Page 20 of The Missus

‘No, I guess not. Because you’re a very sturdy little one-woman island. I respect that, I do. But some of the rest of us? We need to feel… seen.’

Keira was mildly taken aback. ‘You think I’m unfeeling?’

‘What? No, that’s not what I meant at all,’ Alanna said quickly.

‘But you think I don’t need anyone or anything except myself?’

‘Yes?’ Alanna said uncertainly.

‘Like a psychopath?’

‘No!’ Alanna exclaimed.

Keira had had enough of this. She didn’t want to talk about this anymore. ‘You know what, forget it. I have to call… a window fixer person.’

‘Glazer,’ Alanna supplied.

Keira rolled her eyes. ‘Glazer,whatever. I have to call someone to fix this fucking mess.’ She gestured at the glass all over the living room.

‘For a writer, you sure do struggle with remembering words,’ Alanna noted casually.

Keira knew that was accurate, but it still pissed her off. ‘And for a counsellor, you’ve displayed quite a lack of emotional maturity today,’ Keira snapped. The look on Alanna’s face made her regret it quickly. The hurt in her eyes... Keira wondered if it was too late to take it back. But Alanna removed the look quickly and said, ‘Do you have gardening gloves?’

‘I haven’t got a garden,’ Keira replied, foxed.

‘Any kind of industrial glove. It’s to pick up the glass from the rug without cutting myself to shreds,’ Alanna explained coldly. ‘I need a thick bag too.’

‘I think I’ve got something like that.’ Keira went into the kitchen and checked the cupboard under the sink. She found a bin liner and some heavy-duty gloves.

‘These work?’ she asked. Alanna took them silently and pulled them on, setting to work. She glanced up at Keira, who was watching uselessly. ‘Well? You better get on the phone, hadn’t you?’

Keira did as she was told, googling glazers in the area. She soon had one booked for an emergency job that afternoon.

‘I’ve got the big pieces up. I think there’s probably a lot of little shards stuck in the rug. Maybe we could Hoover it?’ Alanna posited.

‘Fuck it, no. We’ll just throw the rug out. It was old anyway,’ Keira said. It was actually only six months old, but she wanted to say something slightly kind. She could tell she’d crossed a line with her comment, but she didn’t know how the hell to walk it back.

Eleven

The glazer had the window replaced in forty-five minutes. She stepped back from her work. ‘Done.’

‘Thanks for getting out so quickly,’ Alanna said.

‘No problem. How’d it happen?’ the woman asked, putting her tools away.

‘We were attacked by my flatmate's lover,’ Alanna said simply.

Keira rolled her eyes. ‘She wasn’t mylover.’ She turned to the glazer. ‘She was a… We’d only gone out once.’

The glazer shrugged. ‘No judgement here, I’ve seen it all, love. Pressing charges?’

‘Umm, I don’t think so,’ Keira said uncertainly.

‘I would if I were you. But then I’m very vengeful,’ the glazer noted nonchalantly. ‘Right, that’ll be two hundred.’ She got a card machine out of her bag.

‘Okey-dokey,’ Keira said, reaching into her pocket.

‘No, I’ve got it,’ Alanna said, getting her card out.