‘Probably not,’ she told him, ‘unless you’re skilled in the art of breaking and entering, or know someone who can get me into my flat without bankrupting me.’
‘Are you locked out?’
Rosie nodded her head and swallowed back a fresh wave of tears.
‘Sorry,’ A. Thomas said, cringing. ‘That was a daft thing to say.’
‘No …’ Rosie said, pulling herself back up to stand in front of him. ‘At least you bothered to stop and ask.’
‘Don’t sound so surprised.’
She brushed at the wetness that still lingered under her eyes, then cocked a brow at him. ‘I think I’m allowed to be abitsurprised. You’ve lived upstairs for three months without ever properly speaking to me. I don’t even know your name.’
‘It’s Aled. Aled Thomas.’
‘Sothat’swhat the “A” stands for,’ Rosie said, brightening a little in spite of the mess she was in. ‘I’d never have guessed.’
‘You were … guessing?’ His mouth was doing that thing she’d noticed the other morning: a twitch of the lips that suggested a smile, but didn’t quite stretch to one.
‘Kind of. Sometimes,’ Rosie said. ‘Aled didn’t occur to me, though. It was all, maybe it’s Alex, or Andrew, or Adam … and then sometimes I’d imagine totally outlandish things like Alvin or Anakin.’
Shut up, shut up, shut up. It was bad enough that this preternaturally good-looking, perfectly self-possessed individual only ever saw her tripping over her own feet, scrabbling around for dropped shopping or sobbing and covered in snot. Why, every time she ran into him, did she have to affirm her idiocy bytalking?
‘You thought I might be named after a chipmunk or a Sith Lord, but it didn’t occur to you that I might be Welsh?’ Aled asked. His lips were quirking again.
‘Apparently not,’ Rosie admitted.
‘Well. I am.’
‘I see that now,’ she told him. ‘Ihearit, in fact. But the funny thing about people never talking to you is that you can’t detect their accent.’
Rosie was properly smiling now, her own facial muscles stretching in a way that felt unfamiliar after days of stress and misery. Ribbing Aled for his reticence felt irresistible, for some reason. It was like his quietness sparked her curiosity; it made her want to see whether she could ruffle his feathers. Dimly, she wondered what it would take to make him laugh so hard he cried – whether that were even possible.
‘I suppose that’s fair,’ he said, squinting at her.
For a few seconds, they simply looked at one another. Then Rosie said: ‘Right. I suppose I’d better ask Google who I can call to come out and get this door open … Then consult my banking app and see how big a dent this is going to leave in my budget.’
She bent to pull her crumb-coated mobile out of her handbag. When she straightened up again, Aled was frowning at her. Biting his bottom lip.
Bemused by his silent scrutiny, Rosie dusted off her phone and swiped to open it.
‘Don’t bother about a locksmith,’ Aled told her, the words seeming to burst out of him after some internal debate. ‘There’s no need. I can get you in.’
Taken aback, Rosie pocketed her phone and turned to him. ‘Hmmm,’ she said, sizing him up. ‘You certainly look as if youcouldbreak the door down – and it would definitely save me a few quid – but I don’t think it’d make me very popular with the new landlord, whoever they may be. Thanks, though.’
Aled was gnawing on his lip again. ‘I wasn’t planning to break the door down,’ he muttered.
A little exasperated, Rosie said: ‘OK. So whatwereyou going to do? Stare menacingly at it until it dissolved?’
Another classic. Why the hell was her mouth saying words before her brain had signed them off?
This latest gaffe prompted Aled to make a sound that could almost have passed for a laugh. He regained control of himself and said, ‘No. I have the key you need to get in.’
‘Er …?’ Rosie stared at him, staggered. She remembered James saying once that he thought their neighbour had ‘handsome-but-probably-a-serial-killer’ vibes.
Should she be scared? Shewasa little scared. What possible explanation could there be for this man having access to her home?
‘Oh my god, no – it’s nothing creepy,’ Aled said in a rush, realising his mistake. ‘You’ve no need to freak out.’
