Memory of Love

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- 4 -

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Lui arrived two days later.  Ben had offered to put him up at his house temporarily.  If he got the part, then he would look for a place of his own.

 

Leanne had expected, from his Italian name, that Lui would be dark, like Ben, but she was surprised to find him quite fair.  His hair was a sort of golden brown, and he had astonishingly blue eyes, and a cheeky, lopsided grin.  He had later explained that his colouring had been inherited from his Great Grandmother, who was Irish.

 

Ben opened the door to him and they embraced, slapping each other on the back.

 

“Glad you could make it.” Ben told him, picking up Lui’s case and carrying it into the lounge. 

 

“I’m sorry about your folks.” Lui told him as he followed Ben down the hall.

 

“Thanks.” Ben’s expression clouded briefly.  Then, giving him a smile, he said. “Want a beer?”

 

“Great.”

 

Ben opened the fridge and took out two cans of beer, handing one to Lui.

 

Leanne studied them as they stood chatting in the kitchen.  Lui’s colouring was a perfect contrast to Ben’s dark, swarthy, looks, and, about an inch shorter than Ben, was of a similar build.  They obviously shared the same sense of humour too, because, as she went around the house doing the chores, she could hear frequent bouts of laughter coming from the kitchen.  Leanne smiled to herself.  It would do Ben good to have someone like Lui around.  It would take him out of himself.

 

The next morning, they’d gone one off to see the t.v. producers who had also liked the contrast between their colouring, and the chemistry between them had come over strongly on camera.  They’d arrived back at Ben’s just after lunch, somewhat merry after stopping off at the pub to celebrate, to announce that Lui had got the part.

 

“Congratulations.” said Leanne.

 

Lui had stayed at Ben’s for two weeks, before finding himself a flat to rent, during which time, being a newcomer to London, Ben had taken him out most nights, to introduce him to all the ‘in’ clubs and bars.

 

Nearly every morning when Leanne arrived to do the housework, they would still be in bed sleeping it off.

 

“I’m shattered.” Ben said one morning while Lui was still in bed.  “I think I’m getting to old for this kind of thing.”

 

“I don’t know where Lui gets his energy from.” said Leanne.

 

Ben shook his head, sipping a cup of coffee.  “Neither do I, but he’s always been the same.  He can never get enough of anything.  He gets high on life I guess.”

 

After Lui had moved into his own place, Ben went back home to the States for a visit, before they began work on the t.v. series, as he wouldn’t have another opportunity for some months.

 

A couple of weeks later, Leanne had been in a wine bar, having lunch with Rowena, when Lui had come in with two other men.

 

“That’s Lui, the guy who’s co-starring with Ben in that t.v. series.” Leanne told Rowena.

 

Rowena turned to look.  “Not bad looking.” she commented.

 

“He’s a nice guy,” said Leanne, “when you can catch up with him.” She laughed. “He’s almost had Ben in a state of exhaustion, trying to keep up with his ‘social appetite’.”

 

“I see what you mean.” muttered Rowena, watching them through narrowed eyes.  All three men were pretty merry and, while not causing trouble, were a little on the rowdy side, which drew several glares from the mainly ‘yuppie’ clientele who were having lunch there.

 

Presently, Lui caught sight of Leanne and pushed his way through the crowd to their table.

 

“Hi, Leanne.” He grinned at her, his blue eyes twinkling mischievously.

 

“Hello Lui.  How’s things?”

 

“Great.  Just great.”

 

“I’d like you to meet my friend, Rowena Griffiths.  It was Rowena who recommended me as Ben’s housekeeper.  If you want someone to look after your flat, she’s the person to ask.”

 

Lui shook hands with Rowena.  “Nice to meet you.”

 

“You too.” Rowena replied.  “I hear you’re to be working with Ben?”

 

“Yeah.” Lui grinned. “I’m looking forward to it.  Ben and I work well together.”

 

“How are you settling down in England? Have you spent time here before?” Rowena asked, politely.

 

“Fine. I’ve only ever passed through really. I’ve never stayed here for any length of time before.  But, from what I’ve seen so far, it’s great.  Except for the weather, of course.  It seems to have done nothing but rain since I got here.”

 

Leanne laughed.  “It has been rather a wet summer this year, but we do get some good weather.”

 

“Yeah, about five days a year.” Rowena chipped in, “and never on weekends or holidays.”

 

They chatted a while longer before Lui excused himself and returned to his friends.

 

“Nice guy, isn’t he?” Leanne looked at Rowena, who was looking after him with a thoughtful expression.

 

“Mmm.  Too nice.” she muttered.  Leanne gave her a puzzled look, wondering what she meant by that comment. Rowena was a very astute judge of character, able to weigh up people in just a few minutes.

 

Two weeks later, Ben returned from the States to the coldest, wettest July on record.  Torrential rain had caused flooding in several parts of the country, and the unseasonably cold weather had damaged many farm crops.

