Part 1 - Wednesday Evening/Thursday Morning

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Wednesday evening - NW London

Tom was feeling very anxious as he prepared to get off the bus when it came to a halt outside the Regal cinema. He had been riding on the upper deck, right at the front, to see if he could spot Betty waiting outside the picture house. He hadn't seen her on the approach and had to hurry to get to the back of the bus and down the open stairs on to the boarding platform. Fortunately, the Regal wasn't a 'request' stop on the route, the bus had to stop there, so he was able to jump off just as the bus pulled away, the 'clippie' - the conductress - remonstrating with him for getting off a moving vehicle.

Quickly he looked up and down the wide pavement outside the cinema but couldn't see Betty. She had said she was coming straight from work. He cursed himself for not asking her where she worked - he didn't know from which direction she would come, whether she would be walking or coming by bus. He paced up and down, looking down the street in both directions, with the occasional glance towards the cinema, just in case she had been waiting inside. Suddenly, he felt a nudge on his arm. Before he turned, he discounted that it was her because just seconds ago he had looked all around him and she wouldn't have had the time to get to him. As he turned, he saw standing by his side a young woman Army officer; she was smiling at him.

"Hello, Tom" she said "I thought you were ignoring me"

Tom suddenly recalled seeing a woman in uniform standing a few yards away outside the cinema but had looked past her, in his search for his date, without actually looking at her.

"Betty?"

"Who else were you expecting" she teased.

"No one but ...."

"You weren't expecting an ATS officer as your date?"

Tom grinned a little self-consciously.

"Yes, you're right. I assumed ...."

"That the little woman was a typist or something?"

Tom realised that however he answered that question he could get into deeper trouble with the teasing Betty. He chose a different route........(Version B cont)