Flashback: Reunion

M had not seen these women in an year at Nigel's funeral. They tried to meet as much as possible but as it is in all friendships, sometimes distance and life gets in the way.

Ages ago, in the 1960's Olivia lived with Maggie, Helen and Penelope. It was before her marriage, motherhood, career and geography pulled them apart.

Maggie lived in York, Helen in Edinburgh and Penelope moved to France after their years together as flatmates.

This year is their 45th anniversary and they chose a weekend in the summer to all meet in London. Unfortunately, Penelope passed away due to breast cancer the previous month and would be sadly missed this year. M had been unable to make it to her funeral but Maggie and Helen had.

They usually move locations to each others houses but Olivia had pushed for London this year, because of work. They had no idea what it was that she did for a living and as far as they were concerned, Olivia was a consultant. Although, Maggie had always expressed suspicions about her job and would jab her from time to time, about what she really did for the government.

This weekend is just what M needed. Time to laugh and forget about her empty flat and the disruptions caused by governments, here and around the globe. Not to mention, her increased irritation with one incredibly disruptive individual of late.

M wanted to block that one out in particular. Bond would be forced from her thoughts, while she drank, laughed and shared memories with the girls.

Girls...they had long moved past that! Greyed old mare's they had become, in the last forty-five long years since they met. They dined together in the hotel restaurant and retired to the bar lounge for more drinks after.

They had a large table booth at the back, where they can overlook the businessmen drinking and chatting up the attractive waitresses at the bar.

M sat on the outer edge of the booth, across from Helen as Maggie took the middle to stare at the entrance and all the attractive men at the bar.

"So like you Mags, always ogling the men, just like in the library all those years ago." Helen said as she took a sip of her wine.

Olivia was feeling very relaxed at the moment, considering she's had a few. The three of them had at times, been laughing until tears leaked from their eyes.

How strange it was to think back on all the time that had passed and here they are. It was like they had never been apart. Isn't that always the way with old friends.

Speaking of the past was somewhat bittersweet, the three of them are now unfortunately widowed and reflection brings Olivia back to her early life with her husband.

Melancholy brushed aside; Olivia practically spit out some of the white wine she'd sipped, because Maggie was doing imitations of people they had hung around with in the sixties. That and mocking Olivia's notorious first date with her future husband.

"You both bothered me about it last time we met like this and he was still alive...this is the first year without him...I..."

Maggie patted her hand in sympathy and tried to steer the conversation instantly to something else.

Once the cat was out of the bag, they spoke about those they had lost, the evening was suddenly becoming melancholy. It was only natural and could not be helped. Yet, these three intrepid women were determined to avoid such sombre tones, with such a short weekend reunion.

"I know!" Maggie said suddenly to lift them out of their doldrums. "Let's play truth or dare!"

Maggie was the tallest of their group. In her youth she had intimidated men with her height and her wicked tongue. Even aged she was tall and still willowy as she was in their youth.

"Oh dear God," Olivia moaned. Helen perked up. "We should. We have all been through a lot and missed a lot of each other's lives. It will be fun. Not to mention, there are things I've always wanted to know." Helen chuckled.

Helen was the prettiest of the group with long, now bottle-blonde hair. Olivia had always lamented about being the shortest in the group. Maggie always said that she made up for it in nerve and attitude, not to mention planning. Olivia was the planner...she managed the rest of them like matron even when they were young and wild.

"I'm going to need more to drink for this." Olivia said as the others laughed and wave to the very tall, dark and handsome waiter, to bring another bottle of wine to the table.

"Rules….rules...a bet." Helen said. "What will the challenge winner get and who decides?"

"For easy truth questions, once answered the questioner has to drink. For a dare...depending on size...I don't know...money?" Maggie suggested.

"How much?" Olivia asked.

"If we ask jointly how about 100 each...so 200 pound if you win." Maggie offered.

The three of them finally agreed to the challenge. Helen went first and choose truth. Olivia and Maggie put their heads together to think of a question.

"Helen, did you ever finally have it out with your sister after she stole your boyfriend David?" Olivia asked.

"Oh god...that! Yes, well I did sort of."

"What do you mean sort of?" Maggie asked. "You always were too bloody soft with her Helen."

Helen laughed. "You may not think that now. You know how revenge is all the sweeter for the waiting?" The two women nodded. "Well, as you know she married him and when Greg died they were both very supportive…"

The wicked gleam in Helen's eyes was enough to make the two of them perk up in attention as they lowered their voices conspiratorially. "And?" Olivia and Maggie asked as they hung on the edge of their seats.

"I slept with him."

"You what!" The two women gasped in shock.

"In fact we've been having a fling behind her back for years now."

"You're a bloody mistress!" Maggie cried, laughing as she slapped Helen on the shoulder.

Helen perked up. "Ouch...Maggie that hurt. Now drink up you two. It's your turn Olivia. Oh and the rules for truth are that if anyone can catches you, or suspects a lie...well...then you're out and lose."

"Fine, but right off the bat, I will choose dare."

Olivia smiled knowing that these two have always wondered where she worked...exactly. Being her oldest friends, they had an inkling that her stint in the security services evolved into something more. Something decidedly more secret.

