Love's Dilemma (Sixty Minute Romance) (4 page)

Chapter Eight – A Change Of Heart

Clair and Jo crept into the house at one o’clock in the
morning, hoping not to wake Clair’s parents up. They negotiated the hallway on
tip toe and started on up the stairs. A voice from the dining room called out.

“Clair, can you come in here please?” It was Mr
Holding.

Jo looked at Clair as if to say
‘What do I do?’
Clair pointed upstairs and Jo carried on up to Clair’s room.

“I’ll be up soon.” Clair whispered to Jo.

She slowly came back down and opened the door to the
dining room. Both her parents were sitting at the table. Their expressions were
calm but Clair knew that this was a battle of wills that had been brewing for
many years. Clair had finally lit the fuse and brought things to a head. This
was not going to be pretty.

“Hi Ma, Hi Pa.” Clair looked at her parents. They were
in their late fifties but looked a lot younger. Her mother was slim and tall. Her
hair was exactly the same as Clair’s and, like Clair, she usually wore it up in
a bun. Mr Holding was also quite tall, and due to his obsession with the gym,
he looked like he had just walked in off a Mr Universe competition. Clair loved
the fact that her mum and dad looked so good, and looked after themselves. This
was in complete contrast to her wider family who were mainly unhealthy and
overweight.

Clair noticed that they were both wearing their
dressing gowns. They had been waiting for her to return for quite a while.

“We need to talk to you, Clair.” Clair’s throat
suddenly went dry and closed up tight. She managed to croak something back and
sat down opposite them. She waited.

“We are not happy for you to be mixing with these
people you were with tonight, Clair. They are rowdy and unruly and you are
better than them. You should be mixing with your own kind, not with these white
people.” Clair was shocked as she heard this statement with the word
‘white’
screaming out at her. She knew their hopes for her to one day marry
‘A nice
black boy from church’
; they voiced it often, in fact every time she had
come home in the past with someone unsuitable. In the end she had stopped
bringing any of her dates home. It wasn’t worth the trouble.

“We have not spent thousands of pounds on your
education, only to see you fritter it all away on people who are not worthy of
you. What have you got to say about it?” Mr Holding never really raised his
voice, but Clair could feel the deep set feelings behind his words.

Clair had little that she could say in the face of what
Mr Holding had said.

“They are just friends who sing in a band. They are my
friends.”

“But you are not a club singer. That is beneath you.
You are a fully qualified solicitor with your career and life before you. How
can you turn away from this and start with your singing again. It will get you
nowhere.”

“I am not turning away from anything; I have just
joined the band for a few months to help them out. It won’t affect my work in
any way.” Clair was feeling hot and quite upset. This was never going to be
easy.

They sat and talked for over an hour. They really
talked at each other, rather than with each other. There was no meeting of
minds. Clair’s mum hardly said anything, other than to agree with what her dad
was saying.

“I’m tired, is it alright if I go to bed? Jo is
upstairs.” Clair was very tired and weary.

“Think about what we have said, Clair. You are
beautiful and talented. We don’t want to see you wasting it away on a boy like
that.” Mr Holding finally summarised the main crux of the problem. The problem
was Max.

Clair said a quiet ‘Goodnight’ to her parents and went
up to see Jo. She was numb and didn’t say much to her. She didn’t need to.
Clair got changed and into the double bed with Jo. They held each other with a
deep understanding and shed a few tears before falling asleep.

It was at seven o’clock the next morning that Clair and
Jo reviewed what had happened with her mum and dad.

“I’m not going out with Max, am I? He is not husband
material, is he?”

“Well that’s not completely true. You are going out
with him today, for some strange reason that I cannot work out. But I agree, I
can’t see you as a long term couple. As your dad said, ‘He’s a white boy’.” Jo
teased Clair but it was a bit close to the edge. She didn’t retaliate.

“Max is different and a bit wild. That is what is so
good about him. You never know quite what to expect from him. That is what I
like about him.”

“He certainly is wild, I’ll give you that!” Jo pondered
the thought of Clair and Max together.

“What does Max do? What is his job?” Jo asked.

“You know, I was thinking about that the other day. I still
have no idea at all. I’ll ask him today.” Clair suddenly feared that he was a
low life loser who did nothing in the way of a decent job.

At about half past nine the girls appeared for
breakfast. They had enjoyed their early morning time getting ready for the day.
When they reached the kitchen door they were amazed to see that Max was already
there, and was regaling Clair’s mum and dad with his life history. He had been
supplied with a bacon butty and was enthusiastically devouring it while
talking. He was speaking with his mouth full. It was not pretty but it was
entertaining. He was wearing a light green T-shirt with the slogan
‘I’m
being green’
printed on it in dark green.

Clair walked around the kitchen with her jaw dropped,
as Aaron and Cora Holding laughed and clapped at the anecdotes Max was telling.
When he told them about the tragic death of both of his parents in a sailing
accident Cora gave him a hug of sympathy and said.

“You need another bacon butty.” She went off to prepare
it.

“Hi babe” Max said to Clair as she down next to him.

“Don’t call me babe!”

“OK babe!” Max was again on top form.

“How long have you been here? How did you get in?”
Clair was amazed at the turn of events. She was starting to join in the laughing.
It was quite infectious.

“I got here about an hour ago. Your folks are pretty
cool you know. They let me in, and said they wanted to talk to me anyhow. They
told me I couldn’t take you out and I wasn’t the sort of guy they wanted mixing
with their daughter. Then I had a chat with them and here I am!”

“My parents are not cool!” Clair returned, still
smiling and unsure of her ground.

