Page 35 of Love Unlocked

‘Ohhh,’ she says slowly. ‘Okay, thank you, my mistake.’

Melody spins on her heels and walks away slowly, feeling self-conscious; she knows she has a weird and awkward gait. She turns around and the strawberry-blonde is still staring at her, so she turns left, then changes her mind and goes right. When she hears the door close she stops and checks on Al again.

Al peers out from number 12. He holds his thumb up, then down. Melody gives him a thumb up to let him know the strawberry-blonde is gone. He steps outside, relieved, and closes the door behind him. He quickly walks over to her, more concerned about getting away than wondering why she is here at his address, or not his address as the case may be.

‘Hi, Melody.’

‘Hi, Al.’

‘Let’s get out of here, quickly.’

He walks so fast, she has to run to keep up. They walk back in the direction they came.

‘Are you a thief? Did you just burgle a house?’

‘No.’

When they reach the bench he says, ‘Is anybody looking?’

Melody looks back.

‘Don’t make it obvious.’

‘No. Nobody’s looking.’

They walk around the corner and for some reason, as soon as they’re out of sight, Melody starts laughing.

Al stops walking, bends over, hands on his knees as though he’s run a marathon. He looks winded, but not angry at her. ‘What just happened?’

‘Don’t ask me, I just followed your lead.’

‘What were you doing at my house?’ He looks at her as if the thought has just occurred to him.

‘Oh well, apparently it’s not your house, so don’t take the high ground with me.’

She intends it as a joke, as witty banter, the kind they enjoyed a few times today, but a shadow passes over his face and he straightens up, the humour gone.

‘Sorry,’ she apologises. ‘I was trying to talk to you outside your office, after work. But you didn’t see me. I was calling your name but you didn’t hear me. So I followed you to get your attention, and it led me here.’ She says it all as if it wasn’t a twenty-minute walk. ‘I realise it’s a very stalkerish thing to do, sorry, but if I may just even the playing field a little, I saw you enter one house, that’s apparently not yours, and exit from another, so I’m guessing you shouldn’t have been there either.’

He doesn’t say anything.

‘Your stalker song must be rubbing off on me.’

‘What song?’

‘The Police. “Every Step You Make”. You must really like it.’

‘It’s “Every Breath You Make”,’ he corrects her. ‘Must not be on your hot dance playlist.’

‘It’s not. Actually it’s “Every Breath You Take”.’ She sings it.

‘You take steps,’ he says, taking an exaggerated few steps.

‘You take breaths. Look, I’m making a breath.’ She blows out air, causing a steam effect to puff around them in the cold air. ‘Now I’m going to take a breath.’ She inhales, holding her breath, with wide eyes, cheeks full of air.

He watches her for a long moment, arms folded, smile tickling the corners of his lips.

‘That’s the longest you’ve gone without talking since I’ve met you.’ Then he pops her inflated cheeks with his fingers and she starts laughing.