BB & Heather

Part 2: Special

He liked his car, most of the time. It wasn’t new, but it was powerful and it rumbled along the street. It appealed to the boyish ambitions he’d nursed as a child. He’d watched Colin McRae race a Subaru Impreza and decided he was going to have one. Took him until he was into his late twenties to pay for those ambitions, but that just made the achievement sweeter. That night, when he rumbled up on her street and stopped outside her flat, he felt like a gassy child at a black tie event.

All dressed up, going to a fancy restaurant where he was sure they would have about six hundred different spoons for him to choose from. This wasn’t BB. They hadn’t been poor when he was a kid. Not arse hanging out of your trousers poor anyway. They just weren’t the sort of family who bothered learning about multiple cutlery options.

Didn’t matter. The place wasn’t as posh as he’d feared, the cutlery was unintimidating and the atmosphere was chatty. The fear that they wouldn’t have anything to talk about was blown away. The fact that they knew each other before, had partied together, made it so much easier. It was comfortable and fun.

“So what now?” Heather asked him.

They were out on the pavement. He’d already kissed her once, delighted that he didn’t have to bend down like he usually did. Everything about her was a perfect fit.

“I don’t know. I guess we could find a club, something like that.” He didn’t know what answer she was looking for so he went for the safe one.

She smiled. “I was thinking more like back to your place. You live alone, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he said, louder and faster than intended.

“I live with a bunch of other people. Too crowded there.”

“Back to my place,” he said.

There was a moment, later in the night, when BB woke briefly, and felt Heather lying against him. Shoulder to shoulder, and her foot touching against his ankle. A moment of pleasure as he considered how good they were together, and a moment of panic as he feared losing it. He was twenty eight and not good at hanging on to relationships, although he hadn’t made much effort before now. She was only twenty. Twenty seemed like a generation ago to BB. Made him think she must be looking for different things in life to him.

Took about five minutes in the morning for Heather to dispel all the fears. They lay in bed and chatted, and BB didn’t run out of things to say. He wasn’t dumb, you understand, just not a talker. Some people are like that. They hold very few opinions; have little they feel the need to share with the world. He was one of those people. Heather didn't mind at all.

After a while she got up to make breakfast. Didn’t put any clothes on, and that was just showing off. Sometimes she tried a little too hard, trying to seem all girly. BB didn’t mind that. Seemed like she was too aware of her long, flat body. BB was aware of it too, but he thought very differently of it.

“You know,” he said, strolling through to the kitchen. “I ain't busy tonight. Or tomorrow night if that’s better.” Trying not to sound desperate, but that’s hard to do when you’re desperate to make a good impression.

“I’m not busy either,” she said in a casual manner.

And that was it. That was how the relationship began. Nothing special. Nothing out of the ordinary. He did a favour for a friend of hers, they went out on a proper date, just the two of them, and spent the night together. There was nothing dramatic about it. From the outside it looked as ordinary as these things always do. For both of them it felt different. It felt like this was special. That sounds cheap, like a throwaway word. Sort of thing you tell someone when you can’t think of anything thoughtful to say. But it was special to them. It was unique. Neither of them had ever been in a relationship like it. So, yeah, special.

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