by Amos Cassidy
Rose felt a pang of protectiveness for this seemingly quiet, shy guy.
“Yes, Roman, why don’t you zip it?” She snapped, unable to hide her annoyance.
“Just kidding.” Roman held up his hands in mock surrender. “But you’d better watch out.” He leant forward, widening his emerald eyes for effect. “Kris can be like a puppy, give him a treat and he’ll be following you around begging for more.”
Harold snorted into his coke.
Kris looked as if he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him.
Rose gave Roman a hard look. “I happen to like puppies.”
“Roman’s just pissed because Kris gets to take her out and he doesn’t,” Harold grinned nastily.
Roman snorted and Raven chuckled.
“Well it just goes to show that Rose has excellent taste,” said Damon primly.
“Hey!” Roman protested.
Flo saved the day by pushing back her chair and declaring she was going for a fag. Walking her plate to the sink she removed a cigarette packet from her pocket and popped one in her mouth. “I’ll be out front. Play nice please.” She disappeared into the doorway.
“Shall we all chill out a bit?” asked Roman. “Maybe put on some music?”
Before anyone could reply, Flo called out, “Oh, here comes Thistle. All right, sweetheart?”
Roman got up from the table and left the dining room. Rose heard a female voice in the hallway and then Roman returned arm in arm with a woman. She was very pale and pretty and had a voluptuous figure. Her hair was short and expertly styled into purple spikes. She wore a very sexy red dress and heels to match.
“Hello,” she said. “How are you all?” Her voice was slightly breathy and reminded Rose of Marylyn Monroe.
The guys greeted her with evident warmth. She was obviously one of the gang.
“Come and sit with me,” Roman sat back in his chair pulling the woman onto his lap.
“This is my girlfriend Thistle,” he said to Rose, with a slightly amused look on his face. Although for the life of her she couldn’t fathom what he had to be amused about. “This is Rose,” he said to Thistle.
Thistle reached out, and shook Rose’s hand and then pulled a face. “Oh dear, I don’t like the smell of meat.” She recoiled as far from the table as she could while remaining in Roman’s lap.
Roman chuckled. “Thanks for clarifying, wouldn’t want Rose to take that personal.”
“Are you a vegetarian?” Rose asked. Ignoring Roman seemed to be the best option.
“You could say that.” Thistle widened her big violet eyes, which were decorated with long, perfect lashes.
“Yeah, pain in the bum.” Roman teased and tickled her sides. He then kissed her on the neck.
“Don’t be so mean.” Thistle pouted prettily then giggled.
Rose felt slightly irritated.
“I don’t see how her being vegetarian affects you,” Rose said.
“I don’t like the thought of killing. It is against the way of the Moon Goddess-”
“Oh, don’t get started,” Roman tickled her again. She giggled, seeming to lose her train of thought.
Rose resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Moon Goddess? Probably some new age cult or something equally wacky. Thistle certainly looked the part, was probably being taken for a ride. Still, it wasn’t her problem, each to their own, as long as she didn’t try shoving it down her throat they’d be cool. Composing her face into a neutral but polite expression, she turned to Damon. Anything was better than watching the two lovebirds canoodling at the table.
Roman, his friends and his girlfriend left in the early hours of the morning. Erin was tucked away in bed. Flo was doing the last of her washing up before hitting the sack.
Finally, finished with the washing up, Flo plodded into the living room. “Hope that wasn’t too bad for ya, sweetheart.”
Rose shook her head. “Dinner was really nice.”
“Thanks, luv. I really wanna stay up and have a girly gossip with ya, darling. But I’m exhausted. I need me bed. Do you mind?”
“Of course not, I need my bed too.”
“We’ve had a good day, but a knackering one.” Flo was unable to suppress a yawn and Rose responded with a yawn of her own.
“I’ve started you off now,” Flo said. “Ain’t it funny how if one person yawns it sets everyone else off yawning?” she laughed softly. “Right, I’ll see you in the morning. Gawd knows when I’ll be getting up but I will see ya at some point. We’ll have a nice relaxing day. I’ll cook us a roast too. It’ll just be us and your friend Faye if she wants to come over.”
