"Bitch! Bitch! Bitch! She's here; she can look after her precious son. I can't take any more of this." Throwing a few items into a bag, she went to David, "I'll pick you up in the morning if you wish to go into work SIR. I'll bring the car back then if you don't. Good night SIR."

"No Steph, don't go�" Stephanie could hear him calling to her as she closed the door.

Her phone rang a few minutes after she'd entered her old flat. It now seemed a cold and uninviting place but at least it was hers and she could have her own space away from that harridan. She guessed the call was from David and cut him off when he'd only spoken a couple of words. "Let him stew. He should have done more to curb his bloody mother." Although inordinately tired, sleep wouldn't come. Stephanie tossed and turned all night and debated what she would do. Finally she decided to continue as his slave at work but to actively look for another job. "Even if the old bitch does leave, he'll always be under her influence. I suppose living with him was pleasant enough while it lasted. No I really liked it. I'm very fond of him. Perhaps I love him? Guess that it had to end sometime. Perhaps she is right, he needs someone more glamorous than me but wasn't that why he and Lisa parted? He wasn't into her glamorous way of life. Perhaps he let her put me down so much that I would leave and he could rid himself of me. Perhaps he never really wanted me. Just needed a woman to put his prick in."

Not that far away, David was also lying awake reliving the past few weeks and asking himself what had gone so suddenly wrong. The answer he knew was, his mother. "Why did she have to come? Why did she have to be so bossy? Why can't I stand up to her? Why does she seem to hate Steph so? Why did I allow Steph to leave? Will she really turn up in the morning or will she just look for another job? She can't leave; she's a slave. No that's only a pretence that we both go along with. Why do I feel so angry with mother? Angry with Steph too. God I miss her already. Still she was always a bitch and now she's back to her old self. Efficient, cold, sharp and none too pleasant with it. Was her good side only temporary? Should I even try to get her back? No. Better to let her go. Don't want to go through all the agro I had when Lisa left. I really don't want to let Steph go though."

The alarm clock dragged Stephanie awake after what seemed only a few minutes sleep. There was nothing in the house for breakfast and only powdered milk for her morning cup of tea. "I have to start shopping for myself again." The prospect didn't please her. Cooking for one was no pleasure. "I guess I'll lose some of the pounds that I put on. Wonder if he'll be ready if I go at the usual time? No good phoning, the bitch will answer."

At 8:15 Stephanie parked the car in his drive and used her key to let herself in. David was still abed and still naked. He'd taken his tracksuit off when he got into bed and it lay on a nearby armchair where he had thrown it. "Do you wish me to drive you to work SIR?" Stephanie asked formally. "Sorry, I see you're not quite ready yet. Shall I come back later for you when your new carer has got you ready? Phone me at work SIR. I will have to take the car because I will have to deliver the Shire Living order first thing, SIR." Each time she emphasised the SIR. She smiled inwardly as she knew his other tracksuits were in the wardrobe upstairs and he wouldn't be able to get at them. His mother would have to do that. When she got up. Steph couldn't hear any other noises in the house.

"Steph, please come back�" But she had already turned and left. David fumed. He knew it would be nine o'clock at least before his mother got up. He struggled out of bed, grabbed his crutches, then dropped one and had to spend sometime 'fishing' for it with the other, At last he made it to the toilet and rinsed his face in the small washbasin. Only then did it dawn on him that he wouldn't find a change of clothing. They were still upstairs in the bedroom. "Damn you Steph. You knew that! Damn this leg! Damn that bloody motorist! Damn you mother!" He struggled into the dirty suit.

Everyone knew something was wrong when Stephanie arrived at work without David and looking angry and depressed. Tracy gave a little smirk and Stephanie turned on her, "Yes, you'll be pleased to know we had a row and I'm no longer living with him. You can chase him if you like and can put up with his bloody mother! I'm now a runaway slave." She stormed into the David's office and began sorting through the papers on his desk without really seeing them. Kelly spoke to her quietly for a few minutes but only about work but then went on, "Take Polly and deliver the order, Steph." Both of them knew that it was unnecessary for Polly to go along but Kelly thought she might be a calming influence.

Indeed she was. They delivered the order but before Polly would let her start off again she turned and spoke in her concerned way, "Tell me about it Steph. Don't bottle it up." Stephanie just broke down and cried her heart out, while Polly held her, unconcerned at what others passing in the car park thought. Finally she stuttered out all that had happened the previous day. "David is more to you than your boss now isn't he? He's more than your slave master." Polly spoke gently and received an acknowledgement that she was right. "You want him back but don't want to be the one who begs for forgiveness?" Again a 'yes' nod. "Well first you need to find out if he really wants you. You as a person; not as a slave for sex fun. If he comes into work today, play a little hard to get. Be correct and formal if you like or keep up the slave girl act as far as work goes and see if he comes begging for you to go back to him or if he keeps his mother on as a carer."

Finally David's mother arrived downstairs and another argument ensued when he was about to phone to get Stephanie to bring him to work. She tried to insist that he stayed at home but after listening to her berating Stephanie for leaving him to fend for himself overnight, for what seemed an interminable while without hardly being able to get a word in himself, his patience with her finally broke. "Shut up mother! For once in your life shut up! Your mouth has already wrecked my life and I intend to do what I can to salvage it. I'm phoning Steph."

Jennifer looked at him in stunned silence. "Well if she means more to you than your own mother, I had better go back home. There should be a train about midday."

Kelly took the call, "Steph's out delivering the Shire Living order. She should have been back by now. Do you want her to pick you up David?"

Stephanie seemed a lot calmer when she returned. "Would you mind getting him please Kelly?" she asked, "I ought to sort through these orders. I got held up at Shire Living."

"Come in!" David yelled at the door when the bell rang. "Why didn't Steph just use her key?" He asked himself. His face fell when he saw Kelly on the doorstep. "Sorry Kelly, I was expecting Steph to just walk in."

"She's busy." Both knew that wasn't the real reason.

Although he tried several times, David never succeeded in getting Stephanie alone during the day. She attended to him with a cold formality and called him 'Sir' at every opportunity. Three times he called her into his office, and each time she insisted on the door being left wide open "I've driven her away. Mother was the last straw. She has no real love for me so I guess she did what she had to do to keep her job. She's cold shouldering my every move." At lunchtime she bought her own sandwiches and sat amidst the others to eat them. Tracy though, sat with him and chatted amiably, even though he hardly heard her words. Surreptitiously, Stephanie watched as anger mounted within her but she managed not to say anything. By mid afternoon David had had enough. Lack of sleep coupled with the side effects of the painkillers overwhelmed him. His request for Stephanie to take him home was passed on to Kelly who passed it to Barbara. Kelly really was too busy sorting out a printer problem to leave and she thought that Barbara being and older woman and a mother might be able to assist David's mother to put him to bed. Stephanie burst into tears when David left and decided to leave rather than face the others especially the smirking Tracy.

Both spent a miserable evening and a sleepless night. David would probably have got drunk had not he been warned not to drink with the medication he was on and the fact that it was difficult to walk anyway and he didn't want to fall and do more damage to his leg. Stephanie just kept weeping and moped about. She tidied her flat, dusted everything twice but didn't bother cooking anything to eat. Eventually she made some tea and found some stale biscuits and a packet of crisps. "I suppose I shall have to go there tomorrow and collect my things. I wonder how he's managing with his mother? Will she give him a sponge bath? Probably not. Let him stink. What do I care?"

Polly phoned early Saturday morning. Her greeting, "How you doing Steph?" just brought a flood of tears. Rather than embarrass Polly, Stephanie put the phone down.