26 months later, September – At a bar in a small coastal town in Northern California.
The place was fairly quiet as it was early on a Monday evening. It would get quite rowdy later as the ‘Dallas Cowboys’ were playing at home that night against the 49’ers and the game would be shown on the big screen. Naturally, this being California, most of the locals supported the 49’ers.

Two people were working behind the bar preparing for the night ahead when the door opened and in walked a tall Blonde woman wearing a white blouse, black tight leather trousers and black ankle boots.

“Hello Sean. I’ll have a G & T please but hold the T.”

The barman looked up from the ‘shot’ glass he was drying and saw Ingrid standing in front of him. His face dropped. To him, she looked the spitting image of Marylin Monroe in the ‘Seven Year Itch’. Another words, totally stunning and totally out of place for the clientele of ‘Big Jake’s Famous Bar & Grill’.

“You are a really hard person to find Sean. Even your Mother does not know where you are. You should really call her you know. She worries about you as Mothers are supposed to do.”

His mouth dropped open unable to speak, unable to utter a sound.

The other barman came over.

“Sean, aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

He turned to Ingrid and offered his hand over the bar.

“Hello. I’m Jake.”

She shook his hand.
“Hi Jake. I’m Ingrid. I’m his girlfriend from London.”

Sean still had not said anything.
He was standing there with his mouth still catching flies and tears streaming down his face.

Jake looked at Sean and smiled. Sean was still rooted to the spot.

“Sean, why don’t you and this young lady… get the hell out of here and get yourselves sorted out.”

“But… I have a shift?” muttered Sean as he desperately tried to find a way out of this hole he was in.

“Don’t bother with that. I’ll cover for you. You have done it a good few times for me since you came here.”

The he smiled a bit more.
“In fact, take the rest of the week off. Don’t come back until Saturday night!”

Sean looked at his boss and owner of the bar. He knew from the look on Jake’s face that his mind was made up. His first thought beyond that, was that he was done for.

Ingrid smiled and offered her hand to Sean.

“Well Sean? Shall we go?”

Slowly, Sean took off his barkeep’s apron and after giving it to Jake, he came out from behind the bar and left building with Ingrid.

---

Once they were out in the light of the day, Sean had gotten his mind into enough order to ask,
“What is the real reason you are here Ingrid? We were never really a couple and I thought I’d made it clear that I was done. Why else did I come here?”

“I never took you for a coward and neither did anyone else at the office. I still don’t think that.”

She stopped walking for a moment.
Sean turned to look at her.

Ingrid looked him right in the eyes and said,
“You were running away but not from me but from yourself.”

She paused for half a second to let her words sink in.

“Well, Sean? Am I right or am I right?”

She knew that she was by the way that his shoulders slumped.

Right there on the parking lot, Ingrid took him in her arms and hugged him tight. No one had ever done that to Sean. He smelt her perfume and was almost transported to a different world by its delightful smell.

“Come on Sean, what is it that you are running from? I know it isn’t just me!”

Sean looked her right in the eye and almost shouting said,

“It isn’t you. Why would I run from you? I want to be you and that is something I can never be. Got it? Now please leave me alone!”

Sean turned and headed for his decidedly tatty Ford Pickup. He’d only bought the thing because almost everyone else drove one but it was crap, total crap in his opinion.

As he walked the twenty yards to the vehicle, he wondered if there was anything he really needed at his home, a trailer just outside their small town. Then he remembered that his passport was there. He’d have to go there before skipping town. It wasn’t the first time and it looked like it wouldn’t be the last that he’d done a runner to get away from an embarrassing situation.

Then Sean wondered why Ingrid hadn’t stopped him. He turned around and saw her laughing her head off. Seeing her reaction hurt Sean even more.

In a fit of defiance, he walked back towards her and said,

“It is no laughing matter you know. You really have no idea what it is like to see people like you and know that while you want to be them wear the same clothes that you can’t ever get close to that.”

“Oh Sean… I know perfectly well what it’s like. Believe me, I know. I was once the ugly duckling of the girl’s school. All those beauties preening themselves and then taking fun at ugly Ingrid! Oh, how I wanted to be like them. To be beautiful like them. To wear lovely clothes and not ones that my older sisters didn’t want to wear any longer as they were uncool. Oh, Sean, I know what it is like to be an outsider.”

Her words stopped Sean dead.

“Didn’t you listen to one word I said? I’m a man and you are a woman. I should have been born a woman but there is no way in hell that I can ever look anything like you. Every time I see someone like you it hurts in here!”

