(A sequel to Charity Date or Messy Fate)

Laura hadn't seen Miles since the charity gala a couple of months ago where she'd consigned him to a vat of gunge. In the days following the event she been in a triumphant mood having gotten payback for her former college roommate but then doubt began to creep in; had she taken things too far. The other bachelors had at least known what they were volunteering and some had probably arranged for partners or friends to bid for them to ensure they weren't humiliated. Laura had ensured that Miles wasn't able to do that.

And of course, the other two unlucky volunteers had been able to clean themselves up and change into fresh clothing. In fact, Laura had learnt later that Miles had been spotted walking home from the leisure centre still covered in green slime, or at least he had been until it started raining. His car had remained parked at the centre until the following day.

In the weeks afterwards she kept a watchful eye out for Miles at work but didn't see hide nor hair of him. She started asking other staff and members whether they'd seen him around, but most didn't know Miles and the few that did could only really remember him from the charity event; a couple had even assumed he'd been a ringer hired by the organisers to take a dunking in case all the other bachelors reached their reserve price.

"Fancy him, do you?" a colleague had queried.

"No, it's not like that" Laura replied.

Eventually she resorted to sneaking into the back office when no one was around and checking the centre's online system which Laura knew was wrong. She searched recent classes and also for when his next session was scheduled but drew a complete blank. Then she checked his payment record and that's when she discovered that Miles had cancelled his membership about a week after the gala which explained why no one had seen him recently.

Laura wasn't panicking quite yet, but her concerns were steadily growing. Yes, he might have hurt her friend but maybe he didn't deserve all she'd done to him. The only way to really find out was to contact her friend and ask. Hopefully by now Hannah would be over the breakup and Laura would be able to get the full story.

* * *

Laura and Hannah met up in a cafe about halfway between the two friends' hometowns a few days later. Laura had arrived first and ordered for both of them before taking a table near the back. Predictably Hannah arrived slightly late, turning up a couple of minutes after their coffees had been served although luckily, they were still warm. They greeted one another with a hug and air kisses to each cheek before sitting down to talk privately.

Initially Laura kept the chat focused on safe topics; checking that her friend was in good spirits and doing well. For her part Hannah seemed happy and was no longer grieving her failed engagement. They talked about work, family and friends, catching up on recent events and sharing interesting gossip. Finally, Laura decided to bring the conversation around to the reason for meeting.

"So, what actually happened with Miles?" Laura asked.

Hannah paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before responding. Laura took that opportunity to slip her chai latte whilst she waited patiently for her friend to spill the beans. Hannah began by explaining that she'd met Miles on the rebound, in other words immediately after a previous breakup. She admitted to rushing into the relationship, moving in with one another too soon and then they were engaged before she knew what had happened.

Despite their hasty start, things might have worked out from the pair if Hannah hadn't bumped into her ex at the gym. She claimed she'd only wanted closure, but it had turned into a fling, and it wasn't long before Miles found out about it. He'd confronted Hannah about the cheating, and she hadn't handled it well, accusing him of spying on her and being overly controlling. They'd instantly broken up and Hannah had publicly blamed him when in reality, she'd had been the one at fault. And she'd never shared the truth with any of her friends until now.

Hannah looked somewhat embarrassed after her confession and Laura took a moment or two to comfort her. Laura could certainly sympathise with her friend and what had happened even if she wouldn't have done the same thing herself. Of course, now she knew the truth it made what she'd done to Miles even worse.

"I just wish you'd told me this all earlier" Laura said.

Laura explained about bumping into Miles at the leisure centre and the charity event. Hannah nodded clearly wondering where Laura's story was going. Laura then mentioned the bachelor auction she was helping to arrange and asking Miles to participate. Hannah looked a little confused but indicated for her friend to continue. Laura then described the gungy forfeit that awaited those bachelors that failed to reach their reverse price and how she'd manipulated the situation, so Miles got dunked. Hannah was horrified about what had happened all because of her.

Both women sat there is silence for a few minutes trying to absorb the mistakes and misunderstandings that had led to Miles suffering such an ill-deserved fate. With nothing left to say the friends parted with a half-hearted embrace as they each too busy contemplating their own failings and what if anything they could do to make it up to Miles; neither were confident of their chances of success with the latter.

