Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife (17 page)

He looked
sheepish and that ruddy colour flared across his cheeks. “My Mum
makes them for me and well, I don’t like telling her no.”

Ah, he was so
God damned sweet.

“Thanks.” I
snatched the thing up and wiped my eyes and nose.

Minutes later,
the waitress with too much make up on and perfume returned with her
trusty pad in hand, her eyes eating up Brad. I shook my head as I
told her I’d take the lasagne. Poor Brad had a little bit of a hard
time getting his order out without blushing or messing up his
words. He really was sweet.

The phone in
my bag buzzed again for the millionth time today. I ignored it,
again. Sebastian could eat static until I was ready to speak with
him and right now, I wasn’t.

Brad looked
over at me as he drunk his coffee that had just been delivered.
“You gonna answer that?”

“Answer what?”
I asked, playing coy.

A dark eyebrow
rose. He set the cup down on the table and stapled his fingers
around the rim. “Your phone,” He nodded in the direction of my bag
which hung over the back of my chair. “I’ve counted near on twenty
times it’s buzzed since you’ve sat down.”

“Perceptive
little shit, aren’t you?”

Our dinner
arrived; lucky for us the waitress with the exuberant smell didn’t
deliver it otherwise I might have tasted her perfume in my dinner.
I picked up my knife and fork which were wrapped in a shitty little
napkin. I dug into my food and looked up to see Brad watching me,
his food still untouched. I sighed and dropped the cutlery down
with a clatter. “What?”

Brad licked
his lips and shuffled in his chair. “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” I
answered a little heatedly. What was the feeling with him to unload
anything and everything on him? There were things I told Jen but
sometimes when something particular happened, I kept it to
myself.

Okay, there
were a million things wrong. The most important and the thing
getting to me was the fact that I needed to find a place to live.
So what? I didn’t have to worry about Sebastian getting me pregnant
anymore but I had been worried even though I’d rushed to the
chemist and bought one of those morning after pill thingies. I
wasn’t even sure the things worked seeing as I’d never used them
before. To be honest, it had scared the shit out of me.

The Cop
reached across the table and took hold of my hand. At first I kept
my hand curled up, not needing his warmth but gradually it sunk in.
The sigh that left my mouth made my shoulders droop. “It’s okay to
lean on other people, Vic. You don’t have to do everything
yourself. There are people out there willing to help you.” He
smiled, making his brown eyes shine and warm up. “Including me and
remember, a problem shared is a problem aired.”

God, what a
cliché? Anyway... “The man that had my heart in his hand is
back.”

“I figured.”
Brad nodded and let go of my hand to pick up his own knife and
fork. I watched from my chair, as he dug into his meal whilst I
told him about Sebastian and me. I told him about work and the
touching moment at my place that in effect bought me and Sebastian
to our knees. I told him about becoming homeless then about my
fears about Jen giving birth for the first time and then about
Naomi and Baby Leo then about the pregnancy scare.

By the time I
was finished explaining half my life story to the man, half the
cafe was empty and the sky outside was completely black. My eyes
flicked up to the Christmas lights the Council had put up that
wrapped around the tops of street lamps that lined the roads.

I felt my face
scrunching up. I really hated Christmas. Bah-humbug,

We’d both
pushed our plates aside and ordered another cup of coffee. “Wow.”
Brad nodded slowly as he slipped down into his chair, spreading out
his long legs underneath the table. His tanned hands folded across
his stomach in stark contrast to the white shirt he wore. “That’s a
heck of a lot to worry and think about.”

I snorted and
sucked down half of my now cold coffee and grimaced. “I know,
right.”

We sat in
silence, with our fresh drinks watching the people come and go; the
waitresses clean the tables and wipe down the laminated menus,
secretly watching us and trying to listen into the conversation
between us.

Nosey
bastards,

Brad stood up
and stretched his arms above his head. He still wore his uniform.
Actually it was strange to see him wearing Cop’s clothing. In the
club the other night, he didn’t seem old enough to be in that sort
of employment but obviously, I guessed wrong.

