Loving Alina

Is harmless fun ever really harmless?

8. PETER

After our drunken encounter in the armchair, I knew 2 things. 1. I’d gone too far and 2. I ought to stop drinking so much around Alina. Drunk me can’t be trusted. Sober I wouldn't have behaved that way with her, even though I wanted to. I wouldn't want to be the cause of extra stress or heartache for her. I didn't stop myself from flirting though and I enjoyed seeing her flush red with embarrassment when I teased her. I loved it even more when she tried to flirt back, which was incredibly cute. It was obvious that this little thing we had going on was nothing more than a bit of fun, and I was enjoying myself while it lasted. s**t, the girl has been through enough. If she can’t enjoy a bit of flirting with someone who’s attracted to her, it’s a bad thing.

I knew she’d started looking for work. I didn’t know how to say to her that she didn’t need to do that without sounding like a chauvinistic pig. Living here for years mortgage free meant I'd saved a lot of money. She didn’t need to work. I could look after her while she was staying here and then she’d be back with Owen in no time, I was sure. Why bother starting a job when you’d then just have to leave? Plus, it's just added stress for her at a time when she could be concentrating on the things she cares about. She was working hard enough here anyway, keeping this place absolutely spotless and I did like looking after the women in my life, it makes me feel good. Sally would want me to take care of her daughter. She deserves to be looked after.

When the days started turning into weeks and Alina and Owen hadn’t fixed things, I wondered what was stopping them. I considered going to have a word with Owen for Alina's sake to tell him to get over himself and just apologize. She’d take him back in a heartbeat. Some men were incredibly stubborn. She might not wait forever. Come to that, I might not wait forever and the longer she stayed with me the more likely I was to make a move. The flirting level between us had escalated and if she was anyone else, I'd have moved things on by now.

Turns out I didn’t need to go and see Owen as he found me. Well, found my local anyway. I was having a drink after work with a friend when I saw him at the bar. He was hard to miss with his perfect hair and too tight tailored suit and the women all giving him come f**k me eyes. Prick. He really did think the world of himself.

‘Spill it then Pete, who’s the new girl. There must be one. Nothing else could cause you to have this ridiculous grin which seems to have been plastered on your face the last few weeks’ said James after a couple of pints. I laughed. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’, I replied, downing the rest of my drink. What he said was true though, living with Alina these past few weeks had made me feel better than I had done in years. Even with everything she is going through, she just had a way of lifting you up with her attentive, caring ways. She was so thoughtful. Lunches and dinners she made were always different, tasty and nutritious. She made a lot of effort yet made it look effortless. Not to mention the chatty narrative I was getting used to. I found it annoying initially, but I was starting to love how she always felt the need to say something - it had resulted in some really interesting conversations. The thing is, I hadn’t told any of the lads she’d moved in. In the beginning, it just didn’t come up in conversation, then I assumed she’d be gone in a few days so there wasn't really any point in saying anything and here we are weeks later. She'd well and truly won me over.

I glanced over at Owen. He looked the same squeaky clean, lanky posh boy he was when Alina first brought him home. Was he drinking a cocktail? f*****g loser. Jesus Christ. What did she see in him? I shook my head. I felt a cold delicate hand on my shoulder ‘Hey lover, nice to see you again’ said Ashleigh the barmaid. She draped her hand down over my bicep and sat in my lap for a moment talking to the lads and being sociable. I let her. She wasn’t my type, way too much make-up, but she had a nice body and I didn’t mind having a look when she was walking around. Ashleigh always wore skin-tight clothes, leaving very little to the imagination, so most of the men enjoyed having a good look and she’d definitely gotten around most of them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there is anything wrong with enjoying s*x or having multiple partners, but when you’d been around as much as Ashleigh had you couldn’t take her seriously. Besides, who wants to know that all of your mates have shagged your girlfriend? Ashleigh leaned forward to pick up a crisp from the open packet on the table in front of us and gave me a good view of her thong. Girl, I know what you’re doing, I thought. I plucked the elastic band at the top of her thong knowing it would pull the string tight up between her ass cheeks and it pinged back smacking the skin on her lower back. She turned around in a flash and slapped me on the chest playfully. ‘Cheeky boy. You shouldn’t tease,’ she said, leaving her hand on my chest and giving me a wink which told me I could tease her as much as I damn well wanted to. With a flash of her eyebrows she excused herself, saying ‘well, I better get back. Find me when I finish at 11 if you like’. I watched her walk away.

