Amy Cooper Forever

by Craig Mullins

  No sooner had they finished when he retrieved his trousers and hurriedly put them on before he grabbed his shirt and walked out the door. Before he had a chance to leave she said “We’ll leave about seven in the morning if that’s okay?”

  “That’s fine, I’ll see you at the car.”

  She wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment or what that led him to do what he did but in a way she was grateful. She’d got what she wanted without having to deal with the après sex. She could feel his juices running down her leg so she headed for her second shower of the evening. In the shower she rubbed her shoulder, she could feel welts appear where he had bitten into her; there was no blood so he hadn’t broken the skin. She put it down to his over exuberance and enthusiasm. She stood there longer than usual thinking about what had just happened. She knew professionally it was wrong, she was his superior. She put it down to circumstance, after what they had both seen and witnessed with this case it was a release, pure and simple.

  She sat on the bed with just a towel around her head, the other one was too wet from the bathroom floor to wrap round. She had always been comfortable in her own skin so sitting there naked on the bed was not an issue, as she sat there she noticed red marks on her thigh from his nails. In the throes of passion the pain hadn’t registered but the four red lines on the outside of both thighs told their own story. Her right nipple was also sore, the surrounding area red and swollen from the suction of his mouth. But it had been worth every morsel of pain. It was a long time since she had felt pleasure like it. Her last ‘boyfriend’ was more of a friend with benefits and invariably she would have to get herself off once he had left because he never left her satisfied. With him she enjoyed an evening of company which invariably led to the bedroom and a quick fumble in the dark to relieve his burden, he never really gave her a second thought. It had been different when they first started he would spend hours pleasuring her, and then as time went on it was a by-product of an evening out. A sort of thank you for a lovely evening, now here’s a quick fuck, I’ll be on my way sort of thing. She hadn’t put up with that for too long hence why he was a past ‘boyfriend’. It was over a year since she last had sex which is why she enjoyed those ten minutes with Philip, in fact it was closer to five but it was all she needed from him.

  Philip went into his room after leaving DI Sian Price and threw himself on the bed; the tears flowed harder than they had in a long time. What had he done, he had to drive to Norfolk with her tomorrow, what was he thinking?

  TWENTY TWO

  Okay, now to the night of her party. I think I‘ve already told you that her parents arranged it for the Saturday night after her actual birthday. Although she knew about it she wasn’t allowed home while the preparations were being seen too. I had offered to escort her out for the day but she told me that she was going to take her sister in to town and treat her so that she didn’t feel left out. I was a bit disappointed but came to realise that it could be a great opportunity to lay some groundwork with my future in-laws. Without Amy knowing, I offered my services to her parents who took me up on it with open arms.

  Amy was to take Hayley at noon, they were heading to Watford for some retail therapy and lunch. I waited in my car for her taxi to pull out of the driveway before I pulled my car in and parked as close to the house as possible. Mr & Mrs Cooper had already told me that I could use their house to get changed to save me the drive home, they also invited me to use the spare room for the night allowing me to fully enjoy the evening. I grabbed my party clothes for the evening and knocked on the front door. I was greeted by a stunning Mrs Cooper, she was wearing the tightest of faded jeans, a white blouse tied just above her midriff and her hair was up and held by a large clip.

  “Come in Pinky, you didn’t have to get here this early, you just missed Amy.” She said.

  “I know Mrs Cooper, I was waiting down the lane for her to leave, I wanted it to be a surprise that I was helping, you didn’t tell her did you?.”

  “No Pinky I didn’t, and we’ll have no more of this Mrs Cooper nonsense, please call me Evie.”

  “Okay Mrs… sorry Evie.” For the first time since I had known Amy and her family I finally felt as if I was becoming part of it. And I couldn’t wish for a better family to be joining, not that that there was anything wrong with mine it was just I didn’t really know them. I saw very little of them, and when they were around they had other priorities on their minds. I don’t blame them, I just don’t think they wanted children, then I came along and screwed up their plans. Rather than get rid of me–which would probably have been the case if it had happened maybe ten or fifteen years later when abortions were accepted-they just palmed me off on a childminder who became my surrogate family. Beryl did her best but with the number of kids she looked after there was only so much time I was allocated, it was nice when it was just her kids and me when all the others had been picked up. My parents were rarely there until nine at the earliest, some nights Beryl would get a call asking if she could keep me until the next day.

  I followed Evie up the stairs where she showed me into a bedroom which was bigger than my own at home. “You can leave your clothes in here, this will be your room for the night if it’s okay?” She asked.

  “This is great Evie, thank you.” It also just happened to be the room next to Amy’s.

  “When you’re ready we are in the garden setting up the marquee, I’m sure Rob will be glad of some more help.”

