Rock Bottom (Second Chances Book 2)

by Jason Ayres

  But they were long gone and she was on her own. Maybe it was for the best. At least they had been spared seeing her in the mess she had ended up in. Her father would probably be turning in his grave if he could see her now, and who could blame him? She felt utterly ashamed at the failure her life had turned out to be. It was one of the things that gnawed away at her every day, driving her to drink.

  At least she would see them later, and this would not be the final time either. She would make sure to go back and spend a quality day with them before all of this was over. As for now, it was time to go round and give Glen what was coming to him. She had been looking forward to this.

  Heading outside, she made her way down the front path towards the gate, relishing the feel of the warm sunshine on her skin. The signs of summer were everywhere. She could hear the low drone of a light aircraft somewhere overhead, as well as the sound of the next-door neighbour’s lawnmower. The lawn in her front garden looked immaculate. She remembered how proud her father had always been of the garden, particularly the year he had won a prize in the Britain in Bloom competition.

  The lawn was framed with flower beds containing a colourful variety of flowers. Dozens of bees were buzzing around the buddleja flowers, and there were plenty of butterflies around, too. She watched, amused, as two cabbage whites had a brief coupling in mid-air.

  Oh to be as carefree as those butterflies, she thought. They didn’t have the stress of mortgages and affairs and divorce settlements. They just got on with it. Still, being an insect, they couldn’t afford not to. How long did a butterfly live – one summer, maybe? They certainly didn’t have time to waste worrying about their pension plans.

  But today, Kay could be as carefree as those butterflies. She could live this day as if she were a mayfly if she wanted to, as a twenty-four-hour life was all she had in this place and time. Quickening her stride, she closed the gate behind her and set off down the street towards Glen’s house at a lightning pace.

  She didn’t have any problem remembering exactly where to go. During their brief relationship she had been round to his house many times, mostly for sex. Glen hadn’t been that interested in doing anything else with her. Well, he wasn’t going to be getting any today. That was for certain.

  His house was at the rougher end of the council estate, next door to a house where an old man in a string vest did up old bangers on his front lawn. She rang the front doorbell and waited, as a dog in a house nearby barked relentlessly.

  It seemed to take an age for him to answer the door, and when he did, he looked half-awake and dishevelled in just T-shirt and boxers. Despite that, it didn’t take long for his familiar swagger to manifest itself.

  “Kay!” he exclaimed. “I hadn’t expected to see you this early. Can’t wait to get your hands on me, eh?”

  That was exactly how she remembered Glen, cocky and arrogant. “Not exactly,” she replied, waiting to see what else he would have to say for himself.

  “I was still in bed when you rang the bell,” he said. “Getting plenty of shut-eye, you know, to recharge the batteries ready for later. I’ve got a feeling I’m not going to get much sleep, tonight, what do you reckon?”

  He winked at her as he said this like some seedy character out of an ancient Carry On film.

  “Well, this won’t take long,” replied Kay, ignoring his corny attempts at humour. “Then you can get back to bed.”

  “Speaking of which, why don’t you join me?” asked Glen. “No need to wait until tonight, is there? I know you’re gagging for it: you wouldn’t have worn that dress if you weren’t.”

  His eyes were all over her lemon-clad body. He was practically drooling.

  “That’s what you think, is it?” said Kay. “Oh, by the way, my eyes are on my face, not on my chest. I’d appreciate it if you looked at me properly when I’m speaking to you.”

  She had a stony look on her face which Glen, tearing his eyes reluctantly away from her breasts, picked up on. His swagger and cockiness began to dissipate as he detected that this hottie on his doorstep wasn’t giving off the sorts of signals that suggested she was about to leap into the sack with him.

  “Why have you come round, Kay?” he asked, the wind clearly taken out of his sails.

  “Just one question,” she replied. “Why did you tell me Richard was gay?”

  “Richard?” he asked, momentarily not sure who she was talking about. “Who’s Richard?” Then the penny dropped. “Oh, you mean Kenty? Yeah, he’s gay alright – bent as a nine-bob note. You don’t want to waste any time on him. You’re better off with a real man – like me.”

  If Kay hadn’t known Glen better, she would scarcely have been able to believe what she was hearing. How on earth had she fallen for this idiot in her youth? She couldn’t really have been that naïve – could she? Yes, he had a fit body and good looks, but that was all he had in the plus column. His personality was nothing short of odious. As for his homophobic comments, this may have been over two decades ago but they were out of place even then. He seriously needed putting in his place.

  “Firstly,” she began, “I know for a fact he isn’t gay. Secondly, I find your homophobic comments nauseating. Perhaps you’re the one who is gay, and you’re trying to make out he is to cover up your own sexuality – have you considered that?”

  She knew he wasn’t, but it was fun winding him up saying it.

  “Me? Gay? I’ve had more women than Kenty’s had hot dinners,” he boasted.

  “Really?” she said. “Well, I’m sure they were very impressed by your ten-second performances. That is assuming, of course, that these fictional conquests exist – which I doubt. Quite honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if you were still a virgin. And just in case you were wondering, if you haven’t popped your cherry yet, you certainly won’t be doing so with me.”

