Free Aunt Margaret's Lover by Mavis Cheek Page A

we were off.
    Or rather she was off. From the nature of her monologue it would appear that Verity was being sensible. Since she had met him she had not worked, had hardly slept, had got bags under her eyes whose luggage capacity would have sufficed for a six-week jaunt to Sydney, and discovered that the true joys of sex required more than mechanical brilliance.
    'Snored instantly,' she said. 'Instantly!' I watched her re-sugar her cup and sip it without even noticing.
    'Best off without him, then,' I said, thinking mechanical brilliance wouldn't be bad.
    'You bet,' she said.
    'I've finished with Roger.'
    She put down her cup. ‘ No! Why?'
    'Dull,' I said.
    'Really?' she replied, absently sipping. 'I thought he rather suited you.'
    That she meant no malice by the remark, I understood, but nevertheless I had considerable pleasure in telling her about Mrs Mortimer and the legacy, my year away from work and the river of new life - leaving out the bit about the lover, of course. Friendship was restored by her warm and enthusiastic response.
    'Well, that's absolutely brilliant. Lovely! Just what you deserve.'
    I bloomed in the garden of her delighted approval ... 'And what's more,' she said, leaning forward so that her earrings tickled her cup, 'I never thought you had it in you.' . .. and withered, slightly, again.
    'Enjoy it solo,' she said, 'or you'll waste the whole year just like I have.' She put down her cup. 'In fact, we can be two freewheelers together. Friends in adversity and goodbye to men.'
    It certainly was not the right time to tell her that I intended the river of life to flow erotically through my days.
    Having sworn a bloody oath across the coffee cups that I would, metaphorically, worship only at Diana's shrine and thumb my nose at Venus, I continued to consider possibilities. When the antennae were sleeping, the fins sent me swimming in search of a good catch. It was all quite unnerving, this heightened interest in the male of the species. I now knew what it felt like to be one of those creeping things that go for it in a set mating season. When both antennae and fins were up, it became extremely alarming - even greengrocers' assistants were not beyond assessment. I was appalled at myself. But rather amused too. What I needed was to discover some reciprocal antennae or another set of fins masculine in similar circumstances.
    I attempted to damp the mating season down a little by reading properly - not the grabbed ten minutes before dozing off. So I decided to investigate the novel section at the library and treat it rather like a delicatessen counter - trying out the unknown and not going for safe old cheddar. It was as I was doing this - running my fingertips along the stacks, assessing a jacket blurb - that I bumped against a suede jacket, beige chinos and an apologetic smile. But instead of giving back a warm and apologetic smile in the vague ritualistic way you do on such occasions, I felt my antennae instantly on the alert. Here was a male. Male singular? How did you tell? Very possibly by a wedding ring? I peered. He wore gloves. Our eyes met above the book he was consulting. I remembered that I had barely cleaned my teeth before tipping out that morning (living alone and not working inclines you to great personal laziness), let alone gone in for fin-twitching gear. I looked down again at the book he held and he must have read the hunger for knowledge in my eyes.
    'Did you want this?' he asked.
    'Is it good?' Quick on the repartee, I thought.
    'I haven't actually read it,' he said, a little tersely. 'That's why I got it off the shelf.'
    Of course, while I was temporarily engaged in thought, he swam off without giving me a backward glance. End of brief encounter. But the pudding had been stirred, the aroma released, and the fruit was tentatively beginning to show itself. Very possibly this could be fun, for each day now represented an adventure. I realized that though I was outwardly nearing forty, inwardly