Chapter 11. Girlfriend
Β© Bad Hobbit 2024
I got off the train, pulled my bag behind me - and was suddenly hit by a low-flying object; Phoebe. She threw her arms, and then her long, skinny legs around me and kissed me hungrily. Once I'd recovered from my shock, I hugged and kissed back. For two people who'd previously spent not much more than twenty-four hours together, just a few weeks earlier - albeit having fucked several times in that period - we were acting as if we were long-separated, established lovers.
"Phoebe, darling, put the boy down. You don't know where he's been."
I looked over Phoebe's shoulder to see a smiling, well-groomed and expensively-dressed man in his mid-forties, watching us.
Phoebe reluctantly released me and turned to introduce her father.
"Delighted to meet you, sir," I said, extending my hand.
"Roger, please. And you must be Richard. You've obviously made quite an impression on my daughter."
Phoebe was grinning broadly. I admired her again, from close quarters. She'd tied her rather unruly hair in plaits, which made her look younger. As I'd said before, she wasn't conventionally pretty. Her eyes were quite large but wide-spaced. Her lips were plump and full, but her mouth was wider than average. Her nose was retroussΓ© - perhaps a little too turned-up to be 'cute'. And all of this in a heart-shaped face, topped off with an enormous pair of glasses that accentuated her quirkiness and somehow made her more interesting. If you did a straight comparison, Jill was much more beautiful, and yet...
On the drive back to their house in Roger's new 7-Series BMW, Phoebe barely stopped talking.
"It's fantastic that we've got our results and we're both
going to Oxford
! And this weekend, I can show you around the area. We're going to visit Warwick Castle - they've just reopened it and I'm told it's excellent. And Daddy's got us tickets for Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford for tomorrow night. We can go for walks; there's loads of stuff around here. We could go to Kenilworth, or the Baginton Oak, or Charlecote, or..."
Roger sat there smiling. "Phoebe feels that she has to introduce you to all the attractions of the Midlands in one weekend. I hope you've brought at least six changes of clothing."
And yes, I'd brought several outfits. Phoebe had implied they dressed up a bit for dinner and to go out, so I'd packed a few smarter things, as well as my walking boots for the country hikes she'd suggested we'd be going on. When we arrived at their impressive house - huge grounds, multiple downstairs rooms and - Phoebe informed me - no fewer than seven bedrooms - Roger insisted on taking my bag upstairs while Phoebe introduced me to her mother.
Alison had clearly been something of a trophy wife in her day and was still a very attractive woman. Like her daughter, she had dark brown hair, big eyes, a turned-up nose and quite full lips, but they were arranged in a way that was more conventionally beautiful. It was as though her daughter had inherited her features but had them slightly rearranged so as not to compete directly with her mother's looks.
"Phoebe has been so excited that you're visiting us. It seems that you two hit it off at Oxford, and it's great that you've both had your places confirmed. We'd love to know more about you. Take a seat and relax. Can I get you a drink? Gin and tonic? Beer? Tea?"
Roger returned and we sat and chatted. If I'd expected a stuck-up couple, full of airs and graces, I was soon disabused of such prejudices. Roger had been a Tory MP, a junior Minister, even. He was a wealthy and very successful property developer - the sort of person that my broadly left-leaning sensibilities would hardly have found appealing. Alison's background was as the daughter of a minor aristocrat and she'd apparently worked as a model a few years earlier. But she was no airhead and he was no monster. We talked affably for around an hour, including about my own humble background, with Phoebe interjecting from time to time.
"Oh, it must've been fun to go to a mixed Grammar school. Mine was an all-girls boarding school for most of my time, and I loved it and got to do so many amazing things, but I hardly met any boys when I was growing up. My friends at school were fun, but they were all girls."
"That's true, sweetie, but you got an excellent education, you learned to ski and ride a horse, you play the piano and you're a very talented ballerina. I doubt that Richard had those opportunities," Alison said, looking at me, quizzically, as if expecting some support.
"Yes. I never had the chance to be a ballerina," I quipped, getting a few chuckles. "And I never really enjoyed team sports, which seemed to be one of the main things at my school, but I was encouraged with my swimming, and I've competed at County level. I can play the guitar a bit, and I've had a couple of overseas trips with the school, most recently to Rome, but I haven't learned to ski."
"I'll teach you. There's a dry run at Milton Keynes, which isn't far, and maybe we can get to the slopes in the winter."
I laughed. "Maybe. But it's hard to spend a week in Val-d'Isère on what's left of a student grant, let alone a student loan that'll replace it after next year."
"Oh, I'm sure Daddy would pay for us both to go," Phoebe replied brightly.
I laughed again. "Sorry, Roger, but is Phoebe in the regular habit of asking you to fund holidays for people you've barely met? I appreciate the sentiment, but you people hardly know me."
Roger smiled back. "I can see that my daughter is rather smitten with you. But thank you, Richard. No, I'm not in the habit of giving handouts to people I don't know; that's one of the reasons I'm a wealthy man. And I'm glad to see you're a pragmatist too. I think we'll get along well."
And we did. Over dinner, at my instigation, Roger talked about his business career.