"Out you go Max and don't go chasing that moose that was wandering down by the lake again"

Issy pet Ben on his head tugging his silky soft ear gently, he wasn't totally convinced that he needed to go out and relieve himself, he'd much rather laze inside by his mum's feet.

"I'm going onto the deck too mister lazy bones! Come on" Issy smiled down at her old companion, grabbed a green apple from the fruit bowl and opened the screen door a little wider for the two of them to head outside.

Tuesdays sunset was around a half hour from letting loose with a brilliant kaleidoscope of colours, so Issy had decided this was as good a place as any to read over, and edit, what could be her... 'revised scenes'.

"Lounger, yep that's my spot... hey cheeky, don't you hop up there! Off you get, gee give you an inch take a mile, Benny" Issy pushed the black haired 'pup' from the low wicker lounger, re-adjusted the yellow cushions and sank herself down with a contented sigh. A dark face gazed at her, Ben was basically pouting, then he went ahead and rest his jaw on her shin. Definitely no longer a puppy he still had the cutest face so Iss always thought of him as forever young.

"Now do I read as John or me first Benjamin? Decisions, decisions" Iss grinned out over the lake. John would read and pretend to blush or flap the pages about to fan himself from the heated scenes, then openly stare at her with an addled look of disbelief to the newly constructed vision she had meld within the words.

It was so very comical because he often mistook her quiet demure for shyness and innocence and Iss deeply, deeply enjoyed making him stop and look anew at her, at all her facets as she experimented with words and scenes.

She relished growing bolder and he was very much the instigator of all of it.

The last hues of sunset slipped away from her, the pages pressed in her hand as she climbed out of the chair. Red lines, scrawled notes and a few love hearts here and there plagued the pages but all in all she had done good. Fresh eyes would be lovely but John wasn't here. His unique dissection of these few scenes will need to wait possible a couple of weeks, even, maybe, til after the book was published. Not that she didn't trust herself but Johns sharp eyes and mind saw nuances of differences to her own, often over critical, thoughts and editing woes.

Cooking dinner was overrated. Another piece of fruit and Issy was off; ploughing the pages over, sowing the new seeds into sentences. She typed long into the night. Mistakes became larger as her eyes strained.

Sleeping now was hard... the nights were his. His arms, his warmth, his breathing and whenever he was close she could settle, she could sleep but last night, and now tonight, she battled insomnia and her drive to complete the book just made sleep look like a long-lost friend that would visit on the rare occasion.

Carbon copies made, Issy felt elation and dread in equal measure, would this too need ripping apart? Her doubts grew with her tiredness, molehills becoming mountains. Fingers and hand lovingly wiping over the stack of paper that was now an almost completed book, she slipped the pages between the thick card of the envelopes shell. A kiss on the seal, she wished it well.

What would John do, or say, to her right about now, she wondered....

Probably drag her gently away, then, with firm fingers sweeping carefully through her hair, his body would hold her captive and deliriously happy on the mattress for hours....

A lazy indulgent smile blessed her as she sat at the desk, then lay her weary head on the newly birthed tome.

*****

Bells and whistles...

No whistles..........

All around...

No not whistles, bells... the phone, it's the phone... "Oh god, bloody hell, what time is it" Issy groaned and wiped her mouth, sleepy, and still not altogether awake, she listened... nothing.

Was it the telephone?
Was I dreaming?

The noise trilled throughout the house once more, the moon cast it's beam intermittently through curtains and scatter cloud as Issy banged down the stairs in the house of muted shadows.... Time... Three a.m

'Three A.M!!! This better be good. It better not be bad news though' .

"Yes?"

"I love you"

'What!?"

"I lub you Issybluelle but it's-"

"You're drunk"

"I still-"

"You're drunk and now you're telling me, over the phone, that you love me" She had been drowsy and not completely aware of the present as her sleepy self picked up the telephone but she soon morphed into fully aware and tremendously cantankerous after his few garbled mutterings "Go to bed John, sleep it off"

The silence was deafening, Issy stared out the window, what was wrong, or right, with this scene..

"Hang... hold..................hangup. No don't hang up! Just a cotton picking a jollysilly minute. I decided, (sigh) .. Pardon moi, I just declared my fuckin' love of Iss you. Hey-llo?"

"Why are you drunk?"

"Cause I lob, sorry love 'ou"

"Don't keep saying that! You are completely sozzled. You don't get to not say those words for an age and a day, then call me at three o'clock in the morning. Three o'clock John!  Completely pissed, and say that! You just don't. That's absolute sh-"

"She's a bitch"

"So I'm a bitch now.. and who is there with you, that you're telling that to.. hmmmm? No don't. Do not speak. I don't want to know"

"Not-"

"Go to bed, call me never"

"Isabelle!"

"John I'm tired. I'm now rather grumpy and I'm rather perplexed to your sudden outburst thats obviously coupled with your ruined sobriety and lets not forget 'the bitch' bit" Issy frowned as she clutched the phone, all the happy moments turning dark as the night sky above "Go to an AA meeting or something.. Sober the hell up, the wedding is on-"

"That's it! Wedding- I've got to do something else you sawsee ... hey see saw. (laughs).. Why am I joking!!!!!????? Fuck! Me"

"I'm hanging up"

"She's preg-"

"You got someone pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!" Issy slumped onto the stool where he had only just sat a day or so before. "Goodbye John-"

"No wait, it's that chicken, i mean chick, no tart. That tart you knew, know-"

'Oh, that makes it soooo much better, I'm sure you two will be fucking bastardly fucking God damn happy together!!!"

"I don't wanna- Christ Iss- no!"

"Have you...." Issy cracked then; a tiny fracture betraying her heart as it lay breaking in her chest. "...Have you been fooling around with her, and with me... At the same time?"

Hand over the mouthpiece she screamed 'oh God' toward the rafters and hit her head repeatedly with her other hand 'F'ing stupid Iss. Stupid'

"Isabelle..." Sobering fast yet still floundering John allowed a few angry tears slide for what he was putting her through. What his stupidity was putting them both through. The alcohol made tears and emotion so much easier... he should really sort that out he thought as he thumped his forehead on the table. Again he made an attempt to explain himself. Tried for a sober exchange instead of his prior dribbling yabber "Isabelle luv. She. She, says it's mine... I don't know?  What do I do? Shes... arr, she's.... God, she's threatening to plaster it all over the newspapers-"

Dangerously low Issy came back at him swinging hard and fast "Well we wouldn't want your shaky reputation dragged through the newspapers again, would we.. That would be so embarrassing for you"

"I know, right..."

"I was being SARCASTIC John!!!!!!!! God damn it! Sarcas-"

"The wedding"

"Oh that was quick, don't bother sending an invite will y-" Issy's inner bitch was tightly wired, everything bubbling to the fore. Her mind imploding as her hands refuse to hang the phone up. Battling herself as much as she was battling John's words.

"Geezus Isabelle, shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"John Lennon, you are a pompous ass. Goodni-"

"Don't you dare hang-"

She stared down at the phone handset as it lay bobbing on the floor, the cord springing slightly as the shit-brown handset touched the timber by her feet, a finger pressed firmly on the switch hook on the base.