  Wow, it felt good saying this stuff. Twenty-five years of anger and resentment were pouring out of her onto her hapless victim in the doorway in front of her. She noticed that Glen was turning a deep shade of red. She could see that she was getting to him, but wasn’t finished yet.

  “You seriously need to sort out your attitude to women – and people in general, come to that. You may think you’re cool but anyone with half a brain cell can see what a twat you are a mile off. You can consider your invitation to the ball rescinded. I shall be making other arrangements.”

  Glen looked gobsmacked. He clearly wasn’t used to being spoken to like this. In fact, he looked as if he was about to start crying.

  “And don’t even think about turning up and causing any trouble tonight or I’ll tell all the girls at the ball that you’ve got a four-inch cock.”

  “How…how do you know?” he said, looking completely crestfallen.

  “I have my ways and means,” replied Kay. “Now, I suggest you go back upstairs and play with your little willy for a while because that’s the only action you’ll be getting today.”

  Satisfied that she had said enough, she turned on her heel and left, giving him a provocative wiggle of her arse as she did, just to show him what he would be missing. That was as near as he would be getting to her in this universe. What a pity this wasn’t the real one.

  Kay had said more than enough. The stuffing had been well and truly knocked out of him. It wasn’t like Glen not to have the last word, but she had rendered him speechless. The only sound she heard behind her as she walked down the path was that of the door slamming, which set the neighbour’s dog barking again.

  She could consider part one of her plan well and truly complete. Now she could move on to make her next house call, one which she was expecting to be far more pleasant.

  Chapter Ten

  July 1994

  Ten minutes later, Kay stood in front of Kent’s house and pressed the bell. She had never been to his house before, but tracking him down hadn’t been too difficult. Before she had left home that morning she had looked his address up in the telephone directory. Kent was not a very common
name and there were only about a dozen in the book. She knew his father’s name was David and there was only one with the initial ‘D’ in the book so it had to be him.

  When he opened the door she could see that he wasn’t fully dressed, just as Glen hadn’t been. He didn’t open the door fully, keeping his lower half behind the door and peering around it. That was fair enough, it was still pretty early in the day by teenage standards. She remembered that she rarely got up before lunchtime at that age if she didn’t have to.

  Kay could see enough of his top half to like what she saw. He was clad in a Blur T-shirt which showed not only his good taste in music, but also his athletic frame.

  Casting her eye appreciatively over him, she marvelled at how young and slim he was compared to the middle-aged boozer she had been speaking to in the pub the night before. She had forgotten just how good-looking he had been when he was young.

  “Kay!” he exclaimed, just as surprised to see her as Glen had been. “What are you doing here?”

  “Hi, Richard,” she said. “Can I come in for a coffee and a quick chat?”

  “Of course,” he said, before adding, “The only thing is, I’m in my underpants. Can you hang on here a minute while I finish getting dressed.”

  “That doesn’t bother me,” she said suggestively. “You don’t have to leave me standing on the doorstep. I’m a big girl now.” She enjoyed the irony of this statement, but it was of course lost on the young Kent.

  He blushed, his shy and hormonal teenage self not yet experienced enough to deal with such blatant flirtation.

  “Come on in, then,” he said, letting go of the door. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  He scampered up the stairs in his kecks before she was barely over the threshold. Kay couldn’t resist stealing a peek as he went, and noted he was wearing briefs. That was interesting. Both Glen and Alan had preferred boxers. Could you tell what a man was like from his choice of underwear? Kay was always having these random thoughts.

  She heard the unmistakable hiss of a deodorant upstairs and the running of a tap before he rushed back downstairs, only a couple of minutes after he had left. There was a blob of toothpaste on his T-shirt. Bless him – he was making an effort.

  “How about this coffee, then?” she asked, unable to resist adding, “Preferably without any laxatives.”

  This comment was also meaningless to this version of Kent, who just looked at her with a perplexed expression on his face. She would have to stop dropping these little references into the conversation, as the last thing she wanted to do was make him uncomfortable.

  “Joke,” she explained. “Don’t worry about it.” She smiled at him to reassure him.

  “Come through to the kitchen,” he said. “You look lovely in that dress, by the way.”

  It was a genuine compliment, which she appreciated, and he had made it without ogling her breasts. As he busied himself preparing the coffee she made some small talk with him, asking him how his exams had gone and if he had any plans for university. Once they were both seated at the kitchen table, she decided it was time to get to the point.

  “I expect you’re wondering why I’m here,” she said.

  “It had crossed my mind,” he replied. “Would you like a biscuit?” He offered her a round tartan tin and she took out a milk chocolate digestive. He seemed a little more relaxed than when she had first arrived.

  “Well, it’s quite simple really,” she said, munching on her biscuit. “It’s about the ball tonight.”

  “You’re going with Glen, aren’t you?” he said, not managing to conceal his disappointment.

  “As it happens, no,” replied Kay, and promptly launched into the tale of Glen’s subterfuge.

