Page 72 of Short Stack 3

“No, I haven’t got mixed up. The paper is a message for you. Stan wants you to read it.”

“Does he really?” I look down at it, now intrigued. “I wonder if he’s got a hotel room for the night to surprise me. I hope he’s naked. Once, he waited naked for me with sushi on his body. It was very erotic eating it off him, but I have to say I haven’t been able to so much as touch raw fish since then.”

“I would like to expunge this conversation from my brain. Read it.”

“God, you are so bossy. You should tone that down a bit if you expect to keep a husband. Ouch!” I pull my arm away from where he just pinched it. “Okay, I’m reading it. Turn around.”

“I beg your pardon.”

I roll my eyes. “I have to feel along the braille. I can’t do that holding it in the air, so I need to rest the paper on your back. I do wish you’d think things through clearly.”

“I wish I hadn’t got up this morning. I wish I was on Mars where Stan couldn’t reach me,” he says conversationally but turns around so I can use him as a prop. “How long have you been able to read braille?”

I huff as I run my fingers over the bumps on the paper. “It’s a bit of a work in progress, to be honest. I took a night class, but I’m not terribly good at it.”

“Doesn’t Stan help you practise?”

“We tend to practise naked, so I don’t always have the best concentration on homework.” I frown. “It says, ‘Beat me at the park’. What the hell does that mean? Are we playing competitive sports, or is Stan taking an interest in spanking?”

Leo gives a long sigh and straightens up. I fumble to hold the paper as he reaches into his pocket and produces another envelope. “Stan knows you very well.”

I tear open the envelope and find a sheet of paper with a typed message on it.

I knew you wouldn’t be able to read it. Meet me at the start of us.

I look up, frowning. “This is a bit too cryptic for a Saturday afternoon after I’ve just spent all day talking about the weather and whose hat is the nicest. What’s the start of us?”

He looks amused. “Stan said you’d say that too. He wants you to meet him where the two of you began.”

I begin to smile as realisation dawns. “Well, that’s at his family home, isn’t it?”

“Praise all the saints and the tiny baby Jesus too. Yes, that’s right.” He pats my cheek, and his face is suddenly filled with affection. “Love you, babe.”

“Love you too.”

I watch him walk off and then shake myself. “Do I have time to go home and get changed?” I shout after him.

“Nope,” he says without turning around. “Stan needs you to move quickly on this.”

“Great. I’m in for a lot of rather ridiculous comments walking through London like this.” I look around for a cab and blink as one pulls smoothly up next to me. I lean down. “Are you free, mate?” Then I grin. “Nigel.”

The cabbie smiles back at me. “Taxi for Raff.”

I climb into the back. “Well, this is a nice surprise. Did someone book you for me?”

He winks at me in the mirror. “Stan hired me for the afternoon.”

“That man thinks of everything. Well, I need to head to Stan’s parents’ house.” I rattle off the postcode, and he pulls away.

I settle back in the seat. “Do you know what’s happening, Nigel?”

He takes a right, raising a middle finger at someone in a car nearby who objects to the move. “I do, but I’m sworn to secrecy, Raff.”

“Well, it’s bound to be great if it’s Stan.”

“It is.” I think his gaze softens as he looks at me in the mirror, but then he turns away to abuse another motorist, and I sit back for the ride.

Half an hour later, we pull up outside Stan’s childhood home, and I pat Nigel on the shoulder. “Do you know what I’m supposed to do now?”

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