Free Tigers & Devils by Sean Kennedy Page B

mumbled.
    Her plaintive cry was a shock to the system. I stumbled out into the kitchen and got tripped by her three times before we reached her bowl. She was silenced by the food produced for her. If only people could be so easily pleased.
    At least it was Friday. I would only have to stumble through one more day before the promise of the weekend would arrive. A game with Roger on Saturday—which reminded me, I had to try and get out of shopping with Fran. I wondered if she would accept the fact that this relationship was over before it began and that I was too depressed to go shopping for clothes I would now never wear? I had a vision of myself—a male, modern Miss Havisham, sitting in my loungeroom in my mouldering second-date clothes. I kind of liked that image.
    When I got into the office, Nyssa jumped on me immediately. “How was the interview?”
    I wasn’t with it that morning. “Interview?”
    “Don’t play dumb. For the new job!”
    I sighed. “There’s no new job, Nyssa.”
    “You say that now!”
    “Uh huh. I’ll say that later as well.”
    I holed up in my office. I would like to say that I distracted myself by working like a demon, but I mainly stared out the window a lot and took the occasional phone call. I got messages from both Roger and Fran, asking how the date went, and I ignored them. I couldn’t talk to either of them about it yet, not when I didn’t even know what had happened!
    I should have known I couldn’t escape them at work, though. At ten my phone rang, and when I picked it up Fran was on the other end.
    “Oh, so you haven’t been murdered, and we don’t have to call the police.”

    48 | SEAN KENNEDY

    “Morning, Fran.”
    “You could return a person’s phone call.”
    “Technically, it was a SMS.”
    “Same thing.”
    “Not really.”
    “Why didn’t you text me back, then?”
    I hesitated, and it made a long enough pause for her to jump back in.
    “Simon, what’s wrong? Didn’t you have a good time?”
    I began to bite at my thumbnail. “At the start, yeah.”
    “What happened?”
    “I can’t talk about it now.” I ripped the free edge off and winced as part of the cuticle came with it. “Can you make lunch?”
    “I can at one, if you don’t mind a late lunch.”
    “Yeah, I can do lunch at one.”
    Her voice entered super-serious mode. “Simon, are you okay?”
    “Yeah, of course, yeah. See you at one.”
    Fran didn’t sound like she believed me, but at least she hung up. Probably to ring Roger to tell him that something was up and she was going to sort it all out and that he was not to call me because he’d stuff it all up. For that I was grateful, because I didn’t want to have to talk about this twice; one of the benefits of being friends with Fran. It was hard enough having to do it once.

    FRAN kissed me on the cheek before she sat down. “Okay, tell me everything.”
    I sipped at my Coke and wished it was wine. But I couldn’t go back to the office with alcohol on my breath or Nyssa would assume it was a drink to celebrate my new job or whatever she thought it could be at this moment. Reluctantly, I started giving her the details as we ordered. Fran had the linguini; I had a calzone. While waiting for the food to arrive, I got to the point where contact occurred in the car.
    I grew a little red as I tried to get away with the barest details. “Anyway, I was kissing him, and I… reached down —”
    “Down where?” Fran asked innocently.
    “ Down .”
    “Oh, down .”
    I hated her at that moment. “It’s not like I managed to get it out… my hand was on his zipper… but he kind of freaked out and said he would take me home.”

    TIGERS AND DEVILS | 49

    “Huh,” Fran said thoughtfully, but not helpfully.
    I looked to her for elaboration.
    “Did you ask him why?”
    I leaned back as the waiter arrived with our food. Once he was gone, I leaned back in. “No, not really.”
    “No, or not really? Stop being so vague.”
    I cut into my