Page 16 of Ordinary Girl

“Ana?”

I turn around to see Sofia coming out from the back of the clubhouse, closely followed by Skip. She knows this kid?

“Ana! What are you doing in here? I told you to stay in the car.”

Ana.

Sofia’s kid?

“This is Ana?” Skip asks, as Sofia makes a beeline toward the girl.

“Yes, this is Ana.”

Sofia takes a deep breath, it’s quite obvious she didn’t want her daughter anywhere near us. This place. Can’t say I blame her, but I like the fact the kid has a mind of her own.

“And we should be going. Come on, Ana.”

I watch as Ana and Kasper exchange a look: as she slips him what looks like a scrap of paper – her number, maybe? – before she follows her mother out of the clubhouse. I head over to Skip.

“Everything okay, boss?”

“Everything’s fine. Come on, we’ve got work to do.”

We head outside, across the compound to the row of bikes parked out front of the workshop.

“She really didn’t want her kid anywhere near us, huh?”

Skip follows my gaze. Sofia’s still talking to her daughter, and from her body language it’s obvious she isn’t happy.

“Yeah, well, would you want a daughter of yours mixing with bastards like us?” Skip smirks as he pulls on his helmet and kicks his bike into action.

I climb onto mine, grabbing the handles as I take another glance over at the fraught mother/daughter exchange still going on by the roadside. I watch as Sofia strides around the car and climbs into the driver’s seat: watch as Ana looks over, catches my eye, and this time – this time she allows the glance to linger, throwing me a smile before she finally gets into the car.

She could be trouble.

Nothing nobody here can’t handle.

Sofia

“Jesus, Ana, what did I tell you?”

“I was curious, that’s all. And they seem fine to me.”

“Do you have any idea how naïve that sounds? And you aren’t stupid, you know those men in there aren’t people you want to be mixing with. You stay away from them. I’m serious, Ana. You don’t go near that place again.”

I don’t want this to ruin my day with my daughter, and I don’t want to let myself become distracted by what happened in there. When Skip touches me he changes me, and I let him do that because I like it. What the hell am I playing at? I’m telling Ana to stay away, to never get involved with any of those men and yet, I’m sleeping with one of them. I’ve been sleeping with Skip for weeks now, seeking some kind of messed-up escape because he makes me feel alive. But I think I need to end it. I need to take a step back, for Ana’s sake. Seeing her in there, amongst those men, it’s shaken me. I don’t want her anywhere near them, or that place, that scares the hell out of me.Icanhandle it; handle them. I’m not sure she could. And I know she isn’t a child, she’s a sensible young woman, most of the time. Until it comes to men, that’s when she weakens. When common sense can fly out of the window. Like mother, like daughter…?

“I’m sorry, okay?”

Ana’s voice shakes me from those thoughts, and I smile at her. It’s alright. I’ll sort this. Everything’s going to be fine. “Has your curiosity been satisfied now?”

She throws me a small smile back. “I don’t know what I was expecting. It was a bit like a seedy, run-down dive bar, to be honest.”

She’s got that right. The clubhouse smells of stale beer, cigarette smoke and bad cologne: it’s dark and loud and it carries the kind of atmosphere I really don’t want my daughter to be a part of.

“Stick with your regular haunts in Vesterbro, kiddo. Much nicer. Much safer.”

“I’m not a child, Mama. I can make my own decisions.”

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