It felt like poverty.  Not having any milk or coffee or tea, she opened another cupboard, or indeed any food beyond a few tins of plum tomatos and tinned peaches in syrup.  She pulled out the tin of peaches and looked at it, considering.  No that would just be sick, she put it back.  It felt like poverty being without and not having any way of getting more but of course it wasn't, it was just stupidity.  Mhairi could have gone shopping yesterday, the shop at the end of the street was open till five, five thirty and after that she could have driven into Newton where the supermarket would have been open til eight.  It wasn't worth driving into town for something small but from the look of the denuded cupboards she needed to do some serious food shopping.  It hadn't helped that she had spent most of christmas at her mother's eating her food and watching her TV.  It had been nice to let her mother take care of her for a while but it had quickly become opressive.  Mhairi's mother believed that the best therapy was to talk.  The last thing Mhairi wanted was to talk, certainly not about Lachlan, what had gone wrong, did she love him, had she called him, did she want him back, why couldn't she swallow her pride for once, look at what had happened with David, what was she going to do now, she wasn't getting any younger and on and on.  Eventualy she had told her mother to keep her nose to her self and had come back to the house.  It wasn't so bad, she liked her house but it had become a bit quiet with just her and the cat.  Mhairi had never been poor but that night she went to bed on an empty stomach, curled up alone in her big bed and came as close as she could bare to being sorry for herself.

Mhairi's car was little used and over tempramental.  The red paint was streaked with chalky pink lines and an unsightly rash of rust spots had broken out all round it's lower extremities.  She got in and slamed the door twice before it caught on the latch, the sound of falling particles inside the door subsided.  She muttered the usual prayers and inducements, promising it fresh oil and maybe even a service before trying the key.  It turned over, this was a good sign, it continued to turn over, slower and slower.  Just as Mhairi started to feel the sinking feeling in her stomach and started wondering if her father would be in to give her a lift the engine caught.  She hit the accelerator, gunning the engine and producing a respectable cloud of grey white smoke.  She sat for a moment with her foot slightly down till the car warmed to the task of running and backed carefully out onto the road.  The road wasn't what you would call busy at any time.  The only likely traffic were tractors at this time of year, sometimes during the summer there where turists but it was hardly this most popular corner of Scotland to spend your holidays.

Newton Stewart while not the most populous settlement in this part of the world did at least represent an attempt at civilisation.  The essential goods and services could be found.  The High School for the area was located here, at the top of the hill, grocery shops, hardware stores, the main post office were all located on the main street.  The small local newspaper was published and printed here and there were no less than three italian cafe come chip shops.  Recently a modern super market had been built in a not particularly out of town location.  There had been a fuss about the local shops losing business, people had expected big things from it, better choice, better prices.  In the end it wasn't much bigger than the other two grocery shops in the town.  It had it's own car park but it didn't seem to have any major advantage.  It was open slightly later than everything else but that was about it.

Mhairi aimlessly wandered down the main street.  She looked in the windows, lost time staring at a brush outside the hardware shop with no intention of buying it.  When she got to the bridge she crossed the street and wandered back up the other side.  Shopping was defeating her as it usualy did.  She went in the chemist and bought sanitary towels and a toothbrush.  This wasn't helping, she couldn't eat these.  She gave up shopping the hard way when she found herself staring accross the street at the brush again, she didn't need a brush she needed food.  Back to the car and drive to the supermarket.  Picking a trolly and wheeling in through the doors she realised what she had been avoiding.  This had been the Friday night ritual.  Her and Lachie had taken their respective wage packets here every week.  Not the most exciting Friday night she could imagine but it had felt comforting and secure to behave like a family.  Supermarkets the country over followed the same tired and true formula.  The doors opened into the fresh fruit and vegitables, lit in a way that enhanced their colour to cartoon like vividness.  They hadn't had what you would call a plan, they just picked out what they liked and tried to make meals out of them later.  She would get staples like potatos and onions, he would buy capsicums and baby peas.  Out of habit she picked up a five pound bag of Ayrshires.  Supermarket shopping hadn't been something they had slipped into as their relationship had become more comfortable and settled, it had been their first date.

