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Authors: Paddy Kelly

Tags: #love, #internet, #dating, #sex, #ireland, #irish, #sweden, #html, #stockholm

Erotic Refugees (24 page)

BOOK: Erotic Refugees
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Goth,” Rob repeated,
feeling about a hundred and fifty years old.

Karen flicked some hair out of
her face, revealing an earring high on her left ear, something that
was definitely a new addition. She caught Rob frowning at that and
shook her head.


Alright Rob, just take a
picture, it'll last longer. Come on, we'll go get something to eat,
they have nice pastries in a place close to here. You can frown at
me some more when we get there.”

She led them across a few
streets and around a few corners. Rob studied at the buildings as
they passed. They were all impressive and old-fashioned, like the
more tasteful bits of Stockholm copied and pasted until they
covered half the city. People passed them by at a relaxed pace, and
the women he spotted were tall and striking with excellent teeth.
Rob gave the whole thing a mental thumbs-up. This city was
officially fine by him.

Karen led the way through an
unmarked door, down a few stone steps and into a warm room
illuminated by horizontal slit windows and a few fat candles. There
were a dozen customers, most sitting by themselves.


This is a café?” Rob
said, viewing the bare walls with suspicion.


Sure is. Just sit down,
I'll fix everything.”

He settled at a battered table
and watched as his sister strolled confidentially up to the counter
and proceeded to chat in English to the scary-looking guy who stood
behind it. They seemed to know each other fairly well, Rob noted
with narrow-eyed disapproval. After sharing a few laughs with Scary
Dane, Karen returned with a tray containing two mugs of black
coffee and a pair of fat swirly pastries sprinkled with cinnamon
and sugar. She placed the lot on the table and sat herself
down.

Rob couldn't help noticing she
hadn't actually paid for any of it. He glanced at the guy behind
the counter and then back at his sister and finally down at his
unpaid-for breakfast. He shrugged and took a swig of the coffee,
happy that it was tasty and very strong.


So,” he said. “Why
Copenhagen?”


Just a guy I met,” Karen
said in a nonplussed way as she spooned sugar into her coffee. “You
know, online.”

Rob hadn't really expected her
to say anything else, but felt that he should at least pretend to
be a bit surprised. “A guy?” he gushed. “Online? Some strange dude
you never—”


No, not a 'dude' Rob, a
nice guy. A guy I'd been chatting to for like a year. And
seriously, who says 'dude' these days? I mean, come on, we're in,
like, the second millennium, you know?”


And I suppose the mother
doesn’t know about him?”

Karen glared at him through a
curtain of black hair. “Are you serious Rob? As far as she's
concerned, everyone on the Internet's either a kiddie fiddler or a
serial killer. And she thinks I'm with you, remember?”


Sure, fine, but then why
didn't you tell me where you really were? I mean—”


Because I thought if you
knew, you’d tell her! Jeez Rob, use your brain.” Karen leaned back,
swung her right foot up and planted it on her left knee. Her
enormous fat-soled boot looked ridiculously out of place on the
narrow limb. “Or she might find out somehow, she's good at that.
Once she thought I was alright, and you knew I was alive, well, I
figured why complicate things?”


Right, why complicate
things by actually telling the truth. And that still leaves me the
one doin' all the lying. Couldn't ye have worked on her for a bit,
gotten her into the idea of it?”


Look.” She planted her
foot on the ground again and leaned forward to glare at him. “I
just couldn't stay there, could I, on the bloody farm. The mother
was just going on and on, uni this and uni that, and I just didn't
want any of it, you know how she is! Then she started going on
about getting me a job, and she had been talking to some
hairdressers in the town, and I'm thinking, right, that’s it, if I
stay in this place and just cut hair and drink tea and gawp at
farmers for the rest of my days I may as well just end it right
there and then. That's not the future I want.”


So instead you picked up
some dude on the web and moved in with him?”


I'm not stupid Rob! I
can actually look after myself, you know, and Preben's a great guy.
I'm alive, I have a place to stay and food to eat and a job to go
to—”


A job?” Rob said, and
narrowed his eyes. “What job?”


