Wags To Riches (24 page)

“Would you like tea or coffee?” I ask brightly.

****

“This is lovely coffee Gail” Lisa says appreciatively.

“Thank you” I reply.  “Please help yourself to a biscuit” I added and gesture towards the plate of posh Belgian chocolate biscuits that I bought recently from the supermarket.

Lisa shudders.  “Oh no thank you – I never touch them” she replies with such a look on her face anybody would think I’d just offered her a plate of raw eels.

“I’ll have one though – they look lovely!” Phil replies and picks up a biscuit.  With a defiant look at Lisa, I pick one up as well and dunk it into my tea. 

“Adam tells me that you work at a plastics firm Gail” Lisa says.

“I did do, but I’ve left” I say.

Lisa’s face brightens considerably.  “Oh that’s good!” she says, “at least now you’ll be able to see more of Adam and help him with the house.  You’ll have lots of time to pamper yourself as well won’t you?”

I smile at her.  “Actually Lisa” I reply jokingly, “I was hoping to catch up on some reading and drink champagne in the bath”.  That goes down like a sack of spanners with both Phil and Lisa gaping at me.  “That was a joke,” I say hastily.  Oh dear.  I’ve really done it now.  They think I’m a right lazy slut, I know it. 

Things improve a little however, when
they start talking about Adam. It’s obvious they adore him.  As Phil and Lisa reminisce about when he was little – kicking a football almost as soon as he could walk and practising for hours and hours after school – I hear a car pull up outside and glance out of the window to see Adam getting out of his car.

“Here’s Adam” I say, getting up, “Excuse me a minute”.  I walk out into the hall, just as Adam comes through the front door.  His face breaks out into a huge smile as he sees me.

“Hello gorgeous” he says and kisses me.  “How’s your hangover?”

“Not too bad thanks” I reply.  “Your Mum and Dad are here”.

Adam nods.  “Yeah – I saw the car”.

“Why didn’t you tell me they were coming?” I hiss quietly.

“Because I didn’t know,” Adam replies in a low voice, rolling his eyes.  “I forgot to change the code on the gates!”  He then walks into the living room.  “Hi Dad, Hi Mum,” he says walking over to Lisa and giving her a kiss on the cheek.  I follow him in and we sit and talk for a little while longer then Phil and Lisa get up to go.

“Well, nice to have met you” I say smiling as they go out to their car with Adam.  I think I recovered well there from that disastrous first encounter.  I watch them talking to Adam for a few moments, making frequent gestures towards the water fountain, before they get into the car and wave and smile at me.

I smile and wave back.  “Bye!” I call as they drive off.  They seem alright really.  Adam’s mum is a bit scary and I don’t agree with the comment about my nails, but apart from that, they seem okay.  Adam comes back into the house shaking his head.  “What?” I ask.

“Gail - do you like the fountain?” Adam asks, pointing at it.

“I love the fountain!” I say earnestly.  “You’re not going to get rid of it are you?  Only your Mum and Dad were saying something about having more parking space or something”.

“No, I’m not getting rid of it,” Adam says firmly.  “I’ve told them several times the fountain is one of the things that attracted me to this house in the first place!  You know what it’s like though – sometimes parents do like to think they know what’s best!”

“I know - my Mum and Dad are just the same.  I was really glad actually, your Mum and Dad turned up when they did,” I say dryly, walking into the kitchen to start preparing lunch.

“Why?  Were you in the bath or something?” Adam asks, smiling.

“Oh no, better than that!  I’d decided to try out your brilliant stereo in the lounge and was just jumping off the sofa playing air guitar and thanking everyone at Glastonbury - as you do - when I suddenly saw them staring at me through the window!”  I say shaking my head as Adam bursts out laughing.  “I nearly
died
with embarrassment!”

“Oh Gail!  What are you like?” Adam says.  “Tell you what - I’ll go and change the code on the gate in a bit and then they’ll have to buzz to get in.  That would help wouldn’t it?”

“Yes it would.  I don’t want a repeat of today,” I say, lifting some plates down from the plate rack.  “Your Mum also thought I’d look better if I had my nails done,” I add casually and Adam’s eyes widen.

