Painted Faces (30 page)

“
No need to be so jealous,” she smirks and sips on her coffee.

“
I'm not jealous,” I lean forward and click on the picture to try and enlarge it, but I end up hitting the wrong button, which brings me back to Nora's page. Her profile picture shows her just before a night out with me and Harry, standing in her bedroom doorway, looking annoyingly well-groomed. I hate this picture of her because it makes her look like a vacuous tramp, and despite how she sometimes comes across, Nora's got a brain inside that head of hers. She just thinks it's cooler to pretend to be shallow.

She's enjoying her breakfast at the moment, so I take the opportunity to sneakily scan down her page and see what's been going on in the virtual world of Nora. Most of the comments are from people she works with, but then I see one that isn't, and I almost shove the laptop off the table in fright. About three days ago, one Aaron O'Toole writes:

Hey Nora! Long time no chat, how are things?

To which she replies:

Hi Aaron, oh same old, same old. Any news with you?

This is followed by a bland discussion about Aaron's job at some engineering company and how he's up for a promotion soon. If I had a Facebook page I would be cutting in on this chit chat with a big, huge, fucking explosive WTF!? I fall back into my chair and stare at Nora, gob-smacked.

She chews and swallows before glancing up at me. “Jesus Fred, you've gone pale. Are you okay?”

I flip her laptop around to her and point a finger at the conversation between her and Aaron. “Explain this.” I do my best not to grit my teeth.

“
Hey, you were looking at my page, you nosy cow!” she says and immediately signs out, shutting her laptop down.

“
How the fuck do you know him?” I ask, my voice scary calm.

“
What, that guy Aaron? He's a regular at the bar. I talk to him when business is slow. He added me a couple weeks ago. Sometimes we chat online. He seems nice enough, not much of a sense of humour though.”

As she says this it all falls into place. That little scheming rat. Not only does he know where I work, he must also know where I live, and more importantly, who I live with. I clench my fists in anger. How dare he drag Nora into his obsessive quest to get me back.

“
Do you know him or something?” she asks warily.

“
You need to delete him. Block him. Whatever it is you do online.” I tell it to her straight. “He's not just some random regular at your bar Nora. That is my old boyfriend from college, and he is 100% nuts. He's been following me for weeks now. He used to do it years ago too after I broke up with him. I never told you about it because it was a shit time for me and I just wanted to move on from it.” I pause to take a breath. Then another realisation hits me. “Have you ever told him anything about me during your chats?”

Nora still seems to be in shock from what I've just told her. It takes her a minute to answer. “Um, only in passing really. He did ask me who I lived with and what they do. Harmless stuff.”

“
No information is harmless when it comes to Aaron, he uses it all.” I slam my hands down on the table in exasperation. “I can't fucking believe this Nora. Do you just go around telling every random stranger you meet all about your life? Have you no common sense at all?”

She looks at me with watery eyes, and I instantly feel terrible for shouting at her. But she needs a reality check, a big one. Half the reason Aaron has been so successful in sussing out the workings of my life has probably been down to Nora brainlessly feeding it to him over the internet.

She stands up from the table. “Look I'm sorry, I didn't know. You don't need to shout at me.” Her watery eyes turn to full on crying, and she dashes into her bedroom. I slump down in my chair and fold my arms across my chest.

I need something to calm me down, so I stand up and begin furiously cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. By the time I'm done I'm not so consumed with anger anymore. I just can't believe how trusting Nora is of people sometimes, and I can't believe the depths Aaron will sink to for information on me. I need to do something about him, I'm just not sure what that something should be.

I knock next door and Nicholas lets me in. We sit in his bed under the covers, and I tell him all about the morning's débâcle. I'm using a lot of hand gestures, which means my anger hasn't quite abated. Nicholas listens quietly, his eyes serious.

“
I think you might need to go to the police about this,” he says, while stroking soothingly up and down my arm.

“
They won't take me seriously. You don't know what the Garda are like in this country. They'll file a few pieces of paperwork, give me a pat on the back and tell me they'll see what they can do. In other words: sweet fuck all. That or I'll get a wanker who'll insinuate I'm overreacting and laugh me out of the place.”

“
Where does Aaron live? I could go and have a word with him,” says Nicholas, and there is no humour in his voice right now.

Woah. I'd like to see what Nicholas looks like when he's having words. Probably scary and sexy as hell. He might wear a dress every now and again, but beneath that his body is rock hard strength. He goes to the gym every second day at around lunch time. Sometimes he asks me to join him, to which I usually give him a wry shaking of my head before I turn back to dig into whatever tasty lunch I've whipped up for myself.

