Page 29 of Beyond Repair
‘Sorry,’ she’d muttered before breaking down in a fresh bout of tears. Sam had turned onto his back and simply held her to his chest, shushing her gently and stroking her hair. And when her sobbing had finally subsided, that was how she fell asleep.
‘Yes,’ Sam replied simply, and she noticed that his jaw was clenched tight. She kissed his cheek where she could see a muscle ticking, then ran a hand over his eyebrow and down the other side of his face, putting pressure on it to turn it towards hers. He relented after a moment’s hesitation, and Katie flinched at the blank look in his eyes. The heat and passion from last night had been swept away. She felt like she’d woken up with a stranger.
‘How long have you been awake?’ she asked, searching his face.
‘I don’t sleep much,’ he replied before turning away and slipping out from under her on the bed. Without another word he walked to his en suite shower room and closed the door. Katie lay back into the pillows feeling her gut clench and allowing a couple of tears to escape, before furiously scrubbing them away and springing out of the bed. It was obvious now that in the light of day Sam was in no mood to cuddle or even stay in the same room as her.
She shook her head. What had she expected? Just because they had a grief-stricken (at least for her anyway) snog and spent the night holding each other, didn’t mean he had to suddenly not think she was ridiculous and actually start liking her.
Jumping out of bed at lightning speed, still fully dressed in yesterday’s clothes, she looked around the small room and frowned. Everything was white. White walls, white bedding, white bedside table. No hint of colour anywhere. Nothing on the walls, no other furniture. Absolutely no personality. There were even cardboard boxes stacked in a neat pile against the wall, as if he had never fully unpacked. It was spooky. Who had no personal stuff strewn around? No photos, nothing. She almost smiled as she realized how opposite and unsuited they actually were. Just as she started searching for her bag, she heard a muffled shriek from the living room and jumped about a foot in the air.
The shower was running and she would rather have stuck pins in her eyes than go in and interrupt Sam, so she squared her shoulders and decided to check out the shrieker on her own. As far as she knew, Sam was not friends with any men who would emit a high-pitch squeak. Even under torture she reckoned the most anyone would get out them was a grunt (that was if they were having an off day). So the only other option was a woman, and the only women Katie had ever seen him with, other than Sarah, were those he was shagging. Bugger. She took a deep breath, looked between the bathroom door and the door to the rest of the flat, and made her decision.
‘There’s a dead cat in the kitchen,’ a shaky voice told Katie as she pushed open the door and took in the beautiful, tall girl across the room. Her hair was full of purple streaks, which threw Katie for a moment, and she looked impossibly young. Katie wasn’t aware that Sam’s tastes were so eclectic.
‘Um … hi,’ said Katie, closing the door behind her and coming into the room. That colourless vibe hit her again – emphasizing the other girl’s purple hair and making it seem even more extreme. She indicated the bundle on the floor in the kitchen area. ‘That’s my cat.’ The other girl’s eyes filled with pity, and she strode across the room to Katie, grabbing both her hands.
‘I’m so sorry,’ she said earnestly. ‘But your cat is … your cat is not …’
Katie smiled a small, reassuring smile and squeezed both of this bizarre girl’s hands. ‘I know,’ she said softly. ‘We found him late last night and the vet wasn’t open so we just … tucked him up here.’ She swallowed. ‘I need to sort things out today … get him cremated and say goodbye properly.’
‘Oh, thank God,’ breathed the girl. ‘I mean, not thank God your cat’s dead,’ she rushed on, ‘thank God you knew he’s … gone. And good call on the cremation thing. Have youseenPet Cemetery?’
Katie shuddered. ‘Oh yes, no resurrection for him.’
‘I’m so sorry for your loss.’
‘He had a good life,’ Katie told her, becoming slightly alarmed that the other girl’s eyes were filling up. ‘He was eighteen. Can you believe that?’
‘No … I mean yes,’ Purple Haired Girl said, shaking then nodding her head. ‘My cat lived till he was twenty-three, that’s older than me.’ Katie sucked in a shocked breath. Sam, it appeared, liked his women young.
‘What’s his name?’ the girl asked.
‘Lady Mufflington le Foof,’ she said, and the girl snorted in surprise, before collapsing into Katie in fits of helpless giggles. Katie wasn’t quite sure what she felt about finding herself in the embrace of one of Sam’s ex (or maybe even current; who knew?) lovers. But Katie was a born hugger and there were simply no circumstances dire enough to stop her from responding to one. Maybe this girl was used to a revolving door to Sam’s bedroom? The thought made Katie feel slightly sick.
‘Well, what was yours called?’ Katie asked as an excuse to extricate herself from the other girl’s arms. Purple-Haired Girl made a face.
‘Cat,’ she said with disgust.
‘Um … well that’s … to the point.’
Purple-Haired Girl rolled her eyes. ‘My brother named him,’ she said, as if that explained everything. ‘He’s not known for his imagination and I wasn’t alive at the time to express an opinion. Who are you?’
Katie thought that should have been her line, seeing as she wasn’t the one to break into Sam’s flat at some ungodly hour of the morning. ‘I’m Katie.’ She watched in fascination as Purple-Haired Girl’s face lit with enthusiasm.
‘Katie?TheKatie? I’ve heard so mu –’
‘Eva?’ Both women’s heads whipped around to the bedroom door, which was filled with Sam’s bulky frame.
‘Sammy!’ Purple-Haired girl, a.k.a. Eva, shrieked before releasing Katie’s hands and dashing across the room to Sam. Katie stared as Eva flung herself at him, closing her arms around his middle and hugging him so fiercely that he almost went back on one foot with the force of the impact. Sam rolled his eyes but he couldn’t quite hide his small smile as he squeezed her back briefly before setting her away.
‘Why don’t you answer my calls?’ Eva asked, punching him in the arm with a fair bit of force. The casual, easy affection between them was so at odds with the atmosphere Katie had encountered when she woke up with him that her stomach sank, and she suddenly had an overwhelming urge to leave.
She cleared her throat and both their heads shot round to face her.
‘Look,’ she said, avoiding direct eye contact with either of them whilst she walked across to where Lady was lying and bent down. ‘I’ll just be getting out of your hair so you can …’ She looked down at Lady and hesitated, before taking a deep breath and carefully lifting the bundle into her arms. ‘… catch up and, um … stuff.’ She stood with Lady clutched to her chest and felt stupid, stupid tears pricking her eyes again. Sam and Eva were all blurry now as she tried to focus on them as best she could. ‘Don’t worry about your coat,’ she said, her voice hoarse. ‘Ffion at the drycleaners can get anything out even … even b-b-blood,’ she finished in a whisper, feeling one of her tears escape.
She moved to the door dodging another neat stack of cardboard boxes, but as she reached for the handle a large hand closed over hers and Lady was carefully lifted out of her arms. Tears were streaming down her face now, and she shook her head, wanting only to escape. As if Sam and his inappropriate, practically teenage lover wanted to deal with her and her dead cat whilst they were probably holding themselves back from their wild, monkey sex.
