Spare Key

‘… just think of it as warm… as warm tea. Warm tea!’ She banged her hand on the table for emphasis, making the congregated glasses rattle and garnering a few odd looks from the couple of old guys seated at the bar. ‘And on the first date no less!’

Rachel shook her head again as the group broke into shrieking laughter. She looked across at Mitch and smiled when she saw him blushing furiously at the crude tale. Talk about a trial by fire, she thought. Although to the man’s credit, despite being clearly uncomfortable, he was trying to make a good show of it; smiling along. Something in his manner told her that this little get together had been sprung on him as well. Fucking manipulative bitches, Rachel thought, but it was without malice.

He seemed nice enough, although she hadn’t had much of a chance to talk to him yet. He’d had a warm smile when they’d been introduced and although his looks weren’t up to Ana’s hype, he was still very pleasant to the eye. Already he was shaping up to be far better than any of the previous guys her friends had tried to set her up with. The odds were definitely in his favour for a good time that evening.

‘So did you do it?’ Sarah asked, the breathy tone she affected ruined by the giggle at its end.

‘I certainly did…’ Lena sipped at her drink as a shocked gasp spread across the table. ‘… not. What do you take me for?’

The group broke into laughter again as Rachel scanned the relative levels of the glasses and decided another round was in order. Was it her shout? She’d already lost track. Might as well get one in, she thought as her eye drifted to the bar. Although the Duke was rarely busy these days – the fact that it remained open was one of the more inexplicable things in the world to Rachel – the bar staff had an amazing ability to absent themselves when it came time to order drinks.

It was a pretty dodgy pub but that’s why Rachel and her friends preferred it. It rarely got busy, especially since the kitchen was closed down for health reasons, and the few regulars were older guys who, although they certainly didn’t mind a look, had neither the inclination nor urge to hassle them. It made a refreshing change from the more popular places that were, as a rule, packed with alcohol-fuelled would-be Romeos. Last time they’d been at Bridie’s, Rachel had ended up storming out in a huff after the fifth pass was made at her.

When she spotted the man staring at her from the bar, she automatically scanned over him, assuming it was one of the regulars copping an eyeful. Her eyes found that the staff member was present and waiting and it wasn’t until she’d turned back to the group for orders that her mind processed who was perched on the barstool.

Her neighbour, Ben.

Staring at her again.

Her eyes darted back and locked with his.

Ever so slowly, a grin crept across his face as he waved. He didn’t even blink.

Rachel waved back automatically even though alarm bells were ringing.

What the hell was he doing here? Had he followed her?

Don’t be ridiculous. Why would he have followed you?

Was it a coincidence? How long had he been there? How long had he been staring?

A hand fell on her shoulder and Rachel almost screamed aloud.

‘Whoah, easy there tiger.’ Sarah grinned at her. ‘Who’s he?’ She nodded toward Ben at the bar as the group cracked up at the denouement of Lena’s story. ‘You been keeping secrets from us?’

Rachel looked back across at Ben. He was still staring at her intently.

‘It’s my neighbour,’ she whispered out of the side of her mouth, ‘he just moved in next door.’

‘Where the lady was murdered?!’ Sarah rendered Rachel’s whisper redundant with the volume of her reply. It would have been clearly audible from where he was perched at the bar. ‘What happened to Mr. Freaky? I was looking forward to the latest listing of his transgressions.’

‘He went away.’ Rachel forced her eyes away from Ben but when she turned to Sarah, she found her friend staring intently at him anyway.

‘Intense, isn’t he?’ she laughed, ‘He seems quite taken with you. Can’t take his eyes off of you.’

No, he can’t, Rachel thought and was relieved when Ana pushed back her chair, bellowing in what she could only interpret as an attempt at a pirate’s voice. ‘Argh, it be my round.’ Suddenly she really didn’t want to go anywhere near the bar.

‘He’s pretty cute. You should invite him over.’

‘No,’ Rachel hissed but Sarah was already waving at him. ‘What are you doing?’ Rachel tried to grab her arm but Sarah just laughed and batted her away. Rachel felt like she could have just slapped her.

She peeked up and breathed a sigh of relief as it looked like Ben hadn’t reacted to Sarah’s summons at all. She looked away, over at Mitch who had Bec rabbiting in his ear. He was nodding occasionally but looking from her to Ben. There was a flicker of something in his face – was it jealousy; oh, get over yourself – and Rachel’s heart fell as she looked back and saw Ben unfold himself from the bar stool. He retrieved his glass from the bar and moved slowly toward them.

Oh fucking great, Rachel thought a little bitterly as Sarah gave a mock, excited yelp.

‘Oooh, here he comes.’

* * * * *

Rachel was doing her best not to let his presence at the table spoil her evening but as she listened to Mitch explain about his job at the local TAFE – as it turned out he wasn’t really an old friend of Ana’s but rather a colleague who had only started working there a month ago – inside she was fuming.

Fucking hell, she’d come out tonight to get away from all this shit and then he had to go and fucking turn up… And then that fucking bitch Sarah.

Her motives for calling him over had become abundantly clear now. Rachel knew she was probably being rude not talking to him after a brief introduction to the group but she supposed it didn’t really matter anyway. Not when he had Sarah fawning over him, chattering away.

And every time she glanced at him it was there again. That flicker of movement as though he’d just swivelled his head away at the last second. Rachel just couldn’t relax with him there and she knew she was churning through her drinks too fast; that she would be absolutely shit-faced in the near future if she didn’t slow down, but it was the only thing keeping her irritation at bay.

At least Mitch was turning out good. Although Rachel was fairly certain he had close to the most boring job on the planet, he was nice: softly spoken, self-effacing, one of those guys who just struck you as inherently good.

Why don’t you marry him, she thought sarcastically, you barely know him, he could murder people in his spare time for all you know. It was hard not to see him in a pristine light though, when compared to the fucker staring at her from the other side of the table. Rachel had already decided she was going to sleep with the man. Now it was just a matter of letting things take their course.

But there were still those eyes boring into her. Rachel fought the urge to grind her teeth and instead smiled at Mitch who had apparently wrapped up his usual day at work even if Rachel had missed the end bit.

‘So, have you been up to anything exciting today?’ he asked, smiling that self-effacing grin. The one that told Rachel he was well and truly aware of how dull his job was. She couldn’t help liking him for that.

‘Well…’ she began, readying her usual stock answers: nothing really exciting, the usual, work and stuff, but stopped as a new thought occurred to her. ‘Well now that you mention it, I don’t know if it’s exciting but, well something definitely different happened today.’

She looked across at Ben to make certain he was watching. She wanted to see what his reaction would be.

‘I had a peeping tom.’ She said it at the just the right volume to cut through the hubbub of conversation from Ana who had embarked on some sort of stream of consciousness rant.

It worked perfectly. Ana’s jaw clicked shut and the group turned toward her in near perfect unison. Even Sarah momentarily halted the moon eyes she was making at Ben.

‘Okay, now that sounds far more interesting,’ Ana crowed, grinning, ‘Do tell.’