(Editing 2nd )The Eden Chase Chronicles: The Mystery Of Them (#Wattys2015 #lgbt)

The Web

I wipe the residue of blistering hot water from the pint glasses before lifting them up onto the quaint, thick glassed-edged, little shelf above the bar where they live.

The last couple of weeks have been nice. Ethan has been good to his word and we haven't been to The Pit once. Serg and Blue and even Alexis have joined us on our other expeditions instead; scenic walks, museums, galleries, the theatre just to name a few, and the guys have all been on their best behaviour. I have not felt pressured in the slightest to change my mind about getting sexual with them again; It hasn't even been mentioned.

No longer doing the three shifts I normally do at cinema has given me a couple of free evenings a week and even Saturdays. I am still doing my shifts at Mama's and the library same as before because they aren't too challenging and I do enjoy doing them. I have cut down my hours here though, although not through me asking. Pat had asked if I minded doing a little less as he hasn't got enough customers coming in to warrant both me and him being there on certain shifts.and I had almost bitten his hand off. Now that I do not have to worry about bills or statements or third notices anymore it is like my brain has started to wind down taking my body with it and the amount of hours I was doing seems daunting and impossible. I look at it now and I really do not know how I did it. I should have collapsed of exhaustion; I think if I had tried to go on with that as heavy a workload for much longer I would have.

It feels very strange waking up naturally in the morning; without the sound of the screeching alarm battering my eardrums, and it not being a novelty not having to get up straight way. I love just laying in the warm soft covers; Egyptian cotton that I had brought just last week. I felt scandalous buying such expensive bed covers but, oh my lord, are they worth it; like sleeping on a cloud. The new sturdier bed base and sprung mattress helps too. I had ordered that when a rogue spring had bit Ethan in the butt when he sat down one evening and I realized it was silly not using the money for things I needed and Ethan made sure I always went for top quality items.

Life has felt smooth and slow but still fun and adventurous. It's nice finishing a shift with Mama or Mrs. Phelps and not having to rush to get to another job and they have both commented on my new appearance of better health. Supposedly I positively glow.

Ethan nearly always meets me outside the library with Beauty and we flash back to mine for a quick shower and kiss before heading out to whatever he had planned for that night. At first he had asked what I wanted to do but I did not really know many leisure activities other than the pub or cinema and his destinations are always much more beautiful and interesting than what my feeble mind could come up with. He has taken me to the Ballet; The Opera; A midnight picnic with an orchestra playing in some park in London, that had been like a dream; a beautiful warm night with the stars sparkling above, wrapped in Ethan's arms as we listen to what Ethan later told me was Bach.

Even the restaurants we have gone to have been so much fun; A Jazz bar with a seven piece band playing in darkened room with deep, rustic food and neat bourbon brought by rockabilly type waitresses; A Japanese, brightly lit and sparkling white circular room where you had to grab your choice of food off a rotating conveyor belt that went in circles around and round the pristine chef; Another with dramatically high ceilings and low, subtle lamps casting shapes in the crystal and lace adorning the room and after you at the rich foreign food, the chef then appeared and made these delicious pancake type things with lashings of brandy and set it alight right in front of us. Ethan and Serg even taken me to an all American themed burger joint which housed a real mechanical rodeo bull in the centre which I just had to have a go on; course I fell on my arse in five seconds flat but it was so much fun that I went on again and again until I managed three whole minutes.

I feel like a right lady of leisure and, good god, do I love it.

Pat doesn't seem to be in quite so good a mood as I am though. He's got a face like a wet Wednesday that's had it's arse smacked; Hard.