Improper

"Tea bags, I ask you." said Alice. "Bad enough, you might well say. But brewed in mugs... Well really!"

Words clearly failed her at this point. Unfortunately for Adam, they didn't fail Margaret.

"What would your grandmother say about this, eh? Is this the sort of muck you'd serve to her?"

Adam felt now wasn't the time to point out he'd never invited gran round to his flat.

"Your grandmother knows what's what, young feller. She knows how to serve a proper cup of tea." Here the paused, then continued, "but as Karl Marx says, proper tea is...'"

"Yes, thank you Margaret," finished Alice, in the tone of voice of someone who's heard it before. Several times before, guessed Adam.

They looked at his motley collection of mugs, as he fished out the offending tea bags. They winced as he splashed milk into the tea straight from the carton, and visibly shuddered when he plonked an open bag of sugar down on the table.

Alice put on a brave face. "Still, warm and wet, eh?"

The two women raised their mugs in salute to one another and intoned, with some solemnity, the words warm and wet.

Adam found himself trying not to stare, when Alice broke the spell.

"Now, young man." she said. "Isn't there something you should be looking for?"



Story starts here.