They were seen together often enough at work for there to be talk.  There was always talk, you couldn't realy avoid it.  Regarless of serious or not her work mates assumed her relationship was to Lachlan she countered by treating them like they were joking.  She enjoyed his company, she enjoyed the ill disguised envey of the other girls on the line.  Lachlan was considered a catch not just because of his foreign origin.  He was hansom but still.  The faint lines at the side of his eyes crinkled with humour when he joked around.  His humour was never depreciating and he genuinly seemed to care about those around him.  He had opinions and wasn't afraid to share them but she had never seen him fight or even get into an argument.  When faced head on with the beligerence of the usual meat heads that worked at the factory those eyes would crinkle up and he would make a disarming funny before finding something to do elsewhere. It didn't earn him any friends among the meat heads but she felt herself loving him for it.  She hadn't had to chase him down, they would almost allways bump into each other at lunch.  They would sit and talk and be late back to work.  The odd days they worked together the rest of the noise and fuss would fade into the background, his soft voice carrying enough to to sound intimate to her ear.  She didn't think she was being romanced in fact she began to become aware that this would go no further unless she took and active role.  He didn't talk about Hazel though the other girls had told her she was still on the scene.  She decided it was best to ignore the fact that he had a girlfriend for now.  Approaching it now would be more than a little tricky if this wasn't going anywhere.  Failing an approach from him she asked him back for pizza and a video at hers.  It was more than a little schoolish.  Her parents had gone to France for two weeks and she had the house to her self.  The advantage was it didn't have the overtone of a genuine date, no dinner, no dancing, no movie; well there was a movie but it was on video and indeed was still in the video rental place.  Despite having spent several days leading up to asking it still sounded half arsed and ill considered when she put it to him, this was most apparent when she realised she didn't have any pizza and getting take out wasn't an option if you didn't actualy live in Newton Stewart.  He seemed genuinly keen though, laughed when she explained the lack of food problem that had occured to her.  They agreed to pickup food after work and head back to hers.  She flushed as he turned away, she felt disconcerted and silly.

The second major flaw in this well thought out seduction plan became apparent in the supermarket.  It wasn't something you noticed after working all day with seafood, your nose got used to it, cancelled it out but the other customers didn't have that advantage.  She had noticed people stepping away from the the two of them as they argued amiably about food and snacks and red wine versus whit.  It didn't sink in straight away but by the time they were checking out it occured to her that they both probably smelled pretty ripe.  She didn't mention it and whether he had noticed or not neither did Lachlan.  They got into her car, throwing the shopping in the back seat.  It had been more red and less rust bitten then but just as tricky on the starting.  She smiled nervously as the starter drained the battery, at the last possible moment the engine burst into life.  She was silent and antsi on the drive back to her parents house.  As the car heated up the smell became apparent to her and evidently Lachlan too.  He chuckled.  "I think we could probably do with a shower before we try and eat anything"  She glanced at him, unable to stop her own smile at the thought.  "seperatly I mean" he quickly intejected "probably".  Her smile widened.

They did shower seperately, Mhairi first, carefully and quickly washing the not so faint fishey aroma out of her hair and skin.  She tried to find him something he could wear while Lachlan used the shower.  All she could come up with was a large baggy T shirt that she sometimes slept in and a pair of bermuda shorts of her belonging to her dad.  Anything reasonably presentable in her dad's wardrobe he had taken with him for his holiday leaving only the unbearably scabby and hilariously dated.  She couldn't help but giggle at him standing there in the long shorts with two fluffy bunnies on his chest, he did a twirl.  The pizza's were on and the wine was open.  "All clean then?" She made a show of leaning into him and sniffing.  The smell of the shower jell didn't quite mask his own warm appealing aroma.  Her eyes half closed and she breathed him in.  His head inclined slightly and her breath caught in her throat and for a moment she thought he might kiss her.  He sniffed her in return and smiled "hmmmm, very nice" he said.
"come on fishboy" she laughed "let us retire to the lounge and watch a movie."

Their first kiss when it did come was her doing.  She hadn't exactly pinned him to the sofa but although Lachie had shown every sign of being as atracted to her as she was to him he had been unable to cross that final hurdle on his own.  They had put the film on but ending up talking no less than was their normal habit.  He had told her how much he liked her hair, brushing it with his finger tips as he did.  His own was still wet from the shower and she had run her fingers into the top of it producing a pleasing spike.  She had found herself sitting up against him after that and he had pulled her closer with his arm around her waist his hand resting on her hip.  She had turned her head slightly expecting him then to close the the gap and kiss her but instead he had asked about the pizza and turned his head slightly away to better see the film.  She had asked him why he had come here, looking perhaps for a reason behind his reticence but he had brushed it off saying it seemed like a good idea at the time.  He had told her again some amusing incident involving him living out of the back of a van and had seemed to relax.  This time she cheated, she looked up into his face and said his name, he turned and met her look, she held it for just an instant before pressing forward and kissing him softly on the mouth.  She let her lip catch slightly on his as she pulled back enough to see his eyes almost closed.  They opened slightly, the light from the screen reflecting wetly in them.  He turned into her and this time kissed her.  She felt him respond, he adjusted his position on the couch to better fit her body.  His other arm encircled her, lifting her shirt slightly he stroked the skin at the base of her spine.  They stayed that way for a time, not talking but looking.  The lids of his eyes would slide almost shut each time before his lips met hers.  she sighed and stroked the still slightly damp hair at the back of his neck.