* * *

The first thing Laura had done when she got home from meeting with Hannah was to delete all the photos and recordings, she had of Miles getting slimed, not only from her phone but also from the leisure centre's website. Next, she checked her phone for Miles' contact details, and after unblocking the number, gave it a call. Laura had waited patiently as it rang before someone picked up.

"Hi Miles, this is Laura I just wanted to" she'd begun to say.

But then there was a click and the line went dead. Laura wasn't totally surprised by this and would have probably done the same thing in Miles' position. However, Laura wasn't finished and immediately tried texting using her work phone assuming that he'd already blocked her personal number. Somewhat predictably she never got a response to this message either but that wasn't going to stop her.

Having accessed Miles' personal details on the leisure centre's system Laura knew exactly where he lived so decided that was her next course of action. She debated hanging around the vicinity of his house, perhaps the local cafe or minimart, in hopes of "accidentally" bumping into him but that seemed too creepy and she certainly didn't want to come across as a potential stalker. So instead, she resolved to play it straight with a simple visit in the hopes that he might listen to her apologise if delivered in person rather than over the phone.

Getting into her little sports car, Laura was half-way to Miles' place when she realised that maybe an apology on its own wasn't going to be enough. Suddenly she had a crazy thought and swung by the supermarket to pick up some paper plates and a can of squirty cream. Maybe, just maybe, if she humiliated herself in front of Miles then he might forgive her or at least be sufficiently amused to let her speak her piece.

Laura parked directly in front of Miles' house and extracted one of the plates from the plastic wrapping. She walked up to the front door and knocked. She could see movement at the windows and so quick squirted some cream into the plate she carried and thrust it into her own face. And then she waited and then waited some more before realising that Miles wasn't going to answer the door.

"Please open the door so we can talk" Laura shouted out.

"I have nothing to say to you" Miles called back.

With whipped cream dripping from her face, Laura turned around and made her way back to her car. Once inside she took the opportunity to wipe her face clean before thinking to check whether anyone had seen her self-inflicted indignity but luckily, she seemed to have gotten away with it. And maybe that was the problem, what she'd done wasn't nearly as big and impressive as being dropped into a vat of gunge in the middle of a charity event.

As she sat there in her car outside Miles' house, Laura started to conceive of a plan. Firstly, see needed to find out if it was possible to rehire the vat, she assumed it came with the gunge included. Secondly, she needed to contact the other bachelors from the event, luckily three of them worked at the leisure centre and the other three shouldn't be too difficult to find. And thirdly she needed some means of getting Miles' attention even if just for a couple of minutes. With the plan starting to come together in her head, Laura started the car's engine and drove home.

Immediately upon arriving home she jumped onto her computer and searched for vats of gunge for hire. There seemed to be a number of companies offering the service but most needed significant lead time for delivery or the photos of the vats in actual usage looked pretty poor. However, she realised that it wasn't so much the vat she needed but simply the gunge and there were numerous suppliers for this and even some recipes on the internet to make your own.

"Now for the difficult part" Laura said to herself.

She first phoned the leisure centre manager, both to arrange for use of the courtyard and because he had been one of the volunteers. She knew he wouldn't be interested in helping her to fix things with Miles so instead pitched it as an opportunity to raise a little more money for the charity and also a chance for them to get their own back on her. He immediately agreed and not only promised that their other two colleagues would participate but also that he'd take on responsibility for further organising the event including sourcing the gunge.

Next came the three other bachelors. The first was eager to take part having been dropped in the gunge vat. The second didn't answer his phone and whilst Laura left a voicemail he never got back in contact. The final bachelor initially thought she was joking when she described what was happening but after explaining it was for charity a couple of times he eventually agreed.

That just left the matter of getting Miles' attention. She thought about sending him an embossed invitation by post but wasn't sure he'd even read it let alone attend the event. In the end she decided on simplicity, she'd text him a link to a video steam of the event from a colleague's phone with a clickbait message such as "You need to see this Miles". Of course, she couldn't be certain he'd be available to watch it live so it would need to be recorded which meant that her humiliation would live on afterwards.

* * *

Laura waited expectantly in the leisure centre as the courtyard slowly filled with chattering people who'd paid to attend, with every penny going to charity. Initially she had thought to wear her gym gear but had instead decided to wear the same black cocktail dress she'd worn to the bachelor auction as that seemed more appropriate. The audience went silent as the leisure centre manager started the proceedings by thanking everyone for coming.

