Chapter Thirteen

Brrrrrnnng……….Brrrrrrnng……….Brrrrrnnnng!!!!

What the hell? Somewhere in the fogginess of her brain, an unfamiliar sound was dragging Jenn back to reality. Resist as she might, the annoying sound refused to go away yet was joined with a thumping of what sounded like bongo drums beating somewhere in the upper part of her head.

BRRRNNNG!!! BRRRNNNG!!! BRRRNNNNG!!

Oh God, make it stop! Somehow her arm managed to function all by itself and reached out toward the offending phone ringing noisily on the bedside table. Grabbing the cradle, her hand brought it to rest beside the brass band which were noisily rehearsing behind her eardrum. A garbled sound came from the receiver;

“Jenn!! Hello?………Hello?”

Words formed in Jenn’s throat but her lips refused to open on command. All she could manage was a gurgle type mumble into the phone lying on the pillow beside her,

“Emmmblehhhbluhhuh?”

“Jenn it’s Steph! Are you alright? Hello??”

Starting to come to her senses, Jenn ignored the ever growing symphony of heavy metal instruments in her head and grabbed the phone a little more firmly. Clearing her throat, she tested a few words, small ones.

“Hi…..yup…..fine….ughhhh!”

“Oh crap! Sorry if I woke you but I gotta talk to you and Dad is snoring his head off next door so can I come down? Like now?” Steph was speaking excitedly on the other end of the phone.

“Ummm….yup…..sure”, Jenn mumbled, sighed and buried her head in the pillows. Oh God, whatever I drank last night must have been poisonous! The fog was slowly clearing however as her eyes focused on the objects in her room, the bedside lamp, her open suitcase, the comfy armchair in the corner, Jon’s belt draped over it, the vanit…..WHAT THE FUCK?

Jenn sat up wildly in the bed and stared at the black belt which had been flung over the headrest of the chair at the far side of her room.

“OH MY GOD!” she spoke loudly to the empty room, “TELL ME I did NOT do last night what I think I did!!”

Memories of a drunken Karen, a bottle of tequila, a fumble in the elevator, flashed through her brain. Shifting over to swing her legs over the side of the bed made her wince. Oh crap! More images of a naked Jon, a very naked her, a tousled bed. Burying her aching head in her hands, she moaned softly. She had done last night what she’d sworn she would never do. She had gone and slept with the fucking boss! Literally!! Now what the hell was she supposed to do?

A loud rapping at the door shook her awake. Holy shit! Steph! Sweet Jesus the belt Jenn! Hide the damn belt. Jumping up she grabbed a robe and made a beeline for the chair, grabbing the incriminating evidence and stuffing it under the cushion. Another loud rap on the door made her jump.

“Hang on! Just a sec!!” she called out. Looking hurriedly around her she scoured the room for any more offending items and decided the coast was clear. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door and was greeted by a painfully bubbly Stephanie.

“Morning sleepyhead!! Thought you’d never get up!” and with that she grinned and bounced into the room past Jenn.

“Ugh! So dark and it’s such a gorgeous day out there! I’ll open the blinds shall I?” Without waiting for a reply from Jenn, the teenager strode over to the window and threw back the heavy curtains. Bright light streamed into the room from all angles, temporarily blinding Jenn. She threw her arm across her eyes and stumbled towards the bed.

“Ugh! Shut them again! Quick!!” and with a moan she sank back onto the bed.

“You don’t look so good, too much vino had last night?” Steph was amused by the sight of her normally bright eyed trainer looking less than well on the bed in front of her.

“Mnnnn, something like that,” Jenn muttered screwing her eyes shut trying to force away the pounding headache that was rapidly building in her head. Sighing she sat up and wobbled over to her suitcase. Fumbling through it until she found the box of ibuprofen, she swallowed a couple of the pills with a slug of water from the bathroom tap.

“Ugh, please God let them work fast!” she moaned sinking down into the armchair. “So what’s up Steph that’s so important at this ungodly hour?”

Stephanie held up her watch and looked pointedly at Jenn.

“It’s almost 9am! I’ve been awake since seven am but thought that was a little too early!”