  “What a snake!” exclaimed Kent. “It doesn’t surprise me, though. He’s always screwing people over but I never thought he would do it to me. Fancy going around telling people that I’m gay! I’m supposed to be his best mate.”

  He looked pretty annoyed. Never mind, she had something much better to offer than his so-called best mate’s fake friendship.

  “Well, now you know what he is like, I suggest you don’t get mad, but get even. That’s where I come in.”

  He looked up hopefully, wondering what was coming next.

  “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

  “About the ball – did you manage to sort yourself out with a date?” asked Kay.

  “Sadly not,” he replied despondently. “Quite honestly, you were by far and away my first choice, and when that didn’t work out, I didn’t have the heart to ask anyone else.”

  “Well, it’s all worked out nicely now,” she said. “I’ve ditched him. So, Cinderella, it’s your lucky night. That’s if you still want to take me, of course.”

  His face lit up at her offer. “I’d love to,” he said. “But should I do the dirty on a mate like that? It’s not really right, is it?”

  “You mean your mate who treats women like shit and stabbed you in the back the first opportunity he got?” asked Kay.

  “Well, when you put it like that,” said Kent, “I’ll be delighted to take you to the ball.”

  “Consider it a date,” she replied. “And now that’s all sorted, what are you up to today?”

  She had only one day with him, so wanted to make all of it count.

  “Well, nothing planned, really,” he replied.

  “You do now,” she said. “I don’t just want a date for the ball. I want you to be my boyfriend.”

  Kent was lost for words, scarcely able to believe his luck. Without further ado, she got up from her chair, walked over towards him, leant down and kissed him, sparing him the need to respond with words.

  They kissed for about fifteen seconds. It was a pure, wonderful kiss, the sort that harkened back to times when a kiss wasn’t merely the prelude to sex but enjoyable merely in itself. She had forgotten how amazing that felt.

  Despite the purity of the moment, it could easily have led on to more if she had wanted it to. She was sure he wouldn’t resist if she took his hand right there and then and led him up the stairs, but she wanted more from the day than just sex. She wanted to spend the whole day getting to know this younger him, savouring the anticipation, before she seduced him at the end of the evening.

  She broke off the kiss and jumped up. “Come on,” she said. “If you’re going to be my boyfriend, you can take me out for the day. Let’s make it one to remember.”

  A day to remember it certainly was. They took the bus into Oxford, bought sandwiches from the M&S Foodhall, and had a picnic in Christ Church Meadow. They walked through the parks, holding hands, chatting and kissing in the sunshine. Then they hired a punt, something Kay had always wanted to do, and spent a lazy couple of hours on the River Cherwell. That was another box ticked off under things she had always meant to do but never got round to.

  Later they went into town and browsed around some long-gone and fondly remembered shops. Cornmarket Street had never been the same for her since the day HMV had closed. Browsing through the racks of records and CDs they discovered that they had more than a few artists in common.

  When the store started playing a recent Saint Etienne single and he remarked how much he liked them, she felt a rush of happiness at finding such a kindred spirit. He was everything she had hoped he would be and more. She would even go so far as to say she had found her soulmate. It was potentially heartbreaking that she had found him in the wrong universe and in the wrong time zone, but she tried not to think about that.

  Before they got the bus home, they went to Old Orleans, Kay’s all-time favourite restaurant in Oxford. It had stood on the corner of George Street just down from The Apollo for decades when Kay was growing up. She had been gutted when it had closed down in the late noughties.

  As with HMV, she relished the opportunity to visit this old haunt one final time. Drawing fifty quid out of the cashpoint, she treated him to a meal. He was flattered, and wanted to pay half, but she insisted. The money wa
s of no future use to her in this world, so she may as well make use of it. And fifty quid went a long way in 1994.

  She ordered a rib and wing combo, while Kent chose a steak. As they ate, they chatted away about every subject under the sun. The more they talked, the more she felt her affinity with him grow.

  Smitten as she was, there was an unpleasant flip side to all of this that she was trying not to think about. Was she merely making things worse for herself by acting out this fantasy of what might have been? Was living this romantic dream right now going to make the pain of going home that much more unbearable when the time came?

  Her feelings for him were being magnified with every passing moment. She couldn’t remember feeling this intensely about anyone for a long time, but then, her feelings could be being enhanced by teenage hormones, something over which she had no control, even if her thoughts were those of a forty-three-year-old.

  She had just about accepted that Kent couldn’t be hers in the future before she had come here, but she knew that she was going to have to deal with those feelings all over again when she got back to 2018. No matter, she would just have to live with it. She remembered that old phrase: it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Well, she was just going to have to give him his whole lifetime of loving in this one day.

  Catching the bus home, they reluctantly parted for a couple of hours at teatime, returning home to get into their costumes. This gave her the opportunity to spend a little time with her parents. Her mother had made one of the gorgeous beef casseroles that had been Kay’s favourite meal when she was growing up.

  It was a serious case of pigging out on top of the meal she had eaten only an hour or so before in the restaurant, but there was no way she was missing the opportunity to enjoy her mother’s cooking. It wasn’t as if she had to worry about the extra calories either. Just like with spending all her money, she wouldn’t have to worry about it later.