| Straight: Serial Stories: Teacher: Teacher: part III (1/6) |
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She’d definitely shouted, 'See you Friday night,' as she dashed from the flat on Tuesday morning. God knows what my face looked like when she burst in around 11 a.m. Friday morning and caught me vacuuming the hall. Gemma dropped her bag, slipped a small rucksack off her shoulders and removed her jacket, all without taking her eyes off me. She looked worried, confused, if not a little scared. ‘Hi! Fuck, thought we had burglars… Oh, just a minute!’ She went back to the door and shouted down the path, ‘It’s Ok. Have a good weekend, Gareth, see you Monday!’ A car door slammed, its engine revved and it sped away, tooting its horn. She stepped back inside, closed the door, pecked my cheek and started to undo her bag. ‘Didn’t expect… hope you didn’t take the day off on my account, ‘cos…’ ‘Well… yes… er… no. I felt a bit rough after last night. Overindulged a bit… er… with the beer,’ I added quickly. Several very disturbing scenes – all involving Anna in various parts of the flat - flashed before my eyes making me lose my train of thought. ‘But once I got up, I started to feel a bit better, thought I’d tidy up a bit…’ Worried and scared took a back seat, as confused took over the controls of her facial muscles. I rarely tidied up and a question was slowly forming in her mind. A diversion was needed and I created one. ‘Maybe we could do lunch, go somewhere nice - we don’t seem to get much time together these days.’ She screwed her face up wistfully, an apology already softening her features. ‘Sorry, babe… I’ve some papers to quickly go through and then at twelve I’m meeting Amanda at the gym. From there I’m popping into the office for the rest of the afternoon. If I’d known you weren’t at work I could have made other plans…’ Bet you're also wondering why I wasn’t at work. Yes, I planned to go, but once Anna’s cab had pulled away at 7.22 and I’d actually taken stock of how I felt - actually looked at the state of the flat - I rang in sick. Even though I'd hardly slept and what little sleep I'd had was in a very uncomfortable chair, there was still the rather daunting task of cleaning up the place. It looked much worse in daylight. By 10.30, the bed had been changed, most of Anna’s traces had been removed, but there was bound to be something left amiss, some incriminating evidence, a barely visible clue that only a woman would see... maybe women mark their territory, leave secret signs to ward each other off… Thankfully, Gemma was instantly distracted by the work she had to do and had neither time nor inclination to consider anything else. The coffee table was soon covered in papers that made her furrow her brow and emit the occasional expletive. I switched on the TV and sat staring vacantly at its vacuous offerings, simply praying for Gemma to go out. 'Hello?' 'Hi. Alex?' 'No, sorry. There's no Stuart here. Sorry...' I had the remote in the other hand, was about to mute the TV, but wisely decided against it - the woman’s sexy voice might have carried across a silent room. 'Ok, gather you can't talk at the moment. Ring me later. Bye.' 'No, sorry, you've got the wrong number... never heard of him. Bye.' Gemma lifted her glasses onto the top of her |
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