Her dad looked over with a pained expression and then a
gentle smile. He opened the palms of his hands and shrugged his shoulders as if
to say. ‘
OK, I might have been wrong about this guy!’

“Yes, babe, they are cool. They started telling me
about how much they disapproved of me taking you out, and ended up making me
breakfast. That is very cool.” Max spoke as if this type of turnaround was to
be expected and quite normal.

“Stop calling me babe!” Clair hated the name.

“OK babe.” Max couldn’t help himself.

Clair turned her gaze towards her dad.

“How! What! Who!....” Clair was not making much sense.
She tried again.

“What has happened, dad? Mum?” Clair was straining with
curiosity to know what had happened. She was almost afraid to find out what had
happened.

“Well I am not quite sure of all the details, but
hearing Max talk about you in the way that he did, made us realise that he is a
good guy. He likes you a great deal Clair!” Cora returned with Max’s second bacon
butty.

“What did he say about me?” Clair was starting to feel
hot again.

Max was now also getting into difficulties.

“Hold on a minute ma and pa. That was classified
information for your ears only.” His face was turning red and there were beads
of sweat forming on his forehead.

“We will let Max tell you for himself. It will sound
better that way.” Aaron was still smiling and enjoying the conversation.

Jo had sat quietly through all this and had her
breakfast. She left to go to her Saturday job. She went round the table kissing
everyone before she left.

“You all have a good day!” were her parting words. Jo
smiled at the scene she had witnessed. She wished she had a home life like
Clair’s.

“I’m sorry about all that Jo. I’m not sure what has
happened.”

Clair saw Jo to the door and stole a minute with her
before returning to breakfast in a bit of a daze.

“We’ll clear the breakfast things up. You two
youngsters go off and enjoy your day.” Aaron and Cora looked like they were in
bliss.

“I’ll go and finish getting ready.” Clair ran up the
stairs two steps at a time.

“She looked ready to me. Did she look ready to you?”
Said Max, a little puzzled.

“Ha, ha ,ha, you have much to learn!” Aaron slapped Max
on the back and shook his hand.

Twenty minutes later Clair appeared in her tight blue
jeans and sneakers. She wore a hoody sweatshirt over her blouse and looked
ready to kill.

“You look hot!” Max exclaimed.

Clair looked please at his reaction. Her dad was less
pleased.

“I do not want to hear this.” Aaron left the room in a
hurry.

“Do you want to tell me about what has gone on here?”
Clair put out her right hand and lifted Max’s chin up to force him to look at
her. She stared deeply into his eyes to try and guess even half of the story.

“I’ll tell you after we get there.” Max handed Clair a
brand new helmet.

“I got you a bigger helmet, you have a big head!”

“Well thanks, I guess.” Clair took the helmet and put
it on as they walked out to the awaiting motorbike.

They both got on the motorbike and rode off. Clair had
no idea where he was taking her, and it didn’t seem to matter. She once again
enjoyed the feel of the wind as they rode the bike. She decided to hold onto
Max rather than the special seat handle she was supposed to use. Holding Max
was much better. She loved looking around. It seemed like you could see and feel
more from a bike rather than a car.

The business of Clair holding onto Max was an unexpected
pleasure and he had to really concentrate on his driving for the whole trip.

After a long hot ninety minutes, the destination did begin
to matter. Where was Max taking her? After two hours he pulled into a car park
on the seafront at Bognor Regis.

“Did you bring a swimming costume babe? You might need
one.” Max shouted in a muffled voice through his visor.

“No! You didn’t tell me.” Her voice sounded odd. She
realised that it was ridiculous holding a conversation with helmets on so she
took hers off.

“Well the weather looks glorious today, and I love
swimming in the sea.” Max was beaming all over. His hair was blowing around,
out of control which made him look wonderful. The sun seemed to almost enjoy
flickering across his tanned face and deep cut features. Clair enjoyed his look
and his carefree way of living. It was making her start to look at Max himself.

“Have you got a swimming costume with you?” Clair dared
to ask.

“No way, I’ll just go in like this. I might take my
T-shirt off.”

“But what about towels?” she asked fearing the worst.

“I’ll dry off in the sun.” Max was quite at ease with
these arrangements. Clair was not as spontaneous and easy going as Max and
thought for a while.

“If I decide to go for a dip I’ll buy a costume from
one of the shops here. And… I’ll buy us both towels.”

“But how do we take them back home babe?” Max asked.

“I’ll buy a rucksack to carry them. How is that? Stop
calling me babe!”

“OK babelicious! Sounds like a plan. Let’s go and look
at the sea for a while and talk first.” This was exactly what was in Clair’s
mind as well. She wanted to know how Max had brought about such a
transformation in her parents’ attitude. She decided to overlook the term
‘babelicious’ for the moment. Max grabbed her hand and they ran onto the beach.
The stones were impossible to run on, so they fell over on top of one another.
Clair gave out a loud scream and a laugh. Some other beach visitors looked over
at them and they started to behave themselves again.

They eventually found a small spot on the crowded
shingle beach and sat down still laughing and looked out to sea. It was a
glorious sight, with full sunshine and a cooling sea breeze. Children were
paddling in the shallows, and other people were fooling around in the sea. They
sat close to each other and fiddled with some of the stones while they took it
all in. Their bodies were touching, side by side.

“What did you say to my parents this morning Max?”
Clair broke the long silence.

“Don’t hit me!” Max turned and looked at her.

“Max?” What had he done?

“I embellished the truth to make me sound as good as
possible. It worked a treat.” Max’s eyes met with Clair’s.