 

Within a week, Ben had gone down with a bout of flu that knocked him off his feet for ten days and caused the start of shooting for the t.v. series to be put back for two weeks.

 

The doctor had given Leanne instructions on how to look after Ben, automatically assuming that she was going to nurse him.

 

Leanne hadn’t been keen on the idea, remembering Ben’s earlier comments about the girl who had moved into his apartment to ‘look after him’ when he’d injured his ankle, and then refused to leave, and had hoped to be able to leave him, stocked up with drinks and medicines, to go home to her own flat in the evenings.

 

Ben had been so ill the first two days however, she hadn’t dared to leave him alone in the house.  His temperature was up to 103 degrees,  and he was so weak she’d had to help him get from the bedroom to the bathroom. She’d spent her nights in and out of the bedroom, monitoring his temperature and putting cool compresses on his forehead to reduce his fever, while Ben had slept fitfully, muttering incoherently.

 

The virus attacked his throat, his weakest spot, causing him to lose his voice for several days and he’d had to resort to writing down what he wanted to say on a notepad.

 

By the fourth day, however, his temperature was well down, and Leanne had suggested that she go back to her own flat that evening.  Ben had grabbed the notepad and scribbled briefly on it before handing it to her.  “Please stay.” he’d written.

 

Leanne stared at the notepad momentarily, before she lifted her eyes to his, a smile touching the corners of her mouth.

 

“Well, alright.  But only until you’re back on your feet.”

 

Ben smiled back at her, before sneezing violently.

 

It was another three days before Ben was up and around, but even then, he was weak and tired and spent a good deal of time asleep on the sofa.

 

After ten days, however, he was beginning to get his strength back, and his voice, though still croaky, had more or less returned.

 

The following Monday, they began work on the t.v. series and, for a while, it seemed, things went well.  Ben and Lui worked well together, and the first screenings of the show were hugely successful.  Suddenly, people were recognizing them in the street and stopping them for autographs.  Ben seemed to enjoy it all, but Lui seemed a little uncertain, and reluctant, about all the adoration being thrust upon them.

 

On the strength of the first few shows, they were signed up to do a second series the following year.  Suddenly, they were wanted for personal appearances and interviews on the radio and t.v.  Lui was approached by a record company who wanted to sign him up as a singer, after hearing him sing, and play guitar, in one episode, and Ben was offered the lead in a theatre pantomime at Christmas.  Lui wasn’t interested in a singing career, and Ben had to refuse the pantomime because of their work schedule.

 

When they weren’t working on the series, they seemed to be spending all of their spare time promoting it and Leanne saw little of either of them.

 

Despite their busy schedules however, Ben again remembered Leanne’s birthday, sending a bunch of red roses, as he had the previous year, with a card wishing her happy birthday and thanking her for her support.

 

In November, Ben threw a party.  He’d been invited to so many recently, he felt a little guilty at never having any himself.

 

“You will come, won’t you?” He’d asked Leanne, looking expectantly at her as though he really cared that she should be there.

 

“Oh, I don’t think so.” Leanne shook her head.  “I don’t fit in with those show business types.”

 

“Of course you will.” said Ben, “and there’ll be quite a few people there who you’ve already met – Lui, and Brian Matheson and Alejandro Rodriguez.  Do come.  You’re always cleaning up after me.  It’ll be nice for you to be on the other side for a change.  I’ve hired a professional firm to do the catering and cleaning up.”

 

Leanne sighed.  “Well, alright.  But only if I can bring a date.”

 

“Sure, no problem.” Ben looked pleased.

 

Leanne smiled now, as she remembered the look on Ben’s face when she’d walked into that party.  Having got used to seeing her in the jeans and t-shirts, or sweatshirts, she invariably wore to go to Ben’s, he had looked positively stunned when she had walked into the party on the arm of her date, an old college friend, wearing a peacock blue jump suit that plunged in a low V at the front, with a matching blue belt that also went to a V shape in the centre, secured around her slim waist.  She wore her auburn hair piled on her head, and adorned herself in a chunky white and gold necklace and matching bracelet.  Fine gold earrings dangled several strands, like golden string, from each ear, and white, high heeled shoes and a small matching clutch bag completed the outfit.  On some girls it would have looked tarty, but Leanne knew that the combination of the blue and white suited her colouring and she was glad she’d chosen it when she saw the look of disbelief on Ben’s face as he approached them.

 

“Leanne?” he breathed.  “You look…” he looked her up and down in open admiration. “…great.” he finished.

 

“Thank you.” said Leanne. “I do have other clothes besides jeans you know.” she added with a grin.  Then, turning to her escort  “I’d like you to meet Phil Wilson, an old college friend.”

 

“Hi, Phil.  Glad you could make it.” Ben smiled and shook hands with Phil, but Leanne knew Ben well enough now to know that his smile was put on.  She sighed.  It infuriated her the way he refused to make any effort to be friends with any of her men friends.

