My friend Sally – part 7

Sorry to have been ‘away’ for so long, but I was encouraged to turn my posts into a novel and I have been busily writing!
Sally is a fictional character but she has become very real to me. I was experimenting with a new genre of writing – my other novels have been mystery novels. Sally has led me to write The Turquoise Blue, a romance novel with adult content. Not only that, but the novel has turned into a trilogy. Sally really developed as I was writing, and I began to have so many ideas that couldn’t possibly fit into one book – well they could but it would have turned into War and Peace (perhaps not, but nearly as long!).
E L James has a lot to answer for! Yes, I read Fifty Shades of Grey like millions of others round the world, and although I enjoyed it on one level I was irritated that it was a man, Christian Grey, calling the shots. I’ve always been a strong-willed woman with a mind of my own, and it jarred a little. And so, Sally was born.
Those of you who have been following my posts will know that Sally had a really terrible experience in her childhood. But instead of making her a victim, the experience has turned her into a young woman determined to show what’s she made of. Initially she seeks revenge on men in general, and Aidan in particular. But life never really turns out quite the way you expect it to, does it? And that’s how it is for Sally.
Although I wasn’t born in Yorkshire I have lived here most of my life, and although I will never be accepted as a Yorkshire woman, I do think of it as my home. When Amazon did a survey recently they discovered that in the United Kingdom, Doncaster was the town with the most sales of erotic literature closely followed by Pontefract and Barnsley. (Those less kind individuals will probably be making comments about the need for Yorkshire people to have vivid imaginations!) It was therefore inevitable that Sally would hail from Doncaster, just down the road from my home. Although Sally leaves Doncaster to seek her fortune, she will return in the third book in the series.
If you would like to read more about Sally, you can download The Turquoise Blue from https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/368344 in formats suitable for most e-readers. It will also be available from most major online retailers. Book Two, My Camberwell Beauty, will follow in early 2014.

Tamara Gold
Author of The Turquoise Blue.
http://www.tamaragold.co.uk
email: tammygold13@gmail.com

My Friend Sally Part 6

Sally continued to tell me that after Aidan kissed her she ran out of the room to her bedroom, and Aidan followed her.
‘What’s the matter, Angel,’ he asked her. ‘Have I upset you? I didn’t mean to do that.’
And he told her how he really liked her mum, and how she liked him too. Surely Sally didn’t want to spoil her mum’s happiness. And, of course, Sally didn’t want to spoil her mum’s happiness and that’s why she went along with it, even though she hated it.
That first night, Aidan just cuddled her and told her she was very special to him. ‘He said he always wanted his own little girl,’ Sally sobbed, ‘and he stroked me to calm me down. I remember thinking that I had imagined it all, and that what he did was quite natural, but as time went on it became very clear that it was not natural at all.’
Sally stopped and looked at me. ‘Do you hate me?’ she asked.
‘What?’ I asked with incredulity. ‘What on earth are you talking about? Why should I hate you?’
‘Because I hate myself,’ she said sadly. ‘How could I let him do that to me?’
‘But you were only twelve,’ I said. ‘How could you stop him?’
‘I could have told mum,’ she said. ‘But mum was so happy. It was the happiest she had been for ages. She thought it was the real thing this time, and in the beginning I wasn’t sure what was happening. By the time I realised it was just too late.’
I remember she sat and stared into her wine for ages as though she would find the answer in the bottom of the glass.
‘You don’t have to tell me any more,’ I said.
‘Maybe I do,’ she said. ‘Maybe it’ll help.’
‘OK,’ I said, ‘but stop whenever you want.’
Sally took a deep breath and paused before continuing.
‘The next time mum went out I begged to be allowed to come to your house for a sleepover, but I remember she just laughed and said it was a school night and Aidan would be there so I’d be quite safe. I was terrified, but I couldn’t tell her why I didn’t want to stay with Aidan. After all nothing had happened then. What was I going to say?
As soon as she had gone out of the door, Aidan came and found me and he said ‘How’s my best girl then?’ and then my life changed for ever.
 

