3 Heads & a Tail (13 page)

Has it
got
something to do with David walking around half-naked? Ben doesn
'
t do that. Ben always
wears clothes.
Is it the way
David is always flicking his hair –
Ben
doesn
'
t
.
Nope, i
t can
'
t be that. What else?
Maybe David looks better to
girls? Well, I might be biased,
but I think Ben looks
voofing
better. David talks more than Ben, that
'
s for sure. What about the way he talks and the way he smiles all the time?
He really thinks he
'
s the
dog
'
s bollocks. Maybe that
'
s it!
Maybe he has bigger bollocks.
Or maybe he just thinks he has bigger bollocks.

Ben is
m
y b
est mate. Best mates count for something. Ben deserves to win, but has he already lost? I
'
ll have to find out. Hope she went to her own roo
m. There
'
s me thinking she likes Ben,
yet he stands as much chance as me with that posh but beautiful golden Labrador in the park.
“
Voof.
”
I could dream
about
her all night. If only she was here with me now under this glowing full moon. I think
she
'
d find it
really doggy romantic, w
hereas David is just dodgy.
Josie is too nice to be with him.
I need a plan, but not now. I
'
m too tired to think a
nd Ben
'
s lap is really cosy. Time
for a
snooze.

“
Oh shit!
”
gasped
Josie, waking up to see
a b
ig guitar case and an ocean of
pants, socks, trousers, books,
crisp packets, beer cans,
albums – you
name it, it was decorating the floor. Where was she?
Why wasn
'
t she in her room?
Oh, her
head!
Thump, thump, thump!

The answer nudged her
. Ah
!
Oh my god!
Who
'
s that?
David! She was in David
'
s
room!
In his bed!
Looking at his piles of pants on
the floor! Nooo
! Oh my god, she
was in one of those movies where
you can
'
t remember what happened the night before and there
'
s some stranger lying next to you
,
grinning inanely.
Excep
t David was, thankfully,
still asle
ep and he wasn
'
t a stranger, t
hough right at this moment she wasn
'
t sure if that was
the lesser of two evils!

Got to
get out of here fast, she thought.
To her horror, she realised she was only wearing her
bra and
knickers... and one sock. Oh
,
no,
he
'
d seen her almost naked!
C
ould this get any worse
?
T
hen s
he remembered it was a work day! Oh
,
lord! What time was it?
The clock at his side of the bed said 1130.

Well that was it, she
'
d missed work. She
'
d have to ring in with some in
credible excuse.
She felt guilty that
her colleague,
Maisie
,
would
have to cover for her. Or perhaps
she could just pretend she
'
d been out covering a
story. Yes, yes, t
hat was
the solution – s
he
'
d do that. Just wash, scrape her hair back and go. Maybe pay another visit to the camel man who she saw the other day
to finish writing that feature about the nutrients in camel milk
.
Good plan. Things were coming together.
If only her head would stop thumping.

S
he wished her memory was c
oming togeth
er.
As cheesy and ridiculous
as it sounded, she wasn
'
t quite sure what had
occurred last night
.
Her head was fuzzy.
There wa
s no way she would have ended up in this position if
she
'
d been sober, but what if – surely
not?
H
er body didn
'
t
feel like anything had happened, o
r maybe he had been really crap and her body hadn
'
t noticed!
Maybe her brain had blanked out the experience? Stop joking
, she scolded herself
, this is serious. No,
she was sure nothing
happened. She wouldn
'
t have done anything
with David. She had kissed him, b
ut that was
one time
, and she wasn
'
t really interested. But then
why was she in his bed?

To recap, she went to
the pub with Kay, played pool and
came
back home. Then she had f
elt drunk all of a sudden, David
offered
her a beer, she wanted tea... and that was it. N
o memory after that.
Josie sighed.
Sliding softly
out of the bed
and on to the floor, she
quietly
gathere
d her clothes.
David
didn
'
t
stir
– such a h
eavy sleeper – or
snore
at all
.
She pulled on the cl
othes she was wearing
the day before
,
jus
t in case Ben was about.

Ben!
Oh
,
no
. What was he going to think?
He was going to think the obvious,
as anyo
ne would. S
he shuddered.
Don
'
t think abo
ut that now, she told herself, just get out of the room!
Gently,
Josie
pulled open the hatch
and stepped out
, closing it
quietly, before tiptoeing down to her room. There
, she felt safe – s
tupid, but safe.
Dialling
her work number
,
she
told Maisie
that
sh
e was on an assignment and would
be in shortly. Then she sprinted to the bathroom for the fastest shower in history.

Glen peered up at her with the strangest expression
just before she left the house
. He was sitting outside Ben
'
s room, the door of which was ajar. His master was at work, thankfully, but the Labrador gazed up, almost with a
'
what the hell were you thinking
?
'
l
ook on his face
.

“
Sorry,
”
she heard herself
mutter
, as she passed.

Glen
'
s
look was so penetrating and it made her feel
so guilty
that she didn
'
t know what else to say. He rested his head on his front paws and closed his eyes. All the way to work, she kept reminding herself that he was a dog.
He w
asn
'
t really thinking anything – nothing beyond sleep, dog food and walkies.
Imagining things had always been her forte!

“
W
hat happened?
”
asked Kay
, shocked
.

“
I
'
ve no idea,
”
said Josie, trying to support the mobile
phone between her ear and her neck, while she searched for her keys in
the bottom of her
bag.
Why did she carry around so much useless crap in there?

“
Where are you now?
”

“
I
'
m n
early home. I do
n
'
t know what to say to David – n
ever
been in this position before,
”
mumbled Josie, finding her keys, and grabbing the handset before it slipped away.

Kay giggled.
“
Maybe David will remember if you...
”

Josie was not finding it
at all
funny.
“
I
'
m pretty sure nothing happened,
”
she said firmly.
“
I was so drunk that I must have passed out.
But he saw me
in my underwear
and
I cringe
every time I think
about it. I woke up in just my
bra,
pants and one
sock!
”

“
Did you find the other one?
”

“
Yes, I have both socks, but that
'
s not the issue!
I
'
m not happy about
the whole thing
. I know I kissed him in the park, but it was just a
'
lost in the moment
'
type of thing.
It didn
'
t seem real and
I
really
didn
'
t
want to
do it again or
date him... or anything!
I guess I made a big mistake kissing him.
”

“
But he
'
s so fit. Are you sure? He seems to like you.
”

“
Yeah,
I
know
he looks like a model, and he was sweet that time when he took me to the cof
fee shop, but I don
'
t want to
get involved with
him. H
e
'
s too perfec
t... perfect looking that is. I
'
m not
sure if I really want to date
anyone
at all
. It always starts easy and becomes complicated. Dating is t
oo much hassle. It
'
s s
o much simpler being single.
”

Kay laughed.
“
Ok
ay
Miss No Hassle, maybe you just need
some great sex!
When
'
s the last time you had that?
”

Josie sighed.
“
D
epress me even more
by reminding me! There
'
s been no one si
nce Alvin
.
”

“
But,
you dated
Alvin
over a year ago.
I thought you
'
d got over him.
”

“
I have,
I did
,
ages ago, but I
'
m not ready. Look how stressed I am today
and I
'
m sure nothing happened! There
'
s more to life than sex you know!
Have you been overdosing on hormones or something?
”