Maureen lowered the venetian blinds and angled their dusty slats so the hotel room was striped with sunlight. The blue bedspread she threw inside the cupboard, followed by the two cheap prints hanging on the walls, and the kettle provided for complimentary tea and coffee. The room had only one chair, and Maureen faced it towards the door. Her dark green coat reached to her knees, but when she sat down and crossed her legs it became clear that she was wearing nothing underneath. Maybe sitting wasn’t the right position. Maureen wanted her unveiling to be a surprise. Perhaps she should wait in the bathroom. Or just ditch the drama and slip between the sheets. Maureen was aware that the scene she had constructed was a cliché, but so long as it worked she didn’t give a damn. Her time in Wood Green was running out, and she was determined to spend as much of it as she could in Lucian’s company. Hopefully he would turn up. There was always a chance the note she had pushed under his front door earlier that day had not been found in time. Or he had decided he was not in the mood for an afternoon rendezvous in North Hobart. Maureen regretted the ‘please’ she had written as part of her message. It made her sound too needy. Too easy. She rolled her eyes. How much easier could she get? Maureen admired the skin of her thigh and thought of Lucian’s fingers moving across it. Around it. Underneath it. She stood up to cool her desires. There was no need to rush the afternoon. Tim could take care of the shop. She could stay out all night if she wanted to. After dabbing water behind her ears Maureen inspected herself in the bathroom mirror. Thick eyeliner and red lipstick were not her usual style, and neither was allowing her hair to fall loose about her face. But she thought it softened the lines at the side of her mouth, the same way a turned up collar seemed to shade the wrinkled skin at the front of her neck. Maureen opened her coat and leaned her pelvis against the cold porcelain of the sink. But rather than temper her lust it seemed to heighten it. Where the hell was Lucian? she thought. Seconds later the hotel door swung open. Lucian’s woollen beanie and brown cords made Maureen feel ridiculous, but it was too late to stop the show now. She offered no greeting, just dragged the chair across the room and wedged it forcefully beneath the door handle. The buckle of her coat easily unfastened, and in a single swift movement the garment dropped to the floor. Maureen waited for Lucian to scan her figure, then pulled off his beanie and loosened his trousers. She could feel him growing hard in her hand. It’s working she thought. She crawled slowly across the bed, arranged the pillows into a pile, and lay on top of them. Only then did she look back at Lucian undressing. His jacket, shirt, socks. Lucian raised his singlet above his head, but when his face reappeared it was covered with red.
You’re bleeding, cried Maureen as she ran to the bathroom for toilet paper.
Lucian watched large droplets of blood splatter onto the bathroom tiles. I didn’t even feel it.