Car Share: For Your Eyes Only
Chapter 10
The traffic had held up pretty well for them, on the 40 minutes car journey. Kayleigh was proper hungry by the time they arrived back at the house.
"Your new home awaits... What?" John told her as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He genuinely couldn't wait to lead her hand in hand inside the house but Kayleigh appeared to be thinking rather differently on this front; she had other ideas in mind - a certain one of those required upper body strength and plenty of use of the arms.
"John can't you carry me through. Look I'm not lazy or anything but I'd really love it if you could make this happen." Kayleigh begged him to help make her wish come to true. She knows the thought of this sounds ridiculous because A) they weren't newlyweds and B) they had only just arrived at the house and Gary the nosy removal man was still hanging around like a bad smell while he was busy unloading the boxes from his van.
"Carry you? What's wrong with leading you into the house?" John couldn't understand why she was adamant that he transformed himself into Kevin Costner's character from 'The Bodyguard'. She should know he isn't very good with carrying heavy stuff. Come to think of it, he does vaguely remember Kayleigh mentioning on one particular occasion, how much she loves the scene in The Bodyguard where Kevin Costner's Frank is carrying Whitney Houston's Rachel off stage when her life comes under threat from a stalker.
"Because I just think this would be far more romantic. Okay...you know you can put me down as soon as we get inside the house" Kayleigh sees the look on his face turn from unsure to one that painted a picture of warmth within a matter of seconds. She smiled believing he was slowly coming round to the idea of scooping her up in his arms and non-matrimonially carrying her over the threshold. "or unless you ra teether not be doing that and instead you carrying me to straight to our bedroom and you let I can play my Spice Girls playlist. While me and you get reacquainted with the bed sheet on our bed. What do you reckon? Yes or out of the question? John?" Kayleigh knows in her heart what she wants to do but did John long to do the same?
"What the lady wants. What the lady will get." John declares in a mocked posh accent. Kayleigh squealed with delight before then hugging him. She felt incredibly lucky having such a kind, loving and supportive boyfriend in John. The grin on her face widened as she pulled herself free from the hug moments later, so she can look into the eyes of the man, who she knows she wants to be with forever and who she knows will protect her.
"Oh John! Well...come on then after you." Kayleigh excitedly gestured with her hands for John to shift himself from the car a.s.a.p. John was far too slow on the uptake when it came to getting a wiggle on and handing over £20 to Gary for his assistance with delivering Kayleigh's stuff to the house. "Me and you can't sit here in your car all day on our arses."
"Aye. Would make my neighbours think I'm become a lazy arsehole. I can't have them thinking this." John was well-liked in the street he lived in and a well respected individual around his local neighborhood. "Well...you first Miss Kitson..." John smirks as he playfully teases her. He couldn't help but adore the times whenever the two of them get extremely flirty and exchange flirty comments back and forth with each other. He greatly enjoyed how Kayleigh could relight his fire and definitively bring out the best in him in times he needed this the most.
"No you first Johnathan." Kayleigh flirts back with him. She honestly could not wait to hurry into the house and make herself at home in more ways than one. She giggled while mulling over the saucy antics the both of them could fortunately get up to with each other before John has to head off to work. He gets out first and sprightly pops round to her side of the car.
"Miss Kitson would you care for me to escort you towards the house or would you like me to walk you instead?" John could not resist getting a little carried away with the fun. Gary had long finished the small task of unloading Kayleigh's boxes, by the time John and Kayleigh were walking up the driveway, arm-in-arm.
"Look you don't need to hand over £20, John. Consider this free of charge." Gary knew it was the smallest of jobs and didn't really see much point in John paying him for transporting Kayleigh's belongings to the house.
"Oh okay. Thanks pal. Cheers for the help this morning." Gary was a drinking pal of Jim's. He had given John and Jim a lift to their Compendium gig in Clitheroe a few months ago when Jim's own van had gone in for service work at the last minute.
"Hey not a bother John. I'm always happy to help out when you and Jim need a third man. Anyway I best be on my way. Got to take me Mam and her friend to the Manchester airport, they're off to Benidorm for two weeks. See you pal. Nice to meet you Kayleigh" Gary gave them a little salute. He wasn't staying for a cuppa, given how he was eager to be on schedule. He left in a matter of moments.
