Erotic Refugees (15 page)

Rob's look told Milly
everything she wanted to know. She gaped at him, displaying the gap
in her upper front teeth. “No, I won’t believe it, I can't! You're
telling me that you haven't even registered the domain yet?”

Rob, if he had a cap, would
have now been twisting it in his hands. “I think Eoin might have
done it…”

Milly dropped her head to the
table, where it rested for a moment on her hands as she groaned.
She took a deep breath and sat up.

“
Look. If you want my
help you go home tonight and you register the domain. Then you say
exactly what information needs to be saved for each user, and
exactly how the login is to work. Then you get somebody working on
the graphics, fast. When you get all that over to me, I'll get your
login in place and set up the database. Understood?”

Rob nodded, shamefully aware
that how much he'd done on the site and how much he thought he'd
done were further apart than anyone could have suspected (except
for maybe his mother).

“
Then,” Milly went on,
“we discuss how you pay me.”

Rob shook his head. “There
won't be any money until we get the prototype and the—”

“
Oh I know that, but I'll
wait. I'll settle for a twenty percent stake in the project, and
that's not a bad deal for you. That's future payment though, and
I'm talking about here-and-now payment.”

Rob studied her. “Like what?”
he said, with a creeping suspicion. Normally when it came to doing
favours for women, it never went further than drilling, carrying or
installing something. Rob had the feeling that Milly was way ahead
of him in all those areas.

“
Well, let's just say
you'll owe me a favour. Maybe you can paint a wall or two for me,
we'll have to see. For the moment, you shall just be in my
thrall.”

Rob, although still suspicious,
shook hands with her, since that's what you did to close deals. He
wondered how Eoin would react to the news that he'd just given away
twenty percent of their project and had also promised to lend them
both out as slave labour to an almost-Australian redhead.

It was a good thing Eoin was
going away to Ireland in two days. That meant he could avoid
telling him at all until he came back, and that would fix it for a
while. For a good while, maybe.

And, as Rob saw it, a good
while was as good as forever.

Chapter
17

“
So who's up for a beer
then?”

A few of Rob's classmates
glanced at him and a few murmured their replies. None of them
sounded very much like “yes please”. Milly came up and whispered in
his ear.

“
Where do you think you
are, Irish boy? You can't invite a bunch of Swedes you just met out
for beers. They'll think you're insane. Look at them, the poor
things, they don't know which way to turn!” She hoisted up her bag
and slung it over her shoulder. “But I'll come along for a little
while. There's a friend I want to bring too, if that's okay. She
won't be staying long though, we're both off to a dinner
later.”

Rob looked around at the others
and saw they were clearly avoiding his eye. He shrugged. “Sounds
great, more the merrier!”

He sent off a text message to
Andy. It was Saturday and they were all playing indoor hockey so
getting them to come out for beers wouldn't be too difficult. If
there was any dissent, the promise of two new women to meet would
surely swing it.

As Milly chatted non-stop about
anything and everything, Rob led the way to his bar of choice.
Medborgarplatsen was one ugly square but it did have lots of
outdoor seating and plenty in the way of females to look at. The
rest of Stockholm clearly thought the same and the place was jammed
with people. With some gymnastics they managed to find a table and
scrounged six chairs to put around it.

By the time Rob returned from
the bar with two bottles of strong beer (as the Swedes liked to
call normal beer), Milly's friend had shown up. Rob couldn't help
gazing helplessly at her as he sat down. Ellinor was a
chocolate-skinned girl with sharp features and big brown eyes that
never seemed to blink. He suspected he'd have to listen carefully
to what she said and work out if she was single.

Although that didn't mean he
couldn't talk too. So he sat back and really turned on the charm.
An hour later he was exhausted from all the smiling and very
grateful when Eamonn, Andy and Brian eventually showed up. They had
their sports bags slung over their shoulders and were fresh and
scrubbed from their showers. Andy glanced at the ladies and winked
to Rob with a look of approval. They all sat down and introductions
were repeated for their benefit.

