Blooming Women

14. Hello, Georgie

 Georgie loitered as nonchalantly as he could down the path between aisles of plants, feet slopping slightly in the early morning sprinkler system overspill; the limp had almost gone and he'd lost some weight in hospital, although it would still be a while before he would see his own knees without the aid of a mirror. Summer, the customers were reckoning, was here, and properly timed for the end of June for once.

Georgie was involved in his favourite work pastime: hunting female customers. That bitch with the pestle and mortar had never shown up again – lucky for her, he mistakenly thought – and his confidence in squeezing past a woman wearing who was wearing a nice outfit, especially one that suited summer weather, had increased again.

And there she was. She was back. Straight hair and a green dress that showed off a slim figure with fantastic legs. He could see her through the slightly wilting display of delphiniums which weren't enjoying the weather, skipping between the rows of plants as playfully as if she were six years old. Maybe she was simple? She'd have to be to be bouncing round like that in this weather anyway. Georgie waddled at his fastest in the opposite direction, rounded the end of the row of raised beds and entered the next; the girl should be along at any moment, and then a quick grab as she went past should give him plenty to enjoy when he got home.

He barely heard the feet as they flickered down the paving towards him; he stepped back so she'd be fooled into passing. The faint footfalls stopped and he glanced quickly in the girl's direction; she was standing looking at him, hands on her hips and a wide smile on her face.

'Hello, Georgie. I was hoping to find you.'

Excited shock burst in his stomach; women didn't usually look at him like this, or suggest they were happy to see him.

'I hoped you'd come into the woods with me...?'

She turned away, flashing a smile back over her shoulder that made his brain short circuit, and began to walk away, a fascinating roll to her hips.

She was bare footed.

Well all right then!

This sort of thing had never happened to him before, and, improbable as it was that it was happening now, he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. He stumbled after her retreating back, breathing hard as she broke into a hip-bobbing little dance, twirling towards and away from him, enticing him closer to the stand of hazel trees at the back of garden centre.