I've decided to write a story elaborating on the events of the epilogue of Miss Puppet's glorious story- I really hope she doesn't mind, and I'd be especially grateful if she wanted to throw hints at me or correct me at any point. Though this is by no means the focus of the entire story (my story, that is) here's a bit of a good old Ruth and Celia chatter by way of an introduction.
There was, Ruth concluded, marriage and marriage. The first kind entailed legal documentation, the requisite jewellery, and that was about it, really. This was the kind of marriage that had her and Eddie stamped all over it, she reflected bitterly. Then there was the other kind: the devotion, the affection, the forsaking all others. The passion. She shivered pleasantly just a little at the thought, leaning further back into her chair in contemplation. Did one kind of marriage necessarily demand or require the other? No, given her own past experience, it did not. Therefore, if- on a purely hypothetical basis- Tim were to come over tonight and just neglect to leave, then there would be nothing more wrong in that than in the few times that Eddie had chosen to avail himself of her body before their marriage had finally ground to a halt. In fact, she thought, she suspected that there would be a lot less wrong in it if Tim were to spend the night in her house. And by house, she meant bed. And by bed, she meant arms.
"Ruth, what on earth are you looking like that for? You're watching me very oddly," the sound of Celia's voice brought her abruptly back down to earth.
She blinked hard, and took a sip of her tea, which was substantially colder than the last time she'd had a drink of it.
"What's the matter, Ruth?" Celia asked, "Aren't you very well? You needn't have come round for coffee just to be polite, you know, I don't mind."
"Tim's coming over tonight."
The confession- the entire contents of her brain at the moment- slipped from her mouth before she'd given it a second thought, partly because she was so relieved at being given the opportunity to get it off her chest. And whether or not it was a good idea in the long run to be telling anyone this at all, the look on Celia's face told her that she was almost as pleased about it as Ruth was. Perhaps even more so.
"Oh, Ruth!" Celia almost squealed she was so excited, evidently having made the assumption without a moment's hesitation that there would be... well, goings-on, as it were, "I'm so happy for you!"
"Why?" Ruth asked calmly and just a little testily "He's been to my house before."
"Yes but you said yourself, he's not just going to your house, he's "Coming over"," Celia reminded her, her eyebrows manoeuvring astonishingly.
"Is there a difference?" Ruth wanted to know.
"A world of difference, Ruth my dear."
"Oh." She did not know what else to say to that.
"Oh, come on Ruth, don't try to tell me that it didn't cross your mind," Celia's coyness could verge on devilish at times, Ruth realised, "If it didn't, you'd be about the only one. Everyone thinks you two are made for each other."
"Do they?" Ruth asked, genuinely surprised by this and rather pleased, although rather miffed that "everyone" had been discussing them.
"Well, everyone except Marie. She looked like someone had slapped her in the face with a wet fish."
This was not something that particularly surprised her, but it still made her smile a little bit.
"Ceal, I've told him that I love him."
Celia chose the wrong moment to take a large swig of coffee.
"Then what on earth are you worried about?" she demanded once she'd recovered herself, "You do love him, don't you?" she checked quickly, worrying that the problem might lie in a hastily made statement on Ruth's part or something like it.
"Of course I do," Ruth told her a little crossly, "Don't be silly, Celia."
"And he blatantly adores you and doesn't care who knows it. Well, this is an impossible situation if ever I came across one," Celia rolled her eyes as she reached for a biscuit to dunk into her coffee, "Honestly, Ruth, you must be absolutely crackers if you've a shadow of a doubt that-..."
"How do you know that I've got a shadow of doubt?" Ruth asked, trying to sound accusing in order to cover up just how right Celia was.
Celia eyed her up over the top of her coffee cup.
"Anyone could tell by looking at you," she remarked dismissively, "It's written all over your face. And even if it wasn't, I could tell because I know you, and you're Ruth, and you're bound to be worried about something. So out with it. What is it?"
Really, Ruth thought, if there was one thing she learned in the rest of her life it was going to have to be utterly inscrutable; otherwise she'd never be safe from the likes of Celia. She sighed.
"It's a long time since I've been... with a man."
"Even longer since you've been with a real man, given the way Eddie turned out," Celia amended.
"Well, quite," there was very little point in contradicting that, partly because it was true, "The point is, what am I going to do?"
"Well, if you're looking for the quickest solution to that specific problem, go and find Tim now and pin him down and make love to him with all possible haste."
"Celia! I'm being serious."
"So am I. You never know, you might feel a lot better for it," Celia told her, a glint in her eye, taking another biscuit, "Alternatively, you could take the more rational approach."
"That sounds like a very good idea."
"When he comes over tonight make sure you've got the lot: candles, music, nice food, whatever you need to feel relaxed. A pretty dress mightn't do any harm either. Let it take itself from there. I assume you've got no doubts that Tim's the man you want to be doing this with?"
"Celia, I love him and I mean it. And I'm not ashamed of it."
"You'd have been such a good heroine for a novel," Celia remarked with a smile in reply to Ruth's earnestness, "Really, I can't see why you're worried at all."
"The idea of sex frightens the wits out of me." Evidently, once she'd started confessing she couldn't stop.
Celia raised her eyebrows.
"Even with Tim?"
"Slightly less with Tim," Ruth conceded, "But the problem's not him, it's me!"
Celia tilted her head sympathetically, but not without a suggestion of firmness.
"Why?" she enquired.
"In the last few years with Eddie things weren't exactly..." Ruth didn't quite know how to voice it, "He stopped finding me attractive a long time ago," she concluded, looking down at her knees.
"Well, we all know what I think of his opinion, especially on matters such as these," Celia replied dismissively.
Ruth remained silent.
"That's it?" Celia enquired incredulously, "That's the only reason that you're worried?"
"It's a fairly big reason," Ruth told her, a little defensively.
Celia ignored the remark, and laughed out loud.
"Oh, Ruth! You've got nothing to lose. Go for it."
Ruth begged to differ.
"I've got Tim to lose," she pointed out.
Celia gave her a look.
"No you haven't," she told her with almost unnerving certainty, "I don't think you stand a chance of losing him at any time in the near future."
Please review if you have the time.