Author: Whew! It's done! It's taken months of writing, saving, deleting and rewriting, but it's done and here for your viewing pleasure
Frankie: Finally! And we get to see My Beauty all dr–
Author: No spoilers Frankie, leave them to read it themselves. come on, I'll buy you some tea while we're waiting
Frankie: How nice of you :)
"Theresa," James' voice called from downstairs, breaking through Kevin's sleep, "if you want a lift, you'd better get a move on!"
"I'm nearly ready!" Theresa's voice called back, followed by the sound of shifting cloth and the noise of a zip being pulled shut, which alerted the super-powered human to the horrifying fact that his girlfriend was no longer in bed with him.
"…mm?" Kevin mumbled, managing to push himself up into a sitting pose, before rubbing the sleep from his eyes, "what's going on?"
"Oh! You're awake!" Theresa appeared in his line of vision, hair slightly damp and bare minimum of make-up applied (the way Micky had taught her) to her face.
"Apparently…what time is it?"
"According to the clock, it's 7.45am, I let you sleep, I'm nice like that."
"Where are you going?"
"Work. I told you last night before we went out with Micky and Quentin I was working today, it was why we couldn't stay for the late night double feature,"
Oh…that was right, he recalled now. Theresa worked part time as an office girl at her grandfather's garage, answering phones, filing MOTslips and marking down appointments in the logbook.
Basically, nothing she hadn't done before, the only difference was that now she did it officially for a few hours a week and got paid minimum wage to do it.
…he really liked how her legs looked in tights…
"Always knew you only loved me for my body," Theresa chuckled, sitting on the edge of the bed to buckle her shoes and Kevin realised he must have voiced that aloud
"You can stay here with me" so saying he pulled her down to lie next to him, ignoring her protest of "Oi!"
"If I look at the tag on this dress," Kevin said slowly, in what was for him a teasing manner, "will it say 'Mary Quant'?"
"Maybe…too bad you're not going to find out"
"What do you expect me to do all day?"
"Whatever you like, it's you time off. But why don't you come and meet me for lunch before I go to college? There's a good greasy spoon down the road from Gramp's garage"
"Theresa…I am a member of the Mask family, I know which fork is a salad fork and the difference between a serviette and a napkin," he said, half-jokingly, "nothing you can say will convince me to eat in a greasy spoon"
"Oh really?" Theresa unconsciously wound some of his hair around her fingers, "really really?"
"Yes, really"
"OK…" she disentangled herself from his grip, stood up, smoothed down her dress with her hands, cleared her throat and said: "All Day Full English Breakfast with a free plate of toast and mug of tea with free refills"
"Temptress!"
"I just know you too well by now," she leaned down and kissed his forehead
"Theresa! I'm going to start the car, you have 5 minutes to join me or you'll have to catch the bus in!"
"Coming!" she gave him a quick kiss, "I'll see you at about 12.30, take care!"
And then she was gone in a clatter of feet on the stairs.
Kevin lay back for a few minutes…it wasn't long before something bumped along the landing and after a moment more, something landed on the bed with a small huff.
"Morning Banksy," he said and patted the dog on the head, "if I didn't know better, I'd say you'd just come to keep me company, rather than steal my body heat"
The dog made a chuffing noise that might just have been canine laughter before Banksy put his head on Kevin's chest and closed his chocolate brown eyes.
"As enjoyable as it would be to lie here and allow you to soak up all my body heat, Banksy, I have other things to do," he told the dog, gently shifting himself out of the bed and pulling on clean clothes from the cupboard Theresa had cleared out for him because 'you don't have a lot of clothes but you can't live out of your kitbag forever'
Banksy simply moved to the space that Kevin had vacated, soaking up the warmth with a blissful expression.
Some hours later, Kevin walked into Chappen Auto Repairs, the bell over the door jingled merrily, announcing that someone had arrived, and then he simply stood in the small reception area, watching as Theresa held the office phone jammed between her shoulder and her ear
She'd looked up at the bell, and seeing that it was her boyfriend, she held up a finger and mouthed 'one minute' at him, so he sat on one of the cheaply upholstered chairs, breathing in the smell of motor oil and grease.
"…OK, so that's Tuesday next week at 10.30am, yes I'm noting it down right now sir," she scribbled into the ledger quickly, "there we are…yes, no one will forget. You're welcome. Goodbye"
She made sure the phone was down before she let her head smack gently against the desk and released a sigh that spoke volumes in frustration.
"Have you come to take me away from all this?" her voice came out slightly muffled due to the desk,
"Long morning?" Kevin asked, raising from the chair and walking the short distance to the desk
"Why does everyone feel the need to book their MOT's at the same time on the same day?"
"Poor Theresa," he ran a gloved hand gently through her hair, "I suppose this means you're too tired to come and have lunch with me? In which case I shall have to call you a terrible tease"
"Wasn't teasing and can you just keep doing that for a minute please? Oh my gods, that's nice…"
He continued the stroking her hair until she deigned it a necessity to raise her head.
"Thank you," she flipped a switch on the phone that'd put it to answering machine mode, "I'll grab my bag, tell Gramps I'm off and then we can go," she stood up from the desk, stood on her toes and gave him a peck on the cheek (well, the area his cheek would have been if it hadn't been covered by his mask)
Exactly 10 minutes later they were safely ensconced in The Hide-Away Café, which did indeed have the promised All Day Full English Breakfast, plus the free tea refills.
