SIPS, SLIPS AND SNIPPETS OF LOVE 9

Saturday 12th November

Phil put off telling his father until December, when he’d already been working for a couple of months.  Jameson had straightaway given him all the conveyance-ing paperwork to do, all the tedious little details, but Phil showed willing and often stayed late, always got things done quickly and never complained.  Jameson had a partner, Jones, but they didn’t really seem to get on; they just looked after their own clients and didn’t really speak to each other at work at all.  Phil got on okay with Jones though, and he would give him odd jobs to do too, so he was already learning to keep his options open.  Jones found out that he was seeing June quite quickly too, Phil was never good at keeping a secret, and Jones told him that if he was thinking of marrying to let him know, as he knew of a few properties going ‘on the cheap’, and could fix him up with a mortgage “no trouble”.

Phil’s trouble was his father, who he was sure would not only disapprove of the marriage altogether, but would insist that they wait, for years maybe, before doing anything stupid like actually getting married.  In the end he took June round there that first Christmas, and while she was helping his mother with the washing-up in the kitchen his father and he sat either side of the coal fire, and, he with a glass of scotch in his hand, and Phil with  a Pale Ale, he started to unwind.  For the first time in Phil’s life he was actually treating him like an equal and just talking to him.  He told him that he had always had high hopes for him as the only child, and knew that Phil wouldn’t let him down.  He had received good reports from Jameson; the old boy thought Phil was very methodical, which was apparently a positive.  His father suddenly turned to him and asked if he was really serious about June.

“More serious than I have ever been before.” he replied, without a passing thought, turning his pint glass round and round in his hands.

“Good.” His father said firmly, banging his knee with the flat of his palm, “Then don’t be a fool and let her slip away, she looks like a good one.  I knew the moment I saw your mother she was the girl for me, and I wasn’t wrong there Phillip. And she has never let me down, not once.  Let me know when you are thinking of getting married and I’ll see what I can do.”

And he really came good for them too, Phil was utterly surprised. He gave them a decent deposit to buy a house, and Jones knew of this place that needed a fair bit of work but it had belonged to an old boy who had died alone and his family wanted shot of the house quickly.  They picked it up for a few hundred pounds and no mortgage but Jones reckoned it was worth over a thousand, and Phil actually got nearly two for it a couple of years later after they put in an indoor toilet and a bath.  A new cooker and a kitchen sideboard, a few rolls of wallpaper and it looked spanking modern.  Phil already knew the local estate agents, and the Building Society manager, so there was no trouble getting a mortgage for the house he really wanted.  He’d had his eye on it for while; it had been empty for a couple of years.  It was far too big really, six bedrooms, and that put most people off, “Too expensive to heat” they all said.  Well, Phil thought, you don’t have to live in every room to begin with, and it was far cheaper than it should have been, and right in the centre of town too.  They moved in after only a couple of years of marriage, June had to keep working to help pay for the mortgage, but Jameson had increased his wages when they got married, so they managed okay in the end.

*  * *

June had to admit that Phil was very clever with money, she’d never earned enough to save any money herself, and all her mother ever did was moan about not having any, but Phil seemed to know how to make money grow. “The trick is”, he used to say, “to use other people’s money to make money for you.”  June had really liked their first house, it was in a small terrace of six, just off the main road, but not far out of town, so she could still get the bus in to work.  But it was never enough for Phil, he always had big ideas, and he said he wanted to live in a big house with a drive and gates and all, and that he would one day, “and sooner than you think, my girl.”

They had a quiet wedding, “No point wasting money that we needed to do up the house,” Phil had said.  June wouldn’t have minded something a bit grander, but she didn’t argue with him.  Where money was concerned June always let him have his way, she would have hers where it really mattered.  But what annoyed her most was her sister Julie insisting on bringing her farmhand Ted along, he just didn’t fit in, though Phil seemed to like him, so she couldn’t really argue.

“What the hell are you doing here,” she hissed at him, while they were waiting for drinks at the bar, “This is my wedding.  I don’t want you spoiling it.”

“Now why would you think I might do that?” Ted replied looking genuinely hurt.

“You know damned well why Ted Wasp, you’re going out with my sister, as if that wasn’t bad enough.”

“Well, you didn’t want me anymore, did you June, so your sister is next best thing in my reckoning.”   He had this idiotic broad grin plastered all over his face, the face June had once smothered in kisses.

“Well, just remember I am marrying Phil today, so keep your big mouth shut, okay.”

“Oh I’ll do that alright, wouldn’t do to upset your nice Solicitor husband now would it?” and he smiled that old cock-eyed smile she knew so well.  “But I have to warn you Julie, like it or not, I will be marrying your sister.  But then that needn’t bother you need it, you and I is finished, long time ago too.” He said with a conspiratorial wink in his eye.

“Just remember that then.” she warned him with a scowl.  And then he slipped away, and every time she looked round he had his hand round her sister Julie’s waist, and Julie had no idea what Ted and her used to get up to only a few short years ago.  Nobody did; she had never told anyone about Ted and her, and she certainly didn’t intend to start now.