[Phoebe was on the phone to Samantha Mason]

“Sorry for not calling you before this. Things have been a bit hectic since we met.”

“How? Well, I’m now unemployed for starters.”

“A bit of a long story but that isn’t why I called.”

Phoebe took a deep breath before she replied.

“To be honest Samantha, I could not get you out of my mind.”

Phoebe relaxed when she heard Samantha say almost the same thing.
“I would love to meet you again.”

“That would be great. How do I get there?”

“That sounds better. I’ll get the train from London Road. I’ll let you know what train I’m on. I’ll probably be there in a couple of hours.”

Phoebe laughed.

“Why? I’m still in my jimjams and I know it is after ten.”

“That would certainly give my fellow travellers something to talk about all right.”

“No, I’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

“Bye.”

Phoebe put the phone down and found that she was shaking.

Until now her life had been one of certainty and things going to plan. What she’d done since meeting Samantha for the first time, was certainly not in her grand plan for her life. But, she’d made the decision to quit her job and she’d have to go wherever her spirit lead her. The past week had all been ‘off plan’ and while unsettling it was certainly interesting and very much out of character for her but she was enjoying it.

He biggest task was to find something to wear. Her wardrobe contained two basic sets of clothes. Black or Dark Grey suits for work and a mismatch of clothes where most of them had been bought on a whim and without any real thought as to what sort of look she wanted to create. Her dress sense was almost non-existent which was totally different to the image that Samantha had presented at the Speed Dating event.

Samantha had been immaculately dressed. Her outfit went with her hair and… well everything. Phoebe knew from bitter experience that, that sort of result does not come easy or cheap.

Phoebe was a very different animal. She had to try to dress to impress at least a little bit.

Her bedroom looked like a bomb had hit it by the time she’d decided on what to wear. Grey Trousers and Black Ankle Boots with a Light Blue and Green Tunic top.

Then she panicked. Samantha had been impeccably made up plus her accessories were just right for the evening. Phoebe and makeup really didn’t get on very well. Minimal makeup was good for appearing in court. For many Judges, even a whiff of perfume could lead to a contempt fine. She normally just used deodorant and that was it.

As she applied some she chuckled as she remembered her Prosecution Barrister getting a reprimand from Mr Justice Hammond for having too much ‘smelly stuff’ on. He denied it and after approaching the bench, the Judge had to agree. Then all the fingers were pointing in her direction as the only woman on either team until the clerk of the court pointed out that it was the Prosecution Barrister who was the culprit. The law has many strange ways.

Once she’d applied just a little mascara and some translucent lip gloss, she pronounced herself ready to go.

---

Phoebe arrived in Lewes just under the two hours that she’d estimated. Samantha was waiting for her outside the station. What Phoebe hadn’t expected was that Samantha was driving an Electric Car, a Red Tesla. There was far more to Samantha than Phoebe had realised from their one meeting.

“Quick get in. That Traffic Warden over by the car park ticket machine, has been eyeing me up for a while now.”

Phoebe climbed in and put on her seat belt.

Samantha took off out of the station. Phoebe was startled by the lack of noise.

Samantha saw the look of concern on her face.

“Don’t worry, it won’t run out of power. Well at least not this side of Birmingham it won’t…”

Phoebe relaxed and let Samantha drive. It soon became clear to Phoebe that Samantha was an excellent driver.

Ten minutes later, Samantha pulled off the country lane into a driveway that led to a large house in the distance. She didn’t head to the ‘big house’ but turned a sharp left and pulled up behind the gatehouse to the property.

“Here we are. My little home from home.”

Samantha led the way into the house. Phoebe noticed straight away that it was furnished in a very modern style. She tried to think of the word for it. Then it came to her, ‘Contemporary’.

“Come on through,” said Samantha as she led Phoebe into the Kitchen. Sunlight streamed through the south facing window.

Phoebe started to feel a bit unsure.

“Please take a seat. I’ll put the kettle on.”

“Err… Sorry, I don’t drink tea or coffee after midday. There is nothing worse than coming down from a Caffeine high when you are trying to get a witness to confess to a crime or you are presenting your closing arguments at the end of a case.”
Phoebe suddenly felt a bit silly. She was not likely to be representing someone in court for some time to come, if ever.

Samantha chuckled.

