Chapter Nine

Deborah woke up for the second time that morning and stretched. Jon was sat up on his bed, legs crossed at the ankles, wearing a pair of low slung jeans and not much else. He was writing in a small note pad and had an intense but thoughtful look on his face. He was listening to his ipod and tapping one foot along to the melody.

Deborah smiled to herself as she lay on her side, cuddled into her quilt, watching him work. He was tanned but not to the mahogany hue that Richie favoured. It was more an ‘I work and play outdoors’ kind of tan than an ‘I own a tanning booth’ kind of tan. He had a small concentration of freckles dotted along his shoulders that the sun had brought out. He was still favouring the hairless chest look and Deborah jut let her eyes roam over his body. He had broad, muscular shoulders that led to well defined pecs and an abdomen she was sure she could bounce a penny off of. He wasn’t as muscular as he had been when filming ‘The Leading Man’, but it was close. His jeans fit his thighs tightly and revealed shapely legs that tapered off to long, slim feet.

It was weird, but nice, to be sharing a room with a man she wasn’t in a relationship with. Ever since Glen she had feared she wouldn’t ever want to sleep in the same room with a man again but Jon was so comfortable to be around he had taken away that fear, plus he was so easy on the eye.

Deborah let her gaze move back up to his face and jumped slightly as she was met with a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at her.

“Do I pass the test?” he asked, putting the notepad to one side and running the other hand through his blond shaggy hair.

Deborah had the grace to blush slightly as she sat up and pushed the quilt off.

“I think so.” she said, smiling at him as she got up and walked over to the balcony door.

“Hey if you wanna smoke in here, then smoke, no need to go out there for my sake.” Jon said, offering her one of his cigarettes.

She leant over to take one and he looked straight down her tee shirt. She had D cup breasts with rose areolas and he could also see the slight flair of her belly as her tee shirt gaped wide.

She took the cigarette and stood up, totally oblivious to his having checked her out.

She took a deep drag from the cigarette and sighed with pleasure.

“You know, this’ll mean that Jen and Richie will never come into this room, don’t you?” she said as she exhaled a plume of blue-grey smoke.

“I can but hope.” he smirked, “I don’t mean that but I swear, I went along earlier while you were sleeping…again, you know you keep that up and I’m gonna call you Richie mark 2, anyway I let myself in to my old room to get my stuff and he was stood there completely naked. I swear if I see that man’s balls or ass one more time I’m just gonna scream, no scratch that, I’m gonna go live on some desert island, somewhere where I will never have to see Richie naked anymore.”

Deborah started laughing at the thought of Jon running through the hotel screaming ‘my eyes, I’m blind!’

“It’s no laughing matter, I mean that man is so well built it’s enough to give you a complex you know. It’s bad enough that he has to be taller than me but to have that body and be older than me? S’not fair.”

Deborah looked at him, expecting him to have a huge grin but he wasn’t even smiling. She realised that he was serious and had a complex about the way he looked.

“But Jon, there’s nothing to compare to. You and Richie are just so different and perfect in your own ways. I mean Richie’s perfect to Jen. He’s loud and funny and good looking and pretty much everything she’s ever looked for in a man, whereas to me he’s high maintenance and I would always be aware of what I looked like, making sure every hair was in place in case I got photographed and I’m just not that kind of person.”

Jon was intrigued. He had used his ‘I’m not worthy and I’m really shy under my persona’ speech and she hadn’t turned round and kissed his ass, telling him how wonderful he was. She had told him he was as good as Richie but no better and no worse. He had started to use his little speech to weed out the ass kissers and those women who just wanted to hang off his arm.

“So what kind of man are you looking for?” Jon asked, lighting a cigarette and putting in the ashtray.

“Well one that doesn’t run off with a friend of mine for a start.” she tried to joke, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.

Jon reached out a hand and stroked hers.

“Is that what Glen did?” he asked, softly.

She nodded, not quite trusting herself to speak.

Jon moved over and sat cross legged facing her, taking her hands in his.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice softly whispering to her, full of concern and compassion.

Deborah took a deep shaky breath and adopting his position looked into his open, honest face.

“Lisa was someone I worked with. She was new to the office and the area. She’d moved there with her boyfriend but had split from him before she came to work. Well, she was young and pretty and quite shy and I guess I felt for her and took her under my wing at work. Very soon she was coming home with me for dinner and would often spend the night in our spare room. Glen hadn’t really taken to any of my other friends and I guess over time I’d lost contact with a lot of them because he wanted me to be with him. After a while Glen started to take an interest in Lisa and I was glad as no one wants their friends to be ignored by their partner, do they?,” Deborah looked back up at Jon as she’d been staring at the quilt.

“After a few months Lisa mentioned her lease was up and she needed to find somewhere to live, I said this to Glen and he said she should move in with us for a while until she found somewhere,”

Deborah sighed, tears in her eyes,

“God, I was so stupid, I didn’t even see it coming, you know? All I knew was that I had a friend again and that Glen got along with her. I didn’t even think it was strange that he’d stopped going out with his friends on a Thursday night and had started staying at home to talk to me and Lisa as it was the one night a week we were both on the early shift and got home early.”

“How did you find out?” he asked, holding tightly onto her hands which had gone limp in his grasp.

“I walked in on them. I knew Lisa was home as she’d taken the day off and I’d gone home sick, with a stomach upset, isn’t it funny how I can remember all these details as if it was yesterday? Anyway, I was looking for some stomach tablets and thought she might know where they were. I knocked on her door but the music was loud so I just walked in to find her astride Glen. They were so busy they didn’t even notice me for a few minutes, not until Glen opened his eyes and saw me in the doorway.”

Jon squeezed her hands and wiped a lone tear away as it trickled down her cheek.

“What did you do?”

“I left. I turned around, gathered my coat and bag and left. I went to another friends house and she took me in, even though I hadn’t seen her for over six months because of Glen, she was still my friend. You know sometimes people really surprise me. I mean she had every right not to speak to me because of what I did but all of that was forgotten and she let me stay with her and cry on her shoulder. She came back with me the next day and we cleared out most of my stuff. What we could put in my car anyway. I cancelled all my direct debits to do with the house and cleared out the joint account. That was six months ago and up until two weeks ago I hadn’t heard from him at all.”

Jon moved forward and brushed a soft, warm kiss on her forehead, before placing an arm around her shoulders and allowing her to rest against his chest.