Blue Collar Read Online Free PDF Page B

then because I didn’t want to embarrass her in front of the lads, so I went round to her place after last knockings and just
     managed to catch her on her way out – the back door.
    Once again she said that she was sorry but she was busy all week long but maybe we could go out some time the following week.
     Or the week after that. She’d let me know.
    By this time all the lads had caught wind of it and thought we were going out. And I couldn’t really blame them either, I
     mean, I thought we were going out, but I was wrong. And finally I had this confirmed to me one frosty morning when I saw Miss Business
     Suit leaving her flat with some pencil-dick who wasn’t me. Actually, that’s not fair on him, I don’t know if he was a pencil-dick
     or not. All I know is that he actually got to go on dates with Miss Business Suit while I only got to ask for them.
    Seven weeks, that went on. Seven weeks and I think I must’ve asked her out a total of five times before the penny finally
     dropped. Each time was a nerve-shredding heart-in-the-mouth stutter-fest and each time she’d said ‘yes’, but her ‘yes’ hadn’t
     meant ‘yes’, not even her ‘yes definitely’. It had actually meant, ‘No, but I’m too embarrassed to say no. Read between the
     lines, Bungle’.
    Oh, I’m not bitter, because it can’t be easy being put on the spot by some knuckle-headed doughnut who can’t take a hint,
     but then all it takes is a moment of courage and everyone knows where they are. A bit like asking in the first place – which
     is an awful, excruciating, miserable, tongue-twisting experience and one I’ve always hated.
    Eye-openingly enough, that pencil-dick who wasn’t me became quite a fixture around Miss Business Suit’s flat and they occasionally
     passed us by when we were working on or near the estate access road. One morning they both even smiled up and said good morning
     to us when Robbie called down a ‘ mawnin’ ’ of his own and she didn’t even blink when she saw me up there next to him. It was like nothing had ever passed between us
     and there was an unspoken agreement that even if something had, neither of us should ever bring it up again.
    I wondered if this was how I’d looked to Charley this morning.
    I also wondered if Miss Business Suit’s pencil-dick ever knew about it when she finally broke up with him or whether he just
     went around there one day and found the locks had been changed and some other geezer wearing his slippers.
    ‘So you are going out with her, then?’ Jason asked me, meaning with Charley. Forget about Miss Business Suit. That was just
     me reminiscing. I’m over her.
    ‘I think so. I mean, she said yes and everything and I’ve got her number in my phone now, so I said I’d give her a call next
     week,’ I explained, showing him her number as proof of my recent success.
    ‘Nice one. You’ll do all right there, my son,’ he offered, clicking his tongue against his teeth and rubbing his hands together
     like Jiminy Cricket on a promise.
    ‘Really? You think she likes me, then?’
    ‘Oh yeah, posh birds love a bit of rough,’ he winked, all congratulatory. ‘Everyone knows that, don’t they?’
    Old Stan over in the corner rolled his eyes.
    ‘Yeah, but do you think she actually likes me? You know, actually likes me for me?’
    Jason stopped rubbing his hands mid-rub and looked at me as if I’d just taken the lid off a pot of snakes.
    ‘Er, well, you know, sure, depends on what you’re talking about,’ he speculated. ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘Well, is she only after me for a quick shag or do you think she actually likes me for who I really am?’ I asked.
    ‘Are you sure you don’t want a pink gin?’ Jason asked, by way of a reply.
    ‘Oh, don’t give me that old flannel, you’ve been happily married to Sandra ever since you met her in the sandpit, so don’t
     come the old Confessions of a Bricky bollocks with me. You know what I’ve