Loving Him Was My Punishment novel · Chapter 6 of 24
Chapter 6: The Loose Plank
"I want to try it in daylight," I told Padraig on the phone. "Outside. Where I can leave."
It was the first time I had called him instead of the other way round.
There was a pause on the line.
"Where?" he asked.
"The wharf. Tomorrow at ten. You stay six steps behind me, and if I turn around and say stop, you stop."
"I'll be there at nine, so you don't have to see me arrive."
"That's the stupidest kind thing I've heard all week," I said, and hung up before I could hear whether he laughed.
The next morning the harbor was bright and cold, and the pilot boats were coming in.
I walked along the planks of the old wharf with my hands in my coat pockets and the silver watch loose on my wrist.
Behind me, six steps back, a man in a black overcoat followed with his hands at his sides.
I knew he was there without turning.
My palms were damp.
The edges of my sight went grey every minute or so, and I stopped, and counted, and walked again.
He stopped each time I stopped, without being told.
"Ask me something," he said, after the fourth time. His voice came from exactly the right distance. "It might help, to have something to do with your head."
"Rule three," I said.
"Not about before. Anything else."
I thought about it.
"What do you eat for breakfast?"
"Toast," he said. "Burned. I haven't owned a working toaster in three years. I scrape it."
"Why not buy a toaster?"
"Because I'd have to go to a shop."
I laughed.
It escaped before I could stop it, short and surprised.
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