The Man on the Middle Floor by Elizabeth S. Moore

Author:Elizabeth S. Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RedDoor
Published: 2018-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

10 | Tam

‘I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?’

— Ernest Hemingway

Wednesday morning

Six a.m., for fuck’s sake. Tam rolled over. He had woken up with a hard-on, and the scent of Karen was still fresh on her sheets. She must have got up to go to the bathroom. He called her name, and in the distance he heard the door slam. That moron from the middle flat.

He had lain dead to the world for the last nine hours, but was still feeling a bit rough around the edges from the whisky the night before. He rubbed his eyes. She wasn’t here. It was a tiny flat and he was pretty sure he would have heard some sign of movement or ablutions by now. He crawled to the edge of the bed, pulled back the curtain and looked out on to the path and the road. Nick was scurrying away from the house, darting from left to right like a gecko. He smiled to himself. Why Karen would take so much of her time obsessing over someone like that was beyond him. It had been a good evening. Chilled, relaxed, and Karen’s kids were pretty nice when you got to know them. He’d never wanted to be a dad, but it felt strangely good having a positive influence over children who had already been potty-trained and weaned by someone else and who seemed polite and up for a bit of arm-wrestling. He had even imagined taking them out for a pint when they got older, but he was getting ahead of himself. It had just been a relief to have a normal evening and see Karen semi-relaxed. He had begun to think she did nothing but work and fuck like a hooker.

Even the dad seemed to have calmed down a bit since their first encounter on the path outside. Tam would probably have been less than amused to be left with three kids to raise if he had been in his shoes; it wasn’t natural.

His train of thought was interrupted by the door slamming again, and he looked up to see Karen, fully dressed, hovering in the doorway, then scurrying down the path after Nick. What the fuck was she doing? Following him? She didn’t get in her car, and Nick was clearly visible in front of her, on the straight pavement, heading for the corner and the bus stop. That boy must wonder why he always had someone behind him who looked vaguely familiar. To be two minutes behind him Karen must have been poised, waiting for him to leave. The image of her on the landing the day before popped into his mind.

Women – what was the cliché? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Well, he would see her later, and at least they were finally getting somewhere after a failed start. Tam had been on his own a long time, and had never been great at commitment, so this was a good and unfamiliar feeling.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.