“Normally honey, I’m up at that time but hangovers disturb my sleeping pattern greatly, you will discover this when you get to my age!” Jenn leaned her head back against the soft cushion and tucked her feet under her. “So spill!! What’s going on?”

Steph immediately blushed and looked a little nervous.

“Promise you won’t tell Dad?”

At the mention of Jon, Jenn’s stomach flipped alarmingly and she felt her own cheeks colour.

“No, no, promise. Go on!”

“Well I think you kinda guessed yesterday why I didn’t wanna go with you guys last night?”

Jenn smiled, remembering the frantic texting that had been going on the drive back to the hotel. Nodding her head, she waited for her to continue.

“Okay then, well Tommy came to see me after you and Dad had left. And oh my God Jenn, he’s like sooooo sweet! He brought me chocolates!”

“Really? Hope you’ve hidden them well! don’t want your father finding them now do we?!” Jenn cocked her head to the side and winked at her.

“Oh yeah I know! It’s okay, I hid them in my underwear case!”

Jenn threw her head back and laughed, ignoring the pain in her head. Such devious ways that teenagers have!

“So what happened?”

“He’s great! We talked for like ages about …..stuff and things you know?”

“Mnnnhmm, so you guys have really hit it off so?”

Steph nodded vigorously, “Yeah, he’s pretty awesome, knows loads about horses too!”

“Well I should hope so! His father has bred some of the best horses this country has ever seen! So….” Jenn paused mid sentence and looked seriously at the girl perched on the bed , “He behaved himself??”

Steph blushed furiously and blurted out, “Oh yes!! Absolutely!” Smiling shyly she added, “And so did I!”

Jenn breathed a sigh of relief, “Thank the lord for that! I was pretty sure I could trust you on that one. So what’s next in this blossoming romance?”

“Actually that’s why I needed to talk to you so bad! We’re heading home tomorrow and after that who know’s if we’ll ever see one another again so he asked me to spend today with him out on the farm?” The young girl looked hopefully at the older woman who was grinning back at her.

“Well, well! Aren’t we the fast movers!!”, she chuckled and then thought for a few seconds. Looking more serious, she leaned forward, “How do you think your Dad’s gonna like this?”

Steph frowned and looked down at her feet, “That’s just it! If Dad thinks that I like Tommy, you know in that way, he’d go ape-shit! Would you be able to talk to him for me?”

Jenn’s stomach was lurching uncomfortably now and she actually felt sick at the prospect of having to go speak to Jon. Well shit Jenn, you’ve gotta talk to him sometime! She just didn’t relish the idea of trying to persuade him to let his daughter loose with a strange young man, even though she couldn’t see a problem, she knew Jon most definitely would.

“Okay Steph, we keep this between us girls ok? I’ll tell your father that I think it’d be a good idea for you to go and ride a few of Tommy’s dad’s horses, you know to get a bit more experience. I’ll make it out that the whole thing was my idea alright?”

Steph’s eyes lit up and she bounced up from the bed and hugged Jenn tightly making her groan.

“Jenn you are just the coolest! Dad’ll totally go for that!”

“Whoah! Steady on a second! Just promise me you’ll look after yourself alright? No stupid moves by either of you! I know what boys are like Steph and believe me I know what girls your age are like too! I was your age once too!” Jenn levelled her eyes with Steph, who nodded solemnly.

“Best behaviour I promise!”

“Good! Now what time where you thinking of going out there at?”

Steph had the good grace to look slightly ashamed now,

“Er….Tommy‘s actually gonna pick me up at ten am!”

Jenn shook her head smiling. God this girl has everything figured out. Glancing at her watch she saw it was already nine thirty. Crap, better inform Jon of the plans. Suddenly starting to feel very nervous, she rubbed her hands together and sent Steph back to her room to get ready. She definitely didn’t want Jon’s daughter in the same room as her when she spoke to him for the first time since last night!

Once Steph was gone, she made a quick visit to the bathroom to relieve her bladder and sent a quick prayer up above in thanks that the painkillers had finally kicked in. Her head almost felt like it belonged to her again. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she took a deep breath and dialled through to Jon’s room. This is gonna be good, she thought to herself - eh NOT!