He thumped his chest.

“Sean,” said Ingrid as she stepped closer to him.

“Have you tried? Tried to look like a woman?”

“Yes, I fucking well have and I look like a drag queen and there are plenty of them in places like Vegas so why do you head off there and find some other sucker to experiment on.” he retorted.

“Did you have any help?” asked Ingrid totally ignoring what he’d said.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said, I am not going. I am not some bit of meat to experiment on. I have made a life here can’t you understand that? Everyone keeps their business to themselves here unless THEY want to talk about it. At home I can sit of an evening outside my trailer and hear nothing but the wind and the birds and the sea. I can wear a skirt to do the chores and no one sees me and that is fine. There is no way that I’m going to get myself dolled up just so that you can take a few photos and plaster them over social media. Do you understand this?”

Ingrid didn’t reply for several seconds so Sean took the opportunity to leave her alone and almost ran to his truck.

He slammed the door behind him and prayed that the engine would fire. It did and he left the car park in a cloud of dust.

---

Sean literally raced back to his trailer. Thankfully it was only a few miles before he turned off Route 1 and up a dirt road that eventually led to a state beach. His trailer had been used as a seasonal home by an old man from San Francisco as a fishing retreat. The man died a few months after Sean had arrived in the area so he’d bought the trailer and some ten acres of land for next to nothing. Since then he’d restored the trailer and rebuilt an old barn which was where he kept his truck.

It was his home from home or had been until that day.

He collapsed onto his bed crying. He’d found a nice place to live and then she had to come back into his life.

After a while, he got up and looked around his home. Suddenly, his world seemed so small and his possessions irrelevant. With a shrug of his shoulders, he began to pack a small bag. He’d arrived in that part of the world with very little so he easily could leave it with very little. Well, at least that was what he kept telling himself as the small bag became a second much larger one.

Half an hour later, he put three bags into the back of his pickup and covered the bed with a tarp. Then he turned to look at his domain. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he climbed into his truck and started the engine.

He’d just reached the end of the dirt track that led from his home to Route 1 when a car stopped right in front of his truck blocking the way. His heart sank even further when he saw Ingrid get out of the car.

“I’ve been waiting for you. Your boss told me where you lived but this thing would not get down the road to your trailer.”

Sean cursed himself for not taking the back road to the main road. He could see himself well on the way inland and to I-5 and then to somewhere that was even further in the back of beyond than this place once was.

“Well, you found me. I’m not going with you for you to have a load of fun at my expense so there really isn’t anything more to say now is there?”

“Doesn’t the fact that I’ve come this far to find you not count for something?”

He didn’t answer.

“Oh, for heavens’ sake Sean, stop being a sourpuss. Life is too short to be on a downer all the time.”

“I was happy until earlier today,” replied Sean in a grumpy voice.

“Yeah and that’s not what your boss told me. He said that you didn’t date despite many opportunities to start a relationship you politely refused. At first, he thought that you were gay but later he realised that you had secrets and like many who travel this road, want to keep those secrets to themselves.”

Ingrid smiled.

“Your boss is a wise man.”

“So why aren’t you heading back to Frisco or wherever and your flight home?”

“What is home anyway? Just a place to sleep and live until you move on to pastures new…”

“From what Jake said, you have found more than a place to live. He said that you felt at home here and have done wonders for the bar especially the food.”

“Jake speaks a load of rubbish. I’ve done nothing.”

“Not according to him. Besides, if you had done nothing, why would he have not only covered for you tonight but given you the rest of the week off?”

“I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to the bar to tell Jake that, I’m done here and then I’m off and I would really appreciate it if you did not try to follow me. The last thing I need in my life is someone who looks like you. You are a magnet for all the wannabee’s for not just Eureka but everyone between here and Frisco. You really have no idea what the bar is like when the locals get paid.”

“Well then come with me and live somewhere that does not behave like this. Oh, and I can dress down you know.”

“But why?”

“Why? When I could have had just about any man from work with a click of my fingers?”

Sean nodded.

“That’s the very reason. Didn’t I say that I was once the ugly duckling and wanted to be part of the ‘In Crowd’? Well, when I… I blossomed, I soon found that it wasn’t all sweetness and light. The ‘In Crowd’ soon turned into the ‘In the Club Crowd’.”

Then I came to work at the same place as you and well… The office gossip took over and… Well, I got a bit of reputation as you know but someone said, ‘What about Sean? He’s nice and quiet.”

