Running Rings Read online

  Verity didn’t want to feel emotional, but she did. This man, this crazy dancing man, this incredible lover, this Police Officer, wearing only flannelette pyjama pants and a warm smile, had erased the five percent. She rested her head on his shoulder, and put her arms around him. “I’ve lost so much. I lost the love of my life, I lost my dignity, I lost my father, I lost the memory of my mother, I almost lost my mind. I’ve been a bit of a bitch for the last six months. I was angry with everyone. I went from being scared of my own shadow to just being a bitch. I want myself back. I just want to feel like myself again.”

  “And who are you?”

  Verity sniffed back and let him go, “Sorry, I’m Verity Kate Sharpe.” She put her hand out to him.

  Adrian laughed and shook her hand, “Pleased to meet you.”

  “That wasn’t what you meant, was it?”

  Adrian shook his head, “That’s okay.”

  “For the last nine months I haven’t spent much time with people. For three months it was one terrifying man, and for the last six months it’s been mostly medical and legal people. I’ve never had many friends really. I’m babbling again. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Would you like a coffee? We can have it on the balcony and check out the view.”

  Verity smiled and nodded, and Adrian looked at her for a few seconds before he gave her a nod.

  “What was that hesitation?” Verity asked.

  “I, um, I actually heard about your case. I had no idea it was you. I’m sorry. I just had a moment where I matched the story to the face. It’s a detective thing.”

  “You’re a detective?”

  Adrian nodded, “Yes, I plan on being an Officer until retirement age and I wanted to specialise. I worked hard to become a Detective and move up the ranks.”

  Verity put her head down, “So you know all the details about me, do you?”

  “We didn’t get a name. Your case was used for training, and some of your photographs were shown, but obviously not using your face in a recognisable way. The focus of the training was how the Police had let you down, and how your contact with the Police had failed you and what the outcome had been. We were advised to think more broadly, be more suspicious, and not let matters go like yours went. We should have undeniable proof before we close an Event. They should have confirmed with the Federal Police whether or not you were overseas, and they should have investigated the initial Event more thoroughly. I believe, from a policing perspective, that your case study will help a lot of people in the future.”

  “I hope so, at least that would be something. I’m a case study, wow.”

  “Sorry, you asked and I answered.”

  “Can you separate the two? Can you see me as a person, not a victim on a charge sheet or a victim in a case study?” Verity asked.

  Adrian smiled and put his hand to his face like it was a radio. He made static noises and animated his voice, “The no-longer-a-victim is described as five feet five inches tall, weighing approximately forty five kilograms. She has shoulder-length, medium-brown hair with highlights, brown and green eyes, a Roman nose and beautiful lips. She has a lovely body shape, including long legs for her height and round breasts, and she’s currently looking at me like I’m crazy. Over.”

  Verity laughed loudly and looked at the ceiling.

  “You’re Verity Kate Sharpe, right? That’s who I’m looking at, and it’s very pleasant to hear you laugh like that,” Adrian said.

  Chapter 7

  Her last day of her eighth working week was drawing to a close at First Bank, and she was happy. Working in a bank was easy, and dealing with people became easier all the time. She spoke to people all day now, having general chats while she attended to the customer’s banking needs and talking with staff in the lunch room. She had met some nice people and hadn’t yet come across anyone who was particularly intimidating or acrimonious. Her colleagues varied in age, gender and nationality and worked different days and sometimes shared shifts. She worked Monday to Thursday from eight until five, and every Friday she went to cafés to listen in on business conversations and read various financial reviews.

  She said goodbye to everyone and walked down the back steps into the laneway between buildings where the staff exited. When she reached the street, a hand arrived on her shoulder. She turned around, “Oh, hi Brad.”

  “Hi, where are you off to?”

  “I’m going home, how about you?” Verity replied.

  “I was hoping you’d come out to dinner with me. I’ve asked you a dozen times already and you keep turning me down. Why is that?”

  Brad was six foot tall, blonde, around her age and nice looking, but since her one night stand almost eight weeks ago she didn’t feel the need to go out or be with a man. She had a man. She just didn’t know where he was. “I’m not interested in a relationship, Brad.”

  “We don’t have to have a relationship. We can just have dinner together like friends. We could be friends who have dinner. We could go now and have dinner at like six and it’ll all be over by seven. Painless, then I’ll see you next week.”

  “Okay,” Verity said, “Where would you like to go?”

  “There’s this place on the beach. I could take you there and we could go for a walk on the beach afterwards or something.”

  “Should I go home and get changed?”

  “Nah, it’s not a date, we’re just hanging out. There’s a bus in five minutes that goes straight to the beach. What do you say?” Brad asked.

  “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Brad put his arm around her shoulder and guided her to the bus stop. When the bus came, he gestured her on and sat next to her. He patted her leg, “I don’t know why you said ‘no’ all the time. I’m a good looking guy, aren’t I?”

  Verity studied his features more closely. He had a square face, his bottom lip was a lot thicker than his top lip, his nose was slightly bulgy at the end, and his eyes were a nice size. He had neat eye brows, and obviously spent time using products on his blonde hair. She came to a conclusion, “Yes, you’re nice looking.”

