Easy As falling Off A Bike
by Angharad
part:222

I went out to the kitchen to make some tea, my head was still spinning at the prospect of all that workshop kit. Then I opened the fridge.

"Oh no!" I wailed.

"What's the matter?" said Simon rushing into the kitchen.

"Look at all this food, it's going to spoil before we cook it."

"Cook it tomorrow."

"We've got to go to your dad's, remember?"

"Oh shite, yes." He shook his head, "And my over friendly step mother."

"Oh no!"

"Can't we just freeze it all?"

"No it's been in the fridge for too long. It'll go off."

"Not in just a couple of days, surely."

"You'd be surprised how fast it goes off. I suppose I could cook it now."

"You'll be up half the night."

"Two hours." I switched on the cooker, and pulled the chicken out of the fridge and washed it before covering it in basting mixture I made up of fresh crushed garlic, black pepper, mustard, lemon juice and vegetable oil.

Simon stood and watched me. I then peeled an onion and shoved it up inside the bird.

"Hey that's a good idea. My mouth is watering just watching you."

"Watching me or the food?"

"Okay, you make me crave something else, it's the food that's making my mouth water."

The oven came up to temperature and I popped the chicken in. Two hours from now it should be ready. I washed my hands and made some toast.

"That'll spoil your appetite."

"Simon, I haven't eaten since breakfast, it's ten o clock, my tummy thinks my throat's been cut."

"Oh yeah, sorry I didn't think."

I made some tea and he had a cup with me, helping himself to a piece of my toast.

"Why does it always taste better on someone else's plate?"

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders.

"What are we going to do with all those tools you bought me?"

"I have a couple of boxes they'll go in, and we can put them in the garage."

"You realise that Christmas is going to be the middle of January by the time I come home from hospital."

"So, you'll just have to wait to play with all those won't you."

"I was feeling more in terms of your present and the food an' stuff."

"We can eat this lot now and get some more in a month's time if necessary."

"Just seems an unfortunate extra cost."

"That's life. I thought I was supposed to be the penny pinching Scot?"

Yeah, sure looks that way from my Christmas present."

"Look, I went along to the bike shop down by the uni, the one which repaired your bike. I asked him what stuff would I need to put together a complete bike workshop. He recommended Park."

"They are probably the best, but they are so expensive."

"So, I got a special deal, the bank bought them at cost and I bought them from the bank."

"You mean you didn't pay VAT on them?"

"Something like that."

"I'll bet they still cost a fortune."

"If that's what you want to believe..."

Instead of arguing I kissed him. It shut him up. "Thank you for a wonderful present. It does make mine to you seem very small."

"My socks?"

"Yes. Maybe I could get you a second pair."

"I only have one pair of feet."

"That is true."

"So two pairs could be seen as wasteful."

"Indeed."

"You know what this means?"

"What?" I asked.

"I've just talked myself out of a second pair of socks."

"Indeed," I nodded and smirked.

"So did the jerbil get a Christmas treat?"

"Spike is a dormouse," I punched him on the shoulder, "As you well know!"

"Simon is not a punchbag," he said and began to tickle me around the neck and collar bones.

"If you mark me, I'll tell them in the hospital you beat me."

"Good, it'll enhance my reputation with the women there, they think I'm a wimp."

"Why do you need to enhance a reputation, you are promised to moi!"

He blushed.

"Come on, spill the beans," I hit him again to emphasise the point.

"Ouch, you punch too hard, you're as bad as my sister."

"Worse than her, I can bash you in bed too. So unless you want me to bash you in bed, tell me about this reputation."

"It's more of a non-reputation." His tall body seeemd to shrink as he remembered his story. "Of how not to date your sister's friends."

"What do you mean?"

"Stella arranged some dates with her nursing friends for me. I stupidly went along with it because I was too shy to ask them out myself. She was plotting and scheming, totally in control of what happened and she wasn't even there. They went from disaster to disaster as she goaded them into making a mockery of me."

"Why did she do that?"

"Dunno, payback for some real or imagined sin on my behalf. Cor that chicken smells good." I nodded my agreement, it did.

"So what did you do to retaliate?"

"Nothing, she won game, set and match. I told her what a bitch she was and we didn't speak for a while. I don't think she realised how much she had hurt me."

"Ohhhhh, poooooooooooooor Simon," I cooed to him, stroking him.

"Didn't going out with me count for anything then?"

"Oh yeah, didn't it. It gave me new credibility, of the 'what's a nice girl like her out with a prat like him?' type of school."

"Is that good?"

"It's been wonderful."

"Won't they know when I go into hospital, I mean about my, ahem, my little inadequacy?"

"I've been told that it shouldn't happen for two reasons. Only a couple of people beside the surgeon will actually know why you are there. The rest will be told you had some sort of rebuild needed. They won't be told what sort. So if anyone starts to make an issue of it, we'll trace it back to source and they'll be disciplined under breach of confidentiality."

"Isn't that going to be a waste of time?"

"Not according to Stella, they could get struck off."

"If you can prove it?"

"We will."

We chatted a bit longer then Tom came out. "God that smells good, Cathy you have bewitched us, how long have we got to wait for it?"

"About twenty minutes. I haven't done any veg."

"Some of that in a sarnie will do fine."

So that's what we did, we had chicken sandwiches for Christmas dinner. Mind you the bread was homebaked and the chicken was absolutely delicious.