Anna's love affair just did not want to get off the ground, I think the poor man got cold feet, as Anna, once onto something, was like a bally leech and would cling to whatever it was, tenaciously. She was so sure that he wanted a relationship, but to me it looked as if he was running!
One afternoon Anna asked me to go by bus with her to Killin, where this man was busy at the Coach House hotel redesigning their  gardens. On asking her how we would get back, she told me not to be such a bally muttonhead, as of course we would get a ride back with Gordon, as she was going to buy him dinner. I wanted to know why I had to be part of this stalking, but by now of course I knew that Anna really couldn't function on her own, and after a lot of sweet talk from her side, I said okay, right, I'll do it, sure that nothing could go wrong! What worried me a bit was that after seven there were no buses running through Strathyre anymore!
So that Monday we took the last bus going the Killin way, and after walking the stiff little way up to the hotel, it being quite some way out of Killin, we were seated at a table in that hotel's pub. Sitting at the counter with a long beer in front of him, was Gordon, looking terrible against the other men that were all scrubbed up and neatly dressed! I was amazed at Anna, who after he only greeted us with a stiff nod, breathed into my ear: 'Isn't he the most beautiful thing God ever made?' Must say, self was a bitty startled at that! We had a drink first, and Anna sent one to Gordon, and he actually looked our way to say thanks, at which Anna took heart and went over to him, and with her sexiest voice invited him to have dinner with us, an offer he took up without any qualms.
We ordered, and the waitress then, on Anna's telling her to, took Gordon's. I was so sorry for her, as he never even came to sit at our table, and she had been looking forward to being with him so much, but I was also thankful that he kept to himself, me being a wee bit snobbish, and in that tattered old jersey full of holes he sure did not give out a good impression! The bally fool! We did expect him to come and sit at our table to have his meal, although I did send up a small selfish prayer for him not too, but the bally man just sat at the counter where the waitress gave him his food, and gulped it up!
Poor Anna tried hard not to show her disappointment, and drank way too much to drown her sorrows, and then we noticed that Gordon was leaving the pub, but thought that he was going to the loo. Anna still sure that he would offer us a lift back, was looking a bit crestfallen, but soon I became really anxious, as the  bally man just did not come back!
I told my fears to Anna, who laughed too loudly, telling me not to be a fool, as he would at least offer us a lift back. I asked her whether she had actually asked him when she spoke to him, but she told me that it was a silly question, and he would come back, and all would be rosy!
He did not come back, and after watching the door for ages, I went out have a look if his car was still there. It was not! He just left without even saying thanks to Anna for the meal, but he was anyway so sloshed that I didn't think he even realised that we were without our car!
We were in trouble! As it was peak holiday season, every hotel around was fully booked, and on our asking the owner of the Coach House whether she had a twin room available, she just laughed, but on Anna telling her the heartbreak story, she said that she would put us in the store room, which had a few spare beds that had just to get matresses and bedding on.
I thought that this little episode was the end of Anna's passion, but the next morning when he passed our window in his battered old station wagon, she again asked me whether I did not also think that Gordon was the most beautiful thing God ever made. I was feeling revulsion in my breast, but knowing how humiliated she must be feeling, I said 'yes' in a very unconvincing way, but she luckily did not pick up on that, being to intent on following the car with loving eyes until it vanished around the corner at the Ben Shaenn. To be honest, I thought that it wasn't that he wasn't interested in Anna at all, but I could see on us arriving at that pub, that he was already sloshed out of his mind, and didn't know what he was doing!