Chapter 30 - five months later (part 2)

Dave.

Dave found himself without a flatmate much quicker than he’d expected. Danny and Todd realised that it was silly to spend so much time hiding in Danny’s room when Todd had a whole house of his own, and after a few nights there they realised they were getting on so well that they might as well move in together. Dave missed having them round the house - he found Danny a calming influence, and it was always nice to find someone else in the flat after a busy night out. And he’d grown to like Todd too, and not just because of his habit of walking round all day with no shirt on, regardless of the weather or who else was in the flat. He had a sly wit that Dave appreciated, and quickly learnt that Dave didn’t mind if he took the piss out of him. Dave still saw them though, and even went round for dinner a couple of times. The house was lovely - an Edwardian semi with high ceilings and original floorboards. Danny looked perfectly at home there, and quickly made the kitchen his own.
Dave rattled around the flat on his own for a couple of weeks, then realised he’d started spending increasing amounts of time away from it, because he didn’t like being there on his own. So one day, without really thinking about it, he invited Simon to move in. He knew he wasn’t happy where he was, and thought the company would do them both some good. They’d been seeing quite a lot of each other anyway, so it made sense. Simon agreed, although typically for him he had to go away and think about it. But everyone agreed it was a good idea, so one Sunday they borrowed a van and shifted Simon’s stuff .
They’d shared a house together at college, and for a little while afterwards, so they were already familiar enough with each others habits to get on pretty easily. It helped that Simon wasn’t working, because he wasn’t in Dave’s way when he was trying to get ready for work, then he had the whole day to potter round to his heart’s content until Simon came back of an evening. They got on well, and people were soon joking that they were like a married couple, which Dave found slightly less amusing as he still had hopes of finding a boyfriend.
He continued his search for Mr Right, although he never seemed to get beyond the first date with anyone. He knew he was looking in the wrong places - gyms and clubs were hardly the ideal place to look for love - but he enjoyed them, and always had fun with the guys he went home with. He even went speed-dating with Nick one night, although both of them agreed that the other was the nicest person there. So they had a slightly drunken experimental snog, then agreed that it should never happen again. He half wondered if he should get together with Simon, but decided that was a very bad idea.
Much to everyone’s surprise his sister became pregnant again. It wasn’t planned, but both her and her husband were really excited about having another baby in the house again, as the girls were now getting fairly independent and would happy get on with their own stuff and ignore their parents. But she developed dangerously high blood pressure and had to give up work and stay at home resting. It drove her mad, so Dave spent a lot of time round there, gossiping with her or taking the girls out so she could have some peace. It made him realise how much he missed having a family, although he realised he couldn’t always look after himself, let alone another human being. Or even a cat for that matter.
And thankfully things at work were fine. They scraped through the audit, narrowly avoiding getting a fine. The Board were so relieved that he’d turned things round since the previous year that they gave him a generous pay rise and a PA all of his own, which made thing much easier round the office.
He had his 38th birthday and surprised everyone by giving up smoking, then surprised himself even more by taking up golf. People started to wonder if he was growing up at last, but he knew the truth!

Jim.

Maria never came back, in fact she made Jim promise never to contact her again. The letter had been the final straw, and even he realised it was a pretty stupid thing to do. But it helped him get her out of his system, and he soon stopped having dreams in which she came back to him and they lived happily ever after. The only other person in his life was Basil the cat, who seemed to forgive him for scaring Maria away and got in the habit of greeting him at the door when he came back from work.
A few people Jim worked with tried to set him up with single women, and although he went on a few dates he never slept with any of them and never saw most of them again. A few of them wondered out loud if he might be gay - single man, living alone with a cat, spending most of his time with other men - you can see why they would, but uniquely amongst his friends he was definitely straight. He just needed some time for himself, some time to recover and work out what he wanted next.
In the meantime he renewed some of his friendships - he spent a bit of time with Nick, who he found incredibly easy to get on with. Sometimes they swam together, and when they discovered a shared love of silent films they spent a few evenings watching those. He was so easy to get on with, even when they weren’t smoking, and the cat certainly enjoyed the extra company.
He tried to see more of Simon, and they’d tried to get out for a drink once a week at least. And once he moved in with Dave it meant Jim saw a lot more of him too, which was fun. He even managed to persuade him to take up golf, although neither of them could quite work out how or why it happened. Luckily they resisted the plaid trousers and bright jumpers.

The others.

Brenda stayed at the supermarket, and started going out more with the other staff. Not just clubbing with the gay boys, but pubs and stuff with the other girls and whoever happened to be up for it. Then a new Bakery Manger arrived and she was smitten. After a couple of weeks of staring at him across the canteen Nick persuaded her to invite him to the pub as it was one of the girl’s leaving do. He accepted, and Brenda spent the whole evening chatting too him. Although he wasn’t exactly her type he made her smile, and more importantly made her cake. She soon found herself daydreaming about wedding cake.
Big Ben stayed in Brighton after his romance fell apart. He gave up working in supermarkets and started working in gay bars, which had the benefit of getting admiring glances from the punters and pretty much first pick of anyone cute who came into the pub. He had a short-lived affair with the landlord of one place, but he beat him up when he discovered he’d been unfaithful, so he moved on, older and wiser.
Other Ben soon got sick of working in supermarkets and struggling with his college work, so he gave it all up and got a full time job in a bookshop. He was instantly much happier. Once he got over his crush on Big Ben he realised that actually he might be straight, and spent many an evening discovering for himself with a succession of women he picked up in Modern Fiction.
Simon’s flatmate John was a figment of his imagination.

The End.