Page 2 of The Fallback

‘Yeah, I mean, what was your plan?’

Rosie shook her head, not understanding him.

‘If I hadn’t offered you the room? What were you going to do?’ he asked, not unkindly.

‘Actually, I hoped you’d inevitably fall for my wit and charm so no risk there,’ she joked shyly. ‘But I guess if that had failed, I’d have gone back to my brother’s flat and begged to stay on his and his girlfriend’s sofa for a few more days till I found something else.’ Mitch laughed loudly at her reply and his cheek dimpled once more.

‘But Jasmine – that’s my brother’s girlfriend – doesn’t really approve of people staying on their sofa. She says sofas are for sitting on, not for sleeping on. I’ve been living at my mum’s this summer, but it’s too far to commute in each day so I…’ Rosie paused, she realised she was rambling.

‘Wait, hold on a minute,’ she continued. ‘You said what would I do if you hadn’t offered me your room? Does that mean…’ she said a little more tentatively. ‘Does that mean youareoffering me your spare room?’

Mitch shrugged his shoulders. ‘Sure, I mean that’s if you still want it after I’ve brought you to the grottiest pub in town.’ Rosie’s cheeks flushed again, this time with excitement and she looked around the pub, taking in the sticky carpet, the yellow flocked wallpaper and the two old boys propping up the bar. She grinned across the table at Mitch. ‘It’s not the worst place I’ve ever been in but, wow, I mean are you sure about the room? You don’t know me, we’ve only just met.’

Mitch nodded sagely in agreement. ‘True, but you don’t know me either and you seem OK with sharing a flat with me so I guess either we’re both insane or excellent judges of character. And anyway,’ he continued, ‘we’re going to be working in the same lab. Rachel says you’re a genius and I worry she’d fire me if she heard I hadn’t offered you my spare room.’

Rosie didn’t know whether to be more excited by the offer of a spare room or the praise from Professor Rachel Leas, the head of department at the university and the person who would be overseeing Rosie’s PhD. Rachel was one of the most eminent virologists in the country, so to be called a genius by her was both a source of pride and of terror. If Rosie wasn’t already worried about living up to expectations she was now.

‘You’ve met her, right?’ asked Mitch. ‘Rachel?’

‘Yes of course!’ exclaimed Rosie. ‘But only at my interview. What’s she like to work for?’ she asked, nervously twisting her fingers together.

‘Brilliant but terrifying, which reminds me.’ Mitch looked at his watch. ‘I need to be in the lab later today.’ He looked thoughtful for a moment and pushed his hair out of his eyes. Rosie had noticed that he seemed to do this quite often and she rather liked this tic of his. She tried not to stare as he did it. She was already borderline obsessed with his dimple and she didn’t need something else to stare at. ‘I was thinking we could take your stuff back to the flat now,’ he said, ‘but then I really need to go check on this experiment or Rachel might have me killed.’

‘You mean, go to the flat today?’ Rosie asked in surprise.

‘Yeah.’ Mitch paused. ‘I mean unless you wanted to annoy your brother’s girlfriend a bit more?’

Rosie thought for a moment; she was in London, a city where she knew no one except her brother Chris and his girlfriend Jasmine. Both of whom she loved but was fully aware she was overstaying her welcome with. And now she knew Mitch, who had brought her to (allegedly) the worst pub in London and who she’d met not ten minutes ago. But he seemed funny and kind and genuine. And he worked in the same lab as her, so the chances that he was a mass murderer were negligible. She took her chances.

‘I think I’ve annoyed them both enough.’ She bit her lip and looked Mitch straight in the eye. ‘How about I come to the lab with you and then we can both go back to the flat later?’

Mitch’s face lit up. ‘Brilliant! Great idea.’ He picked his beer up and raised it to Rosie. She picked hers up too.

‘To new flatmates?’ she asked.

‘To new friends,’ he smiled. They both took a drink. ‘Can I ask what your original plan was?’ Mitch asked, straightening up the beer mat and putting his beer back down.

‘My original plan?’ Rosie asked.

‘Yeah, I’m guessing you had an original plan which didn’t involve sleeping on your brother’s sofa or moving in with a man you’d never met before?’

Rosie looked down at the table, suddenly fascinated by the aged beer marks indelibly printed on the dark wood polish. She tried to ignore the pricking sensation behind her eyes. Mitch seemed lovely, perhaps dangerously lovely for a new flatmate.Park that thought for another time.But that didn’t mean she wanted to cry in front of him, at least not the first time they met. No one wanted to offer up their spare room to a heartbroken, crying mess.

‘Was it a guy?’ he probed. ‘Actually, you don’t have to tell me, that’s incredibly rude of me to ask.’ He waved his hands as if dismissing the question from the room.

‘Not really,’ Rosie shrugged her shoulders. ‘You’ve just offered me your spare room, I think you’re allowed to ask why I don’t have another choice.’ She took a deep breath and willed her eyes not to leak. ‘I was supposed to be moving in with my boyfriend, ex-boyfriend now. But then he moved to America instead, so I’m out of options. Apart from my brother’s sofa.’

‘Wow,’ Mitch exclaimed. ‘Instead of moving in with you, he moved to America? What does he know that I don’t?! I’m joking!’ he said quickly, scared of putting his foot in it again, but Rosie forgave him by smiling back at his joke.

‘Yeah, it was a pretty drastic get out of jail card to play,’ she agreed.

Mitch reached across the table and grabbed her hand. ‘Seriously though, whatever happened, I think he’s an idiot.’

Rosie looked up from his hand in surprise. ‘I’m going to say this again: you don’t know me!’

‘Professor Rachel thinks you’re a genius, you’ve forgiven me for taking you to the Worst Pub in London (trademarked)—’ he saluted in the general direction of the barman ‘—and you just seem like a really nice, funny person. So yeah,’ he shrugged, ‘I think he’s an idiot.’

‘Thanks,’ Rosie said, feeling a sense of relief and wellbeing course through her for the first time in days. ‘And thanks for offering me your room. I know it looks like I’m only interested because everything else went wrong.’ Rosie flapped her hand in the air between them indicating broken hearts, shattered dreams and homelessness. ‘And that I don’t have other options.’ Realising she could be dangerously close to talking Mitch out of his kind offer she quickly shut up.

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