“Is that what she said to you?” he asks in a surprised voice.

“No – I heard her saying it to your Dad while I was making coffee,” I reply.

Adam raises his eyebrows and then looks at the ceiling.  “She doesn’t mean anything nasty by it you know,” he says in a reassuring voice, “It’s just that my Mum is so bloody obsessed with people’s appearance”.

“Do you think I look scruffy?” I ask, frowning.  “I know I might look a bit rough today...”

“No!  ‘Course not!  You misunderstand me,” Adam says quickly.  “My Mum, God bless her, thinks every woman should always wear a good suit and
go to the hairdressers every week.  You look fine to me Gail – honestly”.  He puts his arms round me and gives me a kiss.  “Now, let’s have some lunch – I’m starving”.  He opens the fridge and takes out some ham and some salad while I go to cut some slices of bread.  Think I’ll go and get changed after lunch.  I don’t want people thinking I look scruffy.

We’re just finishing lunch when the buzzer goes for the gates.  Adam gets up to answer it.  “Oh great – come down” he says into the intercom and presses the button. 

“Who is it?” I ask.

“It’s the guys who are installing the hot tub.  Their other job has finished a bit early so they thought they’d come here this afternoon.  Hopefully they’ll be able to finish it today”.

“Oh that’s good!” I reply and Adam goes out to speak to them while I clear the lunch things away.  I’m just finishing putting the plates into the dishwasher when Adam comes back in. 

“Right – they’re just finishing off installing the fittings for the hot tub, so I’m going to go in the gym” he says.  “What are you doing?”

“I’m going to nip and change and then I think I’ll read my book for a bit” I say and go upstairs.  I put on my new jeans and my white slash necked top with the gold splashes on.  There – that looks better than tatty old
black jeans and an old T-shirt.  I go downstairs and curl up with my book.

A while later, there’s a soft knock on the door.  “Come in!” I say a little surprised, quickly putting my bookmark in my book.  Damn – just got to a good bit.

One of the workmen peers round the door.  “Hello - we’ve just about finished.  I just wanted to have a quick word with Mr Finchley before we go,” he says.

“Oh I’ll just go and fetch him – we’ll come to you in the conservatory,” I say, getting off the sofa.  I go into the gym and Adam is pounding away on the running machine to a hard house CD.  His tight grey T-shirt is sticking to him in patches, he is sweating that much.  “Adam!” I shout over the music, and he immediately slows the running machine down, “The guy says they’ve nearly finished – they just wanted to speak to you before they go”.

“Oh right - thanks Gail” he says and steps off the machine.  He turns the music off, reaches for his towel and hastily rubs his face dry of sweat.  “Come here and give me a kiss,” he says as he looped the towel round my neck and pulls me to him. 

“You’re all sweaty!” I say, wrinkling my nose and smiling as I go to kiss him.

“I know!” Adam says.  “I was just about done anyway.  I’ll go and see what they want, then have a shower” and we both go through to the conservatory. 

It looks so different to the last time I was in there.  Instead of there being a massive hole in the floor, there is now a huge white hot tub that is almost as large as the swimming pool!  The floor all around is covered in gorgeous terracotta tiles and there are even a couple of little rails to hang towels on on one wall.

“It looks fantastic!” I say admiringly.

“Well, all the heating and everything’s done and this quick drying cement should be dry in a couple of hours” the man who came to speak to me explains and he shows Adam how to adjust the controls for the under floor heating and for the hot tub.

“That’s great!” Adam says, standing back and looking at the tub.  “You’ve done a great job.  Thanks a lot”.

“Right – we’ll leave you to it then” the man says.  “Have fun!” he adds smiling at me as he walks past me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I say indignantly to Adam, as the phone starts ringing.  Cheeky git.

Adam just grins at me as he hurries off to answer the phone.  As I follow him I can hear Adam saying “Yeah – that sounds good.  I’ll just ask Gail”.

“Ask me what?” I say, walking up to him as Adam puts his hand over the telephone.

“It’s Tim,” he explained. “He and Gina want to know if we fancy going to theirs for dinner tomorrow night.  What do you reckon?”

