Kaiane woke up on Valentine’s Day morning to the sound of Whitney Houston’s ‘I will always love you’ on Heart FM, it made her heart sink; it reminded her of brighter, happier, times. She did love that film, but she hated Valentine’s Day, all those awful smug couples everywhere. She looked over to the empty side of the bed and sighed, her sadness took over and she threw her pillow at the alarm clock radio, successfully silencing Whitney, but knocking over a glass of water all over her boss’s report on the proposed filing system overhaul. ‘Oh great’, she thought, ‘I was up until 3am finishing that! Charlie is going to kill me!’
After hurriedly mopping the report dry, she headed for the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Even at this time in the morning, with pillow marks all down one side of her face, she looked captivating. Her large green almond shaped eyes sparkled in the mirror and although she didn’t care much for make up, her cheeks were rosy and her lips were full and crimson. Her skin though pale complimented her long red hair which fell in large curls to just above her nipples. Her Natalie Cassidy fitness DVD had helped her maintain her perfect hourglass figure too, a figure that had caused her to grab the attention of many men round her estate. She had actually once won ‘Best in Show’ in her local working men’s club’s beauty contest round in the pub quiz, where Dazza, the compare and landlord, had described her as a ‘fine English rose’ and complimented her on having ‘the best tits this side of Reading’ – causing all the men to cheer loudly, and Kaiane to feel wanted for the first time. It still made her blush five years on as she felt proud of her achievement, and it was the £10 prize that had motivated her to start saving up for her South American adventure.
The memories of that trip still aroused her to this day ‘Get a grip Kaiane’, she thought as she got into the shower, but the running water reminded her of the rains she’d experienced during that year and she drifted into a nostalgic haze... That year away was simply the best year of her life, it was the first time since being cheered at in the working men’s club that she had felt liberated, lusted after and free – she had felt true passion for the first time in her life and had never wanted it to end. But end it did and all she could think about since then was Alejandro Sanchez Lopez. It all still made her shudder in lust every time – and she fantasised about what she would say to him if she saw him again, the scoundrel.
Furious with herself for still being under his passionate pull, she started to get dressed for work. She knew she was already running late for the slide reader user training session - she’d been looking forward to that training for weeks! But somehow she was transported back to the first time she had laid eyes on his wild, untamed masculinity. She had met Alejandro on the planes of La Pampa when the minivan she was travelling to Buenos Aires in with a group of pensioners on their Club 80-90s holiday broke down just outside an old cattle ranch. The breakdown had caused the air conditioning to stop working, and, always thinking on her feet, Kiaine quickly realised that very old people and 40 degree heat would not be a good combo – they stank enough as it was! ‘Sod this, I’m outta here’ she thought and elegantly stepped off the minivan, leaving them with Pepe, the friendly Peruvian driver and headed towards the ranch with an empowered strut.
Halfway down the road she wished that she’d changed as the leopard-print minidress and patent leather knee high boots she was wearing were hardly the appropriate attire for the Argentinean dirt track, but she had planned to head straight out to catch happy hour at ‘Chico’s Chang House’ as soon as they got to Buenos Aires. Just at that moment, a pickup truck full of farmers skidded past her and the noise from their jeers and wolf whistles caused her to lose her balance and fall, face first, into the hedge at the side of the road. ‘Oh my..’ she sighed, ‘not again’ she tried to climb out of the bush, but her heel had got stuck in the sandy path. She could not move. Suddenly, she felt a sharp prod on her right buttock, shocked and frightened she swept round causing her thick cherry curls to fall over her eyes. She could just make out a silhouette, but she could make out a long mane of hair, thick powerful legs and a stench of manure...brushing her hair away from her eyes, she quivered with fear as a large black stallion was standing dangerously over her ready to mount her! A loud whistle caused the horse to move obediently away and in its place was to reveal yet another powerful stallion. ’Hola muchacha’ he said as he threw down the cattle prod that he had used to singe her right buttock. His topless physique was shimmering with sweat and it reminded her of the time she’d gone to see the Dreamboys at Oceana with her mother that time.
