Janet and Steve went back downstairs to go and fetch their car leaving Richard alone in the apartment with Maggie. He stood rather awkwardly outside the door; as Maggie went straight into her bedroom to start packing.
She was talking to him when she realised he wasn't in the room with her. Poking her head around the bedroom door, she saw Richard standing outside looking like a lost little boy.
“You can come in!”
To Richard a woman’s bedroom was the holy of holies, a place where no single man should enter unsupervised. With some interpretation, Richard ventured in.
Maggie stood in the middle of the bedroom, her hands on her hips laughing. “It’s OK, it’s not a trap. A giant stone is going to start rolling down from the ceiling like in Indiana Jones.”
Richard gave a nervous laugh, “New territory for me, coming in here.”
Maggie was glad she took the time to clear up the mess before going to work that morning. Not a good sight to show a potential boy-friend, empty wine bottles rolling around on the floor.
She opened up her built-in wardrobe and fetched the small suitcase that was still lying on the floor from when she came back from the bookbinding conference in Germany last month. However, if she was going to be staying away for some length of time, she needed the large one also.
Looking up, she could see it was still on the top shelf, put there by Martin her ex-boyfriend after their last holiday together before the dramatic break up.
As Maggie threw in all her underwear into the small suitcase, she asked Richard if he could reach up for the larger one.
For the five-foot-ten inch Richard, it was an easy reach but unknown to him and Maggie the case was filled with an unexpected heavy weight.
The weight was not secured in the case and as Richard moved it off the shelf, the unexpected weight came rolling to the front of the case. He immediately lost his balance and toppled backwards. Maggie instantly grabbed him around the waist, attempting to push her weight against him until he regained his balance.
With his balance regained he slowly lowered his arms until he could put the case on the floor.
Maggie was in no hurry to let him go. She kept the side of her face pressed against his back. Feeling his muscles and smelling the musk deodorant. Richard saw her soft white hands around his waist; he too was in no hurry to be released. But where would the two of them go from here? This intimacy was all too new for him. He tapped her hand, “It’s OK, you can let go now.”
Maggie reluctantly did as he asked although sh still rubbed his back asking for reassurance that he was OK. He was fine then humped the case onto her bed.
Maggie fetched a damp cloth from the bathroom and proceeded to wash off the years of gathered dust. Once it was clean, she flicked the catches and the offending items, a set of dumbbells inside, stared back at them.
“Been doing weight training?” Richard sarcastically enquired.
Maggie was no gym fanatic she got her daily exercise from running for buses, walking around the shop or climbing ladders.
“They belonged to Martin, I had no idea he stored them in there.”
From this sudden revelation of a 'Martin' Richards heart sunk, hoping this was not a hidden boyfriend suddenly being revealed. "Who's Martin?"
Maggie sighed at having to mention his name again. “My ex-boyfriend, we split up about three years ago. Just before I opened my shop.”
Richard was inwardly relieved.
“What do you want done with them?”
Maggie puffed out her cheeks out. “I suppose I could ask Steve to drop them off at the recycling centre, dump them in the scrap metal.”
Richard left Maggie to finish her packing and went to wait in the living room. He went and sat on the small two-seater settee, sitting next to a big white fluffy polar bear. In its paws in held a copy of ‘Einstein theory of relativity’. Richard smiled.
Beside him on a small table, were a few trashy celeb mags and a Sudoku puzzle book. Maggie was a woman of contrasts; he could imagine her feeling at home coiled up on the sofa watching soaps one night and the next night attending the ballet.
Around were some photos of what he took to be her mum and dad. The other photos were of couples holding babies, possibly relatives or friends.
On one of the walls were some framed long-service awards from the bookshops she had worked in plus her ‘Young Business Woman of the Year’ certificate which was awarded to her by the Independent Shop Keepers Trade and Commerce. Richard remembered seeing Maggie in the local paper receiving her certificate and award.
The rest of the wall-mounted pictures were of animals and random landscapes that could have been taken anywhere in the world. The sort of pictures you would buy in a discount shop. He got the impression that she felt the need to give the apartment a ‘homely’ look. In fact, it gave the impression she stayed there rather than lived there.
There was no TV, but instead a most impressive book collection he had seen in anyone’s house or apartment. An entire wall covered with shelving filled top to bottom with books of all genres.
One shelf had her art history books featuring: French Impressionist, through to Russian Constructivism. The artist Mondrian through to the Bauhaus art movement.
The next shelf down were authors: Sophie Kinsella, Val McDermid and JK Rowling mixed in between with books of European history. The more he looked he could see she was an eclectic reader. A tick on the potential girl-friend check list.
One of her antique reference books, caught his attention and so took it off the shelf to read. Immediately, an envelope fell out. Richard bent down to pick it up, when Maggie walked into the room.
Holding the letter he quickly said. “It fell out of this book, honestly! ”
Maggie went over to him and glanced at the faded postmark. “I don’t know why I keep that."
Richard turned it over in his hand to see there was a BBC logo in the top-left hand corner.
Then, surprisingly she said. “Read it if you want.”
As Maggie continued looked for her phone charger. Richard read out loud:
‘Dear Miss Margaret Harris.
I’m sorry to inform you that your application to appear on the Antiques Roadshow as one of our resident bibliography experts has been unsuccessful. Thank you for your interest, we would like to keep your name on file…’
Richard didn’t have to read the rest. He put the letter back in its envelope and placed back in the book and returned it to the shelf. “You’re much better than those people on TV. Don’t sell yourself short Maggie. How many of them would have spotted that fake Gutenberg Bible that came up for auction last year?”
She just shrugged her shoulders. “I thought a spot of TV would booster my career. When they found out I didn’t have a university degree, it was there’s the door girly.”
Richard sat her down on the sofa. “Listen, the world is full of people trying to reach the big time the easy way. Don’t be like them; don’t sacrifice the real Maggie Harris for fifteen minutes of fame. I tell you, since we joined our two businesses you have been keeping us afloat with your deals.”
Maggie smiled.
Clasping both her hands, Richard reminded her. “I shall never forget the look on the auctioneer’s face when you proved to him and those gathered at the auction that the Bible was a fake?”
Maggie looked at Richard recalling the event. "It did worry him, didn't it."
“To use your colourful language." Richard concluded."He shit himself.”
YOU ARE READING
Artful Dream
RomantizmMaggie Harris and Richard Maple are two thirtysomething antique dealers from London, who have been forced by financial problems, to join their two businesses. That was over a year ago and things are now on the up. Maggie is in love with Richard and...
