So Tim and I settled down to life together. After no time at all being with me and working at a grammar school he lost the faint Mancunian twang his accent had had about it. He filled out a bit, and because of some gentle giggling from me about 'contentment spread' he used the staff option of working out at the school's excellent gym twice or three times a week. Shit, if I hadn't fancied him before – fuck he was gorgeous. Thanks to our regular weekends away he even had a tan.
Because of the groundwork I had started some weeks before with family and friends, he was accepted casually and completely. I arranged a party for my mates to meet him and he was a great success with all of them – especially Judith, even though she was married.
"Fucking hell Elaine," she whispered over her beer bottle, "I can see why you dumped people for him, he's gorgeous."
"Yeah," I said smiling at him and wrinkling my nose, "I know."
We had already worked out our story to tell friends and neighbours. It needed to be based on the truth for the sake of remembering, and just in case family that knew us met friends that knew us.
I'd first met him at Manchester Royal Infirmary when I was visiting my Mum. He'd had a similar upbringing to mine with a controlling mother and listening in to the other's conversation, with hidden smirks and nods of encouragement or sympathy across the ward we'd clicked (true).
Chatting easily as we left the hospital at close of visiting, we chatted amiably and I asked him if he'd join me for dinner as I hadn't eaten (still true). I'd gazed across the subtle lighting at this new man and we enjoyed each others company finding out how alike we were (still true).
After the meal I said that I needed to find a hotel room as I had no bed for the night (true again, my bedroom had a model railway in it) and he offered me the large sofa in his house. Now this bit I did struggle with, in real life I wouldn't have done that preferring a bed to a sofa anytime, stuff the cost. So it became a sofa 'bed' and I was promised breakfast.
Lots of smiles followed this and I had to explain that I did sleep alone at his place for that weekend and the next few, insisting that we were just mates. We ate out, and I would occasionally bring food parcels in (still true). Finally when a chance allowed I said that to return the favour he should come south for a weekend and stay at mine, with a weekend in London (seeing a pattern here now?). Eager grins followed this and I was glad to tell them that yes, we did get much closer that weekend but body clocks and pharmaceuticals meant we could only kiss, cuddle and heavily pet – extremely heavily pet (TOTALLY FUCKING TRUE!) but with a promise.
We spent a small fortune on phone calls before I finally stayed at his place a month later and we cemented our partnership fully (fuck me, that was SOME cementing and totally true again.)
It soon became apparent that my Mum was starting to suffer some mental anxiety, while his relationship with his mother had suffered because of his relationship with me, (again true, and not helped by my walking in on her sleeping and the play acting I'd done at three in the morning for her).
Sadly, I received a phone call late one night and had to dash up to Manchester and called Tim once there and he was with me when my mum passed away, and supported me through the emotional turmoil – that was pretty much the last time I saw my brother I had now taken to calling 'Timothy' and doubted I'd hear from him again (Not lying here folks).
Fortunately I was on hand when Tim lost his Mum and returned the favour. After a few weeks of soul searching we both realised what we had become to each other and decided that we wanted to move in together. Tim gave up his job, sold his house in Manchester and finally brought his motorhome south for good. My brother Timothy? Oh no, he never learnt to drive.
This was tangible, honest and so much the truth that it was sufficient for all comers and we have never differentiated from that story since; why should we, it's pretty much how it happened bar a few hidden facts, OK one HUGE missing fact and some minor inaccuracies.
Life continued wonderfully, we fell into bed at the end of each day naked, making love or not, holding each other until we woke and decided who would get breakfast. The old lady next door that I had worried about (I had introduced her to Tim as my brother almost a year back) told me one day that she had finally decided to sell her fantastic little surrey cottage and move to the continent. She bought a villa on the Algarve where she lived until she was 99, eventually passing away in her sleep. Her ashes were returned to the UK and Tim and I met her elderly daughter at the interment.
Finally, as I knew it had to, the invite from the Camden posse arrived for a mid-summer barbecue. Tim of course asked if this meant he had to stay at home while I went to enjoy myself with Debs.
"Darling," I said beaming across the card they'd sent, "It says 'Tim and Elaine' on the card, not Elaine and Tim. If I'm any judge I rather think you are going to be the star of the show."
"What?" he said with a faint hint of nerves, all three girls must have been very intimidating for a reasonably simple guy like my Tim.
'My Tim'; he'd become 'my Tim' as friends spoke of 'us' as a couple and I had become so used to the wonderful familiarity that the thought of him disappearing into the night with Debs while I didn't, did make me stop and think.
I reminded myself that I'd slept with her twice while I was getting into my relationship with my brother, and anyway, she was a dyke; she lived the life with Ronnie and Viv, no way would Tim and her become anything more than occasional lovers.
But then what were we? Lovers? Boyfriend/girlfriend? I couldn't use the term brother anymore that was for sure.
Suddenly I was struck by the thought that he could so simply say to me one day (as I could to him I suppose) 'I've met this wonderful man/woman (either in my case if previous experience was to be counted) and I really think this is it and I want to settle down/marriage/children/etc. All of the things that we couldn't do with each other.
But that night as I lay on the sofa with my head resting on his shoulder, he pulled me close and I thought, 'ah fuck it, what's the worst that could happen.'
We arrived at the party with Tim wearing chinos and a linen shirt smelling of the most wonderful cologne. Not wanting to let Debs down, I slid into my tightest blue jeans and in contrast a light cotton blouse buttoned low with a hint of the racy lacy tiny underwear beneath, and a mist of one of the more expensive perfumes I owned.
So Tim entered the house with a real sense of trepidation. He put a hand on mine as I went to open the door.
"Elaine," he said looking into my eyes, "I have no idea what you and they have planned for me tonight but whatever it is I will not do anything that will hurt you. Say the word and I'm out the door, what we have is the best thing that ever happened to me."