It was a seeming quiet night in the small town house on the outskirts of London, when all of a sudden there was a loud scream from the room down the hall. Anna Smith looked up quickly from her current task of packing her bag for her three week vacation and ran down the hall to her roommate's room.
"What happened?" the small blonde questioned as she came to a sliding halt at the door. As she took in the scene in front of her, she understood what was going on and smiled, "Oh my lord. Are you moving out? You do realize it's only three weeks, right?"
Gwen sighed loudly as she threw her hands into the air, "Yes Anna I understand that. It's just everything I want to bring with me won't bloody fit into this bloody suitcase!" She yelled as she gestured at the mountain of clothes and shoes on her bed.
Anna just shook her head as she looked at about a dozen different pairs of shoes, twenty different shirts and dresses, and at least half a dozen pairs of pants all atop what she believed was the smallest suitcase she had ever seen. "Darling why don't you call your brother and ask him to drop off one of his larger suitcases. That tiny thing isn't going to do you any good, and he's bound to have one with all the travel he does."
Gwen smiled at her roommate as she threw her red hair up into a messy bun, "What would I do without you Anna?"
"Sometimes I just don't know?" Anna laughed, earning her hard look from her friend. "Now call your brother and I'll go make us a cup of tea."
Half an hour later Gwen's brother Michael was at the door with a much larger suitcase. As Gwen excitedly ran upstairs to complete her packing, leaving Anna and Michael alone in the living room.
"Thanks for coming by so quickly, your sister was having a very real packing dilemma." Anna laughed as she handed him a cup of tea.
"Not a problem at all, not like I had an plans tonight." He laughed at himself. "Also gives me a chance to see my sister's very pretty roommate."
Anna looked down awkwardly at her hands. She didn't hate to hear she was beautiful, it was just made her uncomfortable when it came from her roommate's younger brother. Michael was a very attractive young man if she was truly honest, and she never knew how to handle it when he offered he complements like this. "I'm sure your mates are waiting for you at the pub, and it will be filled with lots of pretty girls who will swoon over you."
"It's too bad the one girl I want to swoon over me doesn't though." He took a step closer to her.
Holding her ground Anna sighed, "Please Michael, you know I've just gotten out of a long relationship and I'm not ready to date. You're a sweet boy, it just wouldn't work. I'm sorry."
"I'm not a boy Anna. I know you might think you're not ready to date, but I think you are." He put his mug down and was reaching for Anna's hand when they heard someone clear their throat.
"Hope I'm interrupting something." Gwen said, "Shouldn't you be heading out Michael? Anna and I have a lot to do tonight."
At that Michael turned away from Anna and walked to the door with his sister. Gwen came back shortly after and found Anna sitting on the arm of the sofa. "Why won't he get the hint Gwen? He's a nice bloke and everything, but I'm just not interested and he won't seem to drop it."
"Well he's a guy, and an idiot. He's my brother and even I don't think he's that great of a guy. But I did tell him off when I sent him on his way out the door." Gwen stated as she walked towards the kitchen, pulled out two beers and walked back to her friend, "And anyways, we're going to be leaving tomorrow and we aren't going to let that little prick ruin it are we?"
Anna took the beer and smiled up at her friend, "Definitely not. Shall we get back to packing? We've got an early start in the morning." Anna was very excited to be getting away from the hustle and bustle of city life, and enjoy some peace and quiet in the country side with friends.
As the pair walked up the stairs to the bedrooms Gwen looked to Anna, "Could you help me with a couple of shirts, I can't quite decide whether or not I want to bring them with me or not."
"Certainly, milady. Can't have you running around up north if you're not in the right attire." Anna replied with a curtsey and a giggle, earning her a smack from Gwen.
They worked quietly at picking out the right shirts for Gwen to take with them. As Gwen packed the last of the shirts she turned to see Anna fiddling with one of the rings she was wearing. "I hope you're not letting what Michael did get to you."
"It's definitely not that. I'm just ready to find a good guy."
"Well maybe you'll meet a nice bloke while we're away." Gwen suggested. "But make sure he has a brother for me though."
"Really Gwen? I'm not leaving for a vacation away with you so that I can fall in love with some man up north."
"First off Anna, no one said anything about love. I'm sure there will be many nights out with Sybil and Mary at the pub, and who knows who you might meet there." Anna raised an eyebrow at her. "And no, I'm not saying bed every man you meet."
Anna just shook her head at her friend and returned to her room, thinking as she finished up her packing. She wasn't completely against meeting new people while she was on vacation, she just didn't have a good track record of meeting nice guys at pubs. That's where she had met Ciaran, and look where that landed her. He was a nice bloke at first, taking her out for dinner and treating her like a queen in front of their friends. They were happy, or at least she thought they were. After six months of dating, they moved in together. That when she began to notice things changing. Ciaran began to work longer, and usually came home drunk. She felt like she was in college again, dating the captain of the football team. It was a month ago when Anna had found them. She was returning home early from a business trip. She only stayed in the apartment as long as was required to gather up most of her belongs and she was out the door. She never found out how long he had been sleeping with her, nor did she care. She immediately turned to Gwen, and was welcomed into her friend's apartment as soon as she had turned up with bags of her things. After a couple weeks of discussion with friends, the ladies decided it was time Anna took some vacation and here they were packing for three weeks away with their friends Mary and Sybil Crawley.
