Rooftops

Chapter 2

"Oh, thank you so very much! Thank you!" His baritone voice echoes the hallway and squeezes the air out of my lungs.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Ben." He outstretches a hand and I take it, weary of what's about to happen.

"Couldn't you have booked a hotel?"

"I was going to go back to my house, after a walk. Needless to say I didn't take my wallet."

"Suppose I didn't let you in. What would you do?"

"I guess I'd keep running. Maybe lay low in a dark alley.."

I don't like the sound of that. I welcome him in, and he scrubs his destroyed leather shoes on the floormat. I take off his coat and a cologne is faintly dispersed, but he takes it from me to put it on the coat hanger himself.

"Again, my thanks. You've saved me from a stressful night."

"That's alright I suppose. Please, follow me upstairs. I'll get you a towel and some tea."

As we walk up the stairs, and I lock each door after him, I catch him gazing at my brother-in-laws collection of art.

"That's...?" He points to a sculpture of Kate Moss, referring to the artist.

"Lucien Freud." I finish his sentence. His nosiness and clatter of shoe against floor frustrates me.

When we get to the kitchen, I gesture to the bar seats and boil the kettle.

"Be back in a moment." I jog upstairs to get him a towel. It's only when I'm halfway up that I realise I've just left a stranger in a room full of artwork worth millions of pounds combined. Countless mistakes are being made tonight.

He eagerly takes the towel off my hands and starts to rub his brown hair. I get two cups out to distract myself from him.

"Do you take sugar?"

"No thank you." Same as me then. Saves me reaching an inch to get the sugar.

He gratefully takes the tea from my hands as I try to set it down. Annoying.

"What's your name?" An unexpected question, though overdue.

"I might as well tell you my life story. A name is a key to knowing someone better than they would like you to."

"Fine, I'll guess." I don't answer him. "Caroline."

"Interesting name to start with, but no." He studies me, as if my appearance will give him a clue to my name.

"Elizabeth." I shake my head. "Beatrice. Poppy. Esme. Amy."

"It's not British."

"Oh great. Clementine? No, alright..."

"Your tea is getting cold." He rolls his eyes, taking a sip.

"Thanks for this by the way." I nod my head, and wonder whether I should ask him to stay the night. I don't want to mention it, but it feels like I should.

He picks up the Time magazine that I was just reading. How invading!

"Interested in these? A lot of them look pretty shit." I wasn't expecting swear words from such a polite man.

"Not particularly. I've already seen a lot of them anyway."

"What cinema do you go to?"

"The one in Marylebone. I often go, probably because I don't have much to do."

"Why not? Don't you have parties to go to? Friends to go shopping with?"

I huff, almost in disgust. "I do, but whether I want to spend time with those kinds of people is another matter."

"You might find them to be different when you spend time with them." I hate it when people are right. Another reason to find him annoying. So I think back to the conversation on the monitor. Why did I let this man in to annoy me and ruin an evening of peace again?

"'Hundreds of women?'" I smile, anticipating his reaction. Disappointment - he plays it cool and natural. God damn him.

"Oh yes, fans...followers... They have many names."

"And why exactly would they want to 'follow' you? I don't see the appeal." Other than his cologne, but even then that is annoying. How can someone possibly stay in the rain for so long and keep their scent almost completely intact?

"Neither do I." False modesty - I definitely don't see the appeal.

Nevertheless, I knew that I'd seen him before. I still don't know where.