Parker, I work in the archives.’ He offered his hand. Gemma was one of those people who were friendly to everyone, an overabundance of chirpy goodwill seemed to flow from her every pore. He guessed that’s why she was on the front desk.
‘I wondered when you were finally going to introduce yourself to me. How are you getting on? Those rooms creep me out, all those dead things, ew.’
‘At least they don’t talk back.’ He smiled awkwardly and she laughed louder and harder than his quip deserved. He noticed Shane watching him from across the room. When they thought no one was looking, he knew Gemma and Shane would sneak into the back rooms for some privacy. He could feel Shane’s jealous eyes ablaze with anger.
‘You getting on OK with Abbey?’ she finally said when she calmed down, and he could tell she was asking even though she already knew the answer, and there was a hint of mocking in the way she said Abbey’s name. He realised for once he wasn’t the strangest person in the building.
The women who worked in the canteen could be heard gossiping almost non-stop when you were at their end of the building. Sometimes he caught the words but mostly it was the sound of inane exchanges, last night’s soap operas, who was leaving ‘the jungle’, anything to make the time go by. Shane and Gemma would huddle together no matter what they were doing, either fighting or flirting, always in a whisper. Mr Lowestoft was occasionally seen roaming the halls looking at the progress and talking to the decorators who had somehow become invisible. Between the lady who gave the tours on the days they had school visits and the porters who moved the artefacts around silently when no one was looking, Parker realised he had never really seen anyone else talking to Abbey. The reason he got on so well with Abbey, if you could call it that, was because they were both the outcasts. In fact, for once, he thought it was possible he was the normal one.
‘Yes, speak of the devil.’ They both looked up as Abbey ambled through the large double doors. Parker smiled, more comfortable with Abbey’s awkward stare than he had been with Gemma’s overfamiliarity, he could sense Gemma sneering as he walked over and took Abbey’s heavy bag before following her in silence through the unlit passageway to the area they needed to be in for today. As he walked beside her he watched her face. She was focused.
‘If you start in that corner then I can get on with these guys today,’ she said, he felt like she was fobbing him off.
‘Can I ask you for a small favour?’
‘OK.’ She turned and faced him with a no-nonsense stance. Abbey was a no-nonsense girl, he wondered what she considered fun.
‘It’s a strange request, considering we’ve not known each other very long, but I need to ask you if you could look after Sally next weekend. I have a family thing to take care of and I don’t like putting her in kennels. The address is on the key fob, you may as well take it now while I remember.’ He handed her a key to his place. She just stared at his hand but he continued to hold the key out, unwavering. ‘Just put some food in her bowl and take her for a walk, if you don’t mind.’
‘Oh …’
‘I wouldn’t ask but I don’t know anyone else around here any more, and Sally really likes you … I like you … I mean, I trust you with Sally.’ He felt stupid saying it, knowing also that now was not the right time to attempt one of his disingenuous smiles, he knew she could see through all of that. Abbey blushed again and took the key from him. Her hand brushed against his and he was surprised at how warm her skin was. She snatched it away self-consciously as he kept his eyes on her. Parker didn’t feel the same need to be normal with her as he did with everyone else, he didn’t feel the need for fake smiles and he didn’t feel the need to speak when she was silent. He had noticed it more and more since they had first met; his ever decreasing need to be false with her. In fact, anything other than honesty was becoming hard. In all the scenarios he had imagined when he returned to this city, a genuine connection wasn’t in one of them. He hadn’t planned for this.
‘We had better get on with it, they want this room cleared in a couple of weeks ready to redecorate it for the centenary celebrations,’ she interrupted his thoughts.
She scuttled off to her corner of the room, stuffing his keys into her back pocket. He took that to mean she accepted his request.
Parker could make women fall for him, it was possibly because he was clever, women like that, but he was also good-looking in an awkward way. He had no interest in relationships. He was often more comfortable spending time with women because he was not the average man. Comfortable was maybe the wrong word, a little strong for the way anyone made him feel. The only time Parker couldn’t get a woman to fall for him was when he actually liked the girl in question, not a situation that arose often. He had the gift of manipulation, something he had watched people around him possess as he had grown up. He had made a promise to himself, though, that he would only use it when he absolutely had to, he didn’t want to become like the people who had influenced him the most. He had seen those people lie and lie again to get what they wanted, no matter who they hurt. No, he wouldn’t indulge the part of him that wanted to deceive, manipulate and corrupt; he wanted to be better than that, he wanted to be good. He seemed to repel the women that fascinated him, maybe because he was trying to flirt, not something he was good at. He knew his ham-fisted attempts at light humour were never received in the spirit he intended them to be. The girls he had known before had all wanted to fix him and so he pushed them away, knowing full well that he was unfixable. Also he noticed something all the girls he liked had in common: they were good, too good for him. He always thought too much of them to inflict himself on them. That was his ‘type’, a girl he could never allow himself to be with. He put it down to his innate desperation to sabotage any chance for happiness he might be able to grab on to in the future. His past had been so dark, so unthinkably bleak that sometimes he thought he felt more comfortable in situations where there was absolutely no hope.
The Host
Then
The door was already open when their cab pulled up to the house. A girl Abbey recognised was puking in the shrubbery of the house next door and she could see a couple of other people from her course fumbling with each other in the side alley, so undignified. Abbey imagined herself and Christian locked in the same embrace and suddenly it took on a whole new appeal.
She could feel the pit of her stomach humming with excitement as they walked in. The vibrations of the music thumped through her lower body and added to the rising anticipation. She scanned every corner of every room as they walked through. Everyone greeting Dani as they went by and she got sucked into conversation with some other girls, and Abbey continued through alone. For the first time she noticed eyes on her, not mocking or derisive but hungry and lustful. So this is what it feels like. It wasn’t long before a drink was planted in Abbey’s hand. She drank it with the confidence of someone who could handle alcohol far better than she could. Tonight was not the night to be Abbey, where was the fun in that? Tonight she was going to be better. Stop holding yourself back and enjoy it! She had always been well aware that her self-esteem issues were of her own creation. Being raised by a single father, she was never quite sure of the social etiquettes a girl should adhere to, just mostly guessing and copying had got her through this far.
She walked out into the garden to the sound of Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, fairy lights hung from the trees and willow fences, twinkling, magical. Her butterflies were worse than ever and as a small crowd parted she caught sight of Christian. She felt like she was in a movie. She took a deep
