Miss Prickles

"What's up with her?" asked the manager of the hotel when he saw Holly smiling from ear to ear, "She's not won the lottery has she?" 

Ben shook his head, "I'm not sure what's up with her, but I'll try and find out later." Ben had never seen her look so happy, and he wanted to know why.   Ben couldn't wait to finish work to find out exactly what was going on with her.

 Holly had another message in her pocket; she hadn't had to wait very long for the next letter. Holly laughed when she opened it. Her day was happy; she made the guests and her colleagues laugh with her cheerful demeanour. Ben couldn't wait to finish work to find out exactly what was going on with her.

The letter came four days after she had posted hers, and she waited until she had finished work for the morning before she opened it.

                    Holly; prickly by name, prickly by nature.

My darling Miss Prickles,

Consider your secret love entirely told off. I am ashamed of myself; I never realized just how difficult it would be for you. I think I just assumed that you would suddenly look at a download and discover just who you had spent the day with, and what I was playing at during that interview, I have no idea, my only defence, is that all I could think about was you. And don't worry, Kerry throws herself at everyone!

I know Jack Farmer he's an amusing man. Are you close to Ben? If you want you could tell him about us, I'm sure it would help if you could talk about this to someone.

Of course, I don't think you're dreadful, sometimes these things happen. Sometimes the attraction is instant and far too intense and you have to go with it love. Please don't feel guilty, we shared a wonderful day, and it's one I will never forget.

Now, what have you been doing? Please don't tell me you have been injuring your guests with chilli or anything else like that. I worry about you and those idiotic guests; please stay safe, my love. Maybe I should send you to self-defence classes, at least then you could look after yourself. Can you drive? 

What do you do with yourself when you are not making beds and doing room service, do you go out with Ben and all your friends? Where do you go? I can't remember seeing many night clubs when I was there, so what do you do on your nights off?

I have to go to the US in a couple of weeks, more meetings with the record company, dead boring! I would rather be going to the Lake District to see my darling love. Would you like to see me again, or would it spoil it for you? Would it spoil that wonderful day?

Do you play with yourself when you think about that day? I know I do, my hand seems magnetized to my cock when I start thinking about you. I miss you so much. N xx

"Ben, let's go for a drink. I want to tell you something. I need to show you something." Holly said, putting her arm in his and guiding her best friend down the road.

"OK, oh have you seen that guy in twenty-three, he's bloody gorgeous, took his breakfast this morning, and he only had his Calvins on, he is wonderful!" 

"Ben for heaven's sake! This is important."

Ben looked at his friend, " Well, so is the guy in room twenty-three." He glanced at Holly again "Are you OK?" Although she had been happy and cheerful for most of the day, now she looked tired and irritable not like her at all. 

"Please let's just go for a drink."

He put his arm around her, "OK, let's go. What's up, Holl?"

She waited until they were settled in the pub, in one of the back tables away from everyone else.

"I'll get the drinks; you read these, that one's first." She said, putting the letters in order.

A few seconds later, she heard him exclaim "Fucking hell!"

And she had to give him a wry little smile when she got back with his bottle of beer. For a few seconds, Ben just sat there. "Why didn't you tell me?" 

"Sorry, Ben, I wasn't sure it happened if you know what I mean."

"I'm not bloody surprised! Bloody hell Holly you would be the envy of half the human race if this got out."

"Don't exaggerate Ben."

"So you must have written back seeing as you have two letters from him."

"Yes, of course, wouldn't you?"

Ben just squeezed her hand. "Of course I would love, but what do you think will happen, will you see him again?"

"I have no idea Ben, I'd love to see him again, we talked about all sorts of things, and it was lovely", she said wistfully. "I don't know what's going to happen; it's all up to him. The only thing I can do is to stop writing and end it all. Perhaps it's all just a nice dream, but I don't think I will ever believe anything about him in the press again, I know what he's like, what he's really like."

"Oh I've told you all about the press before, Holl, it's all a load of crap, and you should see what they write about Jack, its complete and utter rubbish!" 

Ben took a drink, "So tell me about him, the real him, without the superstar's face." He asked.

Holly smiled, and her mind drifted off to their secret dell. "He's nothing like you would expect, I didn't get to meet Mr Superstar only a very charming and loving guy. He's quiet and thoughtful, and nothing like the way everyone sees him in interviews and when he's singing, and you see him on the DVDs. It's all an act. 

"That's exactly what Jack is like, he might be hilarious on stage, but when he's home, he's really quiet, and you can always find him in the garden planting things or digging weeds up. He's nothing like the maniac on stage.

They drank their beer and planned a long weekend holiday, something they had been looking forward to for a while.

They wandered back to the hotel; Holly was glad she had told Ben, it all seemed much more real now. She got settled in her room with her earphones on and listened to Marco singing, and she began to write.