“Will Roman be here too?” Rose disguised her sudden apprehension behind the mask of a polite smile.
“I hope so but he’s always doing his own thing. I’ll give him a ring tomorrow. Everything’s locked up. Switch the lights off when you go up won’t ya, luv?”
“Will do.”
“Goodnight, sweetheart.”
“Goodnight.”
Her first full day in her new home. She had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but her famous gut feeling told her whatever it was, it most certainly wouldn’t be dull.
4.
A GOOD MEAL GONE TO WASTE
Henry waved goodbye to Charlie as he left the Hungry Dragon with his usual Friday night feast of chicken chow mein, king prawn balls, beef in black bean sauce and prawn crackers. His stomach growled in anticipation. Riya was waiting for him outside on the pavement, his large green eyes fixating on the plastic bag carrying their aromatic cargo.
“Yes, that is king prawns you smell. I didn’t forget.” Henry chuckled.
The cat meowed approvingly and trotted beside him as he began his relatively short walk home. Eastenders would be starting shortly and he was determined to be seated on his sofa in the comfort of his flat, ready to dig into his delicious meal just as the opening sound track began to play. Riya loved that soap almost as much as the king prawns. As if reading Henry’s thoughts, the cat meowed, urgently this time, and he picked up the pace.
Henry lived alone by choice. He found relationships complicated, draining. Having tried the dating scene and being flummoxed by what not to say and what not to do, trying to figure out what a woman wanted you to say and when to say it…well, it had all been a little too much. The male colleagues that he worked with at the small telesales company, where he made cold calls, thought he was crazy or suspected him to be gay. He didn’t care. He had Riya, and that was all the company he needed.
So as he made his way home on that chilly autumn evening, his warm bag of yum clutched in his arms, he found himself to be in high spirits as visions of a cold beer and his comfy grandpa slippers danced before his eyes.
His flat was situated on the far side of a supermarket complex and it was always easier to cut across the car park. At this time of the evening the car park was relatively deserted. Henry had made good time, not having to weave his way through cars. He was approaching the centre of the car park when the lights went out, plunging the car park into darkness.
Henry’s stride faltered, Riya let out a strange, strangled mewl– his hackles rising as he followed through with a hiss. Henry came to an abrupt standstill, almost tripping over the cat.
“What the-?” Henry didn’t get a chance to finish his exclamation as the night around him was suddenly alive and surging toward him. He opened his mouth to cry out but the scream stuck in his throat. And then it was too late as the darkness swallowed him whole.
The next morning, the regular car park cleaner would moan and groan about the perfectly good meal that had been thrown across the asphalt.
“A total disregard for those less fortunate,’ he would say. “A good meal gone to waste.”
5.
NEW ACQUIANTANCES
Must not beat the shit out of the student… was the mantra circling through Rose’s head as she tried to concentrate on the two students before her.
The class was almost over and she had put them
in pairs to practice a relatively simple technique of breaking an assailant’s hold on your wrists. She called it the twist and break technique since it involved twisting your arms and wrists in an anti-clockwise motion to force the assailant to lose their grip. It worked if done properly and quickly. The element of surprise was essential.
She sighed as another titter erupted behind her.
“That’s great, Daryn.” She encouraged. “Now swap places with Lisa so she can have a go.”
“No probs.” Daryn grinned, eager to please. That grin turned the stocky and slightly greying banker into a teenager. It was the eager to please look in his eyes that did it. Despite the fact that she was teaching a group of adults, it felt little different from coaching teenagers. It was as if shelling their business suits and donning tracksuits gave them the licence to regress to their adolescent years. And just like there was always one suck up in her teenage classes back home, and just as there was always one troublemaker, she had found that the same rules applied in this adult class. She felt like she was taking some strange fetish group in the guise of teaching self-defence.
