A Girl Called Malice. Aurelia B. Rowl

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СКАЧАТЬ my bathroom. Talk about odd. I wasn’t used to other people in my space, let alone my private bathroom, and especially not a guy.

      ‘Where are your tweezers?’

      ‘Hmm?’

      ‘Your tweezers. Where are they?’ he asked, not seeing the instruments of torture amongst the rest of my crap.

      ‘Oh, they’re just there, in front of my eyelash curlers,’ I said, nodding towards them.

      ‘What the hell are eyelash curlers when they’re at home?’

      ‘You obviously don’t have sisters.’

      ‘Nope. Just a brother.’

      ‘Right. Do you see the metal thing at the front there, the one that looks a bit like a pair of scissors but without any blades.’

      ‘Oh right, yeah. Got them,’ he said, brandishing the tweezers in the air.

      ‘Great.’ My stomach flipped at the thought of what was coming next. ‘Could you do me a favour, Zac?’ I asked, still stuck with my hands in the basin.

      ‘Try me.’

      ‘Could you grab a chewing gum out of my toiletry bag please?’

      ‘Hang on. Isn’t a girl’s toiletry bag, like, forbidden territory?’ Again he managed to put a smile on my face.

      ‘I’m prepared to make an exception for you, just this once, so long as you don’t report me to the authorities.’

      ‘Your secret is safe with me.’ Zac words resonated on so many levels but it was probably me reading too much into them.

      ‘Thanks.’

      He reached for the bag and rooted amongst the various bits and pieces I kept in there. Nothing too incriminating. Usually travel-size bottles of shower gel and shampoo; baby wipes; a spare toothbrush and toothpaste; and my emergency packet of gum. ‘Nicotine gum?’

      ‘Yep, they’re the ones.’ I sounded monotone compared to the surprise in Zac’s voice.

      ‘Are you trying to give up smoking?’

      ‘Nope, although I probably should. I just don’t like smoking around Charlie.’

      ‘I see.’ From the way Zac spoke, I got the unnerving impression that he really did see, but then he seemed to see an awful lot that he wasn’t supposed to. ‘Open wide.’ As soon as I’d opened my mouth enough, he popped the gum onto my tongue, then looked around. ‘Where do you keep your clean towels?’

      ‘In the cupboard in the corner.’

      ‘Ah.’ He set off and accidentally brushed against me when he walked past. The effect was instant and I damn well nearly choked on the stupid gum. ‘Whoa! Are you OK?’

      I nodded, unable to stop coughing.

      ‘That’s all right, then.’ He smirked, then assembled his supplies into the towel and left me free to ‘not’ choke to death. With the bundle in one hand, he tipped out my toothbrush from its glass holder with his other hand, then washed it out before filling it with cold water. He lifted the glass to my lips and I drank greedily.

      ‘Thanks,’ I said, my throat soothed by the icy cold water. ‘You’re a lifesaver.’

      ‘And I didn’t even have to get wet this time,’ he said, grinning at my rubbish pun. ‘Are you ready then?’

      ‘Er… Sure.’ I presented my hands to him. ‘Just be gentle.’

      ‘Of course.’ His touch did the weird tingle thing to me again. ‘Um…this could take a while, Alice. Is there somewhere you’d be more comfortable?’

       Not bloody likely!

      I had a fast developing crush on the totally awesome guy in my bedroom—well, en-suite bathroom—and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it…except get out of the bedroom perhaps. ‘Is the balcony OK with you?’

      Zac did a brilliant job of cleaning me up, giving me plenty of opportunity to admire his long, dexterous fingers. He successfully removed every single splinter from my palms, dropping each bit of tree onto a sheet of tissue. Put at ease by his gentle bedside manner, I didn’t freak out at all when I had to lie down on my sun lounger so that he could get to the splinters in my calves as well.

      It took ages.

      Charlie’s film finished and he came up to join me and Zac on the balcony, chatting away merrily while Zac finished up. After a bite to eat and a quick tour of Charlie’s room, Zac set off for his run home, but not before leaving me with strict instructions to see my doctor or go to a walk-in centre if there was any sign of infection. I’d rather he’d left me with his contact details since all I knew was his first name.

      Sure, I knew where he worked but I couldn’t exactly rock up at the swimming baths with my hands all bandaged up. They stung like hell at the mere thought of chlorine. If I turned up and asked for him without some kind of brilliant excuse, it would either make me look desperate or veer dangerously towards ‘friendship’ territory. No, it was up to Zac to make contact if he wanted to stay in touch.

       Unfortunately.

      One silver lining of the whole ordeal was that it gave me the ideal excuse to miss work. No way could I carry hot plates around, nor clear tables and I definitely couldn’t polish cutlery, so instead of having to beg for unplanned holiday to look after Charlie, I simply called in sick. A good thing too, it transpired. Mum called and informed me they’d be away an extra night, having been invited to another function.

      She didn’t check it with me first, she just stated their plans and then left me to deal with the ramifications but I was used to it. Charlie didn’t seem to care either and I had a fabulous time chilling out at home with my favourite man.

      Normal routine resumed within a few days, with Mum and Derek home from their trip and me back at work.

      In a bid to lie low, I spent more and more time out of the house to avoid another run-in with Mum forever. On the morning of Hallowe’en, I found Mum waiting for me at the breakfast table and my good mood evaporated.

      ‘Didn’t you go to college with her?’ Mum tossed me a newspaper with a huge picture of Caroline smiling up at me.

      I cast the paper aside. ‘Yes, I did.’

      ‘She’s pretty,’ Mum said, shoving the paper back under my nose.

      I shrugged. ‘I guess.’

      ‘And smart too.’

      Intrigued, I skimmed over the article and saw that Caroline had won a maths tournament. With me out of the way, she’d finally claimed my top spot. Whoopie-do. ‘Whatever.’

      ‘Why can’t you be more like her?’ Mum glared at me with her gaze set to maim or immobilise.

      ‘More like Caroline? Seriously?’ I shoved the newspaper СКАЧАТЬ