If the café owners noticed that Kevin Mask was in their establishment, they didn't show much surprise, they calmly took his and Theresa's order, asking after her grandfather and her dog and her college work like old friends, and told them to take a seat wherever they wanted.
"Do you come here often?" Kevin asked her, wrapping his gloved hands around his mug of tea
"Are you seriously asking me or are you just trying to chat me up?" she quirked an eyebrow at him and smiled
"I don't need to chat you up," he humphed in mock-affront "I can just win you over with my English charm"
"That only works if you're chatting up a girl who isn't from the UK. Since I'm English too, it doesn't work on me."
"So if it wasn't my English charm, what was it that attracted you to me?"
She took a sip of tea, and pretended to think about it as she felt the liquid warm her up from the inside
"Freckles" she said finally
"Excuse me?"
"You have some light freckles across your nose," she gestured towards his face, "they're adorable. Wouldn't have given you a second look otherwise," she winked at him.
"Shallow woman"
"Only when it comes to your freckles, love"
"I do not have freckles"
"Yes you do"
"I am telling you-"
"That's one full English Breakfast with toast and one Winter Warmer soup with a granary roll"
"Thank you" they said together.
They ate in comfortable silence, now and then pausing to squeeze each other's hand until it came time for Theresa to go to her classes.
It was when they parted at the gates that Kevin had what he thought was an excellent idea.
Theresa's afternoon class was halfway through and she was treating herself to a cup of lukewarm white coffee from the machine in the canteen as she went over the list of books she needed from the college library, when her phone made a small noise that announced she had a text message.
Taking u out 2night. Wear something nice. Love Kevin xx
With a small wry smile she texted back
U don't like the way I dress? ;) love Theresa xx
U know I do. But wear something posh. We r going very uptown 2night, my dear. B ready by 8pm. Love Kevin xxxx
The thought of Kevin taking her out for no apparent reason was enough to make her blush with pleasure, the thought of 'wear something posh' was enough to make her frown though, as the best she normally wore was smart-casual.
What was a girl to do?
Then it came to her.
Micky. R U busy this afternoon?
Nope. Y?
Q.E.F.T.S.W
OMG! REALLY? I'll meet u at ur college, OK? When do u finish?
4pm. But can u make it 4.25? Need 2 talk 2 my tutor.
OK. C U then. Micky xoxoxoxoxoxox
Several hours later, feeling both like a little girl playing dress up with her mother's clothes and horribly out of place at the same time, Theresa sat opposite Kevin in a restaurant she'd never have even imagined ever stepping into.
The restaurant in question was one that didn't print the price after their menu selections…leading her to the assumption that if you had to ask how much a dish cost, you probably couldn't afford it. (At least, anyone from the walk of life she and her grandfather occupied couldn't afford it)
"Stop looking so nervous," Kevin told her gently, "you look as if you expect them to start accusing you of attempting to steal the silverware"
"You could have taken me for pizza and a film and I'd have been happy"
"And miss the sight of you dressed up to the nth?" he gave her an appreciative look, really liking the simple teal dress and silver jewellery looked on her.
He should take her to places like this more often.
"So relax and just enjoy," he advised, reaching across the table and giving her hand a squeeze
"It's really that obvious that I keep half expecting them to ask me to show some sort of pedigree certificate?"
"Only glaringly. I'm surprised you've never been here before. I would have thought Frankie would bring you to places like this"
"You've been to his flat," she replied "can you honestly tell me that you can picture him eating here?"
"It's not an unreasonable assumption; he is a star of the musical scene, after all"
"Who all but begged me to pull over at the first open greasy spoon we came across so that he could buy half his own weight in bacon sandwiches?"
They both laughed gently and Kevin was glad to see her visibly relax as they did so, he'd worried that he'd over done it bringing her here, but now…now it was alright.
Robin Mask entered the restaurant with an inaudible sigh of relief.
It was the sort of place he liked, a fine old British institution, with a price list that ensured no Burberry-Nike-clad riffraff could possibly afford to even look at the place, let alone enter it.
Too many places these days had let standards slip, but not this place.
No, this was Robin's small patch of heaven
(And being in a restaurant surrounded by people seemed infinitely less lonely than yet another night alone on the Mask Estates, not that he'd ever admit that out loud)
It was only after he'd been seated in a private booth, of his own requesting, that the waiter (who was very young and very new at his job) enquired would Sir Mask would prefer to join his son and his companion at their table?
"Where?"
The waiter directed his gaze towards a small, mildly secluded table, not too far away from his own, where two people sat, conversing quietly with each other.
Yes, that was Kevin, if the long dirty blond hair hadn't been an indicator, then the blue iron mask was a dead give away. The young lady with him, he assumed it was Theresa, (no recent IWF gossip had involved them breaking up) looked...well, she looked normal enough upon first glance, at she at least seemed to know how to dress when entering such a high class place as this...but something about her seemed off to Robin.
Well, there was no time like the present in which to introduce oneself and possibly divest ones son of a gold digger, should the young lady prove to be so.
He ordered a glass of Rosé and drank half of it before making his way to the young couple's table
"Good evening, Kevin"
TBC
Author: Dun dun DUN!
Frankie: I think that's a bit over the top, it seems innocent enough.
Author: give me a break. It's been a long time coming and now it's here! Robin & Theresa meet up!
Frankie: you're being a bit mean with a cliffhanger ending...
Author: I want this chapter off my desk. plus it's late and I'm using my grandfather's PC.