be letting you bring home any left over cakes and pastries, stuff like that!”
“Gods, I’m going to get so fat if I’m not careful!” Buffy said smiling.
“And this is the bedroom…big enough for two beds, or I suppose you could put a sofa bed in the lounge part…still, that’s your business.
It was quite big, light, painted white, dark green carpet and pale green curtains. A huge double window looked out onto the street.
They suddenly heard somebody playing a saxophone.
“Oh, that’ll be somebody in the music shop, don’t worry.”
“Hey, I like, it’s great!”
“The only thing is, sometimes if the wind’s blowing this way, you can hear the noise of Franz’s bakery blowers, they come on at about 5 o’clock in the morning, he starts work at 4am, he does all the baking himself now, Erika, that’s his mother, has got too old, she’s about 85 I think!”
“She’s 82, he told us, her eyes are going, and that’s why I got the job, I think!”
“Ok, look, I’ll leave you to look round, take you’re time, oh, um, excuse me I must…” Carlo went into the kitchen and opened the fridge, took out a lunch box. Buffy could see the one shelf filled with medicine.
Carlo took out a bottle, and a plastic pack out of the draw, tore it open.
“I’m diabetic, have to take insulin…ok then I’ll leave you to it, like I say, no hurry…”
“Um, it’s great, really!” William said looking at Buffy, who was nodding in agreement.
“Er, how much?”
“Oh, golly…um…er…$450 a month?”
Carlo briefly saw William’s eyes go big; William was actually incredulous that was all he wanted, and furnished too!
“Um, no…er, $400, will that be ok?” Carlo looked uncertain at first, thought he’d asked too much.
“Wow, we’ll take it! – Won’t we?” Buffy asked her grinning brother.
“We sure will!”
“Great! Like I say, I’ll shift those books, and any furniture you want to bring, you’re quite welcome, oh, there’s a microwave for the kitchen, it’s back at my flat, mine broke so I took the one from here, but I’ve bought a new one now, and keep meaning to bring the other one back, and the washer/dryer is downstairs, it’s where I make a drink, at the back of the shop, I had one up here, but it leaked, and the water ran through the ceiling to downstairs and ruined some books, so I thought it better to have it downstairs” Buffy nodded.
“Brilliant, and the Microwave is about the limit of my cooking anyway!” Buffy said.
“So, you’ll be moving in for the new term?”
“Yes, 4th September, but I should imagine we’ll be here from mid August”
“Oh, this I didn’t show you…here, is another front door, you’re entrance straight from the street. Carlo pulled back a curtain in the hallway, took out his keys, opened it, there was a double flight of steps down to the street.
The entrance is just round the corner, saves you having to re-set all the shop alarms when it’s closed”
They both nodded and he relocked it, closed the curtain. Somebody was now playing an electric guitar in the music shop, and very good they were too.
“I’ll see you downstairs when you’re ready then”
“Ok, and thanks!” Carlo went downstairs. Buffy and William hugged, then they both did a little Snoopy dance of joy!
“Day one, got a job and a flat, not a shoebox!”
“Come on…” William pulled Buffy gently by the arm into the lounge again.
“I was thinking, we could live up to about………here” (He spread his arms out)
“And over in this corner, I could set up my computer, it’s got a double power-point and a phone point for the modem”
“Hey it’ll be great, we can bring that glass coffee table out of the garage at home, put it here, have the TV over there…”
“And the sofa across like this…”
“Yes! We could put one chair there…and the other… here, and have a nice bit of floor space!”
“ You now what would look good between the windows?” William said
“What?”
“That bookcase mom’s never liked”
“Hmm, could do, or…you could have it along the back wall over there, next to your computer desk, for all your books, and we could get another small table or a little unit and put flowers on it!”
“Great, this is great!” Buffy came up and cuddled William again.
“Oh, I’d better cancel those appointments”
“Shall we phone mom and dad – do you think they’ll make us come back early?”
“I shouldn’t think so…the hotel’s paid for, and it’ll take too long to get a refund!” William said.