“That would be lovely!” I say enthusiastically.

“Great” Adam says.  “I’ll tell them we’ll be there for about half seven then.”  He explains this to Tim and then turns to me.  “Right - the plan for this evening is I’m going to have a shower, something to eat, watch a bit of TV and then…”

“And then?” I prompt.

“How do you feel about trying out the hot tub?” Adam asks.

“Will it be okay to use?” I ask.

“Yeah – it should be fine” Adam says.  “What do you reckon?”

“Okay - why not?  It looks like fun!” I say.  “I’ve never been in a hot tub before.  Do you just wear - like - normal swimwear?”

Adam raises an eyebrow and a sexy smile plays round his lips.  “Well, that’s up to you” he says in a very flirty tone.

“I’ll put my bikini on” I say grinning.

After dinner, I go upstairs and put my new bikini on and my fluffy white dressing gown over the top and go back downstairs to the conservatory where Adam i
s closing the lower half blinds – leaving the top ones open so the night sky is clearly visible around the top of the room.  He switches the hot tub on and watches it fill for a few moments.  “Doesn’t seem to be leaking water anywhere,” he says, walking round and round the edge of the tub.  “I’ll just go and get some champagne”.

“Okay, I’ll get in the tub” I reply, slipping my dressing gown off.  I carefully step down into the hot tub, slowly sit down and stretch out my legs, enjoying the feeling of the hot water all round me, leaving just my head and shoulders above the water.  This is
fab
.  I stretch out my arms round the edge and tip my head back slightly to look at the sky and the stars twinkling overhead.  I think that’s Orion’s belt there - the pyramids in Egypt are supposed to line up with that apparently - and I think that’s the plough over there…OH MY GOD. 

Adam’
s returned with the champagne. He’s wearing a pair of black, knee length, loose fitting swimming shorts that are cut low on the waist so I can see his stomach muscles and just a hint of hipbone.  Round his neck is a black leather lace necklace with some silver beads on.  He looks
gorgeous
.  “Champagne Gail?” he asks, smiling his sexy lopsided smile at me.  I’m so overcome with lust I can’t speak so I just nod and smile.  Adam pours out two glasses of champagne, passing one to me before getting into the hot tub himself.

“This champagne is lovely,” I say, taking a sip and then I start giggling.

“What?” Adam asks.

“Well – this is mad isn’t it?  Drinking champagne in a hot tub!
Are we actually in an R&B video or a James Bond film Adam?” I say laughing.

“I know - it’s good isn’t it?” Adam says grinning.

“It’s great!” I say, drinking more champagne, before lying back and relaxing in the water for a few moments.

“Hey!  I know what I haven’t tried yet!” Adam says suddenly.

“What?” I ask.

“The bubble maker!” he says enthusiastically and presses a few buttons on the side of the tub.  Immediately, there’s a huge whooshing noise and the water starts to churn like mad.  “Way-hey!” Adam says delightedly as suddenly mountains of foam completely surround us both.

“Gosh Adam – this is like a foam party!” I say laughing.  “Not that I’ve ever been to a foam party.  I didn’t know hot tubs came with bubble machines like this!”

“They don’t normally – I had this fitted specially!” Adam says laughing as the bubbles rapidly climb all round us.  I drink the rest of my champagne and reach forward to grab some of the bubbles.

“This is fantastic!” Adam says and then leans forward to push his face into a really big cloud of bubbles.  He lifts his face out and his hair and eyebrows are dripping with foam.  He is absolutely covered in bubbles and grinning like mad.

“Adam!  What are you like?” I say laughing.

“Hey – come here and give me a kiss,” he says, grabbing me and kissing me so I get covered in bubbles as well.  “It suits you!” Adam says laughing, “You look like Santa!”

“Oh thanks!” I reply and I grab a handful of bubbles and throw them at him, giggling.

“So - you wanna play dirty do you?” Adam says in a mock stern voice and splashes me with foam right in the face.  I wipe my eyes laughing and open them to find Adam leaning in close to me.  “You okay?” he asks, concerned.  “The bubbles haven’t gone in your eyes have they?”