1. Everyone Has A Past


    Date: 1/25/2015, Categories: Reluctance, Author: PervyStoryteller, Rating: 20, Source: LushStories

    what’s best for Tina,” the woman said, handing me the card. It contained the name and address of a hotel, along with a room number, date and time. “What’s this all about? Do you want money?” The woman gave a hollow laugh. “Money? No, I want something much better than that.” She was unzipping her jacket as she spoke. I didn’t understand, and was trying to formulate my next question when she handed me a CD-ROM in its case. “You may find this interesting,” she said. “Maybe it’ll spark a few memories in Tina. I assume you’ll be talking to her about this.” “What will happen if we don’t go along with this?” I tried. “Work it out,” the woman snorted, re-zipping her jacket, before opening the door and getting out. “Tell Tina that Lulu sends her love,” she said, slamming the door behind her. Tina had plenty to tell from her trip to London, and I listened intently, asked questions and displayed my enthusiasm. But there was no way the issue of the photographs and Lulu could wait for long. Not knowing quite how to broach the subject, in the end I just laid it out, the way you rip off a plaster quick in the hope that it won’t hurt. My wife scanned the photographs and the note for a long time. “It was another life,” she murmured at last, looking away, as if she was afraid of what I might say. “I couldn’t tell you about these exactly. It all blurs together. They were pretty wild days.” I decided not to ask what “wild days” involved, but I meant it when I said, “What’s past is past.” Tina ...
    looked at me with relief. Then she said, “Except it’s not, is it? I thought I’d left all that behind. But now…” The obvious question was, “All what?” But I had to tell about the meeting with the woman in the car park too. “Lulu?” my wife said when I’d finished. She said it with such surprise that it was obvious it wasn’t what she’d expected. “And who’s Lulu?” My wife gave a little sigh. “There’s no point in holding anything back, is there?” she said. I gave a little smile. “I promise not to hold anything against you,” I said. That put Tina a little more at ease, but she insisted that we put the kettle on before she told me. “Back at school,” she said nursing the hot mug, “Lulu and I were inseparable. I wanted to be a famous writer, and she wanted to be a famous photographer, possibly even a film-maker. After school we kept in touch, but we moved in opposite directions, so we didn’t see anything of each other. I took a job as a waitress in London, but it was a horrible job and it didn’t pay much. I didn’t necessarily need much money either, but I thought that if I could somehow make more for doing less, I’d have more time left over to write. Then I saw an ad somewhere. I forget where, probably in some magazine someone had left behind. Anyway, it said they’d pay good money for ‘the right girl’. I must have been terribly naïve, but I didn’t really understand what it meant. All I cared about was the promise of ‘good money’. In the ad it said you had to have a portfolio to show. ...
«1234...1718»