3 Heads & a Tail (18 page)

He cocked his head the other way.

“
S
till mad at me
, yeah
?
”
she asked.

He licked his lips and stuck his paw out, staring up with his big, brown eyes.

She smiled.
“
I
see – we
'
re friends again!
”
She shook his paw lightly and he stood up, wagging his tail ferociously
.
“
You don
'
t stay mad long do you
?!
”
She patted his head and stroked his ears. They were
so
soft and silky. She wished her hair felt like that.
“
It
'
s like you just stepped out of a salon!
”

Glen wagged
his tail and
followed her into the kitchen
. He sat down and watched
as she made
a mug of coffee.
He noticed how
Josie didn
'
t put any
sugar
in
. Ben always had
just
one
spoonful and David
seemed to ju
st chuck it in.
Josie stirred
the
coffee, picked up the newspaper
and her bag from the table
, and walked upsta
irs
. Glen
hopped up behind her.

She had just opened her bedroom door when the hatch to the wo
rld of passion above
creaked
open
and a head stuck out.
“
Hi
,
babe!
”

Ouc
h. She hated being called babe,
as if
they were in some kind of cheesy movie where all the girls wore shorts and heels, tiny tops, smiled a lot and staggered around like bimbos, and
all of the guys
acted tough with all the clever lines, but probably
had no brain cells and
stank like hyenas.

“
Hi,
David,
”
replied Josie, glan
cing up.
“
I need to talk to you,
but first I
'
ve really got to put this coffee down.
It
'
s hot.
”

Glen bolted
into Ben
'
s room.

Josie put her things
in her room and
was about
to take off her purple hoodie when she
had second thoughts – added
protection. It felt safe! She
took a deep breath
, smoothed down her hair in the mirror and scurried back outside.

David had a big smile on his face and she felt flustered. No wonder he was smiling – he
'
s seen you
in your pants
, she reminded herself. Shut right up, she told herself back. I
'
m just going to blank out th
at thought. She walked
up the steps to the hatch.

“
I almost didn
'
t recognise you with your clothes on!
”
said David.

Shit
, thought Josie.
Not a great start.
She frowned.

David bit his tongue
.
“
Sorry.
”

“
That
'
s what I need to talk to you about,
”
said Josie.
“
I just moved in and this is really embarrassing. I didn
'
t plan anything to happen, didn
'
t want anything to happen... it
'
s so complicated now...
and nothing did happen!
”

“
Oh,
”
said
David, sitting down on his bed
.

“
I don
'
t want to create a problem, but...
”

“
Y
ou
don
'
t want anything to happen again,
”
finished Davi
d
, his pride taking a hit
.

“
Yes,
”
said Josie, relieved.
“
I wasn
'
t sure how I was going to say it.
”

“
You did say it, p
retty bluntly.
”

Josie sighed.
“
Yeah
,
I
'
m sorry
.
I was
very
drunk
the other night
and I don
'
t make a habit of ending up in the bed of someone I
'
ve just met.
That
'
s not me.
”

“
Y
ou seemed cool with the idea at the time
.
Okay
,
sorry,
I can see by your face that was the wrong thi
ng to say. Alright,
I guess if we
are living in the same house it
would
be wrong to start anything up,
”
he said, flicking his hair.

“
I
'
m glad you agree.
”

“
No problem,
”
said David with a half smile.

“
If it
'
s any consolatio
n, my
mate
Kay
is
very
interested.
”

“
I meet girls like Kay every day of
the week,
”
said David, his irritation rising
.

Josie decided to i
gnore the insult to her friend
.
“
Right, well I
'
ll go now
, but I hope everything will be normal and
not embarrassing.
I don
'
t want to have to move again.
”

“
Like I
said, no problem.
I wasn
'
t look
ing for anything serious anyway
and you seem too serious...
”

She flinched.
“
There was one othe
r thing.
”

“
What?
”

“
Well, this is kind of awkward.
”

He raised a quizzical eyebrow.
“
Yes?
”

She fiddled with her hands.
“
Well
, did we... erm
... did anything happen
the other
night
?
”

David laughed and scratched his head.
“
You don
'
t remember?
”

“
Well...
”

“
Ha! That
'
s funny!
”
David
carried on laughing
for a moment.
“
Well, the view for me was pretty nice...
”

She went red.

“
B
ut, no, I can assure you that nothing h
appened,
”
he said.
“
I offered you a beer, but you wanted tea. I made you one. Then I couldn
'
t find you, so I checked your room. You weren
'
t there. So I came up here and you were passed out on my bed.
I was a bit gutted, but I took it like a man and went to sleep!
”

“
I woke up with not many clothes on...
”

“
You took them off yourself, somehow... and then passed out. And you were snoring really loudly. It took me forever to get to sleep.
”

“
Oh
,
”
said Josie.

“
Hope that makes
you feel better, b
ut i
t wouldn
'
t have been that bad
if something had happened
, surely?
”

“
Well, no,
”
mumbled Josie,
“
b
ut complicated. This
means
it isn
'
t
complicated. Except that you saw me
half-naked.
I
'
m a bit embarrassed about that
bit
.
”

“
You shouldn
'
t be,
”
s
aid David, his eyes sparkling.
“
You
'
ve got a great body
,
Josi
e, and I
'
ve seen a lot
in my time!
”

Josie was stunned. She
went even redder, started sweating, mumbled a thank you
,
and stumbled out of the room. Luckily, she
did
n
'
t fall through the hatch
.

Sitting outside her room was Glen
.
H
e had
waited
patiently
, almost
as if he knew she
'
d need comforting. She gave him a hug
and opened the door for him
. Well, that conversation didn
'
t go too badly, she thought.
W
ho
was she kidding? That was so
embarrassin
g!
She picked up the still-warm mug of coffee and hugged it to herself.

Later that day, the doorbell rang and
Josie
jumped up
to get it, but Ben was there first. Ben!
She
hoped
his
view of her hadn
'
t
diminished
.
Peering
down
the stairs she saw a smiling woman enter
the hou
se, wearing a black skirt and shirt, small black boots and carrying a small
green
bag
. Her
brown hair was cut short
.

“
Hi,
Anne, come
in
,
”
welcomed
Ben.
They went into the kitchen.

Josie
crept
back to her room to continue reading her book. After a while she heard
footsteps come upstairs.
H
er mind
wandered
to what food was
in the fridge
and suddenly she was hungry
. What could she make to eat? The very thing: a veggie
Shepherd
'
s P
ie
that she could
just bung
in
the oven.
What could be simpler?
No longer able to concentrate on her book, Josie got up and headed downstairs. She
bounded into the kitchen and stopped
short
. Ben turned around and she noticed that his face visibly fell.

“
Oh, h
i
,
Jos
ie,
”
he said, flatly
.
“
I was just making a drink
.
I
'
ll be out of your way in a mo.
”

“
T
here
'
s no rush. How are you?
”