The scorching hot sun and shock of the fall had made her feel all dizzy, but she could make out his thick arms, chiselled jaw and long dark hair. He was laughing and pointing at her, which made her feel humiliated as she lay in the hedge. She did notice his smile as he laughed though and she thought he had great teeth for a farmer. Suddenly, he pulled her out of the hedge with one arm and pressed her towards his sweat sodden, thick chest. ‘Stop it – put me down you brut!’ she squealed and used her angry feminine fists to hit him, but there was no point, he was too powerful and she too weak. She quivered, looked up and just as she about to plead him to let her go, she was captivated by his deep brown eyes and heady from his overpowering body odour. It left her spellbound. He stared at her so intensely that she suddenly wanted him all over her – ‘How could he have tamed my anger?’ she thought - just 2 minutes after she was trying to run from him, she was wishing he’d never let her go. ‘Thanks – you saved my life and defended my honour, I was stuck in that bush and my heel was lodged proper - the cattle prod was a bit much, but you saved me!’ she said, still captivated by his tempestuous gaze ‘how could I ever repay you?’, but he looked slightly confused, of course she sighed, he obviously didn’t speak English. He did understand the language of love though as before she knew what was happening, he was kissing her with a passion so engorged that she almost passed out right there in his arms, he was her hero, she would love him forever. And just as quickly as the kiss had started, it was over – he slapped her right buttock hard and let go of her causing her to fall to the ground like a bag of charlotte potatoes. This made him laugh deeply again and in the roughest English she’d ever heard he said ‘My name is Alejandro Sanchez Lopez…’. And then he mounted his stallion and rode off into the afternoon in a cloud of dust… ‘Wait!’, she screamed, ‘you don’t even know my name!‘ but he was long gone. As she limped back to the minivan and picked the bits of hedge out of her long sweeping hair, she knew her life would never be the same…
She suddenly awoke from her heady argentine memory and flustered, she realised she was running hours late ‘Oh no, I have missed my training session!’. She grabbed the soggy report off the floor, put it in her tote bag and ran out the flat and walked towards the office. She was dreading her manager’s reaction when she saw the state of the report, she honestly didn’t know why she bothered sometimes – Charlie made her life hell every day. When she was younger she had always dreamed of becoming an ‘Executive Filing Assistant’ and when this job came up in Swindon’s Swanley Insurance building just off the A4235, it had been a dream come true – a way out from her boring job at the sex shop. But it had turned out to be far from a dream, on her first day on the job things looked promising, she had even been given the sole responsibility for alphabetising consumer policies sold between Jan-April 1989. But then Charlie started.
Charlie was the area manager’s daughter and a couple of years older than her, she was on a power trip and bullied Kaiane daily. She had a horsey, head-girl air about her and always spoke to her in a condescending tone and was like sooo annoying. ‘Where have you been?, it’s nearly lunchtime! - where’s my report?’ Charlie barked at her as she walked into the office, ‘sorry Charlie, I had another daydream’ she whimpered, ‘Dr Manliman has started me on some new medication for my paper allergy and I think they are side effects’ - Oh please, said Charlie, I have had enough of your excuses! And I have had enough of you! - get back to your filing’. But Kaiane didn’t move, she had had enough too, perhaps the memory of Alejandro’s assertiveness with the cattle prod inspired an angry passion in her… she took the report out of her bag and threw it on Charlie’s desk knocking over the bouquet of red roses her fiancée had given her for Valentine’s Day – Kaiane chuckled, looked her boss in the eyes and said ’Actually Charlie, I have had enough of you too – you can take this report and swivel, you are just jealous of my natural beauty – I QUIT!
Kaiane had fantasised about doing that for years, but had somehow never had the strength to do it and now that she’d told that smug cow where to go, she knew that it was all down to Alejandro’s passion... it was his love that had inspired her to let go and quit. She finally felt free from her oppressor and it felt great – she picked up her tote bag, spun round and marched out of the office. Euphoric and empowered from what she’d done she decided to head down to the High Street’s Wetherspoon’s pub to celebrate, she could do with a shot of the hard stuff and it was nearly lunchtime…
As she walked past ‘Pills at Noon’ the local pharmacy, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. ‘No, it couldn’t be…could it?’ she gasped. She had heard a familiar deep laugh coming from the new Argentinean place on the High Street. She was drawn into the warm restaurant almost as if she was under a strange spell. The air was thick with the aroma of meaty juices and, there, just by the specials board was Alejandro Sanchez Lopez! She recognised him even wearing the oversized sombrero and comedy moustache – his body was too powerful for the comedy outfit, she would recognise his arms, and the cattle prod, anywhere. He had seen her walk in and within seconds he had thrown the cattle prod to the floor, and was bent on one knee infront of her. ‘Hello er, woman, I have been searching Swindon and the surrounding areas for you since the day I saved your life – I only went home to get my Spanish-english phrasebook, but when I returned, you were gone… marry me? Por favor?’ He smouldered, but just as he took out the Elizabeth Duke diamonique ring from his pocket, the smell of the rich, red meat had set off another one of her daydreams and she was suddenly transported back to that time she had that BBQ in New Malden with her mate Becca…
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