Kayleigh's boxes were stacked on top of each other like a tower. It had been more a rush job which Gary had completed and now because of this he had left John and Kayleigh to complete the other half of it. "Come on then. Best get your stuff inside before Ian comes out and keeps us talking for ages.." John said as he freed his arm from her hold and got straight to picking up the two smallest boxes from the doorstep. Kayleigh grabbed the keys from his jacket and put the key straight in the door lock, so she can open up and let them both into the house - which she wasted no time in doing so.
xxx
With the boxes now occupying the hallway, John and Kayleigh decided to take a break from the stressful choices of choosing in which part of the bedroom or where in the guest room she should put her belongings, such as her health & beauty products and her 30+pairs of shoes. The couple were relaxing with their cuppas in the kitchen. John was trying so much not to make it so obvious as to how delighted he was, that she had moved in with him.
"Crikey this is a good cuppa you've made." John gave his verdict shortly after he had drank half of it.
"Why thank you for the compliment Johnathan" Kayleigh beamed proudly. Nobody had ever praised her for tea making skills before until now. This sweet man was still managing to find endless ways to surprise her. Because of how blessed she felt, she honestly had to keep pinching herself sometimes to make sure this relationship happiness of hers wasn't actually a dream and she wouldn't be waking up as the same single lady she had been for the past 3 and a half years.
"Well you make a better one than me that's for sure. Anyway would you like me to cook something for you before I head off to work?"John's generosity and gentlemanly manners were appreciatively playing their part once again, like they always did whenever he put her best interests first. He was the most chilled and laid back she had ever seen him look. Gone was 'the socially awkward and reluctant to find love John Redmond' she had seen with her very own eyes on the first morning of their car sharing and now right before her was the 'most romantic and wear your heart on your sleeve John Redmond' His transformation had honestly blown Kayleigh away.
"Aww John...Thank you. That's really nice of you to offer. Never had anyone cook for me other than Mandy before."
"Why what did your exes do?" John immediately regretted quizzing her about her exes because he did not want to make her feel uncomfortable when it came to talking about them.
"Well my last boyfriend would always get takeaways from the Chippy for our tea and then he had the bloody cheek to offer me like only four chips. He never really bothered with cooking anything for me or him. Also he would also have biscuit crumbs on most his shirts. I knew straight away he had been nibbling like mouse at our Mandy's biscuits and my cousin's biscuits in Wrexham...you know before he shagged her. "
"What a greedy arsehole!" John said in disbelief.
"Tell me about it. Two weeks later we broke up. Then there was another ex of mine who would always get his mum to come round and cook for me and him. Talk about being a lazy NOB head. Never had the decency to take me out for a meal without his friends being there" Kayleigh doesn't mind badmouthing her exes, well they weren't here to defend themselves, so she thought why not let her frustrations out.
"What?! Talk about taking the piss." John could hardly believe his ears when it came to hearing what Kayleigh had to say about her layabout second ex. Knowing all too well how he was never good with words, he made it his mission not to say anything he thought he might embarrass her with. So he left her to do he knows she loves to do best, slagging off her exes to the extreme.
"I know! He kept fobbing me off with so many excuse of why he couldn't do toast bread properly. I just got fed up with him and when I got him on his own one morning, I told him to hop it back to Ireland." Kayleigh went into further details regarding how she ended this particular relationship.
"Here was me thinking you suggested he ought to bloody tap dance his way back to Ireland." John sniggered. Kayleigh gives a look of 'Oh my god! Why didn't I think of that?'. John's laugh gets louder at the sight of seeing the woman he loves silently sharing a conversation with herself.
"Oi! Stop it you." Kayleigh feigns shock and slaps his arm. Truth be told she doesn't mind him resorting to another one of his cheeky remarks, really.
John chuckles to himself while he's busy making a start on rustling up a tasty treat for her in the kitchen. Before long he soon finds himself under the watchful gaze of Kayleigh. He wonders what she's thinking now in their head of hers. Perhaps she may be picturing him in nothing but his chef's apron or she could simply be curiously anticipating which well-known meal he had spontaneously thought of to cook for her.
"So Johnathan. Do you care to enlighten me on what you're cooking for me or are you leaving it as a surprise, by blindfolding me and getting me to the taste your food instead." Kayleigh jokingly suggests, little realizing in a matter of moments she's planting that exact idea in John's mind.
"What?" Kayleigh's oblivious look clouded her logical thinking as usual. This trait of hers was one of many things John adored about her. He was proud of her when she made a statement of how she weren't going to let the likes of Rachel or Dave Thompson publicly shame her because of the fact she was having a relationship with a member of the store management team. They were each other's rock. 'The modern day Johnny and Baby, a cuter Monica and Chandler from Friends' according to Kayleigh.
