Page 2 of The Missus
Alanna didn’t want to accidentally catch up with Benjamin on the street, so she took the elevator down to the parking garage, planning to sneak out the back way. As she strode through the dark concrete underbelly of the building, she noticed Keira parked up near the exit. She hadn’t left yet; she was just sitting in the car on her phone. Alanna tried to walk past her without making eye contact. So, of course, she accidentally locked eyes with her.
‘Hi, Alanna,’ Keira said, winding her window down.
Alanna pretended she hadn’t noticed her before. ‘Oh, hi!’
Keira glanced back out of her window. ‘Is she still around?’
Alanna feigned confusion. ‘Who?’
Keira gave her a half smile, popping out. ‘I think we both know who.’
Alanna chewed her lip. ‘Pollyanna?’
Keira winced, her olive-green eyes crinkling. ‘You heard the bit where I couldn’t remember her name? That’s embarrassing.’
Alanna couldn’t help but chuckle. ‘Yeah, I’m sorry. But your door faces my door and…’
‘Of course,’ Keira said easily. ‘It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have taken it out into the hall. I thought she was gonna be cool.’
Alanna would have loved to press for more details, but she and Keira didn’t know each other all that well. Alanna wasn’t one for getting up in her neighbours’ business. Basic politeness was her game. She drew the line at nods and hellos. Well, until today. This was the most she’d ever spoken to Keira.
Alanna had moved in a year ago with Benjamin, and Keira was already in situ in the building. From a distance, Keira seemed cool, if not a bit of a philanderer. But if you looked like Keira, casual sex was probably very easy to come by. She had shoulder-length no-nonsense dark blond hair and was always in casual wear: jeans, T-shirts, trainers, nothing that might draw your eye—unless you looked at her face. Because there, you’d find a set of world-class dimples. Alanna thought that for all that was appealing about Keira’s face, it was the dimples that probably did a lot of the work of tipping her face from attractive to sexy. They managed to suggest that its owner knew her way around the block and might be inclined to guide interested parties on that route if they had the ovaries to think they could keep up.
‘Well, I’d better…’ Alanna nodded at her car.
‘Right. I’ll see you around.’ Keira opened her car door and got out.
‘Aren’t you going somewhere?’ Alanna asked, confused.
‘No, I’m actually working from home. I was just trying to get… Wait,whatwas her name again?’
‘Pollyanna,’ Alanna reminded her.
‘You’d think it would stick, but…’ Keira shrugged, laughing. She walked into the waiting elevator. The doors shut on her, still smiling to herself.
Alanna shook her head and grinned in spite of herself, as she headed out of the building. That Keira was something else.
Two
Keira Evans wondered, not for the first time, if all the drama was worth it. Things had gotten way too tricky today. It didn’t have to be that way. Itshouldn’tbe that way. She gave every woman she was planning to sleep with the full terms and conditions. Why did some of them insist it shouldn’t apply to them? If Keira took out a credit card and signed the contract, did she have the right to make a purchase and then say she didn’t agree with the interest rate? Of course she didn’t! The credit card company would drown her in CCJs, destroy her credit rating, and that would be the end of the discussion.
But it didn’t work that way with sex. Keira genuinely didn’t understand. Why couldn’t women accept that Kiera wasn’t the kind to fall in love? Why did so many thinktheywere going to be the exception that proved the rule? Like What’s-her-face. Keira had it on her profile that she was casual. She said at the beginning of the evening that she never had girlfriends. She asked her right before… well, rightbefore,if they were on the same page about not making this into more than one night. Keira felt that was the only fair way to treat her, to let her know what she was getting into. A bed and nothing more. Every question, every warning, What’s-her-face nodded along and agreed.
Until this morning, when she’d asked for Keira’s number.
‘What do you need it for?’ Keira had asked with that sinking feeling. ‘In case of STI updates or something?’
‘Well,’ she replied shyly. ‘We… I mean, it was special, wasn’t it? I thought you might want to see me again.’
Keira fought the urge to groan. ‘It was nice. But I told you I don’t—’
‘I know, I know, I know. You said you don’tusuallyhave relationships.’
Keira was pissed about the rewrite of her own words. ‘I didn’t say usually. I said never.’
‘Oh. Are you sure? I could have sworn you said usually,’ the girl responded, frowning.
‘You know what? I need to get to work,’ she lied. She didn’t want to do this, and she didn’t see why she should have to. She just wanted the girl to go now. If Keira was leaving, it couldn’t go on. Take the hint, thingy.
