A Spanish Mystery
Chapter 4
Sorry for the delay with this final chapter as i've been really busy with different things . Gerry prepares for his date with Monica and is annoyed when Brian appears at the bar wanting to wish him good luck, added comedy and lots of friendship. I think I may have turned this last chapter into a bit of a romantic comedy hope no one minds
Later that evening with the waether still burning hotly Gerry was stood standing Tall directly facing a narrow framed mirror in the hotel room, Gerry muttered words of confidence to himself about his date with the lovely Monica.
Emily entered the room not quite believing her dad's posher appearance in order to impress his date, turning her head as she let out a soft chuckle. Yes he'd been not quite as lucky with most dates he had been on in the past, he was just simply a kind and a big boy at heart.
"Dad you still going on your date then?"
"Course I am... Wanna look my best don't I"
"Look dad just promise me one thing"
"Yes" he turned from to face her, eye raised in concern as to what she may say next
"Just don't promise to stay here in Spain with Monica... don't forget the UCOS team will need you"
"Yeah alright.. I do know Sandra would miss me like crazy" He moaned shrugging his shoulders, like a big grumpy kid.
Grabbing his waistcoat from the wooden stool and throwing it over his shoulders, doing a click sign with his finger and teeth in the mirror before turning to head towards the door. Emily presumed that she would end up losing contact with him again, she didn't want to worry too much just now, he'd always been out to impress the ladies all the time and Sandra seemed to agree with Emily that Gerry didn't take some cases too seriously.
As they walked through the paved footpaths of the city centre Brian and Esther were busy taking in the local entertainment in the centre of Barcelona, street performers performing flame throwing, very dangerous stunts and dancers doing the Samba and Tango, Esther was alomost tempted in joining in but knowing Brian he wouldn't be in the mood, presumely thinking ahead to the flight home to the UK. Wiping his glasses with a piece of tissue, suddenly realising he was quite enjoying himself, it was his kind of scene.
Earlier in the day having wrapped up the case for the Spanish Police, he'd overheard some of the detective exchanging conversations in Spanish, becoming fascinated with the language, picking up Spanish phrases.
Doing a little dance as they came face to face with a young couple, Brian grabbed Esther hand and spun her round so fast she felt her heart beat racing.
"Blimey what's got in to you tonight love" Expressing her surprise and laughter both at the same time.
"Dunno.. I'm just embracing the culture I reckon.. Care for a dance My love" placing a hand out which she took hold of, he showed off surpisingly excellent dance moves.
"You've not been taking any dance lessons i don't know about have you?"
"Does it look like I have... or maybe i've been dancing in the office when Jack and Sandra haven't been looking" He grinned widely, wishing he had a rose between in his teeth in this lovely current moment.
"You know what Brian... you could dance better than Bruce Forsyth any day"
"Kidding aren't ya" He sighed, raising his dark sunglasses up over his head
"No not really.... He's all about tapty tap and you're all about whisking me off my feet which I love"
They carried on walking through past the spanish bars, avoiding the flame thrower and the clown performer, who had been pulling flowers from behind people's ears.
"Cheeky bugger.. that clown is"
"Now we''ll have no more of your instant suspicious looks" she dragged him away and into the Spanish bar happily named "La Plancha", the lights brimmed so brightly from the outside view from the streets. Blue and Purple were the colours that lit up all around the room and behind the counter were they were serving cocktails.
Unbeknown to them Gerry was also present in La Plancha, sitting in the corner waiting for Monica to turn up tapping his foot impatiently underneath the table, he feared she wasn't going to show up at all, Checking his watch it was now currently 8:45pm, the bar was filling up, packed to the rim. There would be no available seats to sit down on within the next half an hour or so, he stood trying to get a glimpse of the door entrance.
There was a younger woman wearing a dark rouge dress , she was also looking for someone and didn't seem to be having any luck.
It was definitely Monica, he tried to whistle but the sound of talking and laughter blocked any noise from across the room, she turned to leave but then bumped into Brian and Esther.
"Hola Monica... you looking for Gerry?"
"Yes I am He told me to meet him in this bar..but i can't find him anywhere" she looked disappointed, sensing that it had been a wasted opportunity, she liked Gerry he was lovely, full of sheer delight and charming manner.
"C'mon we'll help yer find him" Brian scanned every corner of the bar.
Gerry jumped with fright seeing his friend at the bar, he planned to have a great night with the wonderful and gorgeous spanish detective.
"Oi I'm over here" He waved his arm out like a crazy loon.
"Blimey Its like I'm invisible over here" He thought to himself, having left Emily and his grandson in the hotel room, they had plans of their own, watching Childrens DVDs on the flat widescreen television.
"Oh ey up He's over there... Blimey he looks like he's burnt his face in the sun" Brian joked, noticing Gerry's face had gone a brighter redish colour.
Gerry muttered for him to leave but his friend and colleague ignored what was being said.
"Evening Gerry.... don't mind if me and Esther join you two for a couple of drinks?"
"Yeah why Not" He pulled an annoying hard look as Esther gathered two other chairs and pulled it upto their table, as the waiter came over to take drink orders .
"Que Va a tomar(What would you like?)?"
"Una Cerveza" Brian replied signalling that was all he wanted.
"What does that mean?" Asking looking puzzled.
