Same Time Next Week

Chapter 26

That Friday night Sky came right out with it, because she couldn’t stand it any longer. She had been in the bath and as there was no lock on the door, she’d had to take her chair in and wedge it up against the handle. There was a hole where an old lock had been which she’d stuffed with loo paper. Halfway through her bath, she’d seen that paper pop out as if pushed from the other side and there was a shift of light behind it, indicating movement.

She pulled the bath plug out angrily, dried herself off, dressed and struck while her internal iron was hot.

Wilton was in the kitchen getting some milk out of the fridge, fag a-dangle in his mouth. She didn’t eat in here any more. There were bits all over the floor which she wasn’t going to mop because she was hardly ever in there. The dining table had rings on it from cups and glasses and the work surface was covered in crumbs because he was incapable of clearing up after himself. There were plates in the sink from days ago and none of them hers.

‘Mr Dearne, I’ve got a new job and I’m going to have to leave before my tenancy agreement runs out. Can you give me a refund on the rent I’ve paid in advance, please?’

To her surprise he didn’t say an outright no, but instead said, ‘When were you thinking of going?’

‘I have to start in the next two weeks and it’s too far to commute from here.’

Then he gave her an outright no.

‘Sorry,’ he added on the end, a weak squeak of a word.

‘Well, how early could we end the agreement?’ She stood firm. It had taken her a lot to get to this point and she couldn’t allow herself to back down.

He laughed which set off a cough loaded with sputum that he swallowed before talking again.

‘There’s not much point in having an agreement and you signing it and then you saying you want out of it, now is there? Where’s the logic in that?’

Sky was about as wound up as she could get.

‘Were you looking at me in the bath just now?’

‘Me?’ he said. ‘Absolutely not.’ He had a stupid smile flickering on the corner of his lips.

‘You’ve been lying on my bed when I’ve been out,’ she said then. ‘I found hair on my pillow and you’ve been in my drawers.’

‘Chance would be a fine thing,’ said Wilton with a burbling giggle that sounded weird coming from a middle-aged man. He wasn’t taking her seriously at all. She’d had to keep washing her bedding, imagining him rolling around on it. Or foraging through her laundry basket.

Wilton picked up her carton of Greek yogurt.

‘That’s mine,’ she said.

‘I know, I know. I’m just checking the expiry date.’ He rotated it in his chubby paw of a hand. ‘Something in the fridge smells, I thought it might be this.’

‘It’s not even opened yet, so it can’t be that.’ It’s you, you’re making everything stink. ‘You have no right to go into my room. If I pay rent on it, it’s mine to keep private and I’d like to put a lock on it.’

Wilton swivelled his head around. ‘I thought you were leaving?’

‘I am. But while I’m here—’

‘This, young lady, is my property. I own it. I admit I did go in to your room once when you were out to check your window locks because there was a draught coming from somewhere, and I felt faint so I sat on your bed and I must have dropped off for a minute. I have trouble with my blood sugar. I am pre-diabetic if you must know.’

For all sorts of reasons that was claptrap. Not the least of them being that there was a shelf in the pantry which was made up almost entirely of boxes of his Mr Kipling cakes and great big bars of whatever chocolate was on a special offer in the supermarket that week.

She was getting nowhere fast, but if she didn’t give him everything she had now, she never would. This state of standing up for herself didn’t come along very often but when it did, she needed to make use of its wind to power her sail.

‘You have no business to enter a room for which I pay you rent, without any notice; I know my rights. I find your conduct intimidating and menacing. This is harassment and if you don’t terminate my rental agreement and refund me I will have to take things further and force your hand.’

She was breathless and could feel her chest rising up and down more than usual. All Wilton did was tilt his head and say, ‘Is that so?’

‘Yes it is.’

‘You’re going to prove that exactly how?’

‘I don’t need to prove it. I could just go straight to the police.’

Wilton grinned and wafted his sausage-like fingers at her.

‘Off you trot then. See how far you get telling them your landlord was checking your window locks for your own security. Also, you won’t be getting any refund from me. Not. One. Penny.’

He peeled the silver foil from her yogurt and stuck his tongue in it, savoured the taste, rolled the foil back and placed it on the shelf again.

Sky turned away in disgust. She needed to get to her room right now, because she could feel the telltale pressure on her chest. He would never have given her what she asked for; she shouldn’t have bothered, because now she’d made things so much worse.