She took his hand, sitting up slightly she pulled him upright with the mearest peressure.  His look slid down drinking her in before returning to her face.  She touched his shoulder, feeling the firm flesh below the thin t shirt before running her nails down accross his chest the cotton catching slightly as she went.  His hand still under the edge of her shirt pressed jsut below her ribs, he ran it round following the line to her back.  This time as he pulled she leaned against the pressure and he came towards her.  He bent forward buried his face in her hair at the side of her neck, planting soft kisses on her as he went.  She lifted his shirt and layed her hand on his chest.  The muscles stiffened under her touch as if reacting to cold, she pushed against him and felt them relax again.    She hooked the top of his shorts with her thumb, sliding them down enough to dig her fingers into his behind.  He pressed into her and murmered something.  His hand brushed a nipple on it's way down to her waist, she felt a fleeting tingle and pushed her hips away slightly to give him room.  There was the barest release of pressure on her waist as he popped the top button of her jeans.  His hand rested for a moment on the curving soft skin revealed beneath before continuing with her zip.  Slightly disturbed now by the fluffy bunnies but also intent on uncovering as much of Lachlan as possible she pulled the T-Shirt over his head.  His chest was dusted with small tightly curled black hair, a the reminants of a tan suggested time spent working outside shirtless.  She imagined him pricked with sweat in the golden sun of a dying summer.  She pressed her face to his chest, breathing again that warm sweet smell of him.  His cupped her breast, the thumb excusiatingly close to her nipple but deliberatly circling round actual contact.  She pushed up against  him, using the oportunity to relase her waistband from her hips and slide futher out of her jeans.  Her nails traced paralels up his back as he bent to kiss her belly.  Softly he pecked his route accross the landscape of her pelvis and down her leg pulling her trousers with him to reveal more of her as he went.  She looked down at him, his thick black locks, his sculpted shoulders, each kiss sent a thrill of chiled pleasure through her.  The jeans tangled around her feet, sticking at the last but he took his time, released them and held one foot with a look of discovery.  She felt his thumb pressing the sole of her foot, sliding towards the toe.  She leant back into it and quietly said his name, tasting the sounds on her tongue.  Lachlan.

She closed her eyes, felt his weight shift through the cushions beneath her, he wasn't touching her now, anywhere.  She tried to picture where he was, was he over her?  Would she feel his breath on her face?  His lips against hers?  He shifted again.  "Lachlan?" the not of enquiry in her voice was subtle, unstressed.  His lips brushed her nipple. "Oh" he caught her by surprise.  She twisted slightly, encouraging him but he had moved, now the other side "uh huh".  One hand traced a line along the top of her leg, the thin layer of flesh covering the bone of her hip, she push gently against it and felt the hand cover her sex, just covering, not probing but holding.  His leg against hers was naked now, she could feel the warmth of him, he had removed the shorts.  She drew her leg up, feeling the soft hairs of his leg on the inside of her thigh, she sunk her fingers in his hair and pulled his face up towards hers.  His mouth encapsulated hers.  She softly bit his lip and sank into the kiss.  She traced the edge of his teeth with the very tip of her tongue, feeling the slight uneven roughness in the smooth enamel.  She felt him pressing against her leg, she reached down, wanting to know, held him.  She ran her thumb along it to the base, experiencing the indistinct contures.  She wanted him, wanted him inside her but she didn't rush.  Slowly she stroked him, testing his response to her touch. His cock swelled in her grip, she could feel it pulse.  Teeth teased her nipple, biting lightly and drawing her in.  Lachlan's hand now under her dug into the soft flesh of her behind.  He kissed her chest, her neck, her cheek.  Brushing enticingly on her lips hmoved up pressing his lips to the side of her nose, lingering gently on her eyelid before audibly drawing breath in her hair.  She released her grip and felt him pressing on her.  If she were to move slightly, push up against him again, the slightest movement would be enough now.  She lent her head forward, placing her mouth on his chest.  She didn't want to breath, just holding the moment. He leaned away from her, his head and shoulders moving with only a barly perceptable change in the pressure she felt between her legs.  His eyes wide now looked down at her, the merest smile playing on his lips.  He scanned her face as if checking, asking permision.  She licked her bottom lip and slowly closed her eyes, arching her back she opened them again and fell into that open face.  She could feel herself parting to allow him in.  He watched her, savouring every nuance of her expresion as with utmost care he entered her.