The problem with best friends that have known you forever...they can sense the lies better and easier than any cover story she could have provided. Not to mention over the years she had given different stories that could crumble very easily under their type of scrutiny. They could be agents of interrogation these two.

Maggie slid over to Helen in the booth and they whispered to each other.

"She'll never do it...I know and we will win." Is the only part that Olivia could make out.

"I know by our conversations over the last year, that you have not been seeing anyone since Nigel passed." Maggie said in mock seriousness. "We want you to have a one night stand."

"What! Now! Here?"

Helen nodded. "You've never had one, as long as we've known you. You were dating Nigel within a month of the start of second year and that was it. You never admitted to any teen love affairs so we assumed you...little miss innocent...never had one."

"Yes and after a year of widowhood...you need one love." Maggie added.

"I do not!"

"Yes you do. You need to climb back up on that horse." Maggie laughed. "That is our dare to you and if you don't accomplish it then you lose and we know how much you hate loosing."

"I suppose we should give her a time limit or she will back out." Helen added.

"Yes, we should. How long? I'm sure you could find someone. Or...perhaps you have someone in mind already?"

"I do not! How long are you giving me?"

The two women whisper back and forth. "One week." They both said together.

"Only a week!" Olivia exclaimed as Maggie and Helen nodded yes.

"Fine. Maggie it's your turn; and we are only doing one bloody round of this, or you will have me remarried by the end of the month." Olivia said wagging her finger at the two women.

"Fine let me have it. I pick truth." She looked beside her to Helen who seemed to be absolutely bursting at the seems to ask her the question.

"Did you sleep with Edward that night? You know the one where your lipstick was all over his collar?"

Olivia and Helen perked up for her answer. This was one of the most controversial things to happen in their shared flat all those years ago. Edward was seeing one of the girls in the downstairs flat and one night...well Edward was seen coming out of Maggie's room by Pen when she'd come home early.

"Damn it! Can I pick dare?"

Helen laughed and said, "no." Even though they now had their answer. "Details Maggie...we want them now."

"Fine I admit it. I don't bloody remember many details it was 44 years ago! I remember him sitting on the stair with a couple of bottles of beer...he offered me one...and that was that. I did it and It was wrong. I was sorry and regretted it, he was a complete ass, but an absolutely gorgeous one. Almost as handsome as that blond bloke at the bar.

They turned to see a very attractive man at the bar. M sighed and shook her head at Maggie's usual display of ogling, as she turned around to see who the object of her visual affection was. This had better be a bloody coincidence, or she will fire him!

James Bond stood at the bar with a sudden shocked look on his face. It was really the only thing that saved him from annihilation by M's glare. M looked up at him with a glare that could melt ice and moved up from her seat to the complete shock of her companions. The two women sat open mouthed staring, as their friend approached the handsome blond stranger at the bar.

M strode towards James, as he smirked irritatingly at her. He purposely gave her appearance a once over as if he was appraising her like a bottle of wine, or a good meal...like he would do to any women he desired for conquest.

"What the hell are you doing here? Get out now!" M tried to say as calmly and quietly as her anger would allow.

"Why M...a night out with the girls is it?"

Bond smiled broadly as M glanced back at her friends who were watching, enraptured by her audacity. They likely thought she was possessed to do such a thing, right here and now in a hotel bar.

"Make yourself scarce...find another bar to pick someone up in. Take your week off and disappear from my sight...please."

"Thank goodness you said please; M for a moment there, I thought you...my boss...of a very secret organization...was ordering me to leave a public place with no real reason to do so. All while, I was on holiday and looking for, some lovely companionship. It seems like I came to the right place for it."

"Bond...I...please…wait how much have you heard?"

"Has anyone ever told you that your irresistibly beautiful when you're flustered M?"

M eyes shot towards his in shock. "Enough out of you. You will destroy my cover with some very old friends."

Bond could feel the desperation coming off her in waves, as he slid off the bar stool and without forethought of action, leaned down and kissed her on the cheek before paying for his drinks.

"I want to pay for the ladies at that table also. Oh and here's another 50 to take care of another round or two." He said to the bartender as M shook her head rolling her eyes at him. How was she going to explain this to Maggie and Helen?

Olivia walked slowly back to the table and sat down. Helen and Maggie just stared at her. They waited for an explanation, for why she bolted from the table to the bar to speak with that stunning man.

Maggie finally broke down and asked her the question. "I know we dared you to go have a one night stand, but I seriously didn't think you would hop up and try for tonight!" Maggie and Helen dissolved into laughter and Olivia joined them.

Tears leaked from her eyes and by the time she caught her breath, the waiter had returned with two bottles of champagne for them from the mystery man….Bond.

"Do you know that man?" Helen asked. "He seemed quite taken with you. Oh...wait...did you slip him the key to your room?" The three of them started laughing again as Olivia made a toast.

"No I didn't! Here's to Penelope...gone far too soon." Olivia said as they all drank.

"To handsome blond male models in their thirties!" Maggie says as they continued to laugh.

"To all our husbands dead and gone." Helen adds as they calmed.

