Stained reputations...

                                    

                                          
Tom was walking along, feeling about as pleased with himself as it was possible to be on a grey but decent morning in London.  Camden was a stone's throw from his home and he loved it.  The eclectic mix of people and sounds and smells and sights.  The fact that he could wander pretty much unhindered amongst the tourists and locals.  Hardly anyone expected to see him there, and those that did, knew he was just a man going about his business and treated him as such.
He popped into a stationers to grab a birthday card for his sister - God help him if he forgot.  He couldn't pull the "I'm busy I forgot" with her.  She took no prisoners!  Then, as he was emerging clutching the little bag with the lifesaver in it, fate decided to put a banana skin under his day.
"Tom! Oh my goodness, how simply lovely to see you darling!" he heard the voice before he saw the face.  Unmistakeable, unwanted.  Not right now.  He turned to greet her and smiled pleasantly.
"Melissa, what a surprise!  What are you doing in this neck of the urban woods?" he reached out and kissed her cheek politely. "Are you well?"
"I'm amazing thanks" she smiled and they moved to the side of the pavement.  "I thought it was you when I saw you dodge in here.  How are you?  Miss me yet?" she winked at him and he winced inwardly.  This was what he'd hoped to avoid.  A conversation about their - failed - love life.  He'd dated her briefly about six months previously and had ended it when she became, how could he put it politely, rather over eager?  
He was as red-blooded as the next man, but Melissa had been a handful, even for a fit man like him. He'd found to his horror he'd prayed for her to "have a headache"!  That much though, he could handle, it was the obvious lack of filter that had eventually made him run for the hills.  Having her pawing at him in a restaurant as the world and his jealous wife looked on, did little for his public or private life.  When the photos had appeared in the scandal sheets of what appeared to be them virtually eating each other in the back of a black cab, that and the fact she kept leaving wedding magazines lying around her flat, was that.  
Not that Melissa was worried.  She was, if nothing else, a survivor with survivor's self belief.  Her parting words had been that he would be back.  He would miss her, and he would be back.  Now, he had to tell her for a second time to back off.
"I'm well thanks, you look... well. Same stunning dress sense I see." he tried complimenting her, making her think about herself rather than him. She was actually quite stunning, tall with auburn hair and green eyes.  Figure of a model, appetite - for everything - of a docker.  Oh and vocabulary too.  Swear?  She made a squaddie blush, usually in the middle of the night when most people didn't want to hear they were the "effing effs that had ever effed"!
"Why thank you kind sir " she said batting her eyelashes. "I'm just here seeing about a new business venture.  Looking for an investor.  Interested in coming in with me?" she bit her lip as she smirked over the rather obvious double entendre.  Tom flushed a little, this was public after all.  He shook his head and smiled.
"Sorry love, totally invested in another venture at the moment." he realised as he said it that she wasn't the only one with a flair for the hidden meaning.  His investment was, he hoped, currently still waiting for him.  Melissa looked at him shrewdly and nodded.  
"Yes, I can see that." she said then leaned closer and whispered in his ear "but I bet I can give you a better return." with that she kissed his neck slowly, carefully, just below his jaw where she knew it made him melt.  He struggled to repress the automatic groan that it always gave him and he pulled away.
"Sorry love, it's been lovely seeing you but I really must get on.  I have an appointment- oh shit twenty minutes ago!  Must dash." he bolted and she laughed,