In a bar. Mostly
waitressing, some pulling drinks, and I'm convincing the owner to
let me fix up his website. You should see it, the thing's about
fifteen feet long and it hasn't been updated since animated gifs
were the height of fashion—”


Okay, fine. But this
dude, guy, whatever, I won't be leaving until I've met him. I won't
be taking your word for everything.”

Karen stuffed a big chunk of
pastry into her mouth and spoke around it. “Sure you'll meet him
bro. We'll both see him later. In fact you'll be spending the
evening with him since I'm going to work at four. And tomorrow I’ll
show you around, and you can buy me a birthday present, since I
turned twenty last month and you missed it. How's that sound?”


So you're the one
working, and I buy you a present? Sounds fair.”

She grinned. “I know. Doesn't
it?”

 

Rob stared at Preben, trying
hard to find something to get riled up about. But it was slim
pickings indeed—the man was just very pleasant. He was undoubtedly
a man too, not many years younger than Rob, but with longer limbs,
bigger muscles and a toothier smile. Not even the marks of several
old earrings in his left ear, or his daft unsymmetrical haircut, or
even the tattoo just visible on his right arm when his sleeve
shifted was cause for concern. It was quite annoying really.


I'm a student,” he said.
“Interactive design.”


He's been helping me
with the layout ideas for your sites,” Karen said as she waved a
cigarette about and ignored Rob's searing gaze. “Although I'm in
charge of that whole thing at this end, just so you
know.”


And it is good practise
for us,” Preben said. “With your project changing every ten
minutes, just like in the real world. The new idea I like, but also
some of the old ones you sent to Karen. Some were stupid, but some
were good.”

Rob nodded and grinned.
“Refreshing honesty. I like a guy who’s not afraid to call a spade
a piece of shit.”

They were sitting in a small
square that contained a few benches and a tiny fish-shaped fountain
that dribbled water out of its stone mouth. Karen smiled as she
swung her foot to shoo away a cheeky pigeon that was coming too
close.


Well he's right, some of
your ideas were rubbish.”


And some,” Preben repeated,
“were not bad.”


Well, now ye've hurt my
feelings Preben. And you'll probably have to take me to a bar later
and buy me Guinness to make up for it.”

Preben stretched out his long
legs. “I'm sure it can be done. Perhaps I throw in some peanuts
too.”


Sounds fair. Although I
might add it wasn't our fault we were switchin' projects all the
time. We did get the last one nicked, ye know.”


Oh yeah,” Karen said.
“What happened there exactly?”

Rob told her, and she nodded.
“So Kajsa handed somebody else your idea just to spite you? It was
good revenge though, wasn't it? Shows a certain style.”


I suppose,” Rob said,
not really in the mood to think about Kajsa. “But let me finish
what I came here to say. I don't want to be one takin' the blame
from the Mother about this. So you'll have to tell her.”


Sure Rob, I'll tell her,
alright?” She blew out a thin plume of smoke. “In two months or
so.”

Rob shook his head. “No way.
One month, or I'll tell her myself.”


Okay then, six weeks,” Karen
said. “Two weeks extra as payment for tarting up this site of
yours.”

Rob sighed. “Alright, whatever,
six weeks. Just mail me what I'm supposed to be lying about,
alright? What you’re supposed to be doing in Stockholm, where ye
work and so on. Just so I don't accidentally fuck things up.”


Deal,” Karen said. “And
now you're going to tell me how you found me. I was sure I'd
covered my tracks, wasn't I Preben? Come on bro, tell me, how did
you track me down?”


Maybe later,” Rob said
slyly. “After you've told the mother, yeah?”

Karen grumbled as she stubbed
out her cigarette under a big black boot. “Okay, fine. Come on
then, I suppose I'd better show you the flat. Preben cleaned it up
a bit. I hope.”


Well I hid the heroin
gear, if that's what you mean.”


Preben’s so lovely when
he makes crap jokes. Right, let's get moving. We've got time to
show you some of the town before I start work. But, just so you
know, the flat is small so you'll be sleeping on a mattress in the
kitchen. Assuming the rats are okay with it.”