“Water then?”

“That will be fine.”

“Flat or Fizzy?”

“As it comes out of the tap will do fine.”

Samantha put a glass of water on the table in front of Phoebe. She sat opposite her.

“It was nice of you to call. I was thinking a lot about you these past few days.”

“S… same here,” replied Phoebe.

“I’m sorry for being so forthcoming the other night.”

“I… I didn’t expect it that’s all.”

Samantha chuckled.

“Neither did I but it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Phoebe felt herself going a bit red in the face.

“I… I enjoyed it but I shouldn’t have.”

“I noticed at the time.”

“And now you feel rather guilty?”

“I do but… Oh tosh. I don’t know. Everything is up in the air at the moment. I’m out of a job and I fancy the heck out of another woman.”

Samantha was suddenly very alert.

“You mentioned something about that. What happened?”

“I told you that my pupilship was coming to an end and that the head of chambers hadn’t offered me a position as a Barrister in the Chambers?”

“Yes, you did so what happened?”

“Well, after our little encounter at the speed dating, my mind was all in a mess. The next day it was if anything a lot worse and the head of chambers came to talk to me about the future. I told him that I was going to do something different. The next thing I knew was that all my cases had been re-assigned and I was out on my ear. Ok, so I got a nice pay off but that was it. I was made redundant so I can sign on and I have some contacts here but that’s not the point. I meet you and my life has totally gone to pot since.”

Samantha hugged Phoebe.

“Sorry for messing you up like that. For what it is worth, you did the same to me. I nearly lost a contract because I wasn’t concentrating. Luckily, I grovelled and the customer gave me another week to get it done. Then you called. Thankfully, almost all the outstanding work is all finished.”

Samantha sighed as she let Phoebe go.

She looked Phoebe right in the eyes.
“This is all rather strange for both of us. I don’t know about you but I’d never looked at another woman before I met you and then… As we talked the other evening I got this vision of us being a couple. Then I thought I’d messed it up by kissing you but, you responded.”

“I sort of did, didn’t I? That messed me up as well but it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

There was a bit of an uneasy silence between the two. It was Phoebe who broke it.

“Do you want to try a relationship? Just to see how it pans out?”

Samantha didn’t respond right away. In the end, she just nodded her head.

“I do. I do want to try.”

This time it was Phoebe who made the next move.
She kissed Samantha.

When they broke apart she said,
“You have work to do so during normal office hours, you do your job.”

Samantha laughed.

“What’s so funny?”

“You were speaking like a Barrister giving instructions to your client about what to say when being questioned…?”

“Sorry.”

“No, it is good. Setting some limits is ok by me.”

Phoebe thought for a moment before saying…

“I do have a problem. You remember I told you about my two friends?”

“Oh yes. Lana and Sky if my memory is correct?”

“Yes, that’s them. I’m due to meet them next Tuesday and I was wondering…?” asked Phoebe.

“If I’d come with you and let them pass judgement on me?”

“If I told them that I was in a relationship with another woman they’d laugh themselves silly but once they meet you, they might get a better idea of what I saw and indeed see in you?”

“Sort of like meeting the parents?” Joked Samantha.

Phoebe’s face drained of colour in an instant.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“I have not spoken or even thought of them for five years. They never wanted me to study law. They had a future for me all planned out with me getting married and having a fistful of kids by the time I was twenty-five. Mum had me and four brothers and her mum had her and five other siblings. Then I went and told them that I was going to Uni rather than getting married to the boy from the next street. That’s what life is like in the Welsh Valleys. You do what your ma and pa did and don’t complain. If the pits were still open, my brothers would be down the mine like their forefathers did before them. Instead, they are all car mechanics. I’m not sure that they’d like me turning up in your car. They’d see it as a threat to their livelihoods. I think they are wrong by the way. We represented a client who owned a Nissan Leaf where the battery died after six months. The garage initially tried to get out of honouring the terms of the warranty that came with the car but in the end, they settled out of court… but I’m rambling.”

Samantha took Phoebe’s hand and smiled.

“I get the message. I’m pretty well a stranger to my family as well.”

“So? Will you do it?”

Samantha smiled.

“Yes, I will. It will be fun to meet your friends and to see the expression on their faces but there is one problem we have to sort out before then.”

“Eh?”

