No s*x Please, I'm Menopausal!

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4

“THANKS FOR THESE, but it looks like a chapel of rest in here now! What’s going on?”

She laughed as she placed a vase of lilies on the polished glass top of the coffee table. Their cloying scent soon permeated every fibre of the room.

“I bought my wife some flowers, that’s all.” Neil sat back in his favourite armchair and switched on the TV.

Lyn hated lilies. They reminded her of funerals, of death, and of all her babies that had never been born.

“Gary rang earlier. He was at the gym and said you didn’t turn up.”

“I did, but I got there late. I can’t always finish work at five o’clock like him. I’m self-employed; I’ve got to go where the work is.” He hopped through several channels until he found a football match, much to her annoyance.

“He said your phone was switched off.”

“I didn’t have any signal. What’s this; the third degree?”

Pressing the mute button on the remote control, he turned his attention away from the TV and towards her. Lyn held her breath as she felt her husband’s stony gaze boring into her back as she knelt in front of him at the coffee table cutting off the lilies’ brown sticky stamens.

“No of course not. I just think he wanted someone to work out with.”

“I’ll be there next week.” He switched off the mute and returned to his programme.

Breathing a sigh of relief at avoiding another argument, Lyn finished arranging the flowers and stood up. Neil had become somewhat moodier lately, and she supposed it was all her fault for not being able to have s*x.

But would he want to do something that hurt so much?

“Shall we go out to Zizi’s for dinner tomorrow night?” She had already booked a table earlier in the day, certain that he would agree to an evening out at his favourite restaurant.

“Er........I’ve got a private job on after work; cash in hand job. Don’t know what time I’ll finish.” He kept his eyes fixed on the screen all the while as he spoke.

“Oh.” s**t. She would have to cancel the booking.

“I finished the month-end. We’re just over twenty five thousand pounds in the black.” She decided not to bring up the subject of Mickey Reeve’s elusive paperwork again just at that moment.

“That’s great. Thanks.”

She could see he was too engrossed in the football match to pay her much attention. Going into the hallway she grabbed the keys to the van, and decided to search it herself for the worksheet of the one customer that had spoilt her month-end figures.

Paperwork was strewn haphazardly about the interior, along with screwed-up wrappers from several fast food outlets. She retrieved the Tupperware box from the dusty floor of the van that had gone missing some time ago, which still contained the remains from a past packed lunch. She cursed her husband’s laissez-faire attitude at the sight of several mouldy bread crusts and rotting salad leaves inside.

She picked up a sheaf of worksheets from the passenger seat and had a quick riffle through them, but the dates were all still current. Smiling inwardly because at least she knew what she was looking for, she gathered up more loose paperwork from the floor behind the driver’s seat and scoured the dates for anything that coincided with March 19th, their anniversary.

There was nothing to find. It appeared that Mickey Reeve’s worksheet had not even been completed. With a sigh of irritation she replaced the papers on the floor behind Neil’s seat where she had found them, but as she did so she became aware of a flimsy piece of material poking out from underneath the seat that she had missed before. It appeared transparent and pale pink in colour.

Curious as to just what it was, Lyn pushed her hand underneath the seat and was shocked to find a pair of ladies’ panties, size 10. She stood on the driveway with the panties in her hands, and looked at them in disbelief. There was a pretty red rose embroidered just above the gusset on the outside, and with a searing dismay she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that as she was a size 16 there was no way they would ever have belonged to her.