Hard Tail(17)

"I'll bring you back a stick of rock!" I threw over my shoulder as the door closed behind me.

I had a momentary qualm I might have forgotten how to cycle-after all, it'd been a fair few years-but it turned out it was, as they said, like riding a bike. God, I'd forgotten how much I'd enjoyed this. I bombed down the street, playing with the gears to get a feel for them. The Genesis handled like a dream. It might be an off-road bike, but it didn't seem to mind slumming it for once. Corners-yes, I could see where a road bike would have the advantage there, if you were going for speed. The riding position, too, was different than I remembered from my old racing bike days-much more upright, rather than hunched over the handlebars. It made for a different sort of ride-less head down into the wind, more looking around and enjoying the scenery. Not that there was all that much scenery in this part of Totton, but it gave me a taste of what it'd be like to ride in open countryside.

I whizzed round the roundabout in the centre of town, then reluctantly headed back to the shop. Matt gave a huge grin when he saw me, which I couldn't help returning.

"Okay-you've sold me on it," I said, wheeling my bike back into the shop.

Matt came out from behind the counter. "Do you want me to take it out the back?"

I shook my head. "No-it might as well earn its keep on display until tonight. I'll just put a sold label on it."

I disappeared behind the desk to write one out, and Matt headed out back to carry on with the repairs work, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

It underlined neatly just how much of a spare part (pun not intended) I was in this business. It was a bloody good thing Jay wasn't actually paying me-I'd have felt honour bound to give him a refund. Just as I was feeling really down about my lack of success as a shopkeeper, though, a steady stream of customers started to come in. Matt must have been right about the Wednesday effect. I actually took a fair bit of money-and even sold my first bike.

Granted, it had three wheels, was pink and covered in daisies, but the little girl dressed to match seemed almost as thrilled with her new ride as I was to have sold it. 

After that, we hit a bit of a lull, which left me with little to do but think. And while I had a lot of things to think about-like whether Kate would want to sell the house or to buy out my share (she could move in there with Alex, wouldn't that be nice?); how long it'd be before I got a letter from her in legalese I no longer had a lawyer living with me to translate; and whether I ought to get a lawyer of my own-for some reason I kept coming back to Matt.

Well, maybe not just him. There were a whole lot of other issues that went hand-in-hand with that can of worms. Not that cans had hands, or worms either, for that matter …

Damn it. I got out from behind the counter and started to pace around the shop, straightening the hanging bike locks (again) and arranging the helmets in order of size this time. Colour-coding them had been a daft idea.

I suppose I was hoping that setting my body in motion might still the whirling of my mind. And in fact the mindless tasks did their usual trick of setting my subconscious free-although not in the direction I'd expected. I suddenly realised where I'd seen that coral necklace Matt was wearing before. Jay. He'd brought it back from Goa.

My throat went tight. Had Jay given it to Matt? Jewellery, in my admittedly limited experience, was what blokes gave to their girlfriends. I'd bought Kate jewellery. Sometimes even when she hadn't asked me to. Was Jay after Matt to be his … boyfriend?

But Jay wasn't gay. Or even bi. Was he? No, he couldn't be. And even if he was, he wouldn't cheat on Olivia-although come to think of it, after a night spent in her chilly company, a bit of time with Matt's warmth would definitely look attractive. But Matt already had a boyfriend, anyway …

I gave a guilty start as the man himself emerged from the back room. "Everything all right?" he called out cheerfully.

"Yes! Yes, of course. Fine. Why wouldn't it be?" I rubbed my hands together nervously. "Sorry. It's been a bit quiet, that's all. Makes me restless."

"Jay usually reads a magazine." There was a stack of old bike mags up on a shelf behind the counter.

"Not really my thing," I said, shrugging. "Although I suppose I might find out a bit more about the business if I look through a few of them."

Matt tightened his lips like he was trying not to smile. "You might want to look at the ones on the bottom first." He reached over for the repairs ledger, dropped it, picked it up again and wandered out back with it, whistling an off-key tune I didn't quite recognise.

I stared after him for a moment-then dug out a magazine from the bottom of the pile and opened it up. And goggled at the assortment of naked breasts and other female parts that leered up at me from the glossy pages. Well, I say assortment, but they were all pretty similar, really, with only minor variations on the general theme of barrage balloons. As far as I could tell, there wasn't even any pretence at being natural-these girls were apparently only too happy to show the world a goodly proportion of their body weight was made of silicone.