I got upstairs to find Wolverine had already turned in for the night and was purring loudly in the dead centre of the duvet. I had a quick shower, considered turfing him out, but in the end, reluctant to seem ungrateful for his delightful gift, slipped into the minuscule amount of space under the nearest side of the duvet.
I was asleep within minutes.
Chapter Eleven
Matt was late for work again Thursday morning. He scrambled in with a big smile on his face and his hair all over the place. No prizes for guessing what had delayed him, I thought sourly, my mood already ruined by a bad night's sleep and a stiff neck on waking, courtesy of that bloody cat.
"Sorry," Matt called out cheerfully and disappeared straight into the back room.
I shut the till drawer with a vicious snap. An early customer who'd been browsing around the bike lights looked up. "Cheer up, mate-it might never happen."
"It already did," I muttered. "Probably several times. And that's just this morning."
***
Later, I wandered into the back. "Have a good evening yesterday?" I asked, keeping my tone painfully neutral.
Matt looked up briefly, then bent back over the brake cable he was working on. "Yeah-it was great. Steve took me out for a meal, and it was brilliant. I mean, he missed training for it and everything."
I wondered what kind of training Steve did but didn't want to get into another conversation about the lucky bastard. Maybe Matt just meant going down the gym-gay blokes were a bit fanatical about their looks, weren't they? One of the many things I liked about Matt was that he didn't appear to have got the memo. "Oh? Where did you go?"
"Hotel out towards Ringwood. It was dead posh." Matt looked up again and grinned at me. "You'd have liked it."
He was probably right, but just then I'd have happily seen it burnt to the ground. "Special occasion?" I forced out.
Matt had his head down again. "Nah-we just had a bit of a barney the other day, and he wanted to say sorry, that's all. Are you still on for tonight?"
What's the point? I felt like saying. But that would have been petty. "Yes-of course. Looking forward to it."
Actually, after a day spent rushed off my feet in the shop, I found I really was looking forward to it. I was obviously starting to appreciate the benefits of fresh air and exercise. And it'd be my first opportunity to use the Genesis in the environment it was designed for.
All right, maybe I was looking forward to seeing some more of Matt outside work too. I couldn't remember the last time I'd enjoyed a pub lunch so much as I had yesterday, and it wasn't just because of the sausages.
***
The arrangement was to meet up in a forest car park. Matt had emailed me the location and thankfully included a map. I deliberately didn't set off any earlier than I needed to. I didn't want to arrive too early and have to hang around like I was hoping for action of an entirely different kind-although apparently there wasn't much of a risk. I'd asked Matt jokingly if there was any danger of unintentional voyeurism on these bike rides. He'd told me in all seriousness that "the dogging car park" was just outside Marchwood and they didn't go around that way all that often.
Of course, sod's law ensured I got held up by roadworks on the outskirts of Totton and spent the rest of the drive worrying they wouldn't wait for me. I was consequently relieved to swing into the car park and recognise Adam's orange mop of hair. He was standing chatting to a bunch of lads putting wheels back on bikes and adjusting headlights, one of whom I was fairly sure was Matt, although he was bent low over his bike, so I couldn't tell for sure. It definitely looked a lot like Matt's arse.
Feeling slightly embarrassed at the realisation I could pick Matt's arse out of a line-up, I parked next to the group and gave Adam a wave as I got out. He waved back and loped off towards Matt, presumably to tell him I was here. Feeling I shouldn't waste time, I got my bike out of the boot and started clicking it back together before wheeling it over to the rest of the lads.
Matt's mates were a ragtag bunch. I felt positively overdressed in my brand-new cycling shorts and a T-shirt that had neither holes nor stains. Of course, there was every chance that might change before the evening was out. Matt gave a huge grin when he saw me. "Tim! Good to see you. Right-you know Adam." The cuddly orangutan in question gave me a thumbs-up. "And this is Phil, Tel and Andy." They all nodded greetings at me.
Phil was dark and whippet-thin, whereas both Tel and Andy had a slight suspicion of too many Mars Bars around the middle. It was reassuring to see they were just ordinary blokes, not lean, mean, cycling machines. They were both fair-haired, which might have caused me problems remembering which was which, except that Tel had the worst broken nose I'd ever seen. It was practically pointing sideways. Once seen, it was impossible not to stare at, so I cast my eyes around for something else to fix on and landed on the hip flask in Andy's hand. He caught me staring at it. "Fancy a bit of the old muscle relaxant before we set off?"