swing for life

I couldn't believe my ears, apparently Jean, the woman next door who everybody thought was well passed it, or a lesbian or something, was apparently having a fling with her boss at the knicker factory. It was the talk of the street, well, of the town really. We live in a small place and gossip of this calibre doesn't happen every day. Apparently, Phyllis from number 22 had seen her at the bedroom window of his house on two separate occasions, and she wasn't cleaning the windows, and it had all happened while his wife was away at her sisters in Bournemouth. Phyllis lives on the opposite side of the road and had apparently had a very good view before they had thought to close the curtains, it had almost brought on another stroke (she had a mild one the previous August). The gossip really started. Apparently everybody was surprised because she'd been known to go to the speed dating at the local village hall every other Friday, looking quite desperate and pathetic. Nobody could understand what he saw in her, or she in him for that matter. For her to go speed dating meant that she was obviously looking for that someone special, but surely your boss can't fill that gap, especially when his wife is supposed to be your friend and you go to bingo together at Gala on Thursdays. 'It'll end in tears', said Phyllis, trying to sound philosophical at Bingo the following Thursday. she never was one to keep any potential news to herself, and, not surprisingly, Jean wasn't there that week, 'perhaps she's gone speed dating again', added Gloria, another bingo regular, sarcastically. This one was really going to take some keeping under wraps.

Over the following weeks the affair seemed to grow and grow, or at least the gossip did. Her bosses wife had returned home from some small family crisis and promptly found herself slap bang in the middle of another. She must have heard the whispers and felt that people suddenly topped talking whenever she walked into the room. Apparently, after a while the boss came to his senses and the fling came to an abrupt end, his wife forgave his indiscretion and everything was, as much as possible, back to normal. Jean managed somehow to keep her job at the knicker factory, and every other Friday went speed dating at the village hall.