“Don’t start,” she said to him, surprised that he was starting with the barbs already, given that Oliver was so new.
“I’m not starting anything,” Scott said. “Just continuing. Oliver, what can I get you?”
Oliver was laughing, clearly seeing it as a joke. “Just a beer for me. The special you’ve got on tap. That was good last night.”
“Keren? Gin and bitter lemon? Pint of bitter?” Scott said.
She shook her head. “You’re such a child. I’d love to know why you’re like this with me when you can be perfectly lovely to everyone else.”
He gave her a puzzled look. “Have a think, Keren. You were there. You do know, so don’t act all innocent. What would you like to drink?”
“I’ll have a glass of white wine. And I’ll watch you pour it.”
He gave her a dazzling grin.
“He once put salt in my drink,” she said quietly to Oliver. “Just enough to make it taste funny. And he told everyone else to make it sound like it was just a joke between friends, but I’m pretty convinced he was slowly trying to murder me.”
Oliver smiled. “You realise you talk about each other a lot for two people who seem to be at war?”
She took the wine from Scott who definitely hadn’t added anything to it and Oliver paid for the drinks.
“We’re like chalk and cheese,” she said. “Although we used to be friends. Until we weren’t.”
Oliver gave a nod, looking amused, but his eyes were filled with an understanding she didn’t get. “You mentioned you have a bike?”
She nodded. “Two. Road and mountain. There are some really good tracks around here. If the weather holds up I might go out tomorrow. Do you bike?”
“Yeah….” He stopped midsentence and took out his ringing phone. “I’m really sorry, but it’s my sister and she wouldn’t normally call this late unless there was a problem.”
Keren nodded, taking a sip of the wine. Scott had actually poured her one of the more expensive ones, the one she really liked. He knew, because she’d asked him to get her a few bottles of it from time to time. And he did do that, to be fair to him. He wasn’t always an arse.
Like the time she’d fallen off her bike coming down a stupidly steep track and taken a layer of skin off her leg. He’d been the only person she could get hold of and he’d come straight away, walked up to find her and carried her and her bike home.
“I’m really sorry, Keren, but my sister and her new-born have just turned up at my house.” He looked panicked. “Looks like she’s left the piece of shit that’s her boyfriend. I’m going to have to go. I’m so sorry. Let me make it up to you…”
She held up a hand. “Olly, it’s fine,” she said. “You need to see to your family. I’ll see you during the week. I think there’s a comedy night on Tuesday – we’ll all be in here then. Maybe bring your sister if you can get a sitter.”
He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you for understanding. Will you be okay getting home?”
She smiled. “This is Severton. The scariest thing here is Scott.”
Keren stayed until closing time, partly because she couldn’t be bothered walking home yet and partly because the wine really was good. She was never one of those women who was bothered about being on her own in a bar. She’d eat in restaurants by herself. She’d gone on holidays alone. Having a quiet drink and reading a book, even on a Saturday night, was enjoyable.
“Lover boy got out while he could, I see,” Scott said, putting a teapot and cup down in front of her. “Sensible man.”
“Fuck off, Scott,” Keren didn’t look up from the book she’d picked up. Scott had a reading corner, a bit of a book exchange. This was a romance with a pretty cover about a motorcycle club in a fictional northern town. It was going to be as close as she got to her own sex scene tonight.
“You could at least try and be civil,” he said, picking up her wine glass. “For fuck’s sake.”
She slammed the book down and quickly checked round the bar to see if anyone was left – they weren’t. It had been a quiet night, most of the locals up at the hotel in the large function room for Gran’s Bingo Bonanza. “All you ever do is insult me, provoke me or generally try to make me feel like shit!” she shouted, standing up and letting loose. “Any date I ever bring here I risk being chased off by you. If you can’t think of an insult you ignore me to the point of rudeness. It makes everyone around us feel awkward and to be quite frank, I don’t know how I can have a future here, with a husband and family one day, with you behaving like you do around me. What is your fucking problem, Scott Maynard, and what will it take to put it right?” She was inches away from him, having strode towards where he stood with his back to the bar. Her finger jabbed at his chest, her nail digging into hard, tense muscle.
Then she felt his hands clamp down on her shoulders, holding her in place.
She wasn’t scared. She’d never been scared of Scott in her life and she knew he’d probably set a lynch mob on anyone who ever laid a finger on her. He was a verbal threat only, but that was bad enough.
“Keren, you fucking ruined me.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about? How did I ruin you? You came back from music college all muscly and with this trendy beard and tattoos; I was off to university and all of a sudden you were trying to murder me with how you were glaring…”
