Central Heating

Kay’s husband vanished in a puff of smoke.  Well, not really – but it seemed that way.  One moment he was there, the next he was gone.  Her Dad was right, “A shifty bastard” he’d said.  God, it’s nauseating when your parents are spot on.  She grabbed another chocolate from the almost empty box and flicked through the channels.  ‘Couch potato’ she thought, ‘more like couch mould, slow growing fungus, a mildewed arse.’  She’d always been prone to hyperbole, mainly when upset.  But in this case, it was reasonable.  It’s not everyday you catch your old man with his dick in his secretary, or more accurately her mouth.

She’d dropped by his trucking firm, without warning.  He owned the place, built it from scratch.  Anyway, she couldn’t find him in the porta-cabin office, so she snooped round the yard.  Muffled sounds from one of the lorry cabs alerted her curiosity.  Peeking in the window, she saw her other half about to come.  His eyes were tight, head thrown back. His mouth gulped like a fish.  She peered in further.  There was Crystal; sweet, slim twenty four year old Crystal, sucking Danny’s cock like she’d not eaten in days.  His hands were tangled in her long blonde hair, and by the way the veins in his temples bulged, it looked like Crystal was about to get dinner. 

Kay opened the cab door.  “Dictation Crystal?”  

The girl looked up, startled.  Actually, ‘a rabbit in the headlights’ would be more accurate, a bunny with a large glob of cum dribbling from the side of its mouth.

“What the Fuck are you doing here Kay?!” yelled Danny.

It was strange how Kay held it together.  “Well Danny, there’s no confusion about what you’re doing here, is there?”  

She slammed the door shut, and turned on her heels.  Driving back to the house, she kept swallowing hard.  Tears wouldn’t be good.  She had to focus on the traffic.  By the time she got in, her thoughts had crystallised.  She pressed out a phone number.

“Hi.  Is that the locksmiths? Good.  Look, can you do an emergency job?  My purse and keys were stolen.  I need every lock changed as soon as possible.  Great, you can make it in an hour?  You’re brilliant.  See you soon.” 

She knew there was a large can of petrol in the garage.  She’d need it.  After she waved the obliging tradesman goodbye, she gathered all evidence of Danny’s existence and piled it in the front garden.  It was an impressive heap.  Sixteen years of marriage leaves a lot of debris.  A January day in London is very short, and by five thirty pm huge flames leapt against the night.

The firemen were very efficient as they hosed down the neighbours new wooden fence, and the ambulance men that took her away were very nice.  She wasn’t injured, just sobbing and rocking hysterically on the lawn.  They couldn’t get much sense out of her.  The new mental health unit wasn’t unpleasant, but they only kept her a couple of days.  “Pressure on beds” they said.  The lady psychiatrist nodded sagely when Kay poured out her story.

“Well, no voices and the tv doesn’t tell you what to do.  You say you’re not feeling suicidal.  What about homicidal?”

Kay saw the woman raise her eyebrows and peer over the top of her steel rimmed glasses.  “No, not now.  I’m over that.  I’ll be fine.”

“Hmmmm.  OK then.  Your parents are looking after the kids for a couple of weeks? How old are they?”

“Twelve and fourteen, and yeah, Mum and Dad are taking them off my hands for a while.  To give me a break.”

“I want you to take things easy.  You’ve just had a big shock.  Come back and see me in two weeks.  In the meantime, take these.”

Kay saw the doctor scribble a prescription.

“The Valium is not to be taken for more than seven days, same goes for the sleeping tablets.  I’ll start you on a small dose of Prozac; then review it when you see me next.  Is that clear? Any questions?”

“No.  I just want to go home.”  Kay saw the shrink smile.

“Of course you do dear, and you can.  You know, anger’s not a bad thing sometimes.  It just has to be channelled.”

And that’s why Kay was curled mournfully on her sofa, eating chocolate and flicking through daytime tv.  There was also a half empty bottle of wine at her feet.  It had mixed effortlessly with the pills from the doc.  Steadily though, she began shivering.  She touched her nose.  It was freezing, like her fingers and toes.  What the hell was going on?  What the fuck was wrong with the central heating?  Reluctantly she moved and touched the nearest radiator.  It was icy.  Hell!  The mercury was dropping fast.  She glanced at the news.

“Overnight conditions for this time of year will be unusually cold.  Minus 6 to minus 2, with a big wind chill factor.  Snowstorms are predicted for the southeast.  We recommend you wrap up well.”

‘Fuck, that’s all I need’ she thought, ‘they’ll find me dead in the morning from hypothermia, like some little old lady.’

However, Kay’s instinct for survival wasn’t easily beaten.  She flicked through the Yellow Pages, and then picked up the phone.  “Hi, is that Abba central heating engineers?  My system’s packed in.  Can you make it round today?”  It was a litany she repeated many times.  Seems everyone’s was broken.  By the time she got to ‘Zacharia & Sons’ she was desperate.  “What, you can make it? Today? Thank God.  A couple of hours? Yeah, that’ll be fine.”

She opened the front door wrapped in a thick dressing gown, covered with a blanket, glass of wine in her hand.

“Bit chilly in here then luv? Your system needs fixing?”

“Yeah.  You could say that.  I don’t normally wear a quilt round the house.”  She saw him grin, a young lad, early twenties maybe.

“Don’t worry luv, we’ll get it in shape.  Can’t have you freezing to death. Oi, Liam get over here. ”

Kay’s eyes followed his gaze, and she saw the back of a big guy pulling some tools from the back of a van.  She took a sharp breath when the stranger turned and started walking towards her.  It was Liam alright, THE Liam.  The Liam that had broken her heart at the tender age of twenty two, eighteen years ago.  At twenty-four, she’d married Danny.  Her Mum reckoned she was on the rebound.  Maybe she was right.

