Page 60 of The Elements

“After we fucked,” he says, and I recoil again at his casual use of the word, “you went into the bathroom but left your phone on the bedside table. By the way, just so you know, 1111 is literally the dumbest passcode ever. It’s the first thing everyone tries.

So I just called my own phone, then deleted the call from your log and stored you in my contacts. ”

I sit down in the armchair opposite him.

“I see,” I reply, wondering what would happen if I took him out to the balcony and just pushed him over.

We’re twelve floors up, after all. Every bone in his body would break, and his skull would smash into a dozen pieces.

But there’s always someone from the opposite building outside having a smoke, and I wouldn’t get away with it.

“Well, it’s nice to see you again, Graham. ”

“George.”

“Sorry, George. Yes. But why are you here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Not to me.”

He shrugs his shoulders.

“I’m horny.”

I notice that my left hand is tapping nervously on the armrest, and I force myself to remain still. I don’t want him to feel that he has any hold over me.

“That’s a really inappropriate thing to say,” I say, giving him my best Miss Jean Brodie.

“I mean, it would be, yeah,” he says, scratching his chin, “if we hadn’t already done it. But since we have, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

“That was a mistake,” I say. “And I decided not to take it any further.”

“Take what any further?” he asks, frowning.

“What you did to me,” I say.

“I don’t get it.”

“Well, you took advantage of me,” I tell him.

He laughs, which makes me want to take a baseball bat to his head.

“ I took advantage of you ?” he asks. “Look, I’m not gonna lie.

I loved every moment of it. But it’s you who did that to me, not the other way round.

You’re the adult. I’m the child. You picked me up outside the hospital, told me where to meet you later, collected me, brought me here.

I was just visiting a mate. I wasn’t, like, on the pull.

Anyway, fuck that, you need to be honest with yourself, Freya.

I can call you Freya, right? It was amazing, wasn’t it?

I literally haven’t stopped thinking about it ever since.

I bet you haven’t either. It’s why I’ve been trying to find you. ”

“Well,” I say, realizing that I need to change tack as it’s obvious that he won’t be easily threatened. “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, but it was a one-off.”

“No, it wasn’t,” he says, brushing this away and looking around the room as if he’s considering moving in.

“It was.”

“Nope.”

I stare at him, wondering what my next move should be. I’ve never been put in this position before and am uncertain how to handle it.

“You need to leave,” I say.

“No problem.”

“Thank you.”

“After we do it.”

I feel a sense of panic overwhelming me. The earth is falling on my coffin, I’m searching for my breathing tube and pushing against the roof, begging Arthur and Pascoe to release me. But they’re not there. They’ve gone home. I’m buried alive.

“That’s not going to happen,” I say forcefully.

“It sure is.”

“It’s not.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re just a kid.”

He throws his head back and laughs, as if this is the greatest joke in the world. “Seriously?” he asks. “I mean, come on.”

“You need to leave,” I repeat. “What happened then, that night, it was a mistake.”

“If it was, then it’s one that I want to repeat. Over and over and over and—”

“Have you told anyone about this?” I ask.

“Just my mate,” he says. “My best mate. Harry. You remember Harry.”

I stare at him, wondering whether he’s gone completely mad.

“How would I know your friend Harry?” I ask.

“He’s the one in your hospital,” he tells me. “Who needs the kidney transplant.”

“Oh yes,” I say, vaguely remembering our conversation on the day we met.

“You can relax, he didn’t believe me. And I didn’t tell him who it was either. I just said an older woman had popped my cherry.”

“Has no one ever told you that you’re not supposed to kiss and tell?” I ask.

“I didn’t kiss and tell,” he says, sitting forward and opening his arms wide.

“I fucked and told. Big difference. Anyway, like I said, he didn’t believe me.

Thinks I made it all up. Not that it matters.

I know it happened, and you know it happened, and that’s enough.

But maybe tonight, when we’re doing it, we can take a photo?

So I can show him? I’ll keep your face out of it, I promise.

Just, like, the rest of you. Your tits and stuff.

And my face in it so he knows I’m not lying. ”

“George,” I say, trying to remain calm. “I’m not going to say this again. You need to leave.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll call the police.”

He sits back now and smiles. Uses his left hand to mimic a phone being held to his ear.

“Good evening, Constable,” he says. “I’m a thirty-something woman who picked up an underage boy a few weeks ago and took him back to my apartment and had sex with him.

I know that’s against the law, but let’s just forget that for now because he’s in my apartment and refuses to leave.

Can you send someone over to throw him out? ”

Maybe there’ll be no one outside smoking. Maybe my timing will be perfect and I can simply toss him over the side.

“I’m not going to have sex with you,” I insist.

“Sure you are,” he replies.

“And what,” I ask, “makes you so sure of that?”

To my annoyance, he makes himself at home by using the toe of his right foot to kick off his left trainer, then his left to kick off the right, revealing once-white socks that look like they’ve been through the washer about a thousand times.

“Because,” he tells me, “if you don’t, I’ll tell.”