  “Thanks, you’re hot. Do you know that? You’ve got nice legs and I like your hair, and you have weird eyes. Not weird, they’re a nice shape but they’re a weird colour, like they’re brown and green at the same time.”

  Verity smiled, “Thanks, Brad.”

  There was a few minutes silence, and Brad patted her leg again. “People might think we’re dressing the same in our black bottoms and white tops, hey? Or maybe it’s some religious thing or something. Oh well. Hey, ever broken a bone?”

  “Yes, have you?”

  “Yeah, I broke my foot playing soccer, I broke my elbow skateboarding and I broke my wrist in the surf. That’s the problem with being heaps active, it’s dangerous. So what did you break, and how? This is cool getting to know you stuff. I like it.”

  “Um,” Verity wasn’t sure how to answer the question, “I broke a few teeth, my eye socket, my nose and my forearm. My forearm was broken and healed wrong, so they had to re-break it and set it in a cast.”

  “Whoa. I was expecting you to say you broke a little toe from kicking it or something. You’re a warrior woman. You rock,” Brad replied, holding his hand up for a high five.

  Verity gave him a high five and couldn’t help but laugh. The love of her life was into sports and she was into watching him. That was as far as her interest in sport went. If he was playing or participating then she’d watch, and she’d give him water and pep-talks, and massages afterwards. He’d broken his nose twice. He used to have a straight, fairly thin nose but it became broader after the injuries. She had told him it added character and it was very sexy.

  “So what sort of food do you like? I like manly foods myself. You know, beef, beeeeeef. You happy with beef? There’s a beef place near the beach.”

  “Are they just going to run the steer by the table so we can grab a hunk off?”

  Brad laughed and patted her leg again, “You’re a scre
am. Ever been to the Hog’s Breath?”

  “The steak chain restaurant? The one that sort of replaced the upmarket Black Stump restaurants?”

  “Yeah, that’s the one. They have curly fries. Girls like that stuff, right?”

  Verity shrugged, “Not sure that the shape of the potato really makes much difference to me. It makes you wonder why it’s a hog they use for their advertising if they want to be famous for steak. I guess you don’t really want to be eating the logo. You might feel guilty you were eating one of the hog’s relatives or something.”

  Brad laughed and moved his arm around her shoulder, “You’re so funny. They have bacon too and that probably came from the hog’s friend. This is going to be fun. We should have done this earlier.”

  Brad joked all the way through dinner. It was immature but he seemed to be enjoying himself and he was not threatening at all. Even though Verity offered to pay for half, Brad insisted on paying for dinner as it was the man’s job. They across the road to the beach holding hands and stopped to take off their shoes.

  They walked along the beach and Brad talked about his parents divorcing when he was young and his father remarrying and having more kids. He said that he lived in another state and he hadn’t had anything to do with him since he was about seventeen. His mother had remarried too but didn’t have any more children, and his step-father was pretty old. Verity thought it was interesting hearing about other people’s families. Brad had five siblings and three half-siblings. That sounded huge to Verity because she was an only child. Brad stopped walking and sat down in the sand, so Verity sat beside him.

  “I’d really like to kiss you,” Brad said, “I wanted to since I first saw you and I never thought it would even come close to happening. You’re too hot for me.”

  Verity had thought it was the other way around, and couldn’t figure out why he was interested in her at all. “Why do you want to kiss me?”

  “You’re pretty and you’re smart and you’re nice. I just want to know what you kiss like. Lame, huh? I’m so embarrassed. I should just go home,” he said, standing up.

  “You can kiss me.”

  “I can?” he replied, looking down at her, “Cool.” He got down on his knees and dived on her, pushing her backwards into the sand. He moved on top of her with his knees in the sand, and put his face on hers. He moved his tongue into her mouth and Verity put her hands on his chest.

  “Stop,” she said.

  “What’s the matter?” Brad asked, hovering above her with his hands on the sand.

  “You need to relax your mouth more. Just poking your tongue out like that isn’t nice. Your tongue should be relaxed like you’re licking an ice cream or something.”

  “Oh, sorry. No one has ever said that before. Do you want to teach me how to kiss properly? You lead. Show me what to do.”

  Verity reluctantly agreed. She put her thumb and forefinger either side of Brad’s mouth to push it open and put her tongue into his mouth. He copied her patterns and his mouth was less tight and his tongue less rigid, and it was much better.

  “Rock star. I’ve never kissed like that. It’s a lot sexier that way, isn’t it?”

  “Very much so,” Verity replied.

  “I was using my tongue like a dick instead of like a tongue,” he laughed, “Well, thanks a lot, you’ve made me want to have sex now. Should we? Right here on the beach? No one will see us. You’ll get some sand in your crack but it’ll be worth it.”

  “No, Brad. I don’t want to have sex with you. I’d like to go home now.”

  “Sure, where do you live and I’ll tell you which bus. I can walk home from here.”

  “I just need to go back to the city and I can find my way from there,” Verity said.

  “Too easy, there’s a bus stop right there. Before you go though, can we have a little kiss again?”