“I’ll take you
home.”

Grabbing my
bag, I strapped it over my shoulder and wrapped my thick orange
scarf around the bottom half of my face. “You don’t have to do
that. I can get the bus.” I had a couple of fares left on my Oyster
before it needed topping up again.

Brad grunted
but didn’t say anything. He walked off in the direction of the
counter and paid for dinner. I rolled my eyes as I walked past him
when the woman with the stink fluttered her thick coated eyelashes
at him. Poor Brad looked like he wanted to be everywhere else
except where he was.

To save him
because I was such a nice person, I walked over to him and pushed
into his side. He was still almost unmoving until I pinched his
butt cheek making him yelp. I slipped into his side, under his arm,
wrapping my own arm around his waist and smiled sweetly up at him
when he looked down at me with the biggest frown on his face. “Hey,
sweet chops. You were taking so long and you did promise me a good
sesh and a bottle of wine. Remember, tonight is our baby making
night.”

Brad’s eyes
bugged and the woman behind the counter gasped. I bit my lip to
stop from laughing out loud. One of my brows rose at him telling
him to get with the program.

He shook his
head and seemed to get that I was trying to rescue him. Good God,
it might have been better if I’d just told the woman to fuck off
and get lost. Just as I was about to pull away, Brad pulled me even
more into his side, turning me a little and his head came down. Oh
no, he wasn’t.

He did.

His lips
touched mine, his tongue just dipping out to lick against the seam
of my lip. I was in too much shock to do anything but stand there
and cling onto him with my fingers digging into his thick black
coat.

A throat
clearing had Brad breaking away. I stood there like a lemon, my
eyes riveted to my friend, wondering the fuck that was all about. I
was supposed to save him, not have him want to eat my face off.

“Goodnight.”
Brad said to the woman behind the counter and grabbed my hand,
pulling me from the cafe. The cold December chill made me shiver as
I blindly followed Brad to the curb where a black Ford Focus sat
parked. The lights flashed and he opened the passenger door for me.
“Get in.”

Taking my hand
from him, I gripped the top of the open door. “What was that
about?”

Brad shrugged.
“We were playing up, right?”

“Yeah
but...”

“Get in,
Vic.”

The Black
Box.

I stood on my
doorstep watching Brad driving away down the road wondering whether
I’d stepped into the Twilight Zone without knowing it. What he did
in the cafe was just plain weird.

The entire
drive home, he’d said many a thing including talking about work and
the weather but never once mentioned the kiss. For once in my life,
I was truly lost for words. That was well deep for me. No matter
how much my brain was shouting at me to ask him what the hell he
thought he was doing, my mouth just couldn’t come up with the
words.

He’d just
dropped me off, leaned over me to open the door and told me to go
inside and like I was a robot or something, I’d just followed his
instructions.

Weird,

Shaking my
head, I fiddled with the bunch of keys in my hands until I found
the one for the bottom lock. I unlocked that first then jiggled the
keys again for the top lock. Pushing the metal into the lock, I
jumped nearly six feet in the air when a Police car came zooming
past me with its sirens on. I looked over my shoulder as my heart
thundered in my chest. They always seem to be right next to you
before they flick the siren on, scaring the shit out of you.

I watched
until the squad car disappeared around the corner, listening to the
waning siren dissipate as well.

My nose ran as
I closed the door behind me, clicking the latch into place then
sliding the chain across. I unwrapped my scarf and hung it on the
little coat rack that was screwed to my wall. I shuffled my coat
off and hung that as well. As I walked through the living room, I
kicked of my boots and let them drop to the floor with mini
thuds.

I stopped dead
at my piece of shit coffee table, sucking in a breath at the same
time. My hand went to my chest as my brows pulled together.

“What the
Fuck?” I whispered as I eyed the suspicious thing that
so
wasn’t there when I went out earlier. Where the hell did that come
from?

There was a
black box the size of a shoe box placed in the middle of my coffee
table. My magazines, newspapers and odds and ends of post had been
removed so that was the only thing on the top surface.

