After the heartbreaking end of my short lusty dalliance with Joy, I was in love recovery mode. I was still going to the pub and enjoying my disco life again, even getting an occasional snog from a girl I'd been dancing with but nothing further than that.
Readers of my first teen story will know about my final romance in West Berlin before my father was posted back to the UK. It was with an art student called Helka. She was the first girl whose breast I'd fondled. For our last evening together at the nightclub, she has doused herself with a beautifully perfumed talc. I had fondled her breast when we were sitting in a booth in a quiet corner of the club. I was so taken with her sweet perfume that I didn't wash my hand for about two days!
I had been receiving occasional letters from both Inge and Helka for the last two years or so and, after my experience with Joy, a letter from Helka was just the pick-up my broken heart needed. Her news was that she was coming to London in the summer to work at the London School of Economics. It was now March so not long to wait till I would see Helka again.
She was a bit of a free spirit. In one letter, she told me how she liked to paint whilst in the nude but she always wore a long pair of socks - she needed somewhere to put her brushes! Hahahaha! With that sense of humour and her free-spirited attitude, I was certainly looking forward to seeing her.
Meanwhile, life was the same old, same old. Work, home, work, home. But things were not going too well at work. I worked in meat and dairy products and my company was trying to get into the market of vegetable oils for cooking. Part of my job was to collect meat products for visiting reps. Trouble was, my company premises were in Clerkenwell and the meat products were in a warehouse on the Isle of Dogs (where the Canary Wharf tower blocks are nowadays). Once, I had to catch a bus from the warehouse to the office whilst carrying a side of bacon on my shoulder! Well, of course, I had to get a better job! As it turned out, the company decided that I wasn't really suited to the job and let me go anyway! Great!
So, I had just turned nineteen, I lived in a grotty bedsit, I was broken-hearted and now, I was unemployed! I had a few weeks' worth of severance pay but that didn't last long. A kindly old Irish couple who ran the corner shop near me lent me some money to tide me over but they suggested that I go to the dole office to claim benefits and try to get a job.
"A dole office?" My father had found my first two jobs for me and, of course, I was living at home! So, I didn't really know how to go about getting another job and claiming money so that I could eat! Fortunately, Jim the Irish shopkeeper showed me where to go to get a job and some benefits.
I had to register for work and, straightaway, the clerk said that, with my school qualifications, I could get a job actually working in the dole office. She put my name forward to the office manager and told me the salary plus there had just been a pay rise backdated and another pay rise in the pipeline. After she totalled up the figures, I just said, "Wow!" I felt that I was just about to become Rockefeller after the poor wages I'd received in my previous jobs!
I started on the desk for new claims and soon got into the swing of the work. I also soon realised that it was a good place to meet girls, although they would be unemployed girls! After a bit of unsuccessful flirting with a few girls, I encountered a claim form with no previous employer stated but instead, just a reference number. I asked my supervisor what this was and he said that the person had been in prison!
And so, Rosalind came into my life. She was sitting on a bench in the unemployment hall when I called her up for her registration interview. She was 21, a pretty woman, slim, about average height with shoulder-length brown hair.
I started out with, "Good morning and how are you today?"
"Better than yesterday," she replied.
"So I understand," I said, "My supervisor told me what the reference number on your form meant." I wasn't really interested in her circumstances so I went straight on with the form to complete the interview. I had been a bit flirty with her during the course of our short chat. After all, she was an attractive lady and I was just doing what came naturally!
"So, your address ..." I started.
"Well, it's not my proper address. I have to appear in court so it's a hostel that I have to stay in until my court date. I have to check in with the local police."
"OK," I said. Where I lived in my luxury bedsit was only around the corner from Rosalind's bail hostel so I took a chance.
"What are you doing this afternoon, do you have to check in with the police or the hostel?" I asked.
"Well, I was only let out yesterday so all the checks were done then," she said. "Got nothing to do but sit in the hostel."
"I live not far away so ..." here goes, "can I take you for a drink?"
"OK, I think that will be all right with the landlady. Yeah, yes please, could do with a drink. There's a pub across the road from the hostel. See you at eight o'clock?" Rosalind said.
"Yeah, I know the place, see you later then," I replied. Phew, it was a good job that none of my colleagues at the desk could hear me arranging a date with a new client who had just come out of prison!
The rest of the day passed routinely. I was being tutored in the procedures by my supervisor and the manager took me aside to tell me that, because of my school qualifications, I would be fast-tracked to a more clerical position rather than checking new claim forms. I was pleased with their initial assessment of me but then, I thought that maybe they were trying to keep me away from newly unemployed girls! Hahahaha!
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Because there was no proper bathroom at my bedsit, I would go to a nearby leisure centre just to take a shower! The centre was on my way home from work so I popped in. All washed and dressed, now to get home to get out of the work clothes.
A brush of the teeth, a spray of deodorant and I was out of the door to meet up with Rosalind. Just a short walk took me to the pub near her bail hostel so I walked in, got a beer, and took a seat. While I was waiting, I browsed the jukebox, chose a few tunes, and settled back in my chair.
At about nine o'clock, an hour late, Rosalind walked in. She looked around the pub, saw me, and then, looked around again. The pub was fairly empty and, when she saw me for the second time, she made the "Oh, there you are" gesture. Not a good start, really! However, she came over and sat down.
"Hello, Rosalind. What are you drinking?"
"Oh, call me Roz, Rosalind is too formal. Yes, I'd love a pint of bitter." Well, to a young, traditional guy like me, a woman drinking pints of a man's drink was er, a little different but, hey, we're in London and these are modern times (1976).
I returned to the table with drinks and we began to chat properly. After the usual pleasantries, Roz told me, with a giggle, that she wasn't really a hardened criminal! She had been arrested for a minor drug offence but, because the arrest was in London and not in the town where she lived, she had to appear at a London court.
I tried to pin down her personality but she seemed to be a real mix. We would be having a nice and relaxed conversation and she would suddenly jump up to dance to a song that was playing on the jukebox. At one point during her dance, she kicked off her shoes, one of them nearly hitting another customer! She sat down again, gathering her shoes under the table.