An English gentleman does his bit.
My new friend Victoria walked into the room and I could tell at once it had been a tough day. I hugged her, kissed her, and told her to slip off her shoes.
Next, I sat her at the dining table and placed a large glass of very cold white wine in front of her. I could tell she needed it.
Next, I began to massage her shoulders and upper back, the knots of tension were obvious. I went to work with my strong hands. Working between her shoulder blades and her neck. Firm movements working my way into her muscles that were stretched so tight.
We had met a few months ago on a website of mutual interest and had got on immediately. We had a lot in common and made each other laugh.
I had recently given up work and taken an early retirement deal. I had sold my house in London and bought a place that needed a lot of work on the coast by the Hampshire/Dorset border. I didn’t want to stop work but an acrimonious divorce and a ruling by a lazy complacent English judge meant that it would be uneconomical to continue. Instead of paying my grasping, greedy ex-wife all my earnings I was starting afresh.
I’d always dreamed of retiring to Dorset but in the circumstances, that wasn’t going to happen. The house I had chosen had a garden and a lot of potential. I also had plenty of time.
I bought the dog I had always wanted, a Triumph motorbike and an old Mercedes estate from a friend.
An unexpected benefit of my new house was its position. It was situated right on top of a telecom's spine. Despite it’s rural/coastal position this meant that it had very fast reliable internet.
Victoria had divorced a year earlier than me and had bought a new flat in Southampton a city on the Southern coast of England. Despite its central location, her internet was not great. In order to be able to do her work, she rented a desk in a shared office space near the city centre. When the lockdown was announced the building owners shut the place down with twenty-four hours notice.
Victoria was an accountant and many of her clients were self-employed musicians. With the lockdown, none of them were earning a penny. They were all very worried. Victoria did her best to reassure them but I could tell that these repeated similar calls were taking their toll on her.
Victoria was stuck, April is tax return time in the UK and one of the busiest months of the year for accountants. She tried working from home but with the bulk of her work now submitted online, it quickly became obvious that working from her flat was not an option.