“Humph,” blurted Sean.

Ingrid smiled.

“It didn’t take long for me to realise that you’d run a mile so we cooked up the plan for me to be your date for the boat trip. You were the perfect Gentleman all evening then I just had to go and put my big foot right in it. I’m so sorry for trying to take advantage of you. It was wrong of me.”

Sean thought for a while.

“I… I just don’t know what to do.”

Ingrid smiled and said,
“I know. There I was all prepared to apologise… No literally grovel to you after the boat trip and then I find that you had not only resigned but done a runner from your home. I was on a downer for weeks. Then with the relocation and subsequent downsizing at the company, I had my mind made up for me. I had to find you and at the very least... At the very least, clear the air but you know what they say about ‘best laid plans’ and all that.”

Sean didn’t reply so Ingrid carried on.

“I found out where your Mother lived and spent some time with her. She had no idea where you were but she told me that this was not the first time that you had legged it when some girl took an interest in you.”

“And that didn’t make you give up?”

Ingrid smiled.
“Quite the reverse actually. I was determined to find you and apologise to you and hope that we could have a relationship. Your mother said that you’d never really had a girlfriend but you were interested in girls. Now I know why and to be honest, I don’t give a damm. Those few hours we spent together at the ball…”

Ingrid sighed.

“I just felt nice being with you. It might sound rather odd but I felt that I’d known you for years. I didn’t want the night to end and that’s why I went totally overboard and you did a runner. After you’d gone, I realised I was my actions that had driven you away.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?”

“You do but don’t you even want to try to make a go of it?”

Sean just shrugged his shoulders.

“So… we spend some time together and then you have to go back to London. I’m never going back. I’ve found some nice people here who don’t care about my backstory.”

Ingrid laughed.
“I was born in El Paso. I have dual nationality so I’d don’t have to go anywhere unless you are with me.”

“No pressure then eh?”

Ingrid laughed.

“Want to try to have a relationship?” asked Ingrid.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? Just you being here and smelling that perfume makes me…?”

Ingrid took hold if his hand. He didn’t resist.
“You want to wear it. I understand that. I’m sure that there is a way that we can have a relationship and you can be the real you. Have you ever tried that?”

Sean remained silent but slowly shook his head.

“Good. That’s progress. Small but progress nevertheless…”

He remained impassive.

She squeezed his hand.

“Come on Sean… Live a little… Are you prepared to walk on the wild side a bit with me by your side?”

After what seemed an eternity, he said almost in a whisper,
“Yes.”

Ingrid hugged Sean to sort of seal their deal.

“What do we do now?” asked Sean when they broke apart.

“Do you think I can get my rental car down that track?”

“No chance but you will get in if you use the back way though.”

“The back way?”

“Yeah. When the trailer was hauled in, there was nowhere to turn the Semi so they simply bulldozed a way out. It is longer and comes out on the road down to the next beach so I don’t use it very often.”

“Ok, then lets’ go then!”

---

Sean led the way via the back road to his trailer.

“Those views are to die for Sean. You are so lucky to have found this place.”

“Selling my one bed flat in London paid for it outright. This and that woodland is all mine.”

Ingrid saw that Sean had let his guard down for a moment so she took the opportunity to give him a long, long kiss.

At first Sean resisted but Ingrid persisted and then he started to respond.

Then she started to undo the buttons of his shirt all the time keeping the kiss going.

One thing led to another and before long they were both naked. Ingrid walked Sean backwards to an area of grass where she sunk him to the ground and climbed on top of his fully erect penis.

They spent the rest of the afternoon making love in the shade of a Western Redwood tree. It was an afternoon that neither of them would forget.

It wasn’t until later that Sean noticed the small amount of blood on him.

“Did I cut you somewhere?”

Ingrid smiled.
“That was my first time.”

“First time wh…”
Then he realised what she meant.

“I’m sorry. I got a bit carried away.”

Ingrid grinned.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I loved every moment of it. Far better than a quickie behind the bike sheds at school eh?”

Sean knew exactly what she was referring too. He recalled the number of girls in his year at school who became pregnant and were starting to show by Christmas. The ‘mums’ club was getting larger and larger every year.

---

Sean and Ingrid spent the next three days on a sort of honeymoon. Most of the time, they were naked.

He did take her down to the beach to watch the sunset. It was so nice that they repeated it each evening. They toasted the end of the day with some wine.

By the Friday morning, there was little or no food in the trailer so they went shopping.