*******************
“Ooh, think of all those cream cakes…will you be able to resist!” Joyce said, teasing.
“I’ve done nothing but eat since I got here, the breakfasts are so yummy…”
“And you’ve got a friend who’s got a Chinese restaurant!”
“Yes, and there’s this place in the park that sells THE most delicious real Italian ice cream, then there’s this place that does the most delicious barbecue…”
“Huh, when I’m allowed to eat it!” William called out.
“What was that?” Joyce asked. Buffy explained about the ice-cream in the park incident.
“You two, honestly!”
“Then this bloody dog came up, and pinched my cone, straight out of my hand!” Buffy said indignantly. She went onto tell her mom about the storm.
“Sounds as if it’s all happening”
“It’s great, we can’t wait for you to see it! We’ve got plans for that glass coffee table, and that bookcase you’ve never liked, they’ll both fit great into our new place. So, will you phone dad at work, tell him all our good news”
“I will, actually, you’ve just missed him…well, by about twenty minutes, he’s in a meeting this morning, I’ll phone him at lunchtime”
“I forget you’re behind us, time wise,” Buffy said.
“Phone his mobile and leave a message, he’ll phone you when it’s convenient for him”
“Hmm, I hate talking to machines!”
“Ok, we better go, phone you soon, bye, here’s Will”
“Bye honey.”
“Hi mom”
“Hi baby, clever old things aren’t you”
“We were lucky to meet Benny, he’s going to be in my study group, he’s doing the same as me. Oh, did Buffy tell you about the spider?”
“No, what happened?”
William explained.
“So, the next thing I know, the under manager or whoever is knocking on the door, thinking I’ve murdered her or something because of her scream!” Joyce laughed and said,
“Oh, poor you!”
“Luckily, the glass and paper were on the side, he believed me.”
“Poor William nothing, it was huge, size of a cat!” Buffy called out.
“A cat! Honestly mom, if it was an inch across, including the legs, it fitted under the glass enough to run around in! Mind you, it would have been cramped in that flat in Kennedy Heights though!”
“Ok baby, you look after each other”
“We will, bye mom, love you, love to dad”
“Bye William, love you my son, and I will”
**********************
“Have they, oh good – are they coming home?” Hank said, holding his mobile to his ear with a hunched up shoulder.
“No, they might as well stay and have some fun, I’ll tell you all about it when you get home”
“Well, they’re good kids, I should be home early, playing golf this afternoon with the MD”
“Don’t let him drag you in the bar, after”
“No, he won’t, he’s on a health kick, doctors orders or something, no booze, no big rich dinners, no fooling with the secretaries! So it’ll be a quick 18 holes, expect me about 4ish”
“Oh good, see you then, bye Hank”
“Bye love…oh, shall I bring a nice bottle of that Napa Valley white you like…”
“Hank Summers, are you trying to get me drunk so you can have your wicked way with me?” Joyce purred
“Yes!”
“Ok then!” She heard Hank chuckle as he put the phone down. Joyce thought she too could be wicked, and decided to be in bed waiting for him when he got home, in some sexy underwear she’d bought for her holidays really, but an early airing wouldn’t hurt…
“I fancy that beef thing I saw last night, sizzling…how do you say that?”
Buffy put her finger under the word, but without looking, William said,
“Szechwan”
Buffy smiled, pinched her nose and said with a strong nasal tone,
“Paging Mr. Know-It-All at table 5!” William just raised his brows and closed his eyes, smiling.
“Are you sure, coz Szechwan is usually hot, and I mean spice hot” William said, knowing her intolerance to anything too spicy.
“Oh, is it? – I could ask Benny”
“Yes Buffy?” Benny appeared as if by magic.
“This um this beef thingy, is it hot? – I mean spicy hot?”
“Yes, hot peppers, chilli, you know”
“Oh right…I don’t like chillies, we have a friend called Xander who made a chilli con carne once, told us it was mild, gods, you could have stripped paint with it! It took the roof of my mouth off, practically”
“Um…ok, besides chilli, anything else you don’t like?”