  Verity nodded and they stood up. Brad bent down to kiss her, taking Verity’s hand and putting it on his penis. Verity opened her eyes wide. It wasn’t on the outside of his pants; it was actually on his penis which he’d exposed through his zip. She pulled away from the kiss and looked up at him.

  “I don’t know how that happened,” Brad laughed, “I’d better go home and cool down.”

  “Good idea,” Verity replied, picking up her shoes and bag.

  Brad laughed again and took her hand. He led her up to the bus stop and waited with her until a bus came. She got on the bus and tried to work through her feelings on Brad. He was polite and friendly, but he didn’t know how to kiss and doing that with his penis was weird. She wasn’t sure how things would go when she saw him on Monday, but she had three more days to figure that out. She looked forward to going home and washing her hands and face.

  Chapter 8

  On Monday, Verity went to her locker and entered her code into the combination lock. She opened the door back and was surprised to see flowers in there. She looked at the little card attached, and it read: Sorry for being a dick. Brad. Verity smiled. He obviously had some time to think about it too.

  “Like the flowers?”

  Verity turned around, “That was very thoughtful, thank you. How did you get them into my locker?”

  “You left it unlocked, lucky for me. I don’t want people knowing how much I like you, and what an idiot I was on Thursday night. Can you forgive me?”

  Verity nodded, “Sure.”

  “Excellent. I want to take you to a nice place next Friday night, somewhere really nice with table cloths and everything. Can I?”

  “Okay,” Verity replied.

  “Thank you. I’ll do much better, I promise. I’ll be a good boy and a good friend and a good boyfriend.”

  When he left the staff room, Verity looked at the flowers again. They looked expensive and very fresh. Maybe he was just not good with women yet. He was nine months older than her, but obviously immature for his age. His kissing was a lot better after some instruction, and maybe he was just inexperienced with how to treat women.

  Brad maintained his professionalism for the rest of the day and there were no issues. He was being polite and helpful all day, and friendly like he had been since she started there. When the day ended, he followed her out of the bank and down the street. “Where are you going?”

  “Home,” Verity said.

  “Can I come home with you?”

  “No.”

  “Ouch. I know when I’m not loved. See you tomorrow,” he said.

  Verity laughed and shook her head and kept walking. She decided not to go straight home and instead go to a bookstore in the city that she loved. It was a small independent shop, owned by a husband and wife, and they had a mix of new and old books. She looked at her watch. They were open until seven so she still had some browsing time.

  Vanessa greeted her as she walked in the door, and Verity went to peruse the mystery books. She was interested in crime and mystery more so than romance. She looked across to the romance section and smiled at a book on display. She walked closer and looked at it. The big blonde man reminded her of Adrian, and the buxom brunette he was carrying could be her if she was lucky. She wondered where he was and what he was doing right now. He was the kind of man she could spend time with and be happy. Brad could learn a lot about being sexy from Adrian. She used her phone to take a picture of the cover then smiled at the picture. She went back to the mystery section and looked at the books again. She read the back covers and chose two and took them to the counter.

  “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, Vanessa, thank you. And you?”

  “I’m good. Weren’t you carrying flowers when you came in?”

  Verity laughed, “Oops, yes I was. I must have put them down on a shelf, thank you.” Verity walked back around the shop to find the flowers and brought them back to the counter. “I actually don’t like cut flowers, but I like the sentiment behind them.”

  “You don’t? What? Why not?” Vanessa replied.

  “Because they’re dead. Once you cut the
m off they’re dead. I know sometimes they’re seasonal and they die anyway, but I almost feel like they’re a fish taken out of water.”

  “That’s so depressing,” Vanessa said, “I might never look at flowers the same way.”

  “Sorry, it did sound a little depressing, didn’t it? I had this discussion a long time ago with the love of my life. There are only certain flowers I can accept being cut. It’s a quirk, I know, but he understands.”

  “Are you two getting married?”

  “One day,” Verity said. She paid for the books and told Vanessa she could keep the flowers.

  Back on the street, Verity wondered where the love of her life was right now. He was probably with someone else having a lovely time. She hoped so. She hoped he wasn’t miserable like her. She shook her head. She wasn’t miserable. She was happy when she thought about happy things. Focusing on how much fun they had together and everything he did with her that made her feel good, kept her sane in hard times. When thoughts about where he was and why he abandoned her took over, it was a different story. She wanted to keep focused on the good things. She felt like she’d already had enough negativity to last a lifetime.

  “Hello.”

  Verity looked at the man next to her waiting at the lights, “Hello.”

  “Need some cheering up?” he asked.

  “No thanks, I’m fine,” Verity replied and looked at the traffic lights again.

  “That’s a nice bag,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Verity said, still looking at the lights.

  As the light went green for pedestrians, Verity felt a tug on her shoulder and the man beside her took off across the road. She realised her bag was gone. “My bag! He took my bag!” She hurried across the road in the direction he had gone and was passed by a blue flash. She realised it was a Police Officer who was now chasing the man for her. Verity looked down at her high heels. Now she knew why women in pretty dresses wore running shoes. It wasn’t a fashion trend it was for comfort and possibly a necessity.