Free One of Us by Iain Rowan

walking.
    “Look, he doesn’t tell me stuff, OK? I’m not part of his lot, I just do what I do and sometimes he uses me as a runner. I don’t know half of what he does. He was just looking for someone who had the right skills, he was drawing a blank everywhere he looked, and I heard about it and said look, I might know someone who would be just perfect for you, but she’s not going to do it for nothing. It was me who told him you needed your papers, Anna, because I know he can fix stuff like that, you know, it’s sort of down to me that you even have what you have.”
    “That is funny,” I said. “I bet that the man with the gunshot wound does not realize that it was you who looked after him.”
    “Come on, Corgan just said yes, he said tell her, if she does what we need, she can have her papers. I had no idea he was going to hold it over you like that, it was as much of a surprise to me as it was to you, Anna, honest. Ah, come on, look, at least give me a chance. I didn’t know.”
    He stepped in front of me again, the grin gone, his hands down by his sides. I stopped.
    “I’m trying to apologize, Anna, if you’ll let me. I’m trying to tell you that I didn’t know.”
    I looked at him. He made a pained face, shrugged his shoulders. My voice says sorry, my body says sorry, what more can I do. He does not know about Elena, I thought. He does not know what happened between me and Corgan. He just thinks I am angry because I got asked to do more work for my thirty pieces of silver.
    “All right,” I said. “I accept. Now we are finished with being all Hallmark card, I must get to the shops. I have washing to do.” And I started walking again.
    “My God, you’re a tough one,” Daniel said, and he followed again. “Look, that was only half the apology, OK? You haven’t had the other half yet.”
    “I do not see any flowers. Oh, of course, there’s a graveyard if you walk that way, you can find some there that you will give me.”
    Daniel laughed. “It’s all right, I’ve already admitted that you’re a tough one, you don’t have to go breaking my balls all the time to prove it.”
    I stopped, tilted my head as if in thought.
    “Don’t go getting ideas,” he said. “You’ll make a lot of women cry. Come on, let me give you the other half of the apology. Jesus, it’s not often I say sorry you know, don’t make it harder than it already is. Saying sorry, that is.” The grin came back.
    I did not take that bait. “So what is this other half then?”
    “Dinner for two,” he said.
    I nodded, considering it. “It depends.”
    “On what?”
    “Who the other person is. Will I like them? Or are they like you?”
    “Low, very low. Come on, Anna. Nothing fancy, just a nice Italian or something. Couple of drinks first, all on me, just to say sorry. Because I mean it, yeah?”
    “Thank you,” I said, and Daniel made a salute with his fist, as if he had just scored a goal. “But no.”
    He looked surprised, as if he was not used to any woman saying no to him. And perhaps he was not. That grin, that tilt of the head. Practised over many years, I thought, and over many women. The rain started.
    “I don’t bite, you know,” he said. “I’m a nice bloke, really.” I realized what the tilt of the head reminded me of, when you put it together with his dark brown eyes. My friend Maria had a puppy once which she called Bear for some reason I never understood. Bear would tilt his head, look with those eyes, and wait for you to do what he wanted. Or hope that you would not be cross about the puddle waiting for you on the kitchen floor.
    “Not dinner,” I said. “But something else instead.”
    “Mmm,” Daniel said. “Sounds interesting. I like a girl who can surprise me.”
    “Good,” I said, “carry this.” I dumped the laundry bag in his arms. “And pay for my washing. You can also buy me coffee, while the washing goes round.”
    ~
    I put the washing in the big yellow machine, not wanting