"You'll work it out eventually." John hints while smiling to himself. He's stirring thick tomato sauce in a frying pan.
"Work what out?...Oh.. mean approve of the idea of blindfolding me? While you're getting me to the sample the meal you've cooked for me" This dawns on Kayleigh, as if it were like the flicker of a light-bulb, what he's hinting at.
"Aye. Bingo!" John confirms his intentions with a nod of the head. The couple could not keep straight faces as they were now equally sharing the laughter which had first bonded them together as friends, then as best friends and lastly as lovers. Listening to Kayleigh's squeals of laughter/sniggers always warmed John's heart marvelously. He really did not care as to what others thought of him and Kayleigh. Work had been dragging him down recently.
He quietly reflects over some advice his dad had given him a few days before he sadly passed away, 'You know the day I met your mother, John lad. She were a breath of fresh air as soon as she entered the room. Always turned my rainy days to blue sky whenever she graced me with her presence. I hope one day you'll know how that feels with the love of your life. And if anyone's got a bad word to say about you being with your lovely girlfriend, make sure you tell them where to bloody go!'
Kayleigh sporting a blissful look across her face, leaned across the counter table, resting her left elbow on the cold surface and took a moment or two to watch his every move. She wonders what he must be thinking about while he was standing there looking deep in thought.
"Stop bloody staring lady" John tells her. He can sense her eyes giving him all the attention in the world with those delightful eyes of hers. He decided against ruining the quintessential romantic moment the two of them were having. Turning to face her would only result in them ripping each other's clothes off there and then and the food having to be served later on tonight instead.
"What! Can't blame a woman for checking out her boyfriend while he's doing the cooking." Kayleigh rightly points out while her eyes are satisfyingly feast upon John's bum. She had to admit he did have a nice looking bum.
"I suppose not." John casually smiled. Something in his mind was telling him Kayleigh was currently and naughtily letting her eyes meander around his back or down below potentially at his bum. Would certainly go as far as to explain why she had suddenly stopped talking.
35 minutes later John was serving the food. He had instructed Kayleigh to turn her back for 10 seconds and make sure she had her eyes closed. One thing he was very sure of, is that she would be unlikely to win at a game of Hide and Seek anytime soon.
"Kayleigh no peeking otherwise I'll have no choice to take you off promotions and move you over to work alongside Stink Ray at his Fish counter." John turns the tables on her.
"Eww please don't." Kayleigh scrunches her face up briefly at the thought of possibly working within a close proximity with Ray. "You do know he'll be sniffing around me everywhere I go. Thinking he's got a chance with me." Kayleigh fell hook, line and sinker for John's pretend threat. John barely had the opportunity to say another word until Kayleigh worked it out that he was only messing with her.
"Haha you're funny Johnathan. Okay I am keeping my eyes shut like you told me to" She giggled whilst keeping her hands remaining exactly where they were currently placed - covered across her eyes .
"Good." John's curled lip soon transformed into a cheeky and pleased smile, as soon as she shifting about in her chair and her body language suggestion she could not wait until she opened her eyes again.
"Come on John. Please let me taste your food. I promise I'll behave myself" Kayleigh tried to work her magic and persuasive powers on him to the best of her abilities.
"Aye so you say." John grins in thought before rechecking to see if she weren't secretly peeking around the room when he took his eyes off her. Thankfully she wasn't. She could easily smell the food. She swore the waves of aroma coming from meal smelled like Omelettes drenched in tomato sauce. She loved eating omelettes but at the same time she was always careful when it came to keeping her muffin top shipshape.
Before Kayleigh was in a position to open her mouth regarding what she believed it was, she was left lost for words as suddenly senses a fresh and formidable taste on the the tip of her tongue and as well as around her lips. She was right it was omelettes and tomato sauce. The taste was filling her taste buds so much so she but perhaps not right now seeing as her lips tasted of tomato sauce.
"Mmmmm John!" She spoke rather loudly when happily giving her verdict on his tasty meal. The overwhelming desire to belly laugh at her hilarious facial expressions had started to get the better of him. At this rate he was even considering ringing up work and take a leaf out of her book, by pulling his first ever sickie. No doubt she would be hugely impressed with him for this.
"Something tells me I've got a hell of lot to look forward with you haven't I, Lady. You making food consuming sound sexy and wanting me to romanticize our evenings in together I'll never hear the end of it." John very nearly blushes at the prospect of what his evenings from now on would be like, now that Kayleigh had moved in with him.