  “I’m ready and willing, I’ll follow you.” We headed down the stairs and I couldn’t help but notice her arse was tight as a drum, for a woman her age she kept herself in remarkably good shape. Out in the garden the marquee was up, and Mr Cooper was just about to start laying the floor. It would seem that no expense was being spared, the flooring panels were stacked in the drive and the marquee was probably forty or fifty metres away. I offered to do the running of the panels while Mr Cooper laid them. He was grateful for my suggestion as I could see the heat and the lifting were just about to finish him off. I remember how he patted me on the back and told me that his Amy was lucky to have a friend like me. With a grin wider than the Thames estuary I trotted off to retrieve the next panels. It worked well as I could carry four panels at once and by the time I dropped them with Mr Cooper collected the next lot he was just laying the last of the previous.

  By one o’clock the floor was down, and we had started to move tables in. We’d barely started when Evie came out with a tray of ice cold lemonade for us. She must have been hot as her jeans had been replaced with a pair of cut off jean shorts. Her legs could have belonged to a woman half her age. “Here you go boys, you deserve a break.” She placed it on the table we had just put down. As she bent to place it I had a clear view down her blouse, the sweat beading on the gap between her mounds started stirrings in my own jeans–Mr Cooper was a lucky man.

  “We wouldn’t be half as far if was wasn’t for Pinky here.” He said resting his hand on my shoulder and squeezing, the effect stopped the action in my trousers before it had a chance to progress. We each took a glass and drank greedily, the sun was definitely hot that day, the forecast even predicted it could be the hottest day of the year so far.

  “Is anyone else helping.” I asked, secretly I hoped it would just be the three of us.

  “My sister is doing some of the food, she’ll be bringing it along with her daughter around four. And Rob’s brother was supposed to give us a hand but decided to jet off to LA yesterday on a work trip. So if you hadn’t stepped in to save the day I think Rob might have struggled. So thank you for your help, I know Amy will appreciate it.” She said as she gave me a knowing nod. I don’t know what they thought went on between me and Amy but it was obviously more than there was. This milestone in my Amy’s life did mean one thing, only twelve months until we could be together properly, her next birthday would be one neither of us would ever forget.

  By four o’clock we were pretty much there, the marquee looked amazing, Evie had helped to put the de
corations up, several times I was asked to steady her chair while she hung something, each time my face was inches from her cut-off shorts and what lay beneath. If I wasn’t so in love with Amy I may well have used those images of her when I was next alone, but my respect for her daughter steered me away from those kinds of thoughts.

  Just as we finished a car pulled into the driveway, Evie said that it would be her sister and headed off to greet her. “Thank you so much for your help today Pinky, we certainly made light work of it.” Mr Cooper said.

  “I enjoyed it, besides it was for Amy after all.”

  “You care about her a lot don’t you?” He asked with a serious tone to his voice.

  “More than I ever thought possible.” It was all I could think to say.

  “I know I had my reservations about you dating my daughter, especially given your age, but you seem to be treating her right.”

  “We are only friends Mr Cooper, there is nothing else going on.” Panic crept into my voice at where I thought this conversation was going.

  “Really, I thought you were more than that, you spend a lot of time together I just assumed that you were boyfriend and girlfriend.”

  “No, she just wants to be friends at the moment, which is fine by me, I think she was a little worried about the age gap when we first went out together. But I am happy to wait for her, she will know when the time is right.” I picked at my nails and avoided eye contact with him while I gave my speech. The words sounded strange coming from my mouth, it was as if someone else was reciting them. For some inexplicable reason I felt a resentment towards her for the first time since we’d met. I couldn’t explain it, and still can’t today but for about thirty seconds I resented the fact that I would go to any lengths for her yet she still held me at a distance she was comfortable with. The feeling went almost as soon as it arrived but it stuck with me for all those years.

  I was relieved when Evie returned with her sister and her niece. They appeared around the house each carrying a tray of food. Her sister was the spitting image of her, same eyes, same hair. The main difference was where Evie wore barely any make up, her sister Gwen (I found out later it was short for Gwendolyn) had used a trowel to apply hers. Her daughter, Evie’s niece wasn’t much better, though it was understandable, she was a goth. She didn’t look like she wanted to be there at all, she must have been about nineteen but had the weight of the world tied around her neck. In the sweltering heat she had still decided to wear a long flowing black corset dress with emerald green panels down each side. The bottom half of the dress was like a netting material and what appeared to be a mini skirt underneath, she finished the outfit with a sturdy pair of black Doc Martens.

  Evie asked me to take Madison (that was the poor girls name) into the kitchen to get her a glass of water while they emptied the car and laid out the rest of the food. I tried talking to her on the way, but with every question all I got was a monosyllabic answer. It wasn’t until I asked her about music that she seemed to come alive, she went on about a group called ‘Fields of the Nephilim’ and how she had seen them play like a thousand times, and that the next time she went I should go with her. I had never heard of them but agreed anyway, I knew that after tonight the chances are I would never see her again, all the time I had known the Coopers I had never heard any of them talk about Madison.