"Yes...to the downward slide alone...that's a buzz kill Helen." Maggie said. "Olivia you need a man. A one night stand and soon. It's been a year. My god, Rodger had not been dead a month when I slept with his darts partner Stanley."

Helen and Olivia looked at their tall ginger haired friend from their youth, shocked. "What? He was really good too. I think we forget over the years that variety really can be the spice of life."

The three of them continued to laugh at Maggie's remarks about her lovers as she continued needling Olivia. "Well it's a hurdle to cross, one that may not be a relationship but that proves to you that life goes on. You know...sex in all its somewhat messy glory. Regardless of our lost loves and us pushing you into this dare, you have always been wound too tight love. It's as if you have the entire country's security on your shoulders."

"Fine...fine...I do need something. Just once...something wild...something...well...not planned...wait no...that's not me." Olivia laughed at her own self observation. "I will just hire one. It's really the only solution. I cannot abide the thought of trying to pick up at a bar."

Maggie's eyes widen. "Oh really...now what do you think you just did with that adonis at the bar...right here and only moments ago? You do realize that we're onto the second bottle he gave us, because of you. You know you've aged the best of the three of us. You have money...we can tell by your clothing and the cars that drop you off dear. I never realized professors and government consultants made that much, but then again I seem to remember both your and Nigel's parents had some extra lying around too."

"We did well, I can say that much and the children are set and well established. So I have the means to hire one for a night." Olivia says coyly.

"So it's settled then. You're rich so you're paying and getting an escort within the week. We want details by Sunday for us all to win the game." Maggie says.

"How come I'm the only one that has to do this? And what on earth do you want for proof?"

"Because we've already gotten back on the horse after being widowed and you haven't. Your word will be fine. This is the very reason that we picked truth not dare. You were the only one brave enough to take dare." Helen added.

"True. Don't you remember how much concentrated evil the two of us could be." Maggie laughed as she poured more champagne for the three of them.

The three of them were very much in their cups. So much so, that they didn't seem to notice the blond agent now sitting in the booth beside them. The booth was set slightly behind theirs and Bond removed his tie and suit jacket, while he donned a cap and sunglasses, the dimmed lights helped. The attempted disguise was amateurish at best, but the three older women are too far along in their cups to notice him at this point.

These women have planned M's first affair. Only she could be dared to sleep with someone. Bond shook his head at the thought. Naturally, M extrapolated from their dare that she would need to hire someone. All because cruising bars and online dating where not for her apparently.

If she had asked him he could have told her what to do, where to go and how to manage it, but that would never work. Bond could not see her as...just a friend. This would all be very amusing if it wasn't for the damned constriction in his chest.

James Bond had no reason to be jealous, but his mind instantly jumped to anger and jealousy. The idea of M meeting a strange man and taking him to bed...no...not happening...not on his watch. He had no real reason to feel that way...no reason other than the obvious. It had been a year for her and christ...he couldn't have managed that long, and that was him assuming she and her husband still…

How could the husband not, really? The man would have been a fool not too and as often as bloody possible.

No...he would not let it happen. Knowing M she would go away. There was little chance that she would use a local escort. Not with the same idiot politicians in town that she watched take prostitutes to bed and then used it against them when they tried to drum her out of her job.

If they'd found out she would be harassed endlessly. No. M was far too smart for that. Bond could help her...with this concern. Volunteer for her to use him as stress relief, but it would mean more than that to him.

Christ, he'd dreamt of helping her in this very situation many times over the years. Tonight he actually went to her flat to look for her.

It was time to confess to M...but she wasn't there. Bond knew that he was being irritating to her lately and annoying her a great deal, but he couldn't stop himself from breaking in just to be closer to her somehow.

Over the last year...she'd be free...it was all he had dreamt about. He had broken into her flat many times over the last year but he...how could he express...didn't work it out...not until now did he truly realize, what would happen if she found another to love. He really couldn't let it happen.

It was his time now. In his mind, it was telling that she never formally reprimanded, or actually fired him like she continually threatened to do for breaking in. Perhaps M was infatuated with him. She would hardly be the first, but she would definitely be the hardest, and the first and only one who he wanted to convince of his sincerity.

It took some convincing but Q pinged her mobile for him. His act was good but he knew she was here and he'd come for two reasons. One: because he wanted to see her tonight; and two, because he was confused and worried as to why she was off at a nice hotel anyway.

Bond would follow them to make sure she was safe and had their fun evening since she had obviously shaken her guard...again.

As Bond momentarily contemplated breaking into her hotel room, the three of them giggled and got up to leave. They were having difficulty walking, but supported each other.

Bond was glad to know that M had old friends that she could let loose with from time to time. She needed it.

Friends like those two were trouble though. Encouraging her to hire an escort. That she would plan such a thing, rather that look to someone she already knew...someone who did such a thing for a career. This was just one of the massive hurdles to overcome.

Good thing Bond was always up for a challenge. Unfortunately, unlike his marks in the field, M knew him well enough to be suspicious of his intentions.

The damnable woman overthought everything. Absolutely everything. It was now Bond's mission. to make sure that he was there in the next week, as an active participant...when she won her dare.

To be continued...