It was a warm day in the small countryside of Yorkshire. John Bates was busy outside the hotel checking the most recent delivery for the hotel's restaurant. There was one month left in the busy summer season and John was ready for some time off and a break from work.
"Sir?" the delivery truck driver asked, shaking John out of his day dream of a week away on the rocky shores of Ireland with a beautiful woman by his side.
"Sorry. That's everything then?" John asked as he took the clipboard and signed. "Thanks again for the last minute delivery. See you next week."
"Not a problem sir. Have a good day." The driver smiled and returned to the back of his truck to get ready to leave.
John closed the delivery door and walked back through the kitchen towards the main offices. It was still fairly quiet in the kitchen with the workers slowly arriving to start their day's work. As he rounded the corner he saw that Robert's office light was on. That's strange, Robert is never this early, John thought to himself as he continued towards Robert's office.
"You're here early Robert. Cora kick you out this morning?" he said with a smirk.
"Very funny Bates. Cora is on the rampage getting the house ready for the girls' friends coming to visit, so I thought I would escape the chaos and come to work." Robert groaned. "How do you do this every day. I'm exhausted."
"You get used to it after a while," John smiled taking the seat in front of Robert's desk. "How long are your visitors in town? Does this mean we'll be seeing more of Mr. Crawley at Downton Inn for the next couple of weeks?"
"Possibly. There will be a lot of women running around my house, so you better come over and save me when I need it."
"Ah to be young and wild again." John joked.
"Yes, those were the days." Robert laughed along. "Speaking of young and reckless, any updates on the matter of Mrs. Bates or hopefully the former Mrs. Bates?"
"If only she was the former. She's run off again and I'm not sure what to do anymore. As long as she leaves me be I'll be fine. Not that I'll be interested in anyone every again, or them in me for that matter. I've turned into quite the old man."
"Leave it then. No bother worrying over it if there's nothing to be done." Robert sighed as he continued to look at his computer screen. "All these ruddy emails are driving me up the wall!"
"Why not take a couple days?" John suggested. "I'm sure Mr. Carson, Mrs. Hughes, and I can keep everything under control."
"I completely agree with you Bates, but it's high time you took some time off yourself."
"There's no reason for me to take time off. No family to visit, no wife to take out of town." John shrugged. "Anyways, I enjoy my work, and you wouldn't last two days without me."
Robert laughed as his friend left, "Bugger off Bates. I have emails to read!" Unfortunately for Robert, John was right, the hotel wouldn't have made it as far as this without his help.
Later that evening after work John received a text from Robert inviting him over for drinks and a little poker. As he made his way up the path, he noticed there was a lot of commotion coming from the large house. He approached the large door and rang the doorbell. Instantly the sounds of claws on hard wood and the ringing of barks could be heard as the house pet, Isis, charged the front door. This was soon followed by the loud booming voice of his friend Robert who quickly opened the door. "Ah John. Come in. How are you old fellow?" Opening the door to allow John to enter.
"I'm well. How are you my friend? Still getting ready for your visitors I see?" John said as he took off his jacket. "Doesn't seem to be in complete chaos."
Robert laughed as they walked into the large living room where they found Cora sitting on the couch ready a book. "Bates is here darling."
Cora looked up from her novel, "Evening John. How are you?"
"I can't complain. Ready for the weekend though." He said with a soft smile.
"Robert tells me you're taking the next two weeks off. Is that true?" Cora continued.
John coughed on his scotch as he heard Cora's question, "Well that's news to me. It'd be nice but there's nothing I need more than work to distract me from the mess of my life."
"Vera still giving you trouble then?"
"That's putting it nicely. She's run off again. But I'm not bothered either way, as I was telling Robert earlier."
"Ah well, she was a retched woman anyways." Robert added, taking a drink of his whiskey.
"Robert!" Cora scolded.
Laughing, John replied, "Never heard truer words." He raised his glass to Robert.
"Now Bates, we are taking the girls and their friends to our beach house this coming Tuesday. Cora and I would love to have you join us." John Looked to be about to argue but Robert raised his hand to stop him, "We won't take no for an answer, and no more of your silly excuses. It's already been cleared up with Carson and he says everything will be under control."
John shrugged with a sigh, "Obviously I don't have a choice in the matter."
Putting her book down, Cora looked at both men. "Oh good. It'll be such a good trip, and you'll love the girls' friends. They're both lovely."
John just smiled as he took another sip of his drink. It looked like he was going to get his vacation away after all, maybe not with a lovely woman his side, but a trip with the Crawley's was never a disappointment. And who knows, this might be just the thing his life needed.