"Now let's welcome our bachelorette" he announced.

After taking a moment to send a text to Miles, Laura walked out of the centre and across the courtyard to the accompaniment of cheers from those present. There was a stage erected on the far side upon which waited her three work colleagues and two of the men who'd been dropped into the gunge vat at the auction. All five dressed in tuxedos.

There was also a single plastic seat set up in the middle of the stage which Laura took her place upon. Whilst she did this the five men picket up buckets of coloured gunge which had up until that moment been hidden behind the stage. The assembled crowd reacted in whoops and cheers as the men approached Laura, forming an orderly line with the young centre's receptionist in the front. Laura glanced around, making sure that a colleague was recording the event for Miles to hopefully see either live or later.

"Are you ready?" the receptionist asked.

"Bring it on" Laura responded.

And with that the young man stepped over towards Laura and lifted the bucket he was carrying over her head. He gradually began to tip the bucket until a narrow stream of green struck the top of Larura head and began to flow over her face and down on to her dress. The audience broke into laughter as the receptionist increased the flow of gunk whilst Laura just sat there getting a thorough coating in the stuff. Eventually the bucket ran empty, and the receptionist gave a bow to the spectators before walking off the stage.

Next up was the first bachelor who'd been dropped in the vat. Laura didn't really know him as he wasn't a regular at the leisure centre, but it was clear he remembered his humiliation from the auction as he strode up to her and hurled the pink gunge in his bucket straight into her face. Laura spluttered as she unfortunately got a mouthful of the soapy gunk. This provoked laugher and a handful of sympathetic groans.

By the time Laura had gotten the taste of the stuff out of her system her boss, the leisure centre manager, was standing beside her. He gave her a big smile and friendly wink before lifting his bucket above her head and drenching her with blue slime. Before leaving the stage, the manager couldn't resist getting on the mike one more time.

"Isn't she a trooper" he declared.

Laura certainly wasn't feeling like a trooper. She was cold, wet, covered in gunge and didn't even know if Miles would ever see her complete humiliation. She wanted to abort the whole thing and get a warm shower, but it was a bit too late for that especially as ostensibly this was all for charity. So, Laura took a moment to gather her wits before continuing with her messy ordeal.

The penultimate gunger was another of Laura's colleagues, in fact he was one of the centre's physical trainers much like her. He'd managed to not only avoid the vat at the charity event but also had raised the most money when you excluded Miles' rigged auction. He strode calmly across the stage and lifted the bucket he carried above Laura's head. He then poured the contents, watery yellow coloured gunge, all over his colleague before performing a brief celebratory dance much to the delight of the audience, before heading off stage.

Finally, it was the turn of the second bachelor who'd been dropped into the gunge. He was one of Laura's regular clients and had been a very good sport, later on admitting he'd always wanted to get gunged. As he made his way over to Laura, he gave her a mischievous smile before taking his bucket of think foamy green gunk, tipping it up and pushing it down over Laura's head. He then gave the bucket a couple of twists, whilst leaving it on her head, before walking off.

* * *

Laura really, really wanted to get cleaned up after her gunging but that's not what she'd allowed Miles to do. So instead, she left the leisure centre still covered in gunk and started walking homeward. She drew quite a few glares or chuckles from other pedestrians and lost count of the number drivers that flashed their lights or tooted their horns upon seeing her. She was relieved that at least it wasn't raining and that's when it struck her; instead of heading home so needed to try once more to see Miles and apologise in person in her current state.

She had to backtrack slightly and wandered down yet more streets, ignoring the reactions she got, until she stood outside Miles' house. Gathering her courage Laura knocked on the door. There was no response so after a short wait she knocked a second time but again there was no response. She resigned herself to waiting and remained standing on the front step eventually her patience paid off, and the door slowly swung open.

"I'm sorry about before but I hope we can start over again" Laura pleaded.

Miles looked at her with a stern expression upon his face and Laura despaired that her messy humiliation and subsequent wait outside had been worthwhile. Then gradually his features began to change as he took a good look at her and began to laugh. Laura was relieved especially when he invited her inside to clean up.

The End.