“
He lives about a half an hour's drive outside of the city, but I'm not telling you where. He's got a screw loose, who knows what he might try and do to you alone in his house.”

“
Exactly, he'll
try
. Freda, my darling, do you think I couldn't take him?”

I give him an appraising look. “Brawn to brawn you'd win hands down, Viv. But Aaron is unpredictable. He might sit you down in his kitchen and politely offer you a cup of tea, just before he picks up the toaster and throws it at your head.”

Nicholas' brow furrows. “I thought you said he was never violent with you.”

“
Oh not with me, but he'd do a number on the plates in his kitchen cupboard whenever he lost his temper. By now he could have progressed to full on grievous bodily harm.”

“
Okay, I won't pay him a visit then, but if he shows up at the club again I can't promise you I won't break something, his nose most likely. With some people you need to use more than words to get through to them.”

“
Look at you, Viv, getting all macho to defend my honour.” I poke him in the side. “But if anyone's going to have the pleasure of breaking Aaron's nose, it's going to be me.”

“
Now that's something I wouldn't mind witnessing.” Nicholas pulls me into a hug and kisses the top of my head. “Poor little Fred has had a terribly taxing week. What can we do to make it better for her?” he ponders. His thumb grazes my stomach where my t-shirt has hitched up a bit. I suck in a breath and push away the tingles.

“
You listened to me rant when you could have been getting a few extra hours beauty sleep. You've done enough, Nicholas. And thanks, by the way, for listening.”

“
I'd listen to you read the telephone book, Fred.”

I glance at him, amused. “What do you mean?”

“
I mean, I like to listen to you. More importantly, I like to watch those pretty lips move. It's kind of seductive.”

Out of instinct I bite my bottom lip, drawing his gaze there. He lowers one hand down over my hip and rests it on my backside, which he grips and uses to pull me in closer to him. Drawing my face to his own, he runs the tip of his nose down my cheek to my neck. I swallow. He smells like soap and laundry detergent, with just a hint of aftershave. I reach up and gently tangle my fingers through his hair.

I notice immediately when his breathing quickens and he continues his descent down my body. From my neck his nose travels to my collarbone, then quite surprisingly he just rests his head on my chest. He doesn't even try to feel me up.

“
I love how warm and soft you are. All I ever want to do is touch you, but sometimes it feels like not touching you is even more of a turn on.” He pauses and looks up at me. “I want to ruin you Freda, in the best way possible.”

I don't breathe a word, but I'm practically panting.

He kisses me softly on the fabric of my t-shirt. “I'm sort of enjoying this game we're playing, but we're going to destroy each other one of these days, you do know that right?”

Does he mean destroy in a good way or a bad way?

He doesn't get the chance to elaborate because there's a hesitant knock at his apartment door. He kisses me again on the t-shirt and gets up to go and answer it. I climb out of his bed and straighten my clothes. When I enter the living area I find Nora standing beside Nicholas, looking like shit. Her nose and eyes are all red, like she hasn't stopped crying since she stormed into her bedroom earlier this morning.

“
Fred, I'm so sorry. I was such a bloody idiot.”

I walk straight over to her and take her into a semi-awkward hug. Nora and I don't really show each other affection, but since she's so upset I suppose I can make an exception. I pet at her hair. “Listen, it's okay. Aaron would have found some way to worm his way into my life with or without you. It's not your fault. You can't be suspicious of every new person you meet.” I pull away to look at her and try to make a joke. “You know, I'm probably the one who should be apologising. You had to suffer through Aaron's god awfully dull conversation. You deserve a medal for that.”

The joke does the trick and she let's out a sad little giggle. I see Nicholas watching me over Nora's shoulder. He comes over and wraps his arms around the both of us, creating a group hug.

“
How's about we forget all about boring, psychotic Aaron for the time being and I take you two gorgeous ladies out for lunch?” he asks.

We both smile at him and nod our heads.

A Brick Through a Window

“
Yooohooo,” comes Phil's sing song voice as I sit in the dressing room and help Nicholas out of his costume.

It was a wild gig tonight. At one point a member of the audience was so drunk and riled up that he climbed onto the stage and tried to grab Nicholas by the crotch. Nicholas was a good sport about it and gracious as ever, but I think he's a little bit upset. He's trying to hide it.

I do wonder why he's upset though, since he often invites people up onto the stage and can be very touchy and flirty with them. Perhaps it was because the guy tonight was really aggressive and got up onto the stage without Nicholas' permission.