"You bet your sweet ass, Johnathan." A gleeful Kayleigh winks her eye at him while confirming this in an unconvincing American accent. The accent itself sounded pretty much Australian than American, however to an oblivious Kayleigh she believed she had got this accurately spot on. Well it wasn't the first time she had spectacularly got one accent mixed up with another accent. Take that time where she openly mocked Dave Thompson in an Irish accent.
God he sure did love this woman ever since the very moment he knew she had successfully claimed his heart while he was jotting down the chorus line to Car Share Buddy. She had consistently become the voice of reason in his head. Thanks for the time for when she would be telling him to get off his arse and making sure he done something for himself once in a while instead of being such a boring workaholic. Aye he certainly did do that once or twice a month, by wriggling his way of staying behind after the store closed for the night but he never would go anywhere further than that, by going into Cath Hilton's office and asking her if she could do him a favour by booking/putting his two weeks holiday as well as Kayleigh's too onto the store's online staff holidays calendar.
John had recently been mulling over the thought of booking a holiday online for June or July at the latest. Well the two of them had clearly earned themselves a holiday and a break away from the store/the prying eyes of their ever so nosy colleagues,. The only country destinations he had in mind were Spain or Greece. He thinks she might give the thumbs down to the two of them possibly holidaying in Benidorm for two weeks. He didn't think he should bring this up quite yet with her, given how they've only just moved in with each other.
"So come on then Mary Berry...how do you rate me?" John asks. His mind embarrassingly slips, when asking her how she would rate him for his cooking.
"What do you mean in bed or for your cooking?" Kayleigh implies with a cheeky glint in her eye.
"Cheeky cow." John chuckles. "For my cooking." He can't help smiling to himself because she is reminding him of how she loves to unashamedly take advantage of any slip up he usually makes.
"Oh! for your cooking I mean" She gave a squeal of laughter because she was unable to keep a straight face. Once she calms down, she finally gives her verdict. "Well Johnathan I would give you...a billion out of a billion" She said while sticking both thumbs up in the air.
"A billion! Well can I just say I'm honored that you've given me such a high accolade" John soon made his case for having plenty of fun with her in a frivolous manner. She behaved like a lovesick teenager every-time he did this.
Sometime just before noon, John and Kayleigh's ongoing provocative antics very nearly resulted in them making love while they had been snuggling up on the large light chocolate colored sofa in the living room. The couple simply couldn't keep their hands off each other. Kayleigh's emotions were surprisingly getting the better of her by the time she went to wave him off from the front doorstep.
"What you crying for?" John asks, entirely unsure of what she's getting upset for.
"I've got say goodbye to you already." Kayleigh sobs.
"Eh? What you on about?" John thought she was just being completely silly.
"You having to drive off, that's what." Kayleigh said, nodding in the direction of the car. John briefly wonders whether it would be a good idea to take her along for the trip to the store with him but then decides against the idea. He couldn't risk setting tongues wagging that afternoon especially if she were hanging around Head Office or going downstairs to the shop floor to have a catch-up with Donna, Joyce Chung, Elsie and Pamela. He's pretty sure Kayleigh will agree with him here.
"Christ I'm only going to work for a few hours. It's not like Dave Thompson's transferred me to work in bloody Amarillo or anything. Look I'll phone you up when it gets quiet in there " John promises her. He closes the gap between them and goes to put one hand on her shoulder and moves his other hand to her left cheek.
"I knew you'd say that. You better not forget Johnathan." Kayleigh had perked up once he confidently promised her he would ring her up.
"Christ, I'll put in my phone reminder...'4:30pm - 5:30pm phone/text Kayleigh, don't go forgetting this Reckless Redmond'. Anyway I best be off. I do hate having to leave you on your own in the house for a few hours." John sighs, admitting he feels the same too about having to spend a few hours apart from her. He was intending to make her first evening of living under the same roof as him later that little bit extra special and make the promise which he touched upon earlier, of whisking her up in his arms and carrying through the front door finally happen. They shared a brief lingering kiss on the front doorstep before John eventually reversed his car out of the driveway. He gave her a wave from his rolled down car window and shouted "There's quiche in the fridge and Friends on my Sky boxset."
Kayleigh thought to herself "Aww he's letting me watch Friends on his telly. Johnathan Redmond I'm going to reward you with the most memorable kiss ever as soon as you step through this very door."
All Reviews are Welcome