They were more than eager to see her in the role of authority figure despite the age difference. And being an authority figure came with a price. On the one hand you had the teacher’s pets, and on the other the rebels. In this case the suck up stood before her and the troublemaker behind her, the cause of the sniggers.
Squaring her shoulders, she turned to face her lanky tormentor. At least forty years of age and with a carroty receding hairline, he still hadn’t grown into his ears. She had learnt the best way to deal with a problem such as this was to nip it in the bud. She was in charge and Carrot-top needed to accept and accede to her authority.
The small gaggle of men separated as she walked across the mats toward them. Carrot-top’s grin grew wider, his stance almost offensive as he anticipated the confrontation. Over six-feet tall, he towered over her easily. His body, however, was all limbs and joints, his face under his unusually bright orange hair, wide and smug. His eyes were mean and hard.
Rose felt her resolve strengthen. She could see the bully in his eyes, the thug he must have been. The guy needed a smack down and she was the one to deliver it. She stopped a few feet in front of him, her hands loose and unthreatening at her sides, putting him at ease.
“Derek isn’t it?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s my name don’t wear it out.” He bobbed his head, shooting sidelong glances at his comrades who hid their smiles behind their hands.
Rose valiantly resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the infantile greeting. God, they were taking this regression thing too far! Instead, she smiled her most innocuous smile.
“You seem to really be having fun. I heard you laughing. Is it a private party or can anyone join in?”
Derek snorted. “You can join in anytime you want, Rose.” He drew her name out, turning it into a crude caress.
Rose bit her lip to stop herself from laughing. He reminded her of the young boys who hung around outside the pubs and clubs at home, catcalling and making crude remarks. She wondered if he had wife and two-point-four children at home.
She leant forward slightly as if conferring. “So what’s the joke?”
There was a shift in the corner of her vision as his companion, a dark-haired man with a neatly trimmed goatee, cleared his throat. “Um…nothing really, Miss. I mean, Rose.” His voice shook slightly.
Derek shot him a venomous look and his other companion, a mousy weasel look-alike, snorted into his hand, which seemed to embolden Derek further.
Pulling himself to his full height, he looked down his nose at her. “We were just wondering how you maintain your balance with those puppies?” He shrugged. ”I mean, isn’t this class all about using your body as a weapon? What do you do, poke out your assailants eyes?” He smirked, looking to his posse for encouragement.
The dark-haired man, Simon, stepped back slightly as if trying to physically disassociate himself from the larger man, but Weasel Boy stood firm, his eyes shining with amusement.
Rose tapped her chin thoughtfully with her index finger. “I was just about to give a demo actually.” She fixed her eyes on his, her lips curving in a sadistic smile. “Thank you so much for volunteering.”
Two minutes later, a very disgruntled and embarrassed Derek limped off the practice mat.
“So that’s how we do it, everyone. I hope you were paying attention because we’ll be practicing that move next time, and, Derek?” She smiled her sweetest smile. “You’ve been so great. You get to be my demo partner from now on.”
“In other words punching bag.” It was Daryn’s turn to snigger.
Derek shot him a lethal look but made no further move.
The class ended and the group dispersed– Derek oddly quiet and the first to exit the room.
The gym, Heat, was relatively new. It had only been open a couple of months and the décor was still bright and fresh. The colour scheme was all vibrant reds and yellows and the effect was very modern with a strong minimal theme. The actual gym room, which housed all the equipment, faced a wall-to-wall window of tinted glass, allowing the people working out to look out but remain unobserved themselves. Two fifty-two-inch High Definition plasma screens were fixed to the walls, tuned permanently to one of the MTV channels that actually played music videos. Surround sound speakers blared out music to distract the sweating customers from the aches and pains of their bodies as they pushed themselves to the limit.
At half past one, when Rose returned from her half-hour lunch break, Heat was pretty empty. Peak time would be after six when people stopped by to work out after a long day stuck behind a desk.
