Tammy’s Quest for Romance

Tammy’s Quest for Romance

Part One

The burning shades of autumn were magnificent and so romantic. But romance was out of Tammy’s life, not that it had ever entered it she supposed. In her thirties older couples had always said ‘that at their age they couldn’t be bothered with such things as romance’ and she had believed them, trusting that she would be the same when she reached that age. Now she was fifty five, she still fancied a bit of the soft soap as Mike would say. Mike had never been romantic, not his style he would tell her but he never gave it a chance so how would he know? You have to do it before you can say you’re no good at it, surely. She hit a stick on a conker, watched it fall, stood on it and released the glossy auburn seed. She breathed in the aroma of the chilly earth.

            She had always loved chicklit and romantic movies, old or new anything to give her a lift out of the mundane circle of clean, tidy, work, cook, clean, tidy, bed and the relentlessness of it all. It was getting her down and she could see no end in sight, there would always be clean, tidy, cook it was inevitable.

            No meals out, no romantic walks or hushed moments of shared silence. But like the trees around her she was burning with late maturity an awakening that she could not halt, even if she wanted to.

            Mike had a sense of fun, his humour had been the thing she had noticed about him, his laugh could thaw her in an instant, he brought out her sun on cold and bitter days pushed away the rain when it fell heavy and gave a rainbow of joy. But that is not romance and although she was lucky, she thought she deserved a bit of romance!!!

            Over the years she had attended to Mike’s every needs and she had come to the conclusion that was the problem. Well her eldest son’s girlfriend had sparked the idea really. They had gone out to watch a girly flick and after they shared a bottle of wine at a very stunning bar, Tammy was amazed how Sara tackled her son and had sat wide eyed as she explained about having fun. ‘I only wear high heals and stockings if he wears a suit’ she explained ‘and if he buys me flowers he knows I make an effort and cook one of your recipes’. Tammy blushed and the young woman held her arm with a giggled embrace. So simple, yet so cunning a trade off, thought Tammy.

            On Sara’s advice she had stopped cooking all of Mike’s favourite meals and cooked quick and easy put together ones that left very little to clean up, mentioning this to Mike with a pleased Cheshire cat expression of “how good is that!”

            Sara had come round one evening and they had looked through fashion magazines together and had a few glasses of wine as the boys went out to football with their dad. They even looked up a few local restaurants that did a cracking steak, Mikes’ all time favourite meal; he liked it rare with homemade chips.

            Then Sara took her shopping for sexy hold it all in and push it all up, stocking an optional extra to attach but holdups are more comfortable Sara had said. They had found a lovely dress and a pair of high heal shoes to match. Tammy had to practice walking in them, it had been so long since her heals went past a very practical level. She had to admit she looked every inch sex on stilts that men like so much.  Last Saturday they had facials and a manicure, Sara’s mum had come along and it was such fun ‘the Chickslit bunch’, Sara had called them. Brenda or Bren as she preferred to be called was a little older than Tammy but enjoyed romance on every level and proud of it!

            After they left the coffee house Tammy promised them both that the next Saturday she would get dressed up and ask Mike what he thought, walk around and go for a twirl and then go get changed, give him his meal and sit and read a chicklit as he watched the football of the TV. They assured her that this would provoke romance out of a stone let alone a loving husband. She wasn’t convinced.

            The thought of it had made Tammy laugh all week and when her nerve had started to wane and had began to tut at herself for being foolish the girls at work had bought her a bottle of wine to keep her going.

            She now opened that bottle of wine as she cooked a rather boring stew that was ok but not up to her normal culinary delights. Sara had just called to make sure Tammy hadn’t chickened out and let her know the boys were on their way home with the trailer. Josh and Sara were buying their first home together and while the new flat was being finished they had stored their furniture in the garage and all over the house. Now they were taking the furniture and tomorrow they were throwing a family lunch to say thank you to both sets of parents.

            Tammy ran upstairs with her glass of wine, she had just over twenty minutes to get dressed and back down stairs. She looked at the deep red, low cut dress that showed all her best features and hid the worst ones and wondered what an earth she was doing. She was no longer a girl in youth, a woman of her age and marital status should just let go of the idea of romance and read about it in novels. She reached out and touched the flowing lines of the dress and the velvet burnt red bodice and thought of autumns passion.