Oh the rats are no
problem,” Preben said. “It's the alligators I'd worry
about.”

Karen laughed and slipped an
arm around his waist. “That wasn't funny in any language,
dear.”

Off they went and Rob followed
after them, trying to ignore their cuteness by looking again at the
city. This place was growing on him and he realised that if Karen
built herself a life here he'd have to come visit more often. And
maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing at all.

Chapter
25

 

Eoin liked these kinds of days.
Wednesdays in general he had no particular opinion about, but a
Wednesday spent at home with a lie-in, a nice pot of Lapsang tea
and an episode of The Onedin Line was a thing to be treasured.

Rob was off finding his sister,
Damien was with Jenny, Alice was on Gotland, and there was
absolutely nothing, job-wise or otherwise, that demanded his
immediate attention. He couldn't remember the last time he’d had a
summer day entirely to himself, where he was able to do exactly
what he felt like without having to consult somebody else and their
calendar, or worry about “wasting” time just by hanging about and
drinking tea.

There was however one thing on
the cards today, and that was heading over to Anja’s later. Not
that he wanted to, exactly—well okay maybe he did just a bit—but
she had messaged about getting together before he went off to
Gotland. And when casual sex was the question the only answer Eoin
could supply was a slack-jawed “yes please”, even if it was
dangerously complicated.

Oh well, it wouldn't take more
than an hour or two, and then he could get back to enjoying his
long anticipated day of sloth. He had the seasons three and four
DVD boxes, and that was a lot of Onedin.

When the credits rolled he
reached lazily for the laptop. First he went to the prototype of
the new site and saw that Milly had made great progress. The login
screen was working and the main body now had its basic
functionality. He nodded as he clicked around, amazed she has done
it all in less than a week. The girl truly was a whirlwind.

He closed the page, brought up
Diamond Date and saw, as expected, a mail from Maria. She started
by replying to his previous points, then went on about her plans
for today—how she'd be getting boots resoled and getting food for
Custer. That was her cat, and Eoin already knew far more about
Custer the cat than he really needed.

He read through the whole mail
again and closed the window with a sigh. It was clear they’d run
out of conversational topics, having already discussed everything
from his favourite tea to where she bought her socks. He knew he
couldn't put off the big moment any longer—he would have to meet
her.

There his problems really
started, because staring at him from his profile page was a guy who
wasn't him, bearing a description that clearly wasn't his. That guy
would be very hard to reconcile with reality, and that meant
whatever explanation Eoin came up would be only one of many
variations on the same big fat lie.

He toyed briefly with the idea
of morphing his profile photo into his actual face over a period of
weeks so that Maria wouldn’t notice, but that was no good either.
In fact no plan was any good, be it clever or inane, while he was
still seeing Anja.

He would just have to drop
Anja, regardless of what instructions were being broadcast from the
region below his belt. And he’d have to do it soon before he built
a web of lies so intricate he wouldn’t be able to extricate himself
from it at all.

In fact, he’d have to do it
today and that meant he couldn't screw Anja as planned. No, he had
to be firm and get it done before it all went too far. Because,
when it came down to it, it was only a physical thing with Anja, a
purely sexual pastime. While Maria—her hair, her silhouette, her
sultry (and largely imagined) voice—was something very special.

Eoin nodded at his decision.
The New Plan would be unfolded today. Glancing at the clock,
however, he saw it was well over an hour before he was to meet
Anja, and that meant time for one more episode. He reached for the
remote and settled back, hoping that the rest of the day, even the
nasty parts, would go as smoothly as this glorious solo
morning.

He had a strong feeling that it
would.

 

It was strange to meet Anja
outdoors. Until now they’d only met up in various bedrooms and
hadn't seen each other in daylight very much. But she had things to
do and asked if they could meet in town, close to her apartment.
Eoin agreed. He figured it might even be better that way as it gave
him a chance to break it off on neutral ground and avoid the whole
goodbye-at-the-door scene. And hopefully the tears as well.

BOOK: Erotic Refugees
9.67Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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