Going Off Piste

Chapter Six

Author's note: Warning - This chapter contains scenes of an explicitly sexual nature. If you are not of an appropriate age or are offended by such content, please do not read on.

Frankie awoke with a raging thirst. She rolled over and looked at the clock next to the bed. It was two o'clock in the morning. That meant she'd managed around two hours of sleep. She slipped out from under the duvet and felt for her slippers. Simon, sensing her movement, rolled onto his back in his sleep. His mouth sagged open and he began to snore. He'd also been late to bed so was unlikely to actually wake. He, Frankie and Betty had sat up long after the rest of the household had turned in for the night, talking things through. Simon had already spoken to Betty the previous night when Frankie and Reuben were at the Zen Bar but she had many more questions, which they had tried to answer as openly and honestly as they could. Frankie had been shocked by an admission from Betty that at the age of twelve she had witnessed Simon embracing a male friend in a way that even her young mind was able to understand went beyond platonic friendship. It wasn't hard to imagine the turmoil this image must have caused for Betty, at the time trying to find her feet in the brave new world of secondary school where any chink of difference was all that was required to set a person apart from the crowd enough to label them an outsider and potential victim of ridicule or worse. It wasn't much of a leap to see why she might employ all of her manipulative powers to keep her daddy close and block out the inconvenient truth of his sexual preferences in order to maintain the status quo of her home environment. Finally able to talk openly with her daughter about the reality of her and Simon's relationship, Frankie felt a palpable sense of relief and was lightened as if an actual physical weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Stepping into the bathroom, she used the toothbrush mug to get herself a drink of water but it wasn't what she wanted. What she really craved was a cup of tea. Pulling a rug from the foot of the bed to cover the vest and shorts she wore to sleep in, Frankie crept quietly from the bedroom and headed downstairs to the kitchen. She warmed her bottom against the tea towel rail of the range cooker whilst she waited for the kettle to boil, her mind spinning with the events of the last few days. She had suspected when she set off for the Alps that this holiday was going to be memorable but her expectations didn't even scratch the surface of the reality. In some ways, Frankie had to acknowledge that events had led her to the outcomes that she had secretly longed for but now she found herself on the brink of a new freedom from the responsibility of maintaining the charade that for her had become normality, she felt strangely cast adrift. She'd come to realise that it's not without reason that they say 'careful what you wish for'! Simon, she had no doubt, would give Felix the commitment he sought and Betty had really already flown the nest, save for an infrequent laundry visit. She would surely find herself a job or continue her studies; either way she wasn't coming home again on a permanent basis. That left Frankie, well, alone. She didn't know whether she felt excited or horrified by the prospect. There was something else on her mind something, or more precisely someone, that had gone unmentioned in their conversation: Reuben. Betty and Simon had both spoken very openly but Frankie had feared their reaction and had said nothing about the fledgling relationship between her and her daughter's friend. That made her question the feelings she had been so sure of only a few hours earlier as she lay in his arms.

"Are you going to do anything with that water or was your plan to let the kettle boil dry?"

Frankie jumped as the object of her thoughts, dressed in pyjama trousers and an aged tee shirt, emerged from the stockroom at the end of the kitchen.

"I'd offer you a Euro for your thoughts but I think I might get more than I bargained on," he said lifting the kettle from the hot plate and pouring boiling water onto Frankie's teabag. He reached into the fridge and splashed a dash of skimmed milk into the mug, leaving the teabag in the water the way she liked it. He handed Frankie her tea and ran himself a glass of water.