Gemma Makes Her Mark

of his life on the outside again they had met regularly forcoffee and for what were presumably and officially supposed to be‘post-release support meetings’; but which went well beyond therequired time or usual locations and soon involved them talking anddrinking until throwing out time. Mark had even encouraged Gemma togo on a couple of dates with a friend of one of her friends. Itmight have been taking playing it cool a bit far but his idea hadbeen to act as a kind of sophisticated mentor to her and pretend tohelp her find a suitable boyfriend, while at the same time lettingher see how much more interesting and challenging a prospect hewould be. He assumed it had all worked pretty much according toplan when one of their increasingly regular late-night heart tohearts, with him offering her the wisdom of his knowledge of themale species, had led to a hug, and then her letting him slip hishand under her dress. It seemed to Mark that was what they had bothbeen waiting for; he had spent that night at Gemma’s flat. While ithad been a few years since he had been touched by anyone apart fromhimself, there was certainly something special about the way shecontrolled him while seemingly abandoning herself. She certainlyknew how to enjoy herself.

It nevercrossed Mark’s mind that the managing of it all might well havebeen the other way around; he always assumed that no one could beas manipulative as he was. He had never doubted his attractivenessto women, and even Justine’s abandonment of him and the subsequentevents hadn’t undermined his self-confidence that much. On occasionhe had found himself wondering if his tendency to believe in hisown superiority had been the cause of his problems, but he neverallowed such doubts to take root.

***

Gemmahad been quite a catch and Mark had revelled in the excitement andfreedom she offered him after years away. After the initialpretence of their official, ex-con and probation officer,relationship, their meetings soon turned into nights out, eatingand drinking; and she had certainly proved to be more than thenaïve do-gooder that had been his first impression when she hadvisited him at Ford as a newly qualified probation officer. Markhad soon discovered that she had family money behind her and thather job, while not just posturing, was also and clearly not thevocation he had initially assumed it was for her. There was more toit than that, though. There was a confidence about her he hadn’tnoticed straight away; it was apparent in the way she dressed andthe way she was when they first made love. Of course, things hadmoved on since the mid-1970s, and maybe the 1980s would prove to bedifferent, but nonetheless she dressed differently to his previousgirlfriends – classy dresses and smart suits which had a timelessair to them rather than the ex-hippy stuff which he’d been used to.Not yet twenty-five years old, Gemma could make herself look eitheryounger or older depending on the context, and with a naturalelegance she always managed to look taller than her five foot five.She had fine auburn hair, olive green eyes and a full figure –‘voluptuous’ might be over-stating it, but she reminded him ofHollywood actresses of the 1930s and ’40s, Jean Harlow, VeronicaLake and the rest. The blouses or shirts Gemma tended to wear underher suits for official court visits had to stretch to the limit tofasten, the material teasing and testing the hold of the buttons ina clearly provocative manner. As well as that, there was anirresistible freshness about her; thankfully she had ignored thewide-shouldered power-dressing that had become something of a fadfor professional women after the success of Dallas, the new Americansoap opera currently obsessing the tabloid press.

In spiteof the fact that Mark had been pretty much deprived for almost sixyears, and arguably might not have been particularly difficult toplease, she was certainly equal to anything he could remember, andthat included with Justine. He had found it difficult to accept howclearly infatuated he must have been with Justine and over hisyears away he had become convinced that she had been the real causeof his downfall. It felt good that at last he could see she hadn’tbeen so special and that Gemma was more than a match. Gemma’sapproach to sex had taken him by surprise – it was a strange butexciting mixture of absolute baseness, along with an almost prudishcoyness. On the one hand, he found her appearance radiated aninnocence and freshness that suggested a cosseted upbringing.Almost by contrast, and while attempting to impress her with hisliterary knowledge and general sensitivity, he had discovered thatshe had read Nabokov’s Lolita as well asJustine, Julietteand all of de Sade’s English translations thatshe could get hold of, and that she wasn’t interested in the moreconventional and popular examples of romantic books and dramas.Somewhat bizarrely, it was after one impromptu and pretty wildsession that Mark realised it had been watching a documentary onthe life of chimpanzees that had turned her on; and she hadadmitted that watching animals just doing it was enough for her tolose any inhibitions. Mark wondered if it was because he wasgetting older or just easier to please himself, but within a fewmonths he felt an attraction and closeness which took him bysurprise and which had an air of authenticity that he had neverreally experienced before.

Gettingto know Gemma before and since his release had certainly changedMark’s plans for his future, although if he was being honest hehadn’t really had much of a long-term or clearly worked out plan atall. Anyway, quesera, as itseemed to be turning out; he realised Gemma was good for him andhe’d been lucky, even though he reckoned he deservedit.

In fact,although he had his own flat, it wasn’t long after his releasebefore he and Gemma were spending most nights in the same bed, andhad decided to buy a place and live together. House prices werestill rising at almost ten per cent a year and Mark was keen toinvest what money he had as soon as he could. They had decided onPetworth and found a quaint two-up, two-down at the end