The Beachcomber

By Ian W. Cooper

Evan isn’t working. As long as he has the summer off, he might as well enjoy it. Making the rounds of the public parks and beaches, he talks to pretty much anyone. The peculiar habit of dropping things and being forgetful, bears some surprising fruit. But then, people remember the tall, handsome cyclist with a gift for names. The number of bored and lonely housewives can be downright exhausting at times. As for the lovely Nathalie, she's in for something a little rougher than usual. But then, she’s earned it. A short and erotic story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian W. Cooper
• Release date: Mar 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781927957219

Ian W. Cooper

Ian Cooper has written fiction, non-fiction and worked for newspapers and magazines. He likes to make people laugh as well as think. His writing has a strong sense of the dramatic. Out of work and recovering from a life-threatening illness, someone suggested writing his sexual memoirs, which he initially rejected for the amount of research involved. He didn’t want to have to make it all up from scratch. A single dad and semi-retired from his most recent experience in the construction industry, Ian squeezes a little writing time in between raising a daughter and building a home-based business.

Book preview

The Beachcomber

Ian Cooper

This Smashwords edition copyright 2014 Ian Cooper and Long Cool One Books

Design: J. Thornton

ISBN 978-1-927957-21-9

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The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person living or deceased, or to any places or events, is purely coincidental. Names, places, settings, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. The author’s moral rights to the proceeds of this work have been asserted.

Table of Contents

Act One

Act Two

Act Three

About the Author

The Beachcomber

Ian Cooper

Act One

Nathalie walked with the dog Perkins along the beach. Her lonely suppertime vigil, waiting for Neil, was over. He hadn’t come home after all, calling from work and saying he was being asked to stay late again.

Just go ahead and eat, Honey. I don’t know for sure when I’ll be home. This had been going on since they got the big Korean contract, six months ago or more.

When would it end?

Jesus Christ, he had promised and everything. Her heart was numb. She could barely fake anger, it was like she just didn’t even care any more.

***

She stared at the table, contemplating his favourite meal—she had gone to some trouble, with some plans of her own tonight, at least a forlorn hope, the hope of at least some intimacy—hell, even a little company once in a while. It didn’t even really get her angry.

I can’t even be angry any more, she thought.

In Neil’s case the favourite meal was pretty simple, and eminently predictable. He was strictly a meat and potatoes man. Breaded pork chops, bread crumbs and egg dip, done in the oven, mashed potatoes with gravy, home-made from a pouch of powdered mix, small peas, frozen and not from a tin, God, it was enough to choke a camel or something. There was an enormous pile of food there, all sitting steaming in the bowls and the plates.

It was tempting to weep.

And he wasn’t here. He’d have something sent into the office, bustling with people he claimed to hate, a pizza sub or something guaranteed to give him nightlong heartburn and she was just so sick of the act sometimes…shit.

Argh. She had to admit, the food was good but eating it alone was getting to be the pits. She always had been able to cook, oddly enough not her mom! Mom was useless in the kitchen and yet her and Phil were still together. It wasn’t the fucking cooking that kept them together…

Her