Aurelia Rowl - A Girl Called Malice

‘You—a guy—were looking at my shoes?’ she asked, shooting him the raised eyebrow.

‘Yes. Me. I was trying to work out how you can actually drive in those things?’ he said, nodding to her feet to divert her attention away from his glowing face.

‘It’s easy,’ she said, pouting as she pushed the offending wet tendrils of hair behind her ears. To prove her point, she popped the clutch despite her heels and slipped the car into first gear, then pulled away smoothly.

‘I take it back.’

‘I always wear heels,’ she explained, navigating her way out of the car park. ‘Well, nearly always,’ she corrected, darting him a shy glance. At least it wasn’t just his face steaming the windows up any more. ‘Where to then?’

His brain took a moment to catch up. ‘Richmond Road. Do you know it?’

‘Yep.’ Alice made her way onto the bypass and motored along with the wipers going full speed against the rain lashing the windscreen.

Some way in the distance, Zac spotted a lonely figure walking along the grass verge. Whoever it was had no coat and had to be soaked. The next swipe of the wipers revealed that the unfortunate sod was Josh. Unluckily for him, Alice had recognised who it was too. She put her foot down hard on the accelerator and veered towards him, timing her approach to perfection to spray a huge puddle all over him.

Partly out of concern but mostly for the comedy value, Zac peered over his shoulder. Laughter burst out of his chest as a bedraggled Josh stood stock still, his mouth gaping open in shock as he watched the Barbie car whizz away from the scene of the crime. ‘Alice, you’re pure evil,’ Zac said, still chuckling as he turned back to face the front.

‘Why? What have I done now?’ Alice asked, oh-so-innocently.

‘Just remind me never to get in your bad books, OK?’

‘Oh, come off it, Joshua’s a lowlife. You’re nothing like him, Zac.’ She tensed and darted a glance at him as she spoke, as if to gauge his reaction so he kept his eyes forward and his expression neutral. ‘No decent guy cheats on his girlfriend, especially with the likes of me,’ she continued, tightening her grip on the steering wheel so much her knuckles turned white.

‘Er…thanks,’ Zac deadpanned, spouting the first thing that came to mind. ‘I think.’ He couldn’t argue with the Josh-being-a-lowlife part, but as for the likes-of-me part Zac wasn’t so sure.

Alice instantly relaxed. ‘You’re welcome,’ she said, disarming him with a playful smirk that made the corners of her eyes crinkle before her gaze drifted back to the windscreen to give the road her full attention.

Relieved to have passed the test, Zac let his head flop back against the headrest and stared at the soft-top roof. How could sharing a ride home be so exhausting yet so unbelievably exhilarating at the same time? Christ, every time he thought he’d got a step closer to figuring Alice out, she’d do something unexpected and become even more of a puzzle. One that he desperately wanted to solve.

Chapter seven

Blues

Alice

Out of the corner of my eye, I risked a glance at Zac. His head lay tilted head back against the headrest, staring up and seemingly lost in thought. If it weren’t for his eyes being open, I could have been fooled into thinking he’d fallen asleep. Shame. It would at least have accounted for his lack of conversation; several minutes had passed and still he hadn’t spoken.

In the funereal hush of my car, it was a wonder I couldn’t hear his heartbeat let alone my own erratic beat above the constant drumming sound of rain. The way my pulse ticked in my fingertips, I could have joined the percussion just by hovering my hands over the drum skins. Like I needed any more distractions when simply having Zac in the car did the job so brilliantly.

Christ knows why, but I really wanted to impress him with my driving skills, especially after his comment about my shoes, yet the weather tried its best to thwart me. At last, I turned off the scary-as-fuck-in-the-sluicing-rain bypass onto a slower stretch of road and could reduce the angry swoosh of the wiper to a less-aggressive swish.

I relaxed my grip on the wheel and shot another look at the super-silent Zac. He must have sensed my movement because he turned his head and caught me in the act.

‘You OK?’ he asked.

‘Me?’ I squawked. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. You?’

‘Er…if you say so.’ Zac grinned but I was too busy cringing at the total garbage tripping out of my mouth. ‘What’s got you all in a tizz?’

‘Nothing,’ I snapped.

‘Right,’ he said, drawing out the word and coaxing a half-smile out of me. ‘Cos this isn’t awkward at all. Should I stick to talking about the weather?’

‘Oh no, must we?’ I said, finally accepting his attempt to break the ice.

‘Good. You see, I’ve been thinking—’

‘Steady now.’

‘Ha!’ He nudged me in the ribs with his elbow. ‘Since I don’t have to talk about this bloody awful weather, can I ask you about your plans for tonight instead?’

‘My plans?’ I asked, forcing myself to keep the wheel straight and my attention on the road.

‘Yeah, your plans.’

‘Um…’ Where was he going with this? ‘I don’t have any.’

‘Great.’

‘Thanks a lot, Zac.’

‘No, I mean great for me.’

‘And how is that exactly?’ I said coolly, which took a considerable amount of effort.

‘I know this is going to sound odd, you know, after everything that happened back there with Josh but…’ Zac’s voice trailed off.

‘But?’ I prompted, not wanting to give him the chance to talk himself out of whatever he’d intended to say. In my peripheral vision, I saw him turn his head to face me.

‘Right. Um… Please don’t take this the wrong way.’

‘OK,’ I said, trying to move things along.

‘How would you feel about coming out with me?’

‘Out? With you?’

‘Just as friends,’ he added, in an effort to clarify his motives.

‘What would your girlfriend say?’ I asked, shooting him a knowing look.

‘I don’t have one.’

‘What?’ My foot slipped off the accelerator and I stalled the car. ‘How come? Since when?’

Zac humoured me by not commenting—or pleading to be let out—so I gunned the engine to keep us moving and pretended it never happened. ‘She dumped me. Not long after I met you actually.’

‘No way?’ I almost stalled again and had to scramble to regain control over myself as much as the car. ‘What did you do?’

‘Hey!’ He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I didn’t do anything, thank you very much.’

‘Then why?’

Zac sighed. ‘It just wasn’t to be, she was hung up on somebody else.’

‘Ouch, that’s a bummer.’

‘Yeah.’ His voice held sadness and resignation, matched by his frown, but then his tone brightened. ‘But it does leave me with a spare ticket for tonight if you fancy it?’

‘A ticket for what? I’m guessing you’re not talking football.’

‘No. It’s tickets for a jazz club.’

‘Nice.’ My eyebrows were at risk of whiplash the way they were up and down like yo-yos. ‘Why me though, Zac? You must have your pick of girls.’

‘Ha! If you say so,’ he said. ‘But even if I did, they might mistake it for a date.’

‘And that’s not what this is? A date, I mean.’

‘God, no,’ he blurted. ‘My head’s a mess so the last thing I want right now is another girlfriend. It’s just two friends, like I said, going out to celebrate.’

‘What am I supposed to be celebrating?’

‘Ah, of course, you wouldn’t know. Well…’ He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Today just so happens to be my birthday.’