“
Oh that's right, your
course,” Andy said as he arranged his muscular limbs on the narrow
wicker chair. “I wondered why you skipped bandy. And these are, I
take it, your course mates?”

“
I am,” Milly said. She
patted her friend on the knee. “But Ellinor's one of that strange
species who already have jobs.”

Eamonn was dispatched to the
bar and Rob went with him, carrying money from Andy and
instructions to buy drinks. When they returned and had re-seated
themselves, Andy reached out to Rob's cigarettes and took one with
a nod of thanks.

“
So did you learn
anything on the course, Rob? Ready to start your company and take
over the online calendar world?”

Rod glared. “It's not a
calendar—”

“
You know about his
project too?” Milly broke in.

“
Why sure I do,” Andy
said and exhaled a stream of smoke. “I think Rob there has hired an
aeroplane and banner to fly over the city next week, for the
benefit of the few who haven't heard about it yet.”

Milly turned to Rob and was
about to say something, but Rob waved her away. “Yeah I know, I
know! I'll stop talking, I'll register the domain and I'll get the
best bloody graphics designer the world has ever seen.
Alright?”

Ellinor turned to Milly. She
pushed the hair from over her ear and whispered something. Milly
grinned and patted her friend's hand. Rob leaned closer, trying to
hear what they were saying, wondering if she was talking about him.
It was looking good, he just might be in there!

Andy shifted his gaze from Rob
to Milly with interest. “So he's dragged you in too, has he? Fast
work, gotta give him that. What do you think about it?”

“
Sure, it could work,”
Milly said. “We'll need a Facebook app though, that’s where the
action will be. And maybe one for the iPhone. The site itself might
be a good start, but it won't be enough.”

“
Well,” Andy said,
“luckily this time we have the target group right here! Brian's the
perfect single dad with a bohemian lifestyle. Care to share your
thoughts, Brian? And anything you say will be taken down and used
to make Rob rich.”

Brian shook his head. “Can't
say I'd use it. A diary works for me. Anyway, I'm partial here,
since this decides the future of my sandwich board. It's not
ethical for me to comment.”

“
I think the problem,”
Rob said, “is some people don't recognise genius when they see it.
I am surrounded by idiots.” He nodded to Milly and Ellinor. “With
some exceptions. I mean, maybe you’re idiots too, I just don't know
ye ladies well enough to be sure.”

“
That’s good aggressive
marketing Rob,” Milly said, checking the time on her mobile. “Keep
it up and we'll all be rich. But we can't be late for dinner, so
we're off. Nice to meet you all, and see you tomorrow
Rob!”

They gathered up their things
and moved off to the sound of wine bottles clinking together in a
plastic bag. Rob watched them depart with his arms crossed,
grinning with satisfaction.

“
Not bad, right? Her
friend? I'd say I have a chance there. Milly's too old but that
Ellinor, eh?”

Andy was smiling. He shared a
look with Brian, who was grinning too, as if they were both sitting
on some vital fact that they'd force Rob to ferret out of them.
Eamonn was avoiding Rob's gaze entirely and seemed to be looking
for an invisible fly that had drowned in his beer.

Rob frowned. Something was
going on.

“
So,” Andy said
delicately. “This Ellinor. What does she think about you Rob,
wouldya say? What are those sharp instincts telling
you?”

Rob noticed that all three of
them were paying close attention as he struggled with an answer.
Maybe they had picked up that Ellinor did actually fancy him and
were just waiting to spring it on him?

“
Hard to say, ye know?
But I think she liked me, and I'm sure I could present myself
better next time I see her.”

“
So you're in with a
chance then?”

Rob nodded confidently. “Sure,
why not?”

There was a moment of silence
before Andy burst into laughter. Brian was grinning ear to ear and
Eamonn was holding his hand over his mouth as he also sniggered
uncontrollably. Andy wiped away a tear and shook his head.

“
Oh Rob man, I'm sorry,
but you just couldn't make up stuff like this. Wait, give me a
second.” He took a deep breath, looking at Rob, and then started to
laugh all over again. Rob put up with it for a minute, forcing a
good-natured smile, until his patience ran out.

