“The Things We Do For Love”

…

There’s plotting and scheming afoot.

Michelle is dreaming about the many ways she can dispose of her boss, Emile, and equally ticking them off the list when reality sets in.

It’s another long night, and a customer, one with a difference, and he has this strange request, that she try a concoction he’s invented to embarrass the boy who stole his girlfriend.

It’s an opportunity and another brink in the wall. 

Despaired that Henry hasn’t discovered her hidden missive, she starts staking out the Henshaw house to see when he returns, and he does not turn up.  She cannot keep going there lest Felix gets suspicious.  She calls on the phone but gets no answers.

Next time she arrives at his house Harry is there waiting and they talk.

It’s not the conversation she wants to have, or hear, and realises that it’s going to be a lot more difficult to get Henry back.

A talk with Emile, she tries to set his mind at rest that she wants to escape again, and he leaves unsatisfied.

She realises that she has to deal with Felix first.  But, on the other hand, she would be testing the drops given to her by a client, and if it works, another part of the plan might come to fruition.

She also knows she needs another way to communicate with Henry.

…

Words written 3,350, for a total of 54,916

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

Time, it seems, does not heal all wounds.

It’s time for Michelle to return to the snake pit, her nickname for the Parlour she had been sent to work, and the only good thing about it, she is reunited with her two friends, Angie and Millie.

She’s also back to dulling the senses with the drugs left at the house, and when Felix comes to make sure she is ready to return, he realises she has gone back to her old ways.  He is not pleased.

Henry is getting to the end of another tour, with a few weeks to go, and is admiring the sunset from the bridge.  The captain, hoping he does not have to put him off the ship, finds that a  talk to the Chief Officer has put him back on track.

At least one of them is happy.

Henry is still trying to reconcile the girl he met in Morganville with the girl he met last break and finds no suitable answers, just a whole host more questions.

Perhaps he should accept that he doesn’t understand women and one in particular.

…

Words written 3,056, for a total of 51,566

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

Time, it seems, does not heal all wounds.

It’s time for Michelle to return to the snake pit, her nickname for the Parlour she had been sent to work, and the only good thing about it, she is reunited with her two friends, Angie and Millie.

She’s also back to dulling the senses with the drugs left at the house, and when Felix comes to make sure she is ready to return, he realises she has gone back to her old ways.  He is not pleased.

Henry is getting to the end of another tour, with a few weeks to go, and is admiring the sunset from the bridge.  The captain, hoping he does not have to put him off the ship, finds that a  talk to the Chief Officer has put him back on track.

At least one of them is happy.

Henry is still trying to reconcile the girl he met in Morganville with the girl he met last break and finds no suitable answers, just a whole host more questions.

Perhaps he should accept that he doesn’t understand women and one in particular.

…

Words written 3,056, for a total of 51,566

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

We are at the end of Henry’s sojourn and nearly four months have passed, what seems like a lifetime for both.

Michelle is back at work and using drugs to deaden the experience.

Henry is dreading going back home, because he has nowhere else to go, and he will not be seeing Michelle.  That ship, pardon the pun, has sailed.

Felix, The Turk’s enforcer (The Turk is the man who owns the parlours that Michelle and her friends work in, and the man to who Michelle has an obligation when he forgave her drug debt) goes to see him, and tells him Michelle is off to see Henry.

She had found out where and when he is returning and planned to meet him and tell him the truth, and maybe why they cannot be together.  The Turk is sure she’ll return.  Now she’s back on drugs, he says Henry will be disgusted and that’ll be the end of it.

In her current state, far from how she looked back in Morganville, he might be right.

…

Words written 4,712, for a total of 45,059

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

We are at the end of Henry’s sojourn and nearly four months have passed, what seems like a lifetime for both.

Michelle is back at work and using drugs to deaden the experience.

Henry is dreading going back home, because he has nowhere else to go, and he will not be seeing Michelle.  That ship, pardon the pun, has sailed.

Felix, The Turk’s enforcer (The Turk is the man who owns the parlours that Michelle and her friends work in, and the man to who Michelle has an obligation when he forgave her drug debt) goes to see him, and tells him Michelle is off to see Henry.

She had found out where and when he is returning and planned to meet him and tell him the truth, and maybe why they cannot be together.  The Turk is sure she’ll return.  Now she’s back on drugs, he says Henry will be disgusted and that’ll be the end of it.

In her current state, far from how she looked back in Morganville, he might be right.

…

Words written 4,712, for a total of 45,059

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

This is just not going to work

I had in mind right about now to find all the reasons why this romance would not work.

Michelle is not telling him the truth about her situation.  We want to believe she had found the love of her life, but is it that she has found something that she’s not had before, and it’s too late?

Her path was chosen for her, perhaps, when she allowed others to lead her down a path that eventually led to self-destruction.  Yes, she has tried to escape, twice, but inevitably she finds her way back, thinking the city is large enough she can make a new start.

She is wrong.  Why didn’t she move to the other side of the country, or even overseas?  Perhaps it was an obligation she felt to help those who had helped her escape.

The big question here is whether we let our past define us.  Do we try and find a way out of the wreckage, and try to get back on track?  It seems the situation is hopeless, or so we are led to believe.

However, the last date was when she was supposed to tell Henry it was over, that she could not be his girlfriend., but couldn’t.  He had to hear that from another source.

And, what he hears, leads him to believe there is no future for them.

Ships are great places to hide away from the rest of the world.

Henry has to endure a short period when he cannot bring himself to tell anyone what had happened, and then, at the end of the tour he takes a position on another ship, roaming the ocean for at least three months, island hopping.