"Don't you know any Spanish at all Gerry... Blimey even Jack has better knowledge of speaking Spanish than you and he hasn't even been on holiday to Spain.. Oh it means Beer by the way"
Esther ordered a glass of red wine and Monica ordered a Spanish omelette and a glass of white sparkling wine.
Gerry knew for sure his date had been ruined, as it now became a double date. Tapping fingers across the corner of the table and rocking back and forth on the chair through boredom.
"Keep still you'll end up having an accident.. falling off the chair if you're not careful"
"Brian wonder what Sandra would ssay if I mentioned about Monica.. do you think she maybe jealous.. I'd love to see her face drop"
"Why should Sandra be jealous...?"
"Dunno.." Of course he knew, they had shared a close working relationship over the past few years, sometimes Sandra even wanted to give him a punch anytime he got on her nerves, disagreeing on everything.
Upon the stage, by the counter an Spanish version of Frank Sinatra fiddled with his microphone as the music kicked in. He perfrormed New York, New York in Spanish, Brian mimed along to it, getting a amusing reply from Gerry. His friend could be really mad cap, a bit nuts and strange but when working together he certainly knew how to figure out the vital evidence in solving any reinvestigation case.
"Esther another dance if you want" Brian offered smiling, happily to himself.
They walked into the middle of the small dancefloor, dancing like they were taking part a dance contest at Blackpool dance halls, leaving Gerry and Monica sitting nervously by themselves.
"Can you dance Gerry?" she glanced to asked him, god she was terrificily beautiful , he knew he was smitten deep down but how would he tell her, he needed to drag her away fast from Brian and Esther.
The drinks were finally delievered over to their table which Gerry took his and took a huge sip of his drink.
"Someone is keen and eager to finish his drink straight away" She noticed, adoring his grumpy mood.
" Best letting Esther know the drinks are at the table"
Monica tucked into her spanish omelette that was delicious to eat.
"Don't mind if I have a bit of that omelette do yer.... am starving myself" he took a fork, leaning over ans take an handful on the fork before eating it.
"Someone is also clearly very greedy" She grinned, running a thumb over his hand which tickled, almost making him want to burst out with laughter.
"Don't mind if we leave do yer.. fancied an early night"
"Yes okay, why not"
"How do they put with you at work?"
"By getting their heads down focused on keeping Barcelona safe... and me myself I take on any nasty criminal and test them which they fail at everytime... how do you focus working back at home with Brian?" Taking a sip of her glass of white wine.
"Well Sandra is my boss.. she's as hard as nails... feisty and full of determination.. just about manages to keep all of us in line... unless we finish early and just go the pub... she threatened to smash up Brian's favourite record on the jukebox"
"She's sounds tougher than me" Monica expressed her surprise and shock.
"C'mon lets go" He indicated with a winking eye, holding her hand tighlty as they sneaked out quietly unnoticed.
Brian observed raising an eyebrow, in question.
"Thank go I'm out of there thought we'd never be able to leave" Breathing a sigh of relief, one of the dancer ran into him, sending him flying into the water fountain.
"Gerry are you okay" Monica ran over standing on the edge of the old fashioned water fountain.
"No don't you dare Gerry I'll have you arrested if you do" He attempted to drag her in with him, but she was too strong to pull in.
He stood up, dripping in water, soaked hair, soaked white shirt and black trousers.
"Look at me I'm soddin wet... gonna have to go back to the hotel room"
She helped him out, receiving a splash of water in her face.
"You'll pay for that" she threatened amusinlgy, reaching a hand up to his cheek in order to dry his jaw, he took her byu surprise and kissed her, to his surprise she didn't pull away, seeming to enjoy their kiss very much.
"C'mon its only over here" he indicated with his finger. Gerry had booked two rooms for when him, Emily and his grandson checked into a few days before.
Walking through the hotel lobby, there were the odd and strange looked from the guests as they spotted a drenched Gerry making his way over to the lift.
After getting out of the lift, he couldn't reach into his jacket pocket for the Hotel Pass to get into the roomand they were soaked right throuh the material. Monica offered slotting the pass through the door and opening it, Gerry rushed into the bathroom, taking his shirt off and throwing a bathrobe on in the space fo five minutes. He shivered feeling freezaiing cold, she decided to stay with him to check if he would be okay for the rest of the night.
On leavign day as Emily and Gerry packed their suitcases for the flight home, Monica arrived at the hotel room to say goodbye she was sad to see him leaving. They promised to stay in touch, if they wanted to keep their long distance relationship strong. Emily could instantly see that her dad was completely taken with this woman and didn'rt object to their relationship.
They all met up with Brian and Esther, his friend demanded all the details as to why Gerry had taken off so early the other night.
"Yer know Jack will be interested in hearing what happened on holidays here in Barcelona"
"Maybe with him it''ll all be about what we missed out on... Strickland probably having a music gig with his band"
Monica wanted to wave them off as they got into the taxi by the hotel entrance way
"I'll email you Gerry and hopefully contact you by Video over the internet" He kissed her hand as the taxi drove off, it felt good to have found a woman who liked and admired him.
"You and her eh?"
"Yes I know"
"Hope you don't mind Gerry but I gave her the office compuuter address to contact you on"
"BRIAN YOU....." He fumed angrily
Cue New Tricks Theme tune
The End