My Friend Sally Pt 5

Aidan had been seeing Sally’s mum for a few weeks when he moved in. It must have been just before he took us for that ice-cream sundae. Since Sally told me about him I’ve never been able to fancy a pecan again – how silly is that!
It took a while for her to tell me what had happened. She kept dissolving off into tears. I don’t think she’d ever have told me if she hadn’t had a glass too many that night. At first she enjoyed the attention. As I said her real father had gone off when she was only five and Aidan seemed not only to like her mum but to like her as well. He took us ice skating and he took her swimming and went to watch her play netball. She’d only just started playing netball but she was already quite good and had made the school team. He was like a real dad, and it was great.
Only, he wasn’t like a real dad at all. She started to feel uncomfortable when he caught her changing in her bedroom but she persuaded herself it was just an accident. And she began to be concerned by the way he looked at her. When she was telling me she said, ‘I know it sounds weird, and I didn’t know why it was creeping me out. I was only twelve and I’m sure I didn’t think this at the time, but now when I hear someone saying “he undressed me with his eyes” that sort of sums up how I felt. I just felt it wasn’t quite right.’
Sally persuaded herself that everything was fine and that she was just being silly and was unused to having a father figure in her life. Until the night her mum went out for a few drinks with the other women from work and Aidan looked after Sally.
She said he asked her if she liked him, and she said, ‘Yes of course I do.’
‘That’s good,’ he said. ‘Because I like you.’
And he kissed her. Not like a father kisses a daughter. Not like that at all. Sally found it hard to carry on and started to cry again. So I filled up her glass. I thought she needed to share her pain and if getting drunk was the only way, then so be it. And while I was at it, I filled up my glass as well. It looked as though I was going to need it as well.
 

My Friend Sally Pt 4

Sally was about twelve when her mum started to see Aidan.  I remember being quite charmed by him.  He took Sally and me to the Dome ice-skating a couple of times and seemed to be making a real effort getting to know Sally.  I thought it was really nice that she might be getting a new dad.  Her real father had disappeared when Sally was five.  When I say disappeared I don’t mean literally, of course.  He just decided he didn’t want to live with them any more.  Sally hasn’t seen him from that day to this and I know it hurts, so I was really happy for her when Aidan started seeing her mum.

I remember one particular occasion when we went to the Dome.  Aidan took us for an ice-cream sundae afterwards, and to this day I’ve never seen a sundae the size of that one!  It had five different flavours of ice cream – one was pecan and I’d never tasted pecans before.  The whole thing was smothered in cream and toffee sauce and all sorts of sprinkles and it was just heavenly.  It arrived in the most enormous glass dish with three spoons and we all just tucked in. 

Sally was so happy that day and I was happy for her when I looked across at Aidan as he put his arms around her, hugging her to him.  He called her his ‘best girl’ and now I think back I did wonder why she seemed to pull away from him, but at the time I just thought she was embarrassed by such a public display of affection.

It wasn’t until we were having a discussion about Adam that she told me.

‘Why do you treat Adam so badly?’ I asked her.  ‘He seems like a nice guy, and he’s really fit!’  I could still appreciate a good looking man even though I was starting to have doubts about my own sexuality.

We were enjoying one of our sleepovers and had shared a couple of bottles of wine between us which was a little unusual.  Sally had certainly drunk more than usual and she started to cry.

‘Oh, don’t cry,’ I called out, slightly alarmed.  ‘What have I said?  What’s he done?’

‘It’s not Adam,’ she said.

And then she told me.

 

 

My Friend Sally Pt 3

I often wondered why Sally treated Adam so badly. She’d never really had a boyfriend before. She always said she wasn’t interested, and I sort of understood that. I was going through my own journey of discovery as far as relationships went. I had a couple of boyfriends and experimented in the usual way – you know, going to second base was fun, but I always held back from anything more. And I sort of liked what they did to me more than when I had to do it to them – that freaked me out a bit.
But Sally preferred just hanging out with a group. We would go bowling or ice skating at the Dome. We had some great nights out together. There were about a dozen of us all told and Sally just enjoyed being with the gang.
In those days Sally and I talked a lot. We used to have sleepovers that didn’t involve a lot of sleep. Not that anything ever happened between Sally and me, I respected her too much and would never jeopardise our friendship. Not to say I didn’t think about it some times, though. No we just talked and talked all night. She had some wild dreams about how she was going to end up really rich and we laughed about what we would spend her money on. She was always really generous like that, it was always how we would spend the money.
It was quite a shock when she told me. I’d never suspected a thing. I knew her mum had a bit of a drink problem- nothing major but she could sink a few when she put her mind to it. I think that’s why Sally’s never been one to drink much – she doesn’t want to end up like her mum. It’s never been bad enough for her mum to lose her job or anything but there’ve been a few close calls. Sally has had to call work on several occasions to say her mum was sick after a particularly bad night, and I think her mum has been warned a couple of times.
It’s probably the drink that caused her mum to have a few dubious relationships. I always wondered about Robbie. I saw Sally’s mum with a few scratches and bruises and wouldn’t have been surprised to hear he was knocking her about a bit. But when I asked Sally, she said her mum could handle him and she didn’t put up with him for long.
But I didn’t ever worry about Aidan, and I should have done. I really should have known something was wrong.