“Eat anything me!” William said
“Um, not over fond of pickles, but that’s not what you meant…you meant stuff on the menu…as long as it’s not yukky, like sea slug or aba, abby um, that ear thing, (abalone, William said) that’s it, or chickens feet, or deep fried pigs ears…we went to China Town in New York a couple of years back!”
“You’ve just mentioned all my uncles favourites, but he never cooks them here, he knows they wouldn’t sell…so, trust me, I get you good food”
“Ok, great”
“Shall we see if we can take him out tomorrow, it’s his night off?”
“Yeah, dad said to take Franz and Carlo out to a fancy dinner at the hotel and charge it to the room, so yeah” Five minutes later, Benny was back, skilfully balancing various dishes up his arm.
“Here you go, I know you’ve got a thing for ribs…and try these, they’re lovely”
Benny had put a large plate between them, with lots of tasty looking morsels on. They crunched on lightly battered king prawns, vegetable spring rolls, mini ribs, some nice mushroom things, and some little soft stuffed dumplings that had you licking your lips with delight!
“You like?”
“No, we LOVE! What are those?”
“Dim sum, those are little dumplings filled with minced pork and shrimp, with green onion and ginger, my favourite!”
“Hmm, and mine, they’re delish!” Buffy said.
“Ok, ready for main courses?”
They both nodded eagerly. Again Benny bought them lots of small containers between them. There was chicken with onions and ginger, chicken with pineapple, Peking duck, beef with mushrooms, char sui pork with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, sweet and sour pork balls, soft noodles, special fried rice and a big pot of Jasmine tea. After about twenty minutes, Buffy sat back.
“Gods I am SO stuffed, I’ve made such a pig of myself!”
“You have enough?”
“Gods Benny! Do you realise, I’m going to Miami next week, they’ll be thinking that a whale has beached itself as soon as I step on it!” She sat back, head tipped back, hands on her tummy.
“Don’t be silly, you work out, you must with your great figure”
“If she put as much effort into going to the gym as she did avoiding it, she’d be addicted. OW! She kicked me!” William bent and rubbed his shin, but he was smiling.
“Thankyou for that compliment Benny, now, would you please let us take you out tomorrow night, as a thankyou?”
“You don’t have to do that…but I’d like to go out, I could show you place where students go, like a club, you can dance, or play pool, or just sit and have a drink”
“Great, um will jeans do?”
“Oh yes, not posh night club, it’s called ‘Stoodybakers’, good fun”
“Great, what time?”
“Um, you come here, 8 o’clock”
“Ok…um we better be going, you’re getting busy, can we have the bill?” Somebody else bought the bill to them; and Buffy heard William say,
“He’s joking!”
“What, how much, we did have loads…bloody hell, $10!”
“I know…” William said, opening his wallet and taking two tens out, he went up to the counter and paid, and said
“Will you give the other to Benny please, and say bye for us?” The woman smiled and bowed and said goodnight. They got outside.
“Hmm, come on then, I don’t like the look of those clouds…” William said, looking at the dark grey clouds gathering on the horizon.
“No, I was going to suggest a walk, never mind…uh oh, come on, brisk trot I think!” huge drops began to fall. They were a little wet when they got to the hotel, but not too bad.
“Oh damn, I forgot to get mom to tape X Files for me…they’re about four episodes behind here” Buffy said as they came out of the lift.
“Never mind, I don’t know why…(he opened their room door) I never feel like watching TV when I’m away from home”
“I’m going for a shower, I’m wetter than I thought, and I don’t want to catch cold, I won’t be long, you must do the same”
“Ok, want a coffee?”
“Please” William filled the kettle. Buffy got undressed, her brother quickly leaving the bathroom, he didn’t need to see her naked again.
Five minutes later, she came out in just her towelling robe, and William went in.
“It was just on about that storm last night, 5,000 homes were without electricity for nearly 8 hours…more storms are predicted” Buffy said, pointing to the TV.
