Chapter 9

I awake at six. The room is cold and dark. Lilly’s body lies where I left her. Her pale hair peeps out from beneath the sheet like shiny silk threads. I lift the locket, carelessly discarded by the side of the bed. Time to take my trophy? Not yet. I feel too dirty. It will be strange indeed adding these golden locks to my collection. I am heartsick.

The hot water rolls off my skin and I wash away all traces of her scent from my hair and body. By the end of the shower I begin to feel light-hearted, and I step from the cubicle wrapping a towel around my hips. My emotions are a paradox. I consider this as I walk into the bedroom rubbing my arms with another towel. Why do I feel so divided? Lilly is just one more empty carton after a take-away - isn’t she?

The room is a mess; the floor is strewn with discarded clothes. I lift the togas and lay them carefully over the end of the bed before reaching into my wardrobe for a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt.

‘Looks like you’ll lose your deposit,’ I tell her still form.

Tugging on the jeans, I consider how I am going to get the body out past the building security guard in broad daylight.

Perhaps I will just have to wait till the evening. The thought of her dead body remaining in my bed the whole day does not please me. I pull my head through the opening of the tee-shirt and as my eyes open I find myself face to face with Lilly. She is sat up in the bed, looking at me like the living dead. Black mascara smudges darken the shadows under her eyes. Her long hair tumbles over one shoulder as she clutches the sheet to her chest like a shroud.

She is wild, a revenant I’m sure, some freak corpse that has crawled from its tomb to haunt me.

‘What the fuck ... am I ... doing here?’

I am speechless. Did I bite her?

‘What’re you looking at me like that for?’

Clearly she does not know what has occurred between us.

‘Our drinks were spiked,’ I explain too quickly, trying to hide my surprise.

‘I’ll fucking kill Nate!’ She throws aside the sheets revealing her all too beautiful breasts to my gaze.

‘Really, I know you’re angry but do you have to use such foul language?’

‘Fuck off,’ she replies, indignant. ‘Of all the dumb, stupid ... how on earth could I pick ... your bed to be in?’

She jumps from the bed in all her stunning, naked glory and I am suddenly acutely interested in her body again. Her dishevelled appearance has great appeal. I have never felt as fresh as I do this morning. Casual sex has been of little interest to me previously, but now I am intrigued at the prospect of some more mutual gratification.

‘Well, since you are here ...’ I slip off my tee-shirt and walk towards here mimicking the male model walk I’ve seen on a recent aftershave commercial.

Lilly pauses, halfway into her toga dress, I know my defined chest has some impact as her eyes trail over me. She gulps.

‘You’re not my type!’ she growls, yanking the dress halfway up onto her shoulders. ‘You’re too ... pretty! I’m into real men, Jay, not smarmy rich kids who use daddy’s money to buy every girl they want. And why do you wear your hair like Jesus?’

I laugh. The Christian icon reference is not lost on me. I have cultivated this look for centuries. How much more innocent could I look?

‘My “Jesus” looks were exactly what you wanted last night.’

‘Kiss my arse. Go join ... a boy band ... or something. That’d be right up your street.’

She slams the bedroom door and as I hear the front door click closed behind her, followed by the soundless swallow of the elevator doors I am left bewildered by the way things have turned out.

The silence of the apartment yawns like a gaping wound. I am full, yet my heart feels - empty. How odd. I draw on my tee-shirt followed by a thick black sweater. The urge to return to the busy life on campus consumes me and yet there is nothing there for me to return to. Carolyn will know of my infidelity just as surely as I would know of hers, by the University grapevine.

As I pull on my trainers, grimacing at the informality of this overly-soft footwear, a knock at the front door drags me from my despondency. I listen, but I cannot establish who is there. The quiet is deafening. Another knock; louder, less patient. I open the door. Lilly stands in her toga, angry and embarrassed.

‘I’ve left my purse.’

I step back, allowing her to enter. She strolls into the lounge and stands confused in the centre of the room. She has pushed her hair back and her throat is exposed. No scars. I must be losing my mind.

‘I remember now ...’

‘What do you remember?’

‘I left it on your sofa.’ She searches around the chaise and quickly finds the small bag, stuffed behind a cushion. ‘If you tell anyone, that we ... I swear I’ll kick you so hard in the balls you’ll need surgery to extract them from your gullet.’

‘What a lovely turn of phrase you have, Lilly.’

She glares at me; anger robs her of the capacity to speak.

‘I don’t have one night stands, okay? If anyone asks, I took you home, nothing more,’ I promise, sighing.

‘Thank you,’ she stutters.

‘It’s not for you. I have my own reasons.’

‘Carolyn ...’

‘You ... know?’

‘Everyone but Steve knows ... Well, your secret’s safe with me as well.’

‘Thank you. Would you like a sweater and some joggers instead of that toga? Travelling through Manchester centre dressed like Aphrodite would be asking for trouble.’

‘That’s a good idea.’ She smiles.

How charming her smile is. We are friends - well, maybe not - but at least we are partners in crime because of our mutual secret. Lilly does not want to be known as easy, and I can still pursue Carolyn with some careful editing of the facts. I turn away as she drops the toga and hauls on a pair of black joggers and a sweater from my wardrobe.

‘We’d better get our story straight.’

‘Yes.’

As I turn I am struck by how my clothes look on her; over large but she fills the sweatshirt in an entirely different way than I do. The carefully adopted minimalism of my bedroom is overflowing with her presence yet nothing is disturbed. It is almost as if she has become a part of the room. I look around trying to determine why and I find she is looking at me oddly. I smooth my expression quickly, afraid that I will give something away.

‘I’ll drive you back and we can discuss it.’

As I turn away, I see her breathe into the sleeve of my sweater. Her eyes flutter, a small curve touches the corner of her lips and I imagine I hear her say, how good you smell.