My friend Sally Pt 2

By the time she was 18, Sally was well on the way to becoming Suki. She was still on the checkout at the local supermarket and she was still planning how not be there for the rest of her life. She wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. What she did know was that men were starting to take notice of her.
There was quite a fit guy who began to shop in the supermarket regularly. He never bought much -probably so he had to go back regularly. She was surprised he always arrived at her till until one day she saw him lurking in the aisles until her checkout was free. Then she knew she had the advantage and decided to play games with him.
‘I’ve seen you before, haven’t I?’ she began and smiled that smile.
‘Oh, have you?’ he stammered, blushing to the roots of his sleek black hair.
‘Maybe it wasn’t you,’ she continued. ‘That’ll be £3.29 please.’
As he fumbled for his money she continued to smile and fluttered her long curled eyelashes. She told me afterwards that as soon as she had his attention she gave him his change making sure that her hand touched his a little longer than she needed to. Then she smiled sweetly at the next person in the queue so that he had to just grab his groceries and run. And that’s almost what he did apparently, ran out of the store.
‘He’ll be back,’ she told me confidently.
And of course he was. ‘Why don’t you put him out of his misery and go out for a drink with him?’ I asked.
‘I’m having too much fun,’ she said. ‘And when I do finally go out with him, he’ll be so desperate, he’ll do anything I ask.’
His name was Adam and he was her first conquest – rather appropriately I always thought, Adam being her first man. Poor Adam, he didn’t stand a chance. She strung him along for several weeks before she agreed to go out with him, and she was right. He was desperate. He bought her chocolates and flowers. He took her to the cinema and to Doncaster’s finest restaurant for a meal. And she treated him like dirt.
‘Why can’t you just be kind to him?’ I asked.
‘He loves the way I treat him,’ she said.
And she was right. Adam gave her the germ of an idea, and she began to plan her future.

My friend Sally

My friend Sally is amazing!  She’s attractive in a down-to-earth way, and quite fit.  She used to play a lot of netball at school, and all that stretching and running has done wonders for her body.  And you should see her touch her toes- it’s quite a turn on.

Actually when she was at school she wasn’t that attractive.  She wore glasses and had these awful braces on her teeth.  That’s all you saw when you looked at her, a mouthful of metal and these goofy specs. She came in for a fair bit of name-calling I can tell you.  But she didn’t seem to mind.  And when the braces came off it made such a difference.  She has this great smile. It’s as if you’re the only person in the world when Sally smiles at you.

Sally left school at 16 and went to work in the local supermarket.  And she hated it.  Not that she had anything against shop work.  It just wasn’t her idea of how she would spend the rest of her life; sitting at a till scanning teabags and sanitary towels.  So she decided to do something about it.  And that’s when she became amazing!

We all have those dreams, don’t we?  Meeting a rich and handsome guy, travelling the world, no money worries, no worries of any kind – and of course the most amazing sex!  Sally knew that for her, a 16 year old girl living in Doncaster, it was not going to happen.  Well, not without a little help anyway.

First of all she went on a make-up course at the local college.  I must say I just put on a bit of moisturiser and some mascara but having seen what she looks like I’m beginning to think I have to make more effort.  It’s her eyes really.  She changed her glasses for coloured contact lenses, and now her eyes are this really gorgeous turquoise blue – they sort of grab your attention from the moment you clap eyes on her.  But she’s learnt all sorts of tricks with eye liner and eye shadow and they look twice the size as well.  Any man she meets does a double take, especially when she smiles at him.

And this was just the starting point. She had her hair highlighted and paid a fortune to have it styled.  Her mum didn’t charge her rent and so all her wages were her own, and Sally was never one for drinking it all away.  She liked the odd glass of wine, but that’s all it was.  I used to tell her she was a really cheap date! 

 Sally is not Sally any longer, she’s Suki.  And she’s not a checkout girl any more, she’s her own boss.  And she has pots of money.  All from those men who did a double take.

I’m not sure if I could have done what she did, but I sure envy her lifestyle now.  Keep in touch and I’ll tell you more.