-1-
NINE YEARS EARLIER
Spook knew better than to accept the offer of a drink.
He accepted it anyway.
His band had just tumbled off stage, fresh from winning the local battle of the bands.They’d been outliers at the beginning of the competition with only a handful of dedicated fans among the crowd.Their audience had grown with every round as the message spread across campus and the local community that they were worth coming out for.Ash’s leaflet-and-condom campaign hadn’t hurt, either.
Their lead guitarist had only gone all in with them six weeks earlier, turning their then trio into a quartet.Shortly after, they’d found a keyboard player and bassist.It’d been a rush to adapt the tunes for a full line up and get ready for a showdown, but they’d done it.
They’d done it, and they’d fucking won.
That warranted a celebratory blow-out.
In any case, it wasn’t as if he was banned from alcohol.Drink just whittled away his defences, leaving him exposed.Vulnerable.
Not all women are alike.
Besides, the woman holding out the bottle to him was cute.She’d been smiling at him for the whole of their set.Whistling.Screaming, with her hands in the air.Bouncing, like the music flowed through her.If there was one thing Spook understood, it was how music could enthral you and make you feel alive.
Tonight, he was very much alive and glad of it.
He hadn’t been this sort of tripping happy in forever.
She was older than he was.Post-grad, two years into a neuroscience doctorate.They had zero in common, besides a love of live music, but that didn’t seem to matter.The band was solid gold tonight.Everyone wanted a piece of them.The guys were lapping the attention up.Ash was smiling—really genuinely smiling for the first time in weeks—and Elspeth—tiny sylph-like gothic princess that she was—had a swarm of admirers huddled around her.Xane had vanished into a dark corner.You didn’t need to know more than one plus two equalled three to know what he was doing there.
So, why the hell shouldn’therelax and enjoy this little slice of transitory fame too?
He’d been cautious making connections with women since he’d arrived in the UK, but this band, the music, were a new start for him.For all of them.
It was opening doors.
New worlds.
Options.
“I’m Spook,” he said, adopting the moniker that Xane had given him.
She shouted something back at him, but he didn’t quite catch it over the background noise.
They wound up back at her place after the union bar closed.It wasn’t far, only a couple of streets away.She shared a rambling old terraced house with a half dozen other post-grads who called her a cradle snatcher when she rolled up with him tucked under her arm.Baby-face, baby-Viking, beautiful, elfin.He’d heard them all before, alongside a host of more derogatory things.“God, you’re such a sweetheart.”All for holding open a door.Actually, he just possessed good manners, and he felt lighter than he had in months, years maybe.
It was like a fog had lifted, and he could feel in colour again.
“My room’s upstairs at the front.”
Her room was clinically neat.The bed—a double—oddly positioned in the centre of the space.There was a mould patch on the ceiling where it might have more comfortably sat.He could see why she wouldn’t want to stare up at that at night.It’d certainly trouble his dreams.
They’d kissed a lot.Back at the bar, and on the streets as they’d walked to her place.She wasn’t a big talker, but that was okay, because nor was he.
He’d only just begun to think in English.It was a curious shift.Insidious.He liked it.It made him feel like a different person.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
He barely had his jacket off before she had his T-shirt off too, and her hands were inside his pants.
Spook’s heart started pounding over the upward shift in gears.She’d been all feather-light touches before.Flighty, whisper soft teasing.This, he wasn’t sure of.There was an urgency to it that set off panic alarms in his head, and made his muscles tense.Overt enthusiasm set him on edge these days.It inevitably made him want to apply the brakes.He’d expected more getting-to-know-you talk first, and less fumbling.Less, let’s just get down and do it so you can get home afterwards.But maybe it was down to nervousness on her part making her act this way.
