“He really loves you,” said my neighbours, Karen and Colleen, in unison, laughing and smiling.
“I guess so,” I laughed with them, “you probably think I’ve trained him well – but I haven’t – it’s just his nature.”
“We’ll be standing in line if ever you don’t want him,” Colleen said cheerily in her Irish brogue and her sky-blue eyes twinkled.
“That’s for sure,” added Karen in her down to earth Scottish accent. (We are very cosmopolitan here in Dawlish.)
“It would be a long line,” I joked, but I might as well have said, “You could be waiting for a very long time because I’m not ready to part with him yet.” (Even less so with two attractive women waiting in line!)
I’m certain you could not imagine what Chris did to spark all this banter so I had better tell you. It wasn’t anything particularly earth-shattering or tremendously exciting; actually, I might have found it slightly embarrassing had the ladies not been so charmed. Well, perhaps I ought to go back to twenty minutes or so before the incident, in order to put you in the picture…
Chris and I were in the car driving down into Dawlish town: Chris was dropping me off with a slimming lunch I had prepared for my sister, who was making alterations in her holiday flat (where we had all been a little earlier), and Chris was going on to the Post Office.
“Shall I pick you up from here on my way home?” Chris asked.
“No, that’s alright, Darling, I need the exercise so I’ll drop this in to Mary and walk back.”
“But you haven’t got your coat on…”
“I’ll be okay. It’s not raining. I’ll walk fast,” I assured him.
I was walking home a short time later when I noticed two of my lovely neighbours chatting and laughing on the pavement beside the zebra crossing only about fifty yards from our house. Naturally, I stopped to pass the time of day and discuss the health of all the older neighbours, planning applications, holiday arrangements, unusual events and illnesses – all the things that neighbours talk about as winter approaches. We were on the subject of Colleen’s suspected case of shingles (which turned out to be an allergy to a bracelet of poor quality) when who should come along in his car but Chris? He beeped the horn and waved. Because of my close proximity to home I was not surprised that Chris didn’t stop to give me a lift and we all waved as he went on by slowly.
The conversation had moved on to urine infections when, out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Chris walking on the pavement on the other side of the road. Colleen and Karen followed the direction of my gaze; we could see clearly that he carried something pink over his left arm (no, it wasn’t a hand bag – don’t be facetious!). I knew what it was. They knew what it was. That’s when my neighbours drooled and said, “He really loves you.” Shortly, Chris crossed the road and held out my coat for me to slip my arms inside.
“Thank you, but you didn’t have to do that – I’m nearly home.”
“The wind has come up and I didn’t want you to get cold,” Chris said, suddenly aware that he was in the spotlight.
“We’re waiting in the long line… if Sally doesn’t want you any more,” said the good-looking divorcee and the merry widow.
We all laughed, but as everyone knows, “there’s many a true word said in jest…”