He needs a sojourn, time to think, and any letters she sends, for what reason he cannot fathom, are consigned to the bottom drawer, unopened.  He is, he tells himself, done with her.

But never far from his thoughts, he decided to learn as much about her as he can, and turns to the newspaper archives, and the reporter who wrote most of the articles, none very flattering about her, and then talks to her about Michelle.

High flying model, absolute success, met the wrong man, got into drugs, and spiralled downwards from there.  She ended up addicted, and eventually a prostitute.  Not exactly what he wanted to hear, but it explained everything.

And yet, the person he met, the girl he fell in love with, was so far removed from that description, he could not understand anything.

Meanwhile, Michelle, oblivious to the fact he had overheard her conversation, cannot understand why he does not communicate with her, and cannot be found.

Time passes, and she cannot keep the man who runs her life now at bay for much longer, and then, it’s back to the snake pit with her friends; and the drugs, sitting on the kitchen bench, are a strong reminder of how she used to shut it all out.

Will the temptation get the better of her?

It’s a pivotal part of the story, and in the traditional romance, it’s the ‘boy loses the girl’ usually to a misunderstanding.

…

Words written 4,377, for a total of 40,347

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

This is just not going to work

I had in mind right about now to find all the reasons why this romance would not work.

Michelle is not telling him the truth about her situation.  We want to believe she had found the love of her life, but is it that she has found something that she’s not had before, and it’s too late?

Her path was chosen for her, perhaps, when she allowed others to lead her down a path that eventually led to self-destruction.  Yes, she has tried to escape, twice, but inevitably she finds her way back, thinking the city is large enough she can make a new start.

She is wrong.  Why didn’t she move to the other side of the country, or even overseas?  Perhaps it was an obligation she felt to help those who had helped her escape.

The big question here is whether we let our past define us.  Do we try and find a way out of the wreckage, and try to get back on track?  It seems the situation is hopeless, or so we are led to believe.

However, the last date was when she was supposed to tell Henry it was over, that she could not be his girlfriend., but couldn’t.  He had to hear that from another source.

And, what he hears, leads him to believe there is no future for them.

Ships are great places to hide away from the rest of the world.

Henry has to endure a short period when he cannot bring himself to tell anyone what had happened, and then, at the end of the tour he takes a position on another ship, roaming the ocean for at least three months, island hopping.

He needs a sojourn, time to think, and any letters she sends, for what reason he cannot fathom, are consigned to the bottom drawer, unopened.  He is, he tells himself, done with her.

But never far from his thoughts, he decided to learn as much about her as he can, and turns to the newspaper archives, and the reporter who wrote most of the articles, none very flattering about her, and then talks to her about Michelle.

High flying model, absolute success, met the wrong man, got into drugs, and spiralled downwards from there.  She ended up addicted, and eventually a prostitute.  Not exactly what he wanted to hear, but it explained everything.

And yet, the person he met, the girl he fell in love with, was so far removed from that description, he could not understand anything.

Meanwhile, Michelle, oblivious to the fact he had overheard her conversation, cannot understand why he does not communicate with her, and cannot be found.

Time passes, and she cannot keep the man who runs her life now at bay for much longer, and then, it’s back to the snake pit with her friends; and the drugs, sitting on the kitchen bench, are a strong reminder of how she used to shut it all out.

Will the temptation get the better of her?

It’s a pivotal part of the story, and in the traditional romance, it’s the ‘boy loses the girl’ usually to a misunderstanding.

…

Words written 4,377, for a total of 40,347

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

Absence is supposed to make the heart grow stronger.

But…

This is no ordinary romance.  There’s a great big ocean between them, in more ways than one.  Getting off that ocean, getting to the port, and getting to the girl is proving a very hard task indeed.

Ships have a mind of their own.

Then the planets align…

This date starts out badly.  Henry is running behind time, and, the meeting place is, well, far from being private.  It’s like he’s in the middle of a spy novel, finding himself surveilling the crowded public square …. For what?

She’s there but hardly acknowledges his presence.

Then he feels the presence of another, hiding in plain sight.

Something is amiss.  Michelle is on edge, and from the, the date goes downhill.

They get some time ‘alone’, and words are spoken, but their not anywhere near what he had hoped to hear.  There’s fallout from the last date, and we learn a little more about who and what Michelle is, and why she is acting this way.

In a desperate attempt to win her over, Henry proposes marriage.

It doesn’t work.

They part, but not before that old adage ‘eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves’ which sends him into a deeper spiral of despair.

…

Words written 2,560, for a total of 35,970

“The Things We Do For Love”

…

Absence is supposed to make the heart grow stronger.

But…

This is no ordinary romance.  There’s a great big ocean between them, in more ways than one.  Getting off that ocean, getting to the port, and getting to the girl is proving a very hard task indeed.

Ships have a mind of their own.

Then the planets align…

This date starts out badly.  Henry is running behind time, and, the meeting place is, well, far from being private.  It’s like he’s in the middle of a spy novel, finding himself surveilling the crowded public square …. For what?

She’s there but hardly acknowledges his presence.

Then he feels the presence of another, hiding in plain sight.

Something is amiss.  Michelle is on edge, and from the, the date goes downhill.

They get some time ‘alone’, and words are spoken, but their not anywhere near what he had hoped to hear.  There’s fallout from the last date, and we learn a little more about who and what Michelle is, and why she is acting this way.

In a desperate attempt to win her over, Henry proposes marriage.

It doesn’t work.

They part, but not before that old adage ‘eavesdroppers never hear anything good about themselves’ which sends him into a deeper spiral of despair.

…

Words written 2,560, for a total of 35,970