{"id":1680,"date":"2023-07-13T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2023-07-13T13:33:13","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T13:33:13","slug":"breaking-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/breaking-out\/1680\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING OUT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He seemed nervous. \u2018Good to meet you after the messaging, Cassie.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            After that, he Cassied her at the end of practically every sentence. Put him at his ease, butter him up, she thought. \u2018You\u2019re even nicer than your profile!\u2019 she told him, and was chuffed when he blushed. No big ego then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I\u2019m more of a listener than a talker,\u2019 he said. She smiled sweetly at this, holding his gaze with lingering craft. She hadn\u2019t forgotten how to flirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You won\u2019t replace me \u2013 not unless it\u2019s somebody frigging desperate!\u2019 Those were the words of Bill, ex-husband number two, on his departure. His words had nagged at her for a while, but here she was back on the dating game. Her confidence was breaking out again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She\u2019d chosen the caf\u00e9 upstairs in Tesco. A late morning cup of tea before she went to work. Malcolm was a compact guy, a few years older than her, a couple of inches shorter . He was barrel-chested, making her think of a bullfrog. A gentle froggy: tender, a nice nature. She\u2019d made mistakes with men before, but this one appealed to her. He was courteous and it was odd how she felt at ease talking with him, once he\u2019d broken the shackles of silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I was brought up by my gran,\u2019 he said, when she\u2019d mentioned her three adult children in Blackburn. His mother had done drugs and had mental health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Message to herself: Malcolm might need a mother figure. It could be arranged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re local, aren\u2019t you?\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Belper.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Handy.\u2019 And she gave him a little come-on look. A sheepish expression on Malcolm\u2019s face. She did<\/em> like his shyness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018What do you think of me, Malcom?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I\u2019m impressed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Smitten?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Well I\u2026 you know\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You soon will be,\u2019 and she gave a dirty laugh. No point beating about the bush. She was fifty-one, of large build, and she knew she\u2019d never win a beauty contest. She wanted a man for love, friendship, and nookie. Malcolm would do her nicely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018So\u2026?\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re sweet,\u2019 she said standing up. \u2018Fancy popping over to South Normanton to see me?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Well I\u2026 yes\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            She gave him a peck on the cheek, and tapped his bum for good measure. That ought to get the message across. \u2018Got to go to work, love. I\u2019m in the next couple of evenings. Okay?\u2019 He nodded, the same mix of embarrassment and interest. She was driving the show, and he didn\u2019t seem to mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Soon then,\u2019 she said, about to depart. \u2018Hey, are you OK?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Malcom was shaking, then he slid to the floor. For a nanosecond she thought of a frog slipping into a pond. Then her nurse\u2019s instincts kicked in. She used her jacket to cushion his head, loosened his collar and tie to aid breathing, then turned him on his side when the convulsions stopped. She stayed with him until the ambulance came.             Needs occasional nursing as well as mothering, she noted, as she drove to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She\u2019d chosen the caf\u00e9 upstairs in Tesco. A late morning cup of tea before she went to work. Malcolm was a compact guy, a few years older than her, a couple of inches shorter . He was barrel-chested, making her think of a bullfrog. A gentle froggy: tender, a nice nature. She\u2019d made mistakes with men before, but this one appealed to her. He was courteous and it was odd how she felt at ease talking with him, once he\u2019d broken the shackles of silence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,836],"tags":[56,855,856,95,8,7,122,20,854,128,9,14,853,74,11],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-no-way-out","tag-after","tag-breaking","tag-ease","tag-had","tag-he","tag-her","tag-him","tag-his","tag-malcolm","tag-out","tag-said","tag-she","tag-than","tag-up","tag-was"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-r6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}