Four
theo
“Sure you’re okay with this?” I pushed the passenger seat back as far as it would go, resting my knee against the console.
When Varesh found out I was joining them, he suddenly remembered a few jobs at home that apparently couldn’t wait, leaving me to make the trip alone with Sadie. Subtle as a sledgehammer.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” She reversed out of her allocated parking space, focusing on the task rather than on me.
“How are you doing?” I asked. “It got intense with Kerger back there.”
She cruised by the row of cars parked behind our building and headed for the exit. “He said some awful things, but he didn’t touch me.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
With a loud sigh, she hung a left and drove down Sanderson Street, passing the tennis club and medical centre, the dental clinic and pizza place.
The medical centre was the only business still operating on this stretch of road, and sporadically at that.
If you spotted the A-frame board out front, they’d take drop-ins for any issues other than Ultimus. Today was not one of those days.
“I’m good now.” She gripped the steering wheel and stopped at the first intersection. “I’m just not used to people talking to me like that.”
When I first saw her clenched fists in the hallway, I didn’t know how he’d upset her; I only knew for sure he was to blame. “Sorry you had to hear it. It was a shitty thing to say.”
“It’s not your fault, but thanks for standing up for me.” Sadie threw me a quick smile, her mouth tight around the edges. “After the way he acted, I’m not sure how to feel about him anymore.” Her eyes remained on the road, and she tapped her thumb against the steering wheel. “Remember Gavin?”
I nodded. He'd lived alone on the opposite side of the hall from me. “Gamer by day, medieval knight by… night.”
Gavin used to attend Renaissance festivals, and I’d accepted a few heavy packages on his behalf that could have been pieces of armour or mock weapons. He’d always seemed like a harmless guy who embraced his nerdiness, but maybe Sadie had a different perspective.
“He had no idea how to talk to the opposite sex, but he never hovered or acted weird around me.” She paused and flicked her gaze over the street. “In the beginning, I thought Dustin was just like him, but now I think he might actually hate women.”
“Can’t argue with that, but why’d he turn on you so fast? He’s been hung up on you since you moved in.”
Sadie flinched and turned right. We passed a row of houses and a couple of small shopfronts. “I don’t know,” she said in a rush.
“And how’d he get the idea you’re sleeping with me?
” I still had too many unanswered questions, including why someone would drop a couple of thousand dollars on my rent.
The only woman who’d do something like that for me was Mia, and she didn't have that kind of money to throw around. “We’ve never been close,” I said. “I mean, at all, let alone like… that.”
Sadie slowed for a group of teen boys in hoodies and baggy jeans crossing the road, only she pressed too hard on the brake, and we both jolted forward. “Do we really need to talk about this?” she asked, as one of the little shits flipped us off.
“Just trying to work out why he was so pissed,” I said as she picked up speed again. “How long were you in the hallway with him before I showed up?”
“I don’t know. Two minutes? Three?” She swung into an angled parking space outside Schultz Outdoors and cut the engine. “We’re here.”
Conversation to be continued—or not, given how antsy my questions had made her.
We slid our masks into place and climbed out.
I nodded at an older woman who left the store wearing a shower cap and rubber gloves, a garbage bag covering the top half of her body.
One wide-eyed look in my direction, and she stumbled backward a few steps as if I might try to sneeze or cough all over her. Neither of us spoke, and she all but ran down the street to get away from me.
Sadie joined me on the footpath, standing shoulder to shoulder with me as the woman escaped. “That was weird.”
“Getting stranger by the day.” I adjusted my mask, untwisting one of the elastic bands around my ear. The woman peeked behind her as she power-walked away, so I cut her some slack and waited until she'd rounded the corner before I moved.
When she was gone, Sadie and I went inside the store and paused at the entrance to sanitise our hands. A guy with a black ponytail and a nametag that said Drew checked our temperatures, then confirmed the postcodes on our licenses.
“Five minutes max,” he said from behind a disposable mask and face shield.
“Got it. What did you come here for?” I asked Sadie. “I might already have what you need at home.”
“I’m not sure. I only came up with the idea an hour ago, but I’ll know it when I see it.” She sanitised two plastic carry baskets and handed one to me.
All I had left in my bank account were broken hopes and dreams, but I took it anyway.
