Between Beasts

Chapter 3. Beast of a burger

Jodie had assumed Mark had gone home! She could only see a dark shape in the doorway, but it must be him. She wanted to cover herself but both she and Kevin were laying on top of the covers. Jodie lay there, still, incapable of moving as she stared into the darkness at the shape staring back at her, until eventually it silently turned and left.

Jodie’s heart was pounding, after a moment she quickly got up, closed the door and propped the chair from her dresser against the handle. There was no lock on the bedroom door, they lived alone, they hadn’t needed a lock.

Jodie pulled on a t-shirt which had been laying on the floor by the door, climbed into bed and pulled the covers around her as best she could with Kevin still laying on top of them, making sure to keep the door in the corner of her vision. She couldn’t believe Mark had seen her all but naked, had watched her as she had pleasured herself.

Would he say anything to her? Would he say anything to Kevin?!

It had taken some time for Jodie to get back to sleep, but once she had it had been a very deep but restless sleep, tantalised by dreams of the stranger and tormented by thoughts of Mark. By the time Jodie woke up Kevin was no longer laying on the bed beside her. She looked at her clock, one fifteen PM.

She wasn’t sure what time she had actually gone to sleep but she couldn’t believe she had slept the whole morning away. Jodie sat up and looked across the room, her dresser chair was half-way back to its proper place, sat in the middle of the floor and the door was open again. She sat still for a moment, listening, but she couldn’t hear anything.

She tentatively got out of bed, went to the door and peered out into the living room. No one there. She poked out of the room just enough to look into the kitchen. She was alone again. Jodie breathed a deep sigh of relief and went back to the bedroom, sat on the bed and look at her phone. There was a string of messages from Mary, the latest reading –

“Hey miss ‘still not up at ten’, guess somebody must have kept you up really late last night! Meet me at the cafe at two! You owe me a burger and a lot of details!”

Mary hadn’t mentioned which cafe but Jodie knew which one she meant, it was one they always went to because Mary loved their burgers, she seemed to live for burgers! Jodie had no idea how she did it, she never saw Mary work out, she didn’t play any sports, she seemed to be constantly eating but had always just seemed to stay slim… solidly built and freakishly strong now that Jodie thought about it… but slim.

Jodie wanted the company but her money for the next week was laying scattered in front of the tv in the form of the remnants of a pizza and wings banquet. Why did Kevin have to be so thoughtless? She really needed the company but, with a fallen heart, messaged back. “I’m really sorry, I can’t afford it right now. How about next week?”

“Don’t worry about it, my treat! See you in forty minutes!” came the almost instant reply.

“I can’t, really, I’d feel bad and I’d never make it there for two o’clock”

“Sorry, didn’t get that, you must be in a tunnel! I’ll get us some milkshakes for when you get here! Thirty-nine minutes!”

There was no fighting Mary, she was a short tornado of positivity that would not take no for an answer, and Jodie loved her for it. She gave in to the fact she was going, briefly attacked her hair with a brush and threw on a pair of jeans and a blouse.

It was only after Jodie had her bