COPYRIGHT@GerryRose

 After Jenny left, Marsha inspected her work and was quite impressed. Jenny was a talented cleaner. She put Mrs. Moore to shame. Mrs. Moore was very discreet and discretion was important to Marsha. Marsha’s weekend guests would be arriving around 6pm. Gordon and Sandra were old friends of Bob’s. A bit too suburban and boring for her liking. She was grateful that when they had guests staying Bob managed to quell his rampant libido. Marsha was in need of a little rest and recuperation. Her weeks were so busy and she did resent that Bob expected her to maintain her lithe body by going to the gym, swimming and Pilates classes whilst he seemed to spend most of his time playing bridge which only required him to sit on his fat bum for several hours. Marsha started composing a review for Jenny. She would keep it short and sweet.  

‘I can thoroughly recommend the cleaning company ‘Jenny loves dirt.’ Jenny is super quick but very thorough. She left my house gleaming and smelling like a spa after just two hours. I would recommend booking Jenny for a 4 hour session for the average 3 bedroom house.’

 Marsha added Jenny’s phone number and posted it on the local neighbourhood site which she noticed seemed to have posts from all over Brighton and Hove. Marsha felt very generous and then turned her attention to preparing the meal she had planned for the guests.

 Marsha thought about Jenny and counted her blessings. She was lucky to have found Bob. Back in the dark days of 2012 when she was 55 and free again after a long oppressive marriage she resented the fact that most of her friends in Hove were still married and were looking forward to their husbands retiring. Their children were at university and life was easy for them. Meanwhile she was working full time because she didn’t want to spend too much time on her own. She didn’t have children and didn’t have a large family. Her work colleagues were her family back then.  She had been divorced around 2 years, when her friend Mary told her that there was an eligible divorced man at the Bridge Club. He had moved into the area from London. Mary told Marsha to jump in quickly and nab him, because it was well known that an unattached man at a Bridge Club was the stuff of dreams for the many single women who were members. Mary and her husband arranged a dinner party and invited Bob and Marsha. Marsha knew that she was an attractive woman who had always found it easy to hook a man. She never thought of herself as being the smartest women in the room, but she was often the savviest and the sexiest. She never minded a man who liked ‘mansplaining’ as long as he had plenty of assets which would enable her to have a good life. Bob had those assets and 4 years later, here they were, married and living in one of the most upmarket areas of Hove. She would have preferred to live in one of the Hove Squares but Bob wanted a modern house with a large garden and garage. She knew she was lucky to live in such a nice house. At times she did think about Aesop’s fable. ‘Be careful what you wish for, lest it comes true.’

 Marsha looked at the time and realised that she should focus on the here and now. She had bought some delicious seafood from the Fish Shack for the starter. She would make her own Marie Rose sauce. Continuing the fish theme she had some large tuna steaks which would be easy to prepare. She made a pauper’s salad which was an easy and quite filling option to go with the tuna steaks. She made a mango and pineapple fruit salad for dessert. Marsha always liked to keep things simple.

  Bob arrived back from Bridge and he looked a little cross.

‘Everything ok Bob?’

‘Don’t ask! My Bridge partner is a total bitch. It’s a shame that Gordon and Sandra will be arriving shortly, cos I really fancy a bit of a romp in the red room.’

‘Well never mind, you could always look at the film we made last week.’

‘That’s a great idea! I will have a quick look and then take a shower and change.’

Marsha wondered why Bob played Bridge because it always seemed to annoy him. She had no intention of learning how to play. She liked having time apart from Bob. Bob could be very demanding and needy at times. She busied herself with the last bits of preparation for the meal and made sure they had the right wine pairings. She would run herself a bath in the family bathroom.

Bobs bellowing came as quite a surprise.

‘Marsha who the hell is this scrubber. Come up here immediately.’

 Marsha sighed. Bob could be a bit dramatic at times. She walked upstairs to the Bondage Suite. Bob was sitting in front of the television monitor viewing the footage from the hidden camera.

‘Who is this Marsha?’

Marsha peered at the screen and realised that she was watching Jenny snooping in their cupboard in the Bondage Suite. She was examining their whips, butt plugs and handcuffs. She was certainly giving the room a good once over. Marsha tried to play down what she had seen.

‘Oh that is Jenny from the book club.’

‘Jenny from the book club? What the hell is she doing in our Bondage Suite?’

‘Oh she probably took a wrong turn whilst looking for the linen cupboard.’

‘Why was she looking for the linen cupboard?’

‘She was doing a trial of cleaning our house and I agreed to write a review if she did a good job. She is desperate for money and has just started a cleaning company.’

‘And did you?’

‘Yes Bob she did a fantastic job in just two hours and far better than Mrs. Moore.’

‘At least Mrs. Moore wouldn’t know a butt plug from a sink plug! What is this woman going to do with what she has seen today?’

‘I would imagine very little.’

‘Marsha I am going to check the other cameras. I really don’t trust this woman.’

Marsha really couldn’t be bothered to rise to any of this. Bob went to examine the camera in their bedroom and after a few minutes he came back absolutely incandescent.

‘She has found dildos, our costumes and all sort of stuff! What is the name of her cleaning company?’

‘Jenny Likes Dirt.’

Bob looked very red in the face and Marsha wondered if he should get his blood pressure checked again.

‘I am going to write that woman a review and I hope she never gets another cleaning job again! How dare she snoop through our private life. I have a reputation to maintain in Hove Park and I can’t risk this stuff getting out.’

Marsha drifted off to run a bath. Bob remained in their bedroom seething and looking like a man who was very close to having a heart attack.

 30 minutes later Gordon and Sandra arrived. A waft of suburbia seemed to cling to them. Marsha had mixed herself a very strong gin and tonic before they had arrived and braced herself for their dull stories of life in Acacia Close, their boring stories about river cruises and the antics of their two cats.