Three Steps Behind You

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Authors: Amy Bird
castle gates,’ I say. ‘Sure I can’t come up?’
    ‘Not tonight,’ she says. ‘I’m a lady.’
    ‘How’s tomorrow?’ I ask.
    ‘I might have thought better of it by then,’ she says.
    ‘Oh, but remember the abs!’ I say, gently fastening her fingers round my torso. ‘And the fun. Here, I’ll write it down for you. Give me your lipstick. And a tissue.’
    ‘What!’ she protests. But she rifles through her handbag and produces what I ask for.
    I write on the tissue in bold pink capitals. ‘We had fun and laughed a lot, and under the tails there are abs. Signed, Posh Luke. PS I will come round tomorrow at 7 and bring something special.’
    She reads it over my shoulder and laughs. I put the tissue in the pocket of my jacket.
    ‘But how I will I find that tomorrow, if you’ve got the jacket?’ she asks.
    ‘Keep it overnight,’ I say. ‘It’s your insurance not to get stood up. And my insurance you won’t be out when I come round – after all, you couldn’t keep a gift from a stranger. What would your mother say?’
    ‘I think my mother would have a lot to say right now,’ she says, leaning in to kiss me. There is no coyness this time. The tongue is straight in there. Then she breaks away.
    ‘Until tomorrow,’ she says.
    ‘Until tomorrow,’ I say.
    She enters a code, as I watch, into the front-door panel, pushes open the door, and disappears.
    Till tomorrow, then.
    As I turn away, I catch sight of Nicole.

Chapter 19
    Nicole is across the street, looking into the window of the off-license. She is wearing the beret, of course. She has professionalised her following, increased her skill in being covert – all night, she must have been watching me, without me seeing her. Mustn’t she?
    I approach her from behind. Before I can get too close, she turns.
    ‘Dan!’ she says. ‘What a surprise! What are you doing here?’
    I hadn’t thought about that before I crossed the road. Perhaps deflect.
    ‘Rather than in police custody?’ I ask.
    She lowers her gaze.
    ‘Adam said he’d speak to you,’ I say. ‘Did he?’
    She nods. ‘He said we needed to move on.’
    ‘And you agreed?’
    There is a slight pause, and then another nod. That’s all I’ll get from her, for now.
    ‘So, what were you doing here?’ I ask.
    ‘Oh, you know,’ she says, ‘just mooching. Bit of window shopping.’
    ‘For wine?’ I ask.
    She looks at the shop window she was gazing at, as if for the first time. I see Ally’s door mirrored in it.
    ‘For ale,’ she lies. She has been window shopping for reflections. ‘Adam likes unusual ales. Thought they might have some.’
    I’ve never seen Adam drink ‘ale’. Premium lager, single malt whisky, vintage wine, maybe. Not ale.
    ‘He offered me champagne earlier,’ I say. ‘To draw a line under the past few days. All the misunderstandings.’
    She says nothing.
    ‘Lobster, too,’ I say. ‘I could come round, to yours, again, if you don’t want to go out.’
    Nicole shivers. It must be the cold. Shame I have no jacket to offer her.
    ‘No, don’t worry about coming to ours. Let’s go out. The three of us. You boys can have a good drink. Really relax, have a chat. How about tomorrow?’
    ‘I’m busy then.’
    ‘Day after?’ she asks.
    ‘It’s a date,’ I say. And it could be. Because by then, Luke will be ready.
    Nicole turns to leave. Before she does, I catch hold of her arm, and kiss her on the cheek.
    ‘Bye, Nicole. Nice to bump into you.’
    ‘Sure,’ she says.
    As she walks off, I see her rub her face with her sleeve.
    Rub away all you like, Nicole. But soon you’ll be covered by me. Inside and out.

Chapter 20
    To be effective, research must be focused. I could spend the day reading about bubonic burlesque, visit a Black Death roller disco, or frequent a church for atheists. I am not naïve. I know those things are, or may be, out there, in our capital. That there may clubbers who buy black felt-tip pens especially to dot an attractive plague

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