He gave a curt nod. “Understood. What can I get you?”
The lack of argument surprised her, but she felt like she’d been dismissed and she didn’t like it. She handed her card over to pay without comment, then took the tray over to the table without looking back at him.
“You keep staring at Scott,” Rayah said fifteen minutes later, when the rest of their team were trying to work out anagrams as part of a round. “And he’s blatantly trying to ignore you.”
“He was flirting with those two girls who are hanging around the bar like flies around shit.” They were still there, Blondie and Goldilocks. Chatting to him. Keren swore she had seen Goldilocks tugging on the bottom of her sweater to expose more cleavage.
“Go and stake your claim then.” Rayah sipped at her wine. She limited herself to a pint of Guinness – for the iron – and a glass of red wine – for the health properties – during the week.
“How? And why should I?”
“Key, he’s doing it on purpose. He wants you to go over there.”
Keren shook her head. “That isn’t the way to do it.”
“You sure? Because you look like you’re about to implode if you don’t do something.” Rayah sounded slightly disinterested; she was waiting until the others on their team were totally frustrated with the anagrams then she could storm in and get them in thirty seconds flat. That was one of her super powers. Anagram solver.
“I’m not taking the bait then. Pass me a copy.” She reached over to take one of the sheets with the puzzles on it, glancing up at just the wrong moment and seeing Scott laughing at something Goldilocks had said.
She’d seen him a few times with women, rarely the same one for more than a couple of occasions. He was discreet and didn’t make a habit of picking up women in his bar. Keren had been surprised by Marley’s revelation that she and Scott had hooked up. Something told her that the scene she was trying not to watch right now was for her benefit. He was making a point and it was a sharp one.
“Go and say something,” Rayah said. “I can feel the irritation pouring off you. It’s like some nasty putrefying liquid. Can’t you go and speak to him?”
Keren shook her head. “No. But I’ve worked out that one you haven’t got yet.”
Keren hadn’t waited for the end of the quiz before leaving. She’d snuck out during the music round, escaping any conversation with Scott. It had only taken thirty minutes for him to text her.
I’m going to bed on my own, by the way.
She had debated not responding but decided that it would be childish.
Thank you for letting me know. I didn’t think either were your type.
His response had been a simple one:I only have one type. And that’s you.
She’d gone to sleep with a strangely warm feeling inside her. The games they were playing in some ways were making it far more interesting than going out with a man who would wine her and dine her in posh restaurants and speak pretty words. But Scott made her want to have sex in a woodsman’s hut, or her bathroom floor – there was passion there and that wasn’t something you could find easily.
He was her last patient of the day; coming in to discuss the implant for the tooth that she’d extracted. She checked in the small mirror there for patients to make sure they’d wiped away the pink toothpaste she used for a scale and polish and smoothed her hair, telling herself that she’d do this before seeing most of her patients, which was a complete lie.
“Shall I start prepping for tomorrow?” Kiefer said. “We’ve got Mrs Maloney in first for new dentures.”
Keren frowned. “Don’t tell me she’s lost another set?”
“Put them down while she was in the garden pruning her roses apparently. She’s wearing her spares but they don’t fit right.”
“One, why take your dentures out while you’re pruning roses? Two, why put them down in the garden…”
“And,” Kiefer interrupted. “What is the next person who lives there going to think when they do some gardening and find them. They’re going to be looking for the rest of the body.”
Keren laughed. “That’s a bit too dramatic. Don’t you have choir tonight?” Kiefer sang in the pop up choir that appeared in various places around Severton.
“I do.”
“I can see Scott on my own. Shoot off and come in a few minutes earlier tomorrow to get everything ready for Mrs Maloney.” Her receptionist had already left for the day, not lingering unless there was something dire to attend to. Keren also didn’t want an audience when Scott arrived and although Kiefer would never gossip about her – just about everyone else – he was incredibly nosy and she’d never hear the end of it if he spotted any chemistry there.
“You sure?” he said, already making his way to the exit. “I don’t mind chaperoning the pair of you…”
“See you tomorrow, Kiefer,” she dismissed.
