Borrowed Bachelor

Rick shook his head as he lounged against the door-jamb. ‘You’ve totally lost me again.’

‘I need your help. Actually, I need to inspect your flat.’

‘Like hell you do.’ His scowl deepened.

‘I’m sorry, but it’s important. It’s necessary research. I need to see how a man lives,’ Maddy told him cheerfully.

Rick looked so startled, Maddy thought he was going to drop the casserole dish.

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She was getting tired of hovering in the hallway. Rick Lawson certainly didn’t go out of his way to be hospitable. ‘When Byron and Cynthia come. When they arrive at my place, I have to pretend that I have a—new lover. You know, a live-in lover. Remember? I told Cynthia in the shop that day that he was moving in.’

‘So you’re going to keep this subterfuge going as a morale booster, are you?’ Rick drawled.

Maddy hesitated. If Rick was going to be negative or cynical about her plans, she would get nowhere. ‘Well, yes. I couldn’t bear to have Cynthia catch me out. And Byron and Cynthia will get the picture that I’m not jealous much more clearly if I have my own gorgeous hunk of live-in masculinity, won’t they?’

‘I—I guess so.’ Rick stared at her and she could have sworn his jaw thrust forward slightly. ‘So, where exactly does my flat fit into all of this?’

‘Oh, Rick, please let me in and then I’ll explain. After all, you bounced into my flat unannounced the other night and all’s fair in love and war.’

He stood frowning for a little longer before he finally shrugged and stepped back, gesturing for her to enter. ‘I can’t promise you’ll be impressed.’

‘I’m not expecting to be impressed,’ said Maddy, beaming triumphantly as she followed Rick into his lounge room. ‘I have two brothers and their rooms have always looked like war zones. But I wasn’t sure if they were typical of the male species.’

Halfway across his lounge room, Rick paused. ‘So you’ve never been in another man’s apartment?’

Her confidence faltered. ‘N-no. Not alone with a man who lives—alone.”

‘There must have been boyfriends?’

‘At uni I lived in a residential college—so did most of the guys I dated. I occasionally saw their rooms, but it’s not quite the same.’

‘What about Dracula? What’s his name again?’

‘Byron.’ She shot him a drop-dead look. ‘He lives with his mother. And she still does everything for him.’

One of Rick’s eyebrows rose and he smiled at her. ‘One might almost feel sympathy for Cynthia.’

Maddy allowed herself a small chuckle. ‘Yes. She might be in for one or two surprises.’

‘Perhaps you had a lucky escape.’

‘Perhaps…’

By the time Maddy had journeyed through Rick’s flat and reached his kitchen, it was her turn to be surprised. His flat was amazingly neat. Neat wasn’t really the word for it. It was spartan. ‘Your—your flat is virtually empty!’ she cried in dismay.

‘Welcome to masculine perfection,’ he said with a laugh.

She rolled her eyes.

‘Well,’ he went on defensively, ‘these are only temporary digs. This isn’t my home, you know. Not that I really have a home anymore.’ He paused and frowned. ‘I’m never settled in one place for long. I couldn’t get a furnished apartment close to the hospital for just a few weeks and I didn’t want to waste money getting a whole lot of unnecessary furniture.’ Setting the casserole dish down on a kitchen bench, he turned to her. ‘So, Ms Delancy, what exactly did you want to know about male habitats?’

Maddy chewed her soft lower lip. She’d been afraid Rick would make fun of her scheme and it seemed her fears were warranted. Still, she was committed to this appointment with Byron and Cynthia now, and so she had to press on. ‘Well, you said yourself the other night that there was no sign of a man in my flat, so I want to plant evidence of a man’s existence about the place. I guess if you can’t—or won’t—help me I can make it up myself—a football sweater draped over a chair, joggers under the sofa, shaving gear in the bathroom.’

‘Bathroom?’ His forehead wrinkled in surprise. ‘Do you need to go into that much detail?’

‘Definitely. I’m sure Cynthia is the type to investigate the bathroom cabinet while she visits—just so she can check out every intimate detail. If she had time she would probably snoop around the bedroom too.’

‘What might she hope to find there?’

To her annoyance, Maddy felt her cheeks burn. ‘I was actually thinking of pyjamas.’ She looked at him shyly. ‘You don’t happen to have a spare pair, do you?’

‘To leave poking out from under your pillow?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Sorry,’ Rick grinned. ‘I never use them. Can’t help you there at all.’

‘Oh…’ Maddy made a show of examining her nails while she tried to banish thoughts of Rick between the sheets and without pyjamas.

‘I’m starting to get the picture.’ He looked around his bare kitchen. ‘Would you like some coffee? Or perhaps a beer?’

‘Coffee would be lovely.’

He switched on his electric kettle before grabbing a teaspoon to lever the lid off a tin of instant coffee. ‘I’m afraid there’s nothing fancy here.’

‘Instant’s fine,’ she told him. With something of a start, she realised that anything was fine when Rick was being friendly and cooperative like this. Just watching him fill mugs with steaming water filled her with warm, bubbling happiness.

Rick held a mug in each hand and indicated the lounge room with his shoulder. ‘Take a seat in there and I’ll see if I can come up with any helpful hints.’

There was still only the one dilapidated director’s chair in the room and Rick sat cross-legged on the rather unattractive carpet.

Feeling like a rather hesitant Goldilocks, Maddy tried the chair. ‘I’ll sit on the carpet, too,’ she offered. ‘I feel a bit elevated up here.’

It was only after she’d lowered herself to the floor that Maddy remembered she was wearing a very short skirt. She manoeuvred herself into the most demure position possible with her knees tightly together and her legs tucked to one side. With one hand, she tugged at her tartan skirt to hold it in place, while with the other she accepted the coffee. ‘So, have you any bright ideas?’

For several long seconds Rick seemed to be having trouble coming up with an answer. ‘Er, um golf clubs.’

‘Golf clubs? You want me to park some golf clubs in a corner somewhere?’

‘They’d impress Byron, wouldn’t they?’

‘Probably, if they were really good quality, but I don’t know where I’d get them from.’

‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘You play golf?’

Rick shook his head. ‘No, I’ve never had time to pick up the skills. As far as I’m concerned golf is a good walk interrupted. But I have a couple of friends who are mad keen golfers. I’m sure one of them will help out.’