 

Despite her reservations, she enjoyed the party immensely.  Most of the people there were extremely nice, although a few of them were unbearably self-righteous and bored her almost to tears.  She caught Ben, one or twice, looking at her as though he couldn’t quite believe she was the same girl who cleaned his house every day, and Leanne found that his reaction pleased her no end.

 

At Christmas, Leanne casually invited Ben around to her flat for dinner.  Her parents were going to Europe for Christmas, and all of her friends were visiting their families, leaving Leanne out on a limb with nothing to do and nowhere to go, and she knew that Ben wouldn’t bother to cook a Christmas dinner just for himself.

 

Ben said he was meeting some of the cast of the show for lunch but seemed keen to come round, for a bite to eat, in the evening.

 

“I don’t have anything else to do either.” he said, looking momentarily sad, and Leanne guessed he was remembering previous Christmases spent with his parents, before their deaths.  Then, brightening, he said “We might as well be alone together, eh?” giving her a lopsided grin.

 

“Fine.  I’ll save dinner and we can have it then. O.K?”

 

“Great.”

 

Leanne sighed as she took her mind back to that night.  She would remember it forever.  It was the closest thing to a “date” that she had ever had with Ben.

 

They had eaten the turkey by candle light.  Leanne thought the candles made her little flat look more cosy.  Later, they’d sat around the fire with just the lights of the Christmas tree lighting the room, listening to music and talking, exchanging tales of their respective schooldays, Leanne telling him of her days at art college, before training as a secretary, and Ben telling her about his college days, and of his early days in the acting profession.

He also talked about his parents and of how they’d supported him in his chosen career, despite the fact that his Father had wanted him to be a doctor, like him, and he spoke of the grief he still felt at their sudden, and horrific, deaths.

 

They sat talking late into the night, Ben sitting on the floor, one arm propped on the seat of the sofa, his chin resting on his hand, watching her intently as she spoke of her days at art college and, later, secretarial college, as though he was genuinely interested in what must, to him, have seemed an awfully dull life compared to his own, his dark eyes reflecting the glow from the lights of the Christmas tree and his cheeks flushed from the heat of the fire.

 

Eventually, he announced that it was late and got up to leave.  At the door, he thanked her for the meal and bent to kiss her briefly on the cheek before shrugging into his overcoat and stepping outside onto the landing.

 

“See you next week.” he smiled.  She was officially on holiday until 2nd January.  “I promise not to leave you too much mess to clean up.”  He grinned at her before turning and going downstairs to the front door.

 

Leanne sighed as she closed the door.  Half the girls in the country would have given their right arms to have been in her position tonight.  So why, then, did she feel so discontented?

 

Looking back now, she couldn’t imagine why she hadn’t known.

 

At the end of January, Ben had thrown another party.  In actual fact, it was Lui’s party, Lui having organized and paid for it but, since he was still living in rented accommodation, he had asked Ben if he could use his house for it.

 

Leanne had also been invited to it, and had once again taken Phil Wilson along as her escort.

 

There had been several people there who had been at Ben’s party, but there were a lot of friends of Lui’s who she didn’t know, and neither, it seemed, did Ben.

 

As always, when Lui and alcohol got together, there was a lot of rowdiness, although it was always good-natured rowdiness and not nasty or violent.

 

Despite his growing reputation of outrageous social behaviour, and having a grasshopper mind and a low boredom threshold, Lui, Ben told Leanne, was a conscientious worker, always on time, however late he may have been out the night before, line perfect, patiently doing take after take without a word of complaint.

 

“Surprisingly, he has more patience than I have.” Ben had told her.  “After three or four takes I start to get a little irritated.”

 

Leanne had been surprised.  Ben always seemed so easy going and, apart from that one day he’d snapped at her, she’d never seen him lose his temper.  Lui, on the other hand, seemed not to be able to sit still for more than thirty seconds, and she just couldn’t imagine him being so dedicated.  Perhaps, she mused, that was why he was so boisterous, socially.  Maybe it was a release for all the discipline he had to employ to do his job properly.

 

Ben had got chatting to a tall, blonde girl at the party, who he began dating on a regular basis.  She was typical of the usual type of girl he went out with - tall, leggy, blonde and very pretty.  Leanne had expected him to make a bee-line for her yet, for some reason, she felt angry when he did just that.

 

It was just over two months later almost exactly a year to the day since the death of Ben’s parents, that the next catastrophe had befallen him.

 

Leanne had been standing on a stool in Ben's lounge, cleaning the sliding patio doors, when she heard the front door open.  She glanced at her watch.  It was only just after eleven, too early for Ben to be back.  If it was Ben.  The thought of burglars suddenly struck her.  Quietly, she got down off the stool and gingerly poked her head around the door, wondering what she was going to do it if was a burglar, only to see Ben in the doorway.

 

“Hi.” she called.  “What brings you back so early?  Did you forget something?” she enquired, walking down the hall towards Ben who was leaning against the front door, gazing vacantly in front of him.  As she got closer, she could see that his face was ashen.

 

“Ben?” she touched his arm.