  TWENTY THREE

  Wednesday 1st November 2017

  Hayley sat on their unmade bed and cried, it was eight fifteen and she had just seen her girls out the door on their way to school. She’d hugged and kissed both, probably squeezing just a little bit too tight. Philip had left sometime after five-thirty. She’d felt his lips on her forehead as she pretended to still be asleep. She sat there in her white towelling robe, naked beneath it. As she wiped the tears away she walked out of the bedroom and down the hall to the main bathroom, the bathroom she rarely used. She always favoured their en-suite as it had a large walk in shower cubicle. But today she opted for the shower that fitted over the bathtub in the one the girls used.

  She switched the shower to full and as hot as she could stand it, removing the robe she looked down at her thighs and the bruises that had formed on the inner surfaces of them both. She then cupped her breasts and the tears came flooding again as she saw the teeth marks around her nipples. A couple had even drawn blood just below the surface. She didn’t know why she was crying, after all it was what she had wanted–some affection from her husband–she had been overjoyed when he had shown an interest in her Halloween costume. Before he’d taken the girls out trick or treating he had given her bum a sharp smack and whispered that he would give her ‘a good seeing to’ when the girls went to bed.

  She had been on a high for the hour or so they’d been gone, she’d put the finishing touches to the night’s festivities, guests had started to arrive shortly before they returned and the whole evening had been a roaring success. The girls had returned with a full bounty of candy, Philip had given her leering looks throughout the night, the occasional grope when no one was looking and he’d even followed her upstairs when she had needed to pay a visit to the little girls room. At the top of the stairs he had slid his hand under her skirt and rubbed at the material of her panties while he gave her a sharp nip on her exposed shoulder. She’d told him he would have to wait until the guests had gone and the girls were in bed before he could have his wicked way. By eleven they had the house to themselves; Philip was still in his costume.

  She stood under the shower and let the full force of the jets hit her aching body. She didn’t want to think about last night but it was all that kept churning inside her head. She grabbed the soap and started scrubbing at her skin, and still the tears flowed. As she rubbed a little too aggressively at her thigh her fingernail tore at her skin and opened a gash, this was the final straw. She slumped into the bathtub as the blood began to snake its way towards the plughole. She wished she could flush her life away the same way. As the water continued to pummel her body she tried to make excuses for her husband–he was in the mood, he thought she wanted it like that, he was stressed–but nothing she came up with could convince her.

  As he looked at her across the kitchen, she stood there in her sexy nurse outfit and hands in the washing up bowl, she got the sense that he was in the mood for more than clearing up. This was after all the effect she had been after. He wandered over to her and she pretended not to see him approach. He held the cleaver above his head and walked up behind her, he grabbed her hair and held the fake cleaver to her throat. For a moment she felt uneasy, and then figured it was Halloween, they were both consenting adults where was the harm. His outfit made her uncomfortable but she was prepared to go along with it if it bought them closer together. Before she knew it he was kneeling behind her and was dragging her panties down to her ankles leaving her exposed. He stood up and she could feel his hardness against her. He pushed her head forward over the sink and before she knew it he was inside her. The final straw came when he whispered in her ear ‘I’m gonna eat you all up.’ She knew he meant nothing by it but it changed her mood. But she couldn’t move, she was frozen to the spot, her head went somewhere her body wasn’t and she felt guilt like she had never known. Here was her husband being spontaneous and loving, and all that was going through her head was what her sister must have endured.

  She knew he was close as his breathing became rapid, and the warm flood of fluid inside told her when it was over, she turned round and immediately placed her lips to his as she didn’t want him to see the tears rolling down her cheeks. She loved her husband but she would be glad when this Halloween farce was over, what had started as a promising night had sunk to depths she believed she had left behind long ago. He held her hand as they walked up the stairs, not a word spoken between them. It wasn’t until they were in the room and could clearly see that he was aroused again. She went into the bathroom hoping if she gave him enough time he would crash and fall asleep, after all it had been a long day for him. She’d pushed the ba
throom door almost closed and set about brushing her teeth, when she felt a draught as the door was opened, Philip was there naked from the waist down but still with the bloodied chef jacket intact. He grabbed her round the waist and spun her round to face him. She was naked as she couldn’t wait to get out of her uniform and had not had chance to put her pyjamas on. He laid her on the floor and positioned himself between her thighs. She tried to close her legs but there was no way he was moving, he took it that she was playing along with his act still, and proceeded to use his knees to widen her thighs even more. He then set to work on nibbling his way up her torso until he reached her breasts where the nibbles became painful suckling and sharp bites. A couple of times she yelped in pain and he placed a hand over her mouth and told her not to wake the kids. He then pushed her legs further apart before entering her for the second time that evening, she was thankful that he was so turned on he didn’t last much longer than he had downstairs.

  The next thing she remembered was he climbed off her and walked back to the bedroom. Five minutes later she heard the familiar grunting snore and knew it would be safe to let her emotions out.