The early morning defence class was an exception to her rota, scheduled as such for those customers who actually liked to kick arse before work. Right now, however, all she spied was a middle-aged, slightly overweight woman on the treadmill, and an O.A.P, who looked surprisingly fit for his age, on the rowing machine. She had checked her rota and was supposed to be meeting a new customer for orientation. By the looks of it, he or she was running late.
For a moment, Rose was captivated by Beyonce’s powerful voice instructing would be suitors that ‘if they liked it, they should have put a ring on it.’ The swish of the door opening behind her caught her attention, and turning to face the entrance she quickly masked a scowl as a larger than life Harold, dressed in a muscle top and cut offs, strode toward her. He did nothing to mask his frown of annoyance upon spotting her.
“I don’t need an orientation,” he almost growled by way of greeting. “I could find my way around a gym blindfolded.”
“Now that I’d like to see.” Rose snorted as he glowered at her. She could tell he was going to make this difficult, and she didn’t need difficult right now. She needed this job and the gym needed customers.
Swallowing the many retorts that sprang to mind, Rose took a deep breath and decided to appeal to his better nature, provided he had one. “Look, its company policy to conduct an orientation for any new customer. It’s an insurance thing, you know, so we can say we showed you how to use the equipment just in case you decide to drop a barbell on your foot or something.”
Harold remained unmoved. From the corner of her eye she spotted her boss enter the gym. He looked over in her direction, noting the obvious tension between them. He took a step in their direction. Oh, God, if Harold refused to cooperate she would look totally incompetent.
“Please, Harold,” she said urgently. “I really need this job and my boss is coming over.” She jerked her head, almost imperceptibly toward the entrance. Before she could gauge Harold’s reaction, Michael, her boss, was upon them.
A tall, athletic man in his mid-forties, his face shockingly youthful against his naturally grey hair, he smiled with practised politeness at Harold. “Everything all right?” He was addressing Harold but his eyes were on Rose.
She nodded confidently, hoping that Harold would confirm the same.
&nb
sp; There was a second of tense silence in which Michael’s smile began to waver.
Then…
“Fine, we’re fine. I was just saying to your…employee here, how much I liked the décor.”
Rose left out a sigh of relief, visibly relaxing. “She’s being really helpful.” Harold added.
“Great, that’s great.” Michael’s smile was back in full force, recognising a regular gym user in Harold and pleased that Rose was keeping him happy. “Well, I’ll leave you in Rose’s capable hands.” He nodded in Rose’s direction before making his way to the other side of the gym and into his office.
“Thanks.” Rose said gratefully
“Don’t thank me. Just remember you owe me one. He turned on his heel, making a beeline for the weights. “Let’s get this orientation over with.”
Yes, the guy was knob and he could have embarrassed her in front of her boss. But he’d passed up on the opportunity, so maybe there was a good side to Mr Muscle. And about owing him one? Well, once this orientation was over he could take a running jump! Roll on three o’clock and the end of her shift.
The afternoon was bright, but chilly as Rose made her way toward Faye’s shared accommodation. She was eager to fill Faye in about her first day at work.
Dressed warmly in black jeans, a dark long-sleeved polo neck and a red body warmer, her sneaker-clad feet slapped against the pavement as she hurried along with a backpack containing her gym clothes slung casually over her left shoulder.
She had showered quickly at the gym before leaving but hadn’t had time to dry her hair properly. It was pulled back in a hasty ponytail, and she was completely unaware how this accentuated her cheekbones and slanted blue eyes. There was a flush to her cheeks brought on by the crisp afternoon air that was usually absent. She was beautiful, yet Rose was unconcerned about her appearance and focused only on the day ahead.
The house Faye was sharing with three students was a mere two minute walk from Bethnal Green tube station. She found the house easily and climbed the steps to the door. Searching for a doorbell and not finding one, she knocked firmly on the thick frosted glass that made up the top half of the door. A couple of moments passed, and she was about to try again, when through the frosted glass she saw a figure approach. The figure was taller and bigger than Faye and she took an involuntary step back, not wanting to appear too pushy.