AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Blonde? Sleek-looking bitch? She let herself in.” Her eyes narrow on me as I stare at her, pulse thumping like a drumbeat in my neck.Kate?Kate was here?
Oh.
Fuck.
Oh no, no, no.
Bile burns up the back of my throat. No. No.What was I thinking?I open my mouth to ask something, anything, but pull myself up short with a shaky breath.
I’ve not talked to Kate about my past history because what happened with Nadine at college makes me look like an idiot.Stupid, stupid, stupid. I drag a T-shirt over my head before I glance at Nadine again, only to discover her eyes are narrowed on me. She’s mean and she’s a liar. I don’t want her to know about my relationship with Kate. I take a calming breath. If I want to find out what went down this morning, I need to be careful how I play this.
“Oh yeah, Tuesday,” I say, staring at the floor and dropping my hands between my knees as if I’ve forgotten all about the cleaner and the day she comes. Fuck.Kate found her here and left.I try and tamp down the nausea, making my voice sound normal. Nadine’s eyes drift sideways when I look back at her, and she nods before heading out of my room. I hastily thrust my legs into my jeans and shrug them on, following her to the living area.
“Is she coming back to clean up?” I say as casually as I can, starting to gather the plates lying on every surface, letting my hair fall forward so she can’t see my face.
She sinks onto the couch and waves a limp hand. “Don’t tidy up, babe; we’ll just make it messy again.”
We’llmake it messy? I grind my teeth. I’m tempted to tell her about the house I grew up in: the huge piles of things dumped all over, gathering in corners. One side of the living room was piled high with junk and left to rot for years and years. How my mom ripped the carpets up when they got so matted with dirt you couldn’t make out their original color or pattern, and we lived on dirty floorboards. My favorite things, important things, lost forever, destroyed. I suck in a deep breath.Focus.
“Is she coming round later?”
“Yeah. Yeah. She said she’d come back. Asked me who I was.” Nadine gives a throaty laugh, and something black and slick slithers up my throat. Alarm bells are ringing loud and insistently.
I pick up some dirty mugs, smile like I’m relaxed and don’t care. This is the only way I’ll get even the approximate truth out of her: She’s a junkie, she doesn’t know fact from fiction half the time.
“What did you say to that?” I say, taking the greasy plates to the kitchen and staring at the mess on the counter—not an inch of space anywhere.
She sticks her head around the wall that divides the kitchen from the lounge. “I told her I was your girlfriend. Since college.” She grins at me. “Kind of true, right?” Her head tips to one side.
And God, this is worse. So much worse. My brain is screaming now. Fucking hell, I want to rip my hair out. I have to find Kate and explain.
“Were you dressed like that?” I say, smiling, trying to make sure I’m not baring my teeth at her.
“Yeah,” she says with a shrug.
Oh God, Kate saw her in my T-shirt?Holy shit.
“She opened the door to the bedroom. I think it woke me up.”
What?
“The bedroom door?” Why would that wake her up? Nadine’s sleeping on the couch. Kate would have walked passed her to reach my room.
Her eyes slide sideways, and something crosses her face and I’ve seen this look a million times before. She’s fucking lying.
“Yeah, I just heard a noise, you know?” Her voice grows vague, and she gestures toward the couch. I study her gaunt face for a beat. Why is she making stuff up? Fuck. What the hell happened between her and Kate? Surely, if there’d been an argument, I’d have woken up?
“What time did she come by?” I say.
Her face has shifted into that deliberately vacant stare she has. Damn. “Oh, no idea, babe. A couple of hours ago. Maybe?”
She came by after her shift finished. I stack the plates on the counter. I’m not going to get any more out of Nadine, and if I push, she’ll give me a whole pack of nonsense. I head to the bedroom and grab my phone. When I come out, she’s got the television on.
“I’m going out to get a coffee. Clean this shit up, yeah?”
She pouts, eyes drifting back to the screen. “My coffee’s not good enough for you?” she says.
I wave a nonchalant hand at her. I can be vague too when I want to be. “Yeah, yeah. Just tidy up.”