They’d just loaded up his pickup when the trouble started.

Brad and Bart Mortensen were the last people Sean wanted to meet on their trip to the supermarket. They were there apparently buying the stores entire supply of beer. Between the two of them, they were pushing three trolleys piled high with cases of ‘Bud’, ‘Coors’ and ‘Miller Lite’.

Sean turned a corner and almost ran into them. Ingrid was a few steps behind him.

“Well, if it isn’t that loser from the bar,” said Bart in a very loud voice.
“I heard about your visitor.”

He literally pushed Sean out of the way in order to get a better view of her.

“Well Darlin, I think you should come with me. I can give you a time that that loser can only dream about if you get my meaning!”

He made a grab at Ingrid.

Before he knew it, Bart was on his back. Ingrid had flipped him over.
“Why you little whore. I’ll get you for that,” said Bart as he got to his feet.
“No one puts Bart Mortensen on the floor and lives to see another day!”

Just then a new voice said,

“Now Bart, you don’t want to do anything rash now do you?”
That was followed by the sound of a Revolver being cocked.

Everyone turned to look at the owner of the voice.

It belonged to Officer Robert (Bobby) Pearce. He was one of the local Police Officers.

“Fuck off Pinprick!” shouted Bart.
“Just because you have a fucking gun, you ain’t gonna stop me from getting my own back. That broad threw me onto the floor.”

“Yeah and I saw all of it. You made a lunge at her and she retaliated in self-defence.”

“No, she fucking didn’t,” screamed a very agitated Bart.

Then Bart heard some sniggering. It was coming from his younger brother Brad.

“As for you, I’ll whip your ass when we get outside!”

“Bart Mortensen!” said the Officer in a loud voice.
“Either shut the hell up and leave the store or I’ll arrest you!”

“Yeah… You and whose army?”

Bart did have a point. Bart was built like an American Football LineBacker. The Police officer was petite by comparison.

“Me and Mine,” said Officer Pearce.

Three more officers appeared behind him.

“I can still take all four of you down!”

As he said it, he made another grab for Ingrid.

This time Sean gave him a hefty kick behind the knee.

With a howl of anguish, Bart sank to the floor.

The officers moved in and quickly cuffed Bart.

Bobby Pearce took Ingrid and Sean to one side.

“The store owner called us when the brothers arrived. They have been banned from this and all other stores in the chain for life. There is even a court order to that effect.”

Both Sean and Ingrid breathed a sigh of relief.

“How did you know which of his knees was bad?” asked the officer.

Sean managed a smile.
“He’s been in the bar often enough telling the story of how he scored the winning touchdown and got injured at the same time. Sometimes, he would roll up his pants so that everyone could see the scar. That’s why I kicked the other one.”

“That was well done and quick thinking. I really didn’t want to put one in him but I would have done had he refused to obey my instructions.

Sean looked at the officer right in the eye. He knew that what he said was true. That sent the shivers down his spine.

The officer pulled out a card and gave it to Sean.
“If both of you could drop by the Department later today to give a statement, I’d be much obliged.”

“We will Officer and thanks!” said Ingrid.

Bart was led away still in pain and claiming that he’d been assaulted but no one was listening to him.

Brad Mortensen came over to where Ingrid and Sean were standing.

“My Brother will not let this go. You made a fool of him and we don’t like that.”

“Are you threatening us? Asked Ingrid.

“Threatening? Nah. Promising Yep.”

Then he left them alone in the store.

Sean was visibly shaking.

“Come on, we need to get out of here!” he exclaimed.

“No! I’m staying. I have every word he said recorded. Now we take it to the cops.”

“That won’t matter a bit. Once we are dead is too late to complain.”

“Oh, I think we can do better than that,” replied Ingrid in a matter of fact way.

---

Once they’d given their statements to the Police, Ingrid played them the recording of the Brad Mortensen rant.

“We can do very little until and unless they actually do something against you,” said the Police Chief.

“Ok then,” said Ingrid.
“This all goes on social media along with your words. It is election year if I’m not mistaken. How will this go down with the electorate?”

The Police Chief was not impressed.

“Don’t go threatening me young lady. You fucking brits coming over here still thinking that we are a fucking colony of yours. We ain’t and haven’t been for over two hundred years.”

Ingrid laughed.
Then she pulled out her passport from her handbag. It bore the words ‘United States of America’ on the front.

“I’m an American and have been since birth. Perhaps you would like to reconsider your words?”

