The Eastbourne Connection by J.C. Mac

Author:J.C. Mac
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781481851
Publisher: Grosvenor House Publishing
Published: 2013-04-22T00:00:00+00:00

20

Eastbourne 2001.

Cath had been in Eastbourne for almost two years when she met Varjak. She worked for an insurance company by day but had taken a job in a local pub to fill the evenings. The months since she last saw Mick had just dribbled by. She took each day as it came. Each week, each month. Each day she simply existed.

Varjak had first come into the pub with some friends. They were boisterous. They’d begun to flirt with her, making fun of each other to gain her attention, her approval. Varjak had not been part of this but had looked on, smiling, as his friends had vied with each other, like adolescents, hoping Cath would notice them. Varjak hadn’t joined in the general banter and Cath had only noticed him when he bought drinks. He spoke to her politely but seriously.

A couple of days later he had come into the pub early, when hardly anyone else was there, and ordered a coffee. He had sat at the bar and engaged Cath in conversation. She had found him pleasant and charming. Varjak made a number of visits during the following two weeks and eventually asked Cath if he could take her out. She’d agreed, not particularly concerned one way or another. He was quite nice, quite charming. He dressed well and was clean. If you’d asked Cath years later, how she’d been attracted to him, that’s all she could have given you.

Varjak’s family owned several restaurants, a very successful one in Hastings and a recently opened one in Eastbourne, which Varjak was managing. But Varjak had other plans. His enthusiasm was infectious. ‘I want to get into property, buying and selling, renting out, there’s loads of money to be made.’

This was something Cath and Mick had been interested in. They’d often discussed investing the money from that bloody drugs run in a flat in docklands or a holiday home abroad. Perhaps, looking back, that’s what had interested her about Varjak. He expressed an intention that linked her to a past which had been full of possibilities. Perhaps those possibilities hadn’t been entirely lost. Cath told Varjak about her husband who’d recently been killed in a car crash. This had been their dream.

They began to visit estate agents, pretending to be newly married and looking for a new house or flat. They viewed properties for sale, talked to the homeowners and quickly built up their knowledge of the property market. After a couple of months they decided to go into the property business together. Cath used her dad’s insurance money, Varjak borrowed money from his family. They bought several small flats and refurbished them. They worked like Trojans never going out or socialising, spending all their spare time at the newly acquired flats. And it was fun. Cath enjoyed and surprised herself. She found herself to be shrewd and single minded. It was she who identified the most suitable locations, found the most reliable and cost effective builders and plumbers, dealt most effectively with the banks, solicitors and estate agents.

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