We strode down the centre aisle together, our footsteps echoing on the concrete floor as she checked the overhead signs. “I’ll start at the back and work my way forward—keep going until our time runs out.”
No music drifted from the speakers, and half the lights were switched off to save money.
I used to think they had too many staff members wandering around the place, but now there was no one.
We were the only customers in here, too, and the deserted feeling intensified as we ventured deeper into the store.
Sadie turned down the second-last row on the right and stopped at the tools section, facing the hatchets, hammers, and axes. Restrictions meant no one was camping or travelling nowadays, and unlike the supermarket shelves, there were no issues with stock here.
We set our baskets on the floor and pulled down our masks.
Sadie rolled her lower lip between her teeth and stared at the options. “Maybe I should have grabbed a trolley instead of baskets.”
I frowned. “Why?”
She selected a hatchet with a fiberglass handle and tested its weight. “To buy up big while I still can. If I get enough, I won’t have to come back.”
I chose a prospecting hammer and pressed my thumb against the sharpened tip. “I meant, why do you want camping tools? Are you going somewhere?”
“No. At least, not yet. Some of them make effective weapons.”
I narrowed my eyes and stared at her. People always said it was the quiet ones you had to watch. “Who are we taking down? Please say it’s Kerger.”
With a hint of a smile, she took the hammer from me and laid it in the nearest basket with her hatchet. “Hopefully no one, but I’m guessing the premier’s going to announce even tighter restrictions, and if we lose our right to exercise—”
“You think it’s going to get ugly?”
“Don’t you? Cornered animals get defensive, and we’re about as trapped as it gets right now.” She reached for another tool, just like the first one, preferring the less weighty handles.
Based on everything I knew about her, I couldn’t picture her using it on anybody, but if it made her feel safer, who was I to burst her bubble?
“I think it’ll change things,” I said, “but how ugly is anyone’s guess.”
“Three minutes!” Drew barked. We were the only two people in the store, so he could have given us a fucking break.
“Wow, he was serious about the time limit.” Sadie nodded at the display. “Grab whatever you think might be useful. I’m paying.”
Useful for what? Cracking skulls? Kneecapping someone? Had I stumbled onto a real-life mafia princess like the women Mia read about in her books?
We both knew I couldn’t afford my rent, and she looked away as if I might be too proud to take her up on the offer.
Rather than objecting and making the situation awkward, I went straight for a mini-maul, meant for splitting small logs and kindling—or heads, if you lived in Sadie’s world. “This looks good.”
Her features relaxed. “Okay. Grab a couple more. We need to hurry. I’ve got other aisles to visit before he kicks us out.”
“Didn’t you work at the art gallery?” I asked, adding a few extras to the basket. “Why aren’t you broke like the rest of us?”
“That’s… another story for another time.” She dropped a pair of binoculars in with the collection, and I hefted the full basket from the floor.
Sadie grabbed the empty one and charged off, ponytail swinging, attention passing over each display as she walked by.
Conscious of our time limit, I caught up to her just as she was turning down the clothing aisle.
She headed straight for the puffer jackets and ski gear, dumping her basket on the floor to rifle through the hangers.
“Do you have one of these?” Her fingers caught the edge of a slimline puffer jacket, and she pulled it back to reveal the reflective lining. “It’s supposed to send your own body heat back to you for warmth.”
“Two minutes!” Drew called out.
Asshole was getting on my nerves.
“I bought one last year before the shit hit the fan,” I said.
“Does it work?”
Distracted, I nodded. Her denim-blue eyes were full of energy, and her mouth parted as she waited for my response.
Until a few days ago, I’d only observed her from a distance, and I’d never picked up on the sprinkling of freckles across her nose, or her lashes being the same dark blonde as her eyebrows. It was like meeting her for the first time.
“If the power goes off, our apartments are going to be freezing.” She flicked through the sizes and chose one, draping the jacket over her arm. “Two more stops—if we don’t run out of time.”
Her sudden smile shot awareness through me, and I cursed myself for waiting so long to talk to her. All this time, we could have been getting along, and it took months of pandemic life to push us together.
Sadie collected her basket and left the row as quickly as she’d entered it. I followed her down the centre aisle again, turning with her when she hung a right at the electrical goods section. The woman was giving me whiplash.