“What you are going to wear. I can’t be seen to show you up, now can I? What would they say then eh?”

Phoebe had to admit that even today, Samantha looked perfect. Not a hair out of place and her clothes were brilliantly coordinated. Phoebe by contrast looked like a slob.

Before Phoebe could object Samantha raised her hand and said,
“We can sort that out over the weekend but my dear, you are going to have to start taking care of your skin, aren’t you?”

Phoebe knew exactly what Samantha was talking about. Sky had been on at her for months to start looking after her skin but she hadn’t gone any farther than buying the cleansers and creams. It was just too much of a ‘faff’ to do when she had to get to work so early.

“Ok, ok! Message understood. You aren’t the only one to mention that to me but I never had time.”

“And now you do so no skimping eh? You don’t have a train at some ungodly hour to catch so make use of the time.”

“Yes… yes dear!” said Phoebe mimicking Samantha.

Samantha smiled.

“Now give me a really good kiss before I take you to the station!”

Almost an hour later the two kissed again outside the station. Phoebe on cloud nine as she waved goodbye to Samantha.

---

Phoebe arrived home full of beans. Her joy was short-lived. Lying on the mat was a credit card bill for some three thousand pounds.

She sat looking at it for almost an hour. She’d not bought any of the items listed apart from one thing. It seemed obvious to her that her card details had been hacked.

Phoebe picked up her phone not relishing the call that she was going to make to her credit card company. Her only bargaining point was that as she didn’t own a car why would she have bought a whole load of car parts.

She need not have worried. Less than a minute into the call, her legal training kicked in and the poor person dealing with her didn’t have a chance. She got the bank to look into the delivery address for the parts. Those parts had not been delivered to her first floor flat. There was no way a replacement gearbox for a BMW M3 would have been carried up the stairs to her flat and that she didn’t have a driving license and never owned a car.
She asked for the delivery dates and addresses. The bank stalled so she mentioned reporting the fraud to the Police. Her legal training helped her ask a load of questions in such a way that it was hard for the bank to wriggle out of giving her an answer. She’d recorded the whole conversation with the bank just in case.

After nearly an hour of frustration on the phone Phoebe was put through to a Fraud Department Senior Investigator. Using her best persuasive manner, she managed to get the charges removed at least on a temporary basis. The downside was that her one and only credit card was toast. The bank had told her to cut the wretched thing up. She did this gladly but it stymied any clothes shopping beyond one complete outfit.

---

That episode left Phoebe in a pretty down state of mind. Other women may well have gone shopping just to get rid of the blues but she was not really that sort of person. Going to town with her friends really had not appealed to her but she went on most of their trips. Most of the time she’d gotten away with just buying something that she needed and especially not shoes. Her long time ‘BFF’ Mandy from back in Wales, had a shoe collection that may well have rivalled Imelda Marcos had she not died due to some mysterious infection that she’d picked up when her family went to Brazil on holiday.

Phoebe to that day always asked herself ‘what would Mandy buy?’ when faced with a mountain of choices when it came to shoes.

Thinking of Mandy made her even sadder. She sat alone in her flat thinking of what might have been until it was quite dark. Then she cursed herself for not putting on the light as she stubbed her foot on the large wooden posts that made up her bed frame.

The day which had started out so well had gone downhill from the moment she’d arrived home from Samantha’s.

It was times like this that she would have loved to have someone to cuddle up to.

Just a few miles away, Samantha was in a similar state of mind. Meeting Phoebe again had made her anxious and that was something that she’d not been for a while. Doing any work that involved anything but a modicum of concentration was next to impossible so she set off the system to run some soak tests. They should be done by the morning if all went well.

That gave her time to go over her meeting with Phoebe. After a couple of hours, the only answer she could come up with was that it just felt right. Holding Phoebe was unlike any feeling she’d ever had before and certainly not with a man.

That left Samantha with a huge problem. Sooner or later, she’d have to tell Phoebe about her past even though it was pretty horrible. Samantha for all her external appearances knew that she was damaged goods in the eye of many people.

About the time that Phoebe was stubbing her toe on her bed, Samantha was making a resolution to tell Phoebe about her past before she met Phoebe’s friends.

The two women went to sleep that night dreaming about each other and wondering if they were any good for the other one in the long term.

[to be continued]