“Fuck Liam, what are YOU doing here?  I thought William Blake and Sartre was your bag, you know, the meaning of life?  Isn’t this a bit downmarket for you?”  She saw him smile.

“Haven’t changed, have you Kay? Actually, this is research . . . nah, that’s bullshit.  There isn’t much use for a poet with a philosophy degree, so this keeps me from starving while I write my best seller.  How about you?  How far did that journalism degree get you?”

“I work three days a week at the local rag – and yeah, I know. It’s a long way from BBC foreign correspondent, but I gave up on that when I had the kids.”

“Well, are you just going to let me freeze on your doorstep while we talk about old times, or do I get to come in?”

“Oh yes, come in.  Please.”  

His Irish cheek was obviously intact, same as the dancing eyes and Celtic good looks.  The latter was slightly worn, but no less appealing.  She remembered their acrimonious split.  She couldn’t cope with his sexuality; it included guys, though he said he still loved her.  Apparently, he swung both ways.  That’s fine in theory, but hard to take when the male professor is fucking your lover, specially when the academic in question gets to mark your paper.   She saw Liam check out her living room, and noticed his eyes rest on a family portrait, the only one of Danny that had escaped the inferno.  Well, she couldn’t burn a picture of the children.

“Mmmmm, Kay.  You’ve got a nice place here.  You’ve turned into a respectable wife and mother.  Where’s the old man and kids?”

Should she tell him? Hell, why not?  She’d given up on propriety; she didn’t give a rat’s arse.  “My husband’s probably got his cock in his secretary’s mouth, and my kids are with mum and dad because I’ve just had a nervous breakdown.”  She saw Liam’s face fall with shock.  The dismay was quickly swapped with a grin.

“Poor baby.  See, I was right.  You shouldn’t have left me.  I wouldn’t have fucked my secretary.”

“No, that’s because you’ll never have one and you fuck your professors instead.”

“Ouch, that’s not fair.  I didn’t lie.  I wanted you to play as well, but you wouldn’t.”

“Liam, if I wanted to go to bed with the guy, which I didn’t – it wouldn’t have been to watch him fuck you.”

“Where’s your spirit of adventure Kay?  You might have liked it.”

She gave him a baleful look.  The pain of their split had never left, just healed over a bit.  There’d never been anyone like Liam since.  His bedroom skills had curled her toes; Danny came a very poor second.  Then the young bloke with Liam asked a question.  It interrupted her train.

“Right then Liam, where do we start?”

Kay snuggled in the sunroom at the back of the house, while the guys played with spanners and screwdrivers.  It was smallest area, easy to keep warm with a two-bar electric fire.  The expansive windows were double glazed, and made the most of the dull winter light.  She tried to read a book, and kept sipping her wine.  ‘Alcohol and tablets don’t mix.’  That’s what they’d told her.  Fuck them.  She was having a very nice dream, and then she came to the surface.  She opened her eyes.  It wasn’t imagination.  Liam had spread open the dressing gown and blanket layers, and was gently sucking on her left breast, while one hand played with the other.  She saw him look up.

“Ah Kay, you know I could never resist your nice big titties.  You were lying here so peacefully.  I’ve always been a very bad boy . . . “

Kay moaned a little, and ruffled his soft dark hair.  It was hard to be outraged.  It felt so good, and the vintage soaked pills had created a pleasant fog. 

“Liam, just fuck me.  Screw me until I can’t take any more.”  She watched him grin again.

“Yeah, I can do that, but what about Jason here?  I don’t want to leave him out . . .”

Kay looked up at the lithe figure standing in the doorway. “Yeah, why not?  I’ll have both of you.”  She just sighed in submission when Liam made her kneel in front of the large leather armchair, her head in Jason’s naked lap.

“Now Kay, remember how I used to do this to you?  Take you from behind, while I played with your pussy?  You always came hard.  You’d squeeze my cock like a Boa and scream for more.  I’d pull in and out slowly, until you begged.”

“Yeah” Kay whispered hoarsely, “I remember.”

“When I slide in, will you do something for me? Will you suck Jason’s cock real hard, and tease the end with your tongue?  I want to hear him groan every time I push; I want to watch his face screw up with pleasure. It’ll be like fucking both of you at once.”

Kay didn’t say anything.  Just nodded.  She caught the faint musky smell from Jason’s groin, and then stroked his warm erection.  The sensation of Liam’s cock slithering inside her was like a lightening bolt.  She bore down on it like a bitch on heat, and then heard Jason grunt as her mouth tightened around his penis. 

“That’s good Kay, that’s good.  You’re doing great.  Jason likes it.”

So did she.  Liam’s fingers were playing a decadent rhythm around her clit.  She wriggled her arse to get more, and caught Liam’s laugh.

“You were always a randy little cow Kay.  How have you managed without me?”

“Arrogant bastard” she mumbled, between mouthfuls of cock.  She heard him chuckle again, and then felt her belly tighten as he stabbed her particularly hard, and increased the speed of his stroking. 

“See baby, see.  See how well I can make you come.  Keep sucking though.  I want to see Jason lose it as well.”

It was too, too hot and Kay soon tumbled over the edge; she thought the spasms would never stop.  Liam was fucking her like a demon, and Jason’s groans bounced off the glass when he spurted. The young lad came fiercely, his hands wrapped in her hair; while Liam’s shudders made it very obvious he’d made it too.

“What the fuck’s going on?!”

Kay looked up blearily from her cosy haven.  She was lying on her large sheepskin rug, covered with a quilt and sandwiched between two slumbering men. 

“Oh Danny.  What the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?”  

She never found out, he turned and left. 

She just smiled a secret smile and went back to sleep. 

The central heating men had lit more than one fire.

 

27.07.06