“Hey, seen this?” she pressed the remote, and a porn channel showed, Buffy was grinning, and then she looked shocked, turned her head to the side…what are they…I mean, how…?”
“There’s three of them,” William said, grinning. Suddenly, the screen went like snow, and a notice came up, it read, ‘To continue watching channels 63-68, please ring reception and ask for code 9, a charge of $20 per evening will be added to the cost of your room, channels 63-68 are available from 7pm until 5.30am.’
“Great isn’t it, get you all worked up and then making you pay extra for it!” Buffy said grinning.
“Not all worked up are you?” William vigorously rubbed his now washed hair with a towel.
“No!”
“You’ve gone all red!” William teased.
A huge streak of lightening flashed, followed a few seconds later by a loud rumble of thunder. William stood.
“Want a cup of tea before bed?”
“Please…careful though, you know, the electrics” Buffy put on her pyjamas, and got into bed. William made the tea, bought it over and sat on her bed, Buffy moved her legs up, hugging her knees to make more room for him.
“What shall we do tomorrow?”
“Have you got to go register at the college?” Buffy asked.
“Can’t. I found out, they’re closed for three weeks, so I’ll have to do it when we come in August”
“We’ve got to invite Carlo and Franz to dinner”
“Oh yes…I think I better go to see Franz, leave you in the bookshop”
“Why?”
“So you don’t get tempted by all the gooey goodies!”
“True! I’m going to live on salad the rest of the week!” Buffy said, sipping her tea.
“Can I quote you on that?” William grinned at her.
“See, I was right, I did need my Donna Karen after all!”
“Your what?”
“My cocktail dress, mom made me take it out of my case, I could have done with it for Friday!”
“Oh well, you can say I ………blimey, that was a big flash! Um, what was I saying, oh yeah, you can say I told you so to mom when we get home!” A huge loud rumble of thunder roared out.
“Sounds like a repeat performance of last night”
“Shall I turn the TV off?” Buffy pointed the remote control at the screen, and it went off. When they’d finished their tea, William stood, rinsed the mugs, left them to drain, and picked up the book he’d bought from the bookshop.
“Won’t disturb you if I have the light on to read a bit, will it?”
Buffy shook her head.
Doubt if I’ll sleep in this anyway!” William switched the main light off, and put the lamp on over his bed. He had his robe on, lay on top of the bedclothes, and began to read a book about early computing. Buffy lay down, putting her head under the covers.
She could hear people moving about in the lobby, and in the room next door. The storm raged on outside, Buffy tightly screwed herself up into the foetal position, hoping against hope that sleep would come.
She heard William switch the lamp out, but she didn’t emerge from under the covers. He went to whisper ‘night’ to her, but thought that with any luck, she might be already asleep. He went to turn and face the door, thus facing Buffy’s bed, but as the thunder and lightening seemed to be getting closer, he turned and faced the wall, in case she got in with him.
He didn’t have long to wait. The thunder got louder and the lightening more frequent, and each time Buffy thought that the hotel would collapse in a heap of rubble, trapping them all inside.
She wanted a pee, and quickly dived out of bed, went into the bathroom, instead of getting back into her own bed, she got in with William, cuddled up to his back.
She soon settled down. William woke, he was lying on his back, Buffy had her head on his shoulder, and he had a raging hard-on.
“Oh gods” he moaned. Buffy stirred slightly, put her arm around him.
“Erm…I must………sorry, need the bathroom” he gently moved her arm, trying his best not to disturb her, went and had a pee.
He stood in the bathroom doorway…what to do? It was a quarter past four, and the storm had virtually blown itself out, just the odd faint rumbling could be heard. He decided to get into her bed, and did so.
Buffy woke at twenty past six, briefly wondering where she was, and then she looked across to her bed. William had his back to her, fast asleep.
Buffy centred herself more in the bed, lying on her back. She wondered when he’d got up, and if he was annoyed with her, fed up of her keep coming to him like a frightened child…because that’s exactly how she was acting, as far as thunderstorms were concerned, she was five years old all over again.
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