Slowly, I
lowered myself down till I was on my knees and crawled over to the
table, eying the thing like it was a bomb or something. The closer
I got to it; I could see the glint coming off of it. So it was a
kind of metal box then.

Tonight was
just getting weirder by the minute. Seriously fucked up Twilight
Zone shit,

I reached out
and poked at the box with my index finger. It didn’t shift along
the table, so it was heavy. I bit my lip and leaned into the table
even more, so I was hovering over the box wondering where it had
come from and what the hell it was.

Licking my
lips, I reached out and placed my fingers on the top of it and
shouted in fright when the box started to ring.

Huh?

My head slowly
lowered towards the metal thing listening to the subtle vibration
and music coming from inside. My brows were pulled so far together,
I was sure they would become one.

Then it hit me
that the box wasn’t actually ringing, it was obviously something
inside that was.

Duh!

Shaking my
head and clucking my tongue, I lifted the lid of the box and
groaned.

Sebastian.

I rubbed my
hands up and down my face, walked back a little on my knees and sat
back on my legs. I sighed heavily and eyed the box from where I
was. Part of me wanted to quickly crawl over and have a good dig
about in the box and have a nose but, the other part of me didn’t
want to touch the thing.

He’d obviously
done this for a reason.

My curiosity
worthy of a cat got the better of me. I crawled back over and took
a deep breath.

There on top
of everything was a thick red rose with a dark green stem, thorns
removed. I plucked the flower up and brought it to my nose. No-one
had ever given me flowers before and never a rose. I didn’t even
know if they smelt or not.

I held it to
my nose as I glanced back in the black box. There sat the iPhone
Sebastian had given me months ago with its white leather casing,
the charger and the leads to go along with it. There was also an
envelope that was ivory in colour pressed along the back of the box
with my name scribbled across the front of it. A big bunch of keys
and fobs to various things sat on a bright silver keychain with my
name attached in little diamonds. I picked up the bunch of keys and
held them up to my face. My brows scrunched up in wonder, trying to
figure out what the hell they were for. I’d never seen so many keys
on a ring before.

I flicked
through them and focused on the fobs. Only when I did this, did I
realise that they were fobs to cars. Two BMW fobs, a Mercedes and a
Land Rover tag.

Oh, my,
God.

Sebastian had
given me the keys to his cars, well, the ones in the garage below
his flat.

Oh shit.

I fell back
with gravity and plonked down onto my bum with a flop. The keys in
my hands fell to the floor between my legs. I blinked and looked
down at them seeing the shiny, bright and what looked like new cut
keys to various doors and locks. Then again, I realised that
Sebastian had also given me the keys to his flat and other
things.

This was too
much. After what felt like forever, I pushed up off the floor and
grabbed the keys, setting them on the table quietly. I dug through
the rest of the box seeing a small expensive box of gold foil
wrapped chocolates and strawberries. Two of each to be exact,

I small laugh
left me at the reminder of our chocolate and strawberry night.
Obviously, he hadn’t forgotten.

I unwrapped a
gold foil package and sucked a chocolate into my mouth, moaning at
the rich thickness exploding on my tongue. Screwing the wrapper
into a ball, I threw it over my shoulder and dug back into the
shoebox. My nails scrabbled to pick up a card lying at the bottom
of the box. I finally got hold of it with my nails and held it up
in front of me. It was a credit card, a black credit card with my
name stamped along the bottom in silver lettering. I turned it this
way and that watching the light glint off the newness of it and my
name.

He’d given me
my own credit card for fuck sake. I didn’t even own my own credit
card that I’d gotten myself because I had a credit score worth
shit.

This was too
much. Way, way overboard.

The Beatles
song came to mind, “can’t buy me love.” I hummed the tune as I
fingered the card in my hands, letting my fingers sail over the
silver lettering, feeling my whole name on the top of it.

A scrap of
something black folded in the corner of the box caught my eye. I
reached inside and plucked up the lace, letting it dangle from my
index finger as I bought it up to the light.