Page 17 of The Missus
‘Phew,’ Alanna said, wiping imaginary sweat from her brow jokily. But she was genuinely relieved. ‘I can do better,’ she promised seriously.
‘I know, I’ve seen it,’ Keira said kindly. ‘Relax. We’ll talk about it later.’ She handed a set of keys through the window. ‘Remind me to get more cut.’ She peeled off.
Alanna headed up to the flat and let herself in. She slumped down on the sofa and put Keira’s TV on. It was seventy inches. Keira was very well set up. She had to be making a pretty good living writing mystery novels. Alanna still couldn’t get over that little revelation.
She got out her phone and googled Keira. Nothing came up, not even social media. She probably wrote under a pen name. Alanna glanced at the bookshelves in the corner, expecting to see a clump of books that would give the game away. One wasn’t enough to live off comfortably; Alanna knew that much about publishing. But it wasn’t there. Where the hell did she keep her books?
Since Alanna wasn’t about to go snooping around the flat, she decided to make herself a coffee with Keira’s shiny chrome machine. It took ten minutes and three YouTube videos before she felt educated enough to even start it up.
She was just pouring beans into the machine when the doorbell went. Alanna opened it to find a young woman with a package and a rather large grin. Her smile dropped when she saw Alanna. ‘Package for Keira,’ she said sadly.
‘Are you OK?’ Alanna asked her.
‘Mmm-hmm. You Keira’s girlfriend?’ she asked.
‘No,’ she said automatically. She was about to say she was just a flatmate when she saw the palpable relief on the young woman’s face. It didn’t take long to figure out what the situation was. Jesus Christ, was no one safe from Keira’s rampant sexual drive? Not even Amazon? The situation being what it was, Alanna thought she’d better amend her answer. ‘I’m her life partner.’ It was a bit over the top, but it got the point across.
The woman looked ready to cry. ‘Really?’
‘That’s right,’ Alanna sighed. She felt sorry for the kid.
The delivery woman stuffed the box into Alanna’s hands and ran off down the hall, definitely crying now. Alanna watched the girl peg it, running right past Benjamin, coming the other way, heading for his door. ‘Alanna!’ he exclaimed when he saw her at the door.
‘Hi,’ Alanna said coldly to Benjamin.
‘What are you doing in there?’ Benjamin asked, looking baffled.
‘I live here, Benjamin.’
‘What? WithKeira? What?’ Benjamin asked, utterly discombobulated.
‘That’s right. Well, bye.’ She slammed the door on his shocked mug. It felt pretty good to see him confused. And now he was going to go into their flat—hisflat—and try to figure out what the hell was going on. She wished him happy bewilderment. She’d spent all her sleepless hours last night picturing him as he’d been the last time she’d seen him. Smug and satisfied. It hadn’t helped her insomnia to think of him like that. Winning. But she had a new picture now.
She went to her room and plopped down on the short, dreadful sofa in the study where she took a substantial and nourishing nap.
Ten
Keira was googling ways to murder people and get away with it. There were certainly some interesting options. The characters in her book were about to have a time of it.
She spent a lot of time thinking about murder, but it was (sadly?) not information she could utilise in real life. She was an unlikely murderer, as she was much too chill. She hoped her chill would continue to hold her in good stead through the changes that she had implemented in her life recently. So far, it wasn’t too bad living with Alanna. She wasn’t home that much. She was either working or at the library. When shewasat home, she mostly stayed in her room, now a fully functional bedroom. It was crazy how little they saw of each other.
Keira’s only concern—if it could be called that—was Alanna’s job. She was a head shrinker, and Keira didn’t want her head shrunk. Ever. She didn’t want to be analysed, examined, or diagnosed. There was nothing to suggest Alanna wanted to bring her work home. Yet Keira couldn’t quite seem to shake the worry.
After Keira had spent two whole hours reading about poisons cultivatable from the average garden, she was kind of murdered out. She decided to kick back and watch some TV for a while. The second she switched the TV on, there was a knock. She sighed and got up.
Benjamin was at the door. ‘Oh. Hi,’ she said awkwardly.
‘Hi. Is, err, Alanna in?’ Benjamin said, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at the somewhat dingy hall carpeting.
‘I don’t think so,’ Keira told him. She hadn’t seen Alanna in a while.
But then Alanna appeared from her room and made a liar of her. ‘Hello, Benjamin,’ Alanna said brightly. Keira stepped back from the door. ‘I’ll leave you to it.’
‘Nothing to leave us to,’ Alanna said to her. ‘Stay there.’
‘OK,’ Keira said, freezing. Did Alanna want her to stay? Should she go anyway?
‘I want to talk,’ Benjamin said.