“Get the hell out of my department before I have you thrown out!”

Ingrid took Sean’s hand and walked out with her head held high.

Once they’d gotten into Sean’s Pickup, he started hitting the steering wheel with clenched fists.

“Don’t you understand anything? You don’t argue with the Mortensen family. They own this town. Their Pa is Mayor. The Police Chief won’t do a thing against them especially in Election Year.”

The smile that was on Ingrid’s face disappeared in a flash.

“I didn’t know. I thought that they were just local drunks.”

“They are the local drunks who happen to be the useless sons of the man who owns most of the property in town and those sons think that they can have any woman they want and there won’t be any comeback.”

Ingrid didn’t say anything for a full minute.

“I think we need to make them less powerful around these parts…?”

Sean sank back into his seat.

“And just how do you think that you are going to do that then?”

Ingrid smiled and tapped her nose.

“Firstly, we need to go home and put all that food into the fridge. Then it is time to head for San Francisco. I need to see a man about a dog or three.”

No amount of asking would get Ingrid to reveal what she was thinking. All the way back to Sean’s trailer and then all the way down to Frisco Sean tried his hardest but Ingrid just sat there with a smug smile on her face.

They stopped for a coffee just outside of Santa Rosa. As they were taking a break Sean, booked them a hotel for two nights then he waited for Ingrid to finish powdering her nose. As she came to sit in the booth opposite Sean, she looked very pleased with herself.

“Why are you so happy?”

“I just uploaded your little encounter with Brad and Bart plus the recording of the Sheriff not wanting to take any action over the threat of violence towards you from those numpties.”

Sean’s shoulders visibly sagged.

Ingrid leaned over and took his hand.
“Don’t worry darling. That is just the first move in my grand plan to get them out of our lives.”

“Gr…Grand Plan?”

“Yes. I have an idea of how we can get them out of our lives and everyone else’s as well.”

Sean tried hard but could not help himself from laughing.

Ingrid smiled as well. Then she leaned over and kissed him.

---

Ingrid refused to divulge her plan even though Sean tried his hardest. In the end, he just drove and did what she told him to. She was obviously very confident that it was going to succeed but kept him in the dark.

Even as late as ten the next morning, she just smiled back at him.

Ingrid called up a ‘Uber’ on her phone. It was to take them downtown to a place called ‘Sansome Street’. The car stopped outside a huge skyscraper.

“This is us,” said Ingrid with a huge smile on her face.

Sean could see that Ingrid was enjoying this whole thing.

They travelled up to the twenty second floor with Sean still none the wiser about what was going on. Following on like some lap dog and feeling very out of place in his jeans, black ‘T’ shirt and simple jacket. Almost everyone they’d seen were compared to Sean was very expensively dressed. Ingrid was like all women, able to make herself look worth a million dollars by the addition of a scarf and a hair grip. He just sighed at that skill. He was sure that it was just something women were born with. He was so jealous of her.

Ingrid led them to an office with a nameplate on the door.

“The Law Offices of Samuel Wall and partners.”

Sean took hold of Ingrid’s arm. She stopped and turned to him.

“Isn’t it about time you came clean?”

“I’m not sure if my plan will work. Give me an hour and hopefully, I’ll have some good news for you. It all depends upon what the lawyer says.”

“Says what? Come on Ingrid. Are you so unsure that you can’t tell me what is going on?”

“Please let me have this meeting and if it goes well then I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”

“And if it does not go well?”

“I’ll still tell you and we can drown our sorrows together.”

The determined look in her eyes told him that was as good as it was going to get at that moment.

“Ok but you promised.”

She leaned over and gave him a brief kiss on his cheek. Then she walked into the office.

---

Sean sat twiddling his thumbs for almost an hour before Ingrid came out of an inner office. She looked happy but he was still not sure.

“Let’s go and find somewhere for lunch. Then I’ll spill the beans.”

Sean had to go along with Ingrid despite his annoyance at being left out of the discussions.

The main lunch crowd had not yet arrived at the restaurant Ingrid chose.

“A table for three please. One person will be joining us shortly.”

Sean just stood there doing an impression of a drowning fish. Nevertheless, he followed Ingrid and the waiter to a table.

As soon as they were seated, Sean asked,
“Just who is going to join us?”

Ingrid looked him in the eye before saying,
“There are some things that you need to know about me. I was waiting for a more opportune time but those two jerks have forced my hand. We are going to be joined by my half-brother Jeff.”