“
Alright, fuck it Andy,
tell me, will ye? What's so fuckin' funny?”

Andy’s eyes glittered with
delight. “It's just you getting all smoochy about a girl when she's
sitting in front of you, with her girlfriend!”

The three of them burst into
laughter, causing the people at the next table to pause their
conversation and look over to see what was happening. Rob wasn't
fazed. He fixed his gaze somewhere in the distance, thinking
fiercely. After a while he nodded. They had indeed been touching
each other a bit more than average, but he'd been gaping at Ellinor
too much for it to register.

“
Yeah,” he said. “I
suppose it makes sense. But are ye sure?”

“
I asked them, man!” Andy
said. “When you were at the bar!”

“
You know what you are,
Rob?” Eamonn said. “You're a fag-hag! But, you know, a
man…”

Andy jumped in. “I think what
our friend Eamonn is fishing for here is the male equivalent of
fag-hag, which is … actually, I don't know what it is. A dyke-dude?
Dyke-dick maybe?”

“
Yeah!” spluttered Eamonn
in rapturous joy. “A dyke-dick!” He exploded with laughter again.
Clearly this was the funniest thing he'd ever come up with, or
believed he'd come up with. Brian laughed, Andy laughed, and Rob
sat there with his arms folded and watched them.

“
Well,” he said after a
while, “I see yer all easily amused, so I'll leave ye to it. I'm
off for drinks.” He pushed back his chair with a scrape and
excused-me'd his way through the crowd until he reached the bar. He
stood there, waiting for the attention of a staff member, with a
bemused look on his face.

So Milly was gay? That might be good. It
meant
there'd be no distracting thoughts passing
between them, and that her expressing an interest in the project
was not just a veiled attempt to get into his underwear.

Rob texted Eoin, to check what
he was up to. He waited a bit, and received his drink, but no
reply. That was odd since Eoin always replied promptly. No problem
though, they'd anyway see each other on Sunday to discuss progress
on the project before Eoin headed off to Ireland. He could fill him
in on the Milly news then.

He lifted his bottle and headed
back for the table. He wondered if the boys were still chuckling or
if they'd found something else to amuse them, like a funny looking
man, or a pretty stone, or maybe a ladybird.

Well let them have their
laughs. Once this project was up and running, the last laugh would
be his. Plus he'd have his very own sandwich, and how many people
could say that?

When Rob rolled in the door at
quarter past two in the morning, he sat down and composed a mail to
Karen. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it sooner. Karen
would be perfect for doing the graphics! She'd been building her
own websites since she was eleven, and she happily fixed blogs,
photos and layouts for her friends. The girl was a natural and if
she ever dragged her arse into a university, she'd have a great
future. Plus—and this was a big plus—she'd work for cheap or
free.

He wrote quickly, outlining the
project in a few hundred words, and sent her all the material they
had, documents as well as scanned-in scrawls and sketches. For good
measure he also sent her the sketches for the other sites he’d been
thinking about before they'd settled on the current one. Maybe it
would give her a feeling for the kind of thing they had in mind,
the right sort of vibe, or something. Plus it meant he didn't have
to sort through it, so off it all went.

Next he pulled out his credit
card and bought the domain. Then he collapsed into bed, feeling
very efficient. He snatched up his mobile and, out of pure drunken
habit, scrolled to Kajsa's name. His finger was hovering over the
green button before the conscious part of his mind caught up with
the rest was doing. With an irritated grunt he turned the mobile
off and allowed it to clatter to the floor. He kicked off his shoes
and, with his clothes still on, climbed under the covers.

He fell asleep with a strange
and novel feeling—the sensation of having got something useful
done. And as weird as it was, Rob found he quite liked it.

Chapter
18

Eoin gave Anja a quick hug-kiss
and hurried down the stairs. He heard the door close behind him
with a soft click. Despite having the useful excuse of packing for
his trip to Ireland, he still felt the shame burning at his
ears.