‘Dude! Are you f*****g Ashleigh?’ said James as soon as she was gone. ‘Are you seriously f*****g, f*****g Ashleigh? I hope you’ve been to the doctors and ordered an STD check’.

‘I’m not f*****g Ashleigh’ I confirmed. James narrowed his eyes at me, deciding if he believed me or not. ‘I mean, she’s not a bad shag as they go. A bit noisy in an annoying way, but she’s energetic’, James continued. I considered. An energetic shag sounded pretty good right about now. I wonder what she thought of James’s skills in return. I didn't want James's sloppy seconds after all and dismissed the idea of bedding Ashleigh. I looked back towards Owen. He was still drinking at the bar with a handful of people. Time to get another drink.

‘Another pint mate?’ I flashed my empty glass towards James, indicating I was going back to the bar. ‘You know it’ he replied finishing up in a couple of gulps and passing me his glass. I sidled up to the bar in a space next to Owen. He looked at me and I gave a little acknowledgement with a nod of my head, expecting him to say hello. He didn’t. There was no recognition there whatsoever. d**k. I rolled my eyes. ‘Hello my favourite’ Ashleigh crooned at me. ‘What can I get you?’ she asked suggestively. ‘Two more please Ash’ I said handing over our glasses. 'Anything else lover? she said as she was holding my pint glass under the tap. A damn good shag? I replied in my head as I considered her again. Maybe I would meet her after her shift.

In my peripheral vision I noticed a woman approaching Owen and wrapping her arms around him like a limpet. ‘Hello my love’ she said in a sickly sweet voice. Owen put his arm around her shoulder. I looked directly at her, wondering who it was that could turn Owen away from Alina. She had professionally dyed and styled hair and smart clothes that I assumed came with a designer's name. She looked up at him lovingly and pursed her lips for him to kiss, which he did. Owen looked completely under the thumb. How the f**k was I going to have a word with him now? I could just knock him the f**k out and have done. He’d deserve it. I weighed up my options knowing I wasn’t really likely to punch the guy, but enjoying considering the possibility. His bit on the side stayed glued to him while they all talked and she constantly had a hand on her stomach rubbing it like she had bellyache. Weird woman. I heard Owen offering her a drink in his usual posh-boy formal manner. Mummy would be proud, I was sure. ‘Honey, you know I can’t have a drink. The baby!’ she said, rubbing her tummy again. The f**k? I turned to look at her again. The what? Baby? Oh hell no. I stood ready to say something when James appeared in the gap between myself and Owen. ‘Everything alright dude?’ he asked with a knowing look. ‘What’s going on’ he said in a quieter voice. ‘Do we need to kick the s**t out of posh boy?’ he said, eager for a fight. James was a good friend.

‘He’d f*****g deserve it if we did’ I confirmed when Ashleigh passed over our drinks. Poor Alina. Did she know? She must know. This must be why they aren’t back together. My heart broke for her. f*****g hell. I put my head in my hands for a moment. I wanted to comfort her and make her feel better. Why didn't she tell me? She could have told me and I'd have tried to help. She never did talk to me about Owen, not once. Thinking of hugging her led me to thinking of groping her ass, which led me to thinking of kissing her and remembering when we kissed in the hall last week. She kissed me back and it felt so damn good. I wasn’t sure she would kiss me back. Oh god, the memory of spanking her ass. She called me Daddy and she knew damn well what she was doing, the naughty little minx. Hold on… if she knows about the baby, then maybe they really aren’t getting back together. So maybe our harmless fun isn’t harmless fun? I downed my pint. I was going home.