To say that Sean was stunned by this revelation would be an understatement.

“You…?”

“Sorry darling. I know that I should have come clean before now but we were having such a great time getting to know each other that I kept putting it off and putting it off. Then the incident with ‘Mutt and Jeff’ made me realise that something had to be done and it would need the help of my half-brother Jeff.”

“What were you talking about with that lawyer for over an hour?”

“Money. Yes, the root of all evil and the solution to our problem.”

Ingrid could see that Sean didn’t fully believe her.

“Let me start at the beginning. I told you that I was born in El Paso. That is perfectly true. My mother was working and travelling around the country on her gap year. She originally came over and worked for a couple of months as an au-pair. She had to leave that after the man where she worked got a bit too interested in her. That was up near Seattle. After she left, she came south and got another job as an au-pair down in Silicon Valley. It was there that she met my father. He was home on leave. His family lived next door to the one where she was working. One thing led to another and when he returned to his base in Texas, she went with him. By now, she was pregnant. They would have gotten married but his father, my grandfather would hear nothing of it and made all sorts of threats to Jack, my father.”

Ingrid took a sip of the water that the waiter had poured for each of them.

“He, my father that is, stood by my Mother throughout the pregnancy and was at her bedside when I was born. Six months later, my mother’s visa ran out so she left the USA and went back to the UK taking me with her. My father sent money for me whenever he could but it was difficult when he got married to a woman that his father approved of.”

The sadness in Ingrid’s voice was apparent.

“Still, I used to come over every summer as a child and spend a week with my father. We went to all sorts of places in that week. At first, it was just him and me but when Jeff was ten years old, he came along as well. It was a bit strange but we got along very well. Early last year, I was looking for you and had just missed you in Ft Myers when I received news that my father had died. His affairs were only settled a week before I found you again.”

“And the Lawyer?”

“He was my father’s lawyer. He handled the estate after he died.”

Sean had just about managed to get his brain into gear when a waiter showed Ingrid’s half-brother to the table. There was a definite resemblance between the two.

Once the introductions were done and dusted, a waiter started to hover so they ordered lunch.

While they waited for their food, Ingrid brought Jeff up to speed.

“It seems that I arrived at just the right time.”

Jeff looked Sean in the eye.
“Ingrid has told me a lot about you. If she travels thousands of miles to find someone she really likes, must be worth it. This girl is an amazing woman.”

Sean managed a smile.
“So, I’m finding out.”

“Great. I have some news hot off the press.”

Without waiting, he said,
“My company has just put in an opening offer for their property portfolio.”

Sean was lost again.

“Just a minute people. Would someone please tell me just what the fuck is going on?”

Jeff looked at Ingrid. Then he said,
“You were right when you said that the Mortensen’s own the mortgages on about half the properties in town. So far, they’ve only managed to foreclose on fifteen or so properties. Everyone else is paying their instalments on time but my people think that it is hard going for another five or six owners. The Mortensen’s have to tread carefully or the state banking people will be down on them like a ton of bricks but my people seem to think that their backers… the people who lent the Mortensen’s the money to buy the loan book might be getting a bit twitchy”

Sean started shaking his head.

“This is not what I wanted from my life.”

His words seemed to be totally at odds with what Ingrid and Jeff were talking about.

“I just wanted a quiet life. This is not it at all. I don’t want any part of this or any other scheme.”

He looked at Ingrid.
“Why didn’t you tell me all about this? I would have told you to stop right there. Instead, you led me on a merry dance down here when… when if you had just trusted me… Oh never mind. I don’t want it and that’s that.”

Then he stood up and addressed Ingrid and Jeff.

“You,”
He said quite angrily to Ingrid,
“are just like my parents. You want to run my life. They had my future all mapped out from the day I was born. I was having none of that and did my own thing until about six months before the Ball when they finally stopped telling me what to do. You would not tell me about the fact that you had a brother until you had done a deal. Why? Because you love being in control.”

Neither of them said anything.
“I’m going home and then… well, I’ll be gone. Please don’t try to find me again.”

He left them in the restaurant feeling an awful lot better with himself. Ingrid and Jeff had been acting just like his parents in that they were trying to organise his life for him.

He had hoped that Ingrid would have learned a lesson after what happened after the Summer Ball. But no, she just had to be in control and that was what Sean did not want from his life.

[to be continued]
[The final part will be posted here in a few weeks. I was editing it and realised that it wasn't very good so back to the drawing board for most of it. I now know how it should proceed.]