Ruby by Heather Burnside (carter reed txt) 📗

would have retaliated and let Shelley know she wouldn’t be pushed around. But this was different. Trina was feeling rejected and bewildered as well as humiliated. In her eagerness to have Shelley for her own she had misread the signals, and she cursed herself for her foolishness.

*

The following morning, they had a serious talk. Trina felt mortified as Shelley asked, ‘How could you have got the impression that there was anything between us other than mates?’

‘Dunno. Like I say, it won’t happen again.’ Trina hung her head in shame.

‘Right, well what’s happened has happened. Don’t worry, you can still stay… as long as you don’t fuckin’ do anything like that again.’

Trina looked up coyly. ‘No, course I won’t; not now I know the score.’

‘OK. Well I think we need some rules if you’re staying here.’ Shelley paused, giving Trina time to take in her words before she continued. ‘From now on we both need to keep covered up in front of each other. If you need to come into my bedroom for anything while I’m there you need to knock first so I can make sure I’m dressed. I’ll do the same for you too. Oh, and the bathroom door needs to be locked whenever one of us is using it.’

Trina agreed to all Shelley’s requests, but she just wanted the conversation to be over as soon as possible. It felt as though Shelley was enjoying prolonging her discomfort.

She didn’t want to leave the flat. Trina still had mixed feelings about Shelley and was upset that she’d ruined everything between them. But it was apparent from Shelley’s anger and her expression of scorn that things would never be the same between them from this day onwards.

36

July 1998

It was a few weeks later. Although it was late afternoon Trina was still in bed as she’d worked till the early hours. She was about to get up when she heard a loud knocking on the front door. She waited for some moments to see if Shelley would answer it. But the knocking continued so Trina slung on her dressing gown, wiped the sleep from her eyes and went to see who it was.

She was surprised to find an angry looking middle-aged man on the other side of the door. He was tall and balding but, despite his age, he had a powerful frame. His stance was rigid and his expression stony.

‘Where is she?’ he demanded. ‘And who the hell are you?’

Trina’s first thought was that it might be a client who had somehow found his way to the flat and she immediately became cautious. ‘Wait there a minute. I’ll go and get her,’ she said, as she tried to shut the door.

The man jammed his foot inside the door to stop it closing. ‘Oh no you bloody well won’t! ‘I know your game; you’ll leave me standing here.’ He began pushing his way past Trina. ‘It’s my bloody property and I’ve as much right to be here as anyone. More so, in fact. Who the bloody hell are you anyway?’

His attitude annoyed Trina and she was about to tell him that she also had every right to be there as she was Shelley’s flatmate. But something held her back. This angry man was obviously the landlord. What if Shelley hadn’t told him about her? He might want more money if he knew a second person lived there or he might even throw her out for living there without his permission.

So Trina chose her words carefully. ‘I… I’m Shelley’s friend.’

The man eyed her suspiciously, his eyes taking in what she was wearing, as he continued to barge past her and made his way into the hall.

Trina quickly explained the reason for her dressing gown. ‘Shelley let me stay over last night.’ Then she followed him through to the lounge.

‘Hang on here, I’ll see if she’s in her room,’ she said, leaving the landlord pacing around the lounge.

Trina could find no sign of Shelley either in her bedroom or the rest of the flat so she went back to face the landlord. ‘She’s not in; she must have gone out while I was still in bed.’

‘How bloody convenient when she owes me two month’s rent.’

‘Really?’ asked Trina, knowing this would affect her, and failing to hide her disquiet.

‘Oh yes, and it’s not the first time. It’s not as if I haven’t tackled her about it either. She told me on the phone that she’d be here with it when I called and instead I find she’s gone AWOL and got a bloody stranger staying here. So where the bloody hell is she?’

‘I’ve no idea,’ said Trina. ‘Like I said, she must have gone out while I was still in bed.’

The landlord plonked himself down on the sofa. ‘Right, well I’ll just have to wait until she gets back. Any idea when that might be?’

Trina knew that Shelley might not be back till the early hours especially if she had gone somewhere and then straight on to work afterwards. But she wasn’t about to discuss Shelley’s occupation with the landlord. ‘I… I don’t know. It could be a while though.’

‘That’s OK, I can wait.’

For a moment Trina stood awkwardly in the lounge not knowing what to do. She didn’t usually get easily intimidated, but this man was scary. He was also the person who owned the home where she was living so she knew she had to exercise caution. Trina wanted to get showered and dressed but she was nervous about leaving the landlord unattended in the flat. For all she knew he might take away some of their things to claw back part of the rent arrears.

Thoughts of other scary men from her childhood flashed through her mind. Mr Dodds, the lecherous landlord who her mother had succumbed to in order to keep a roof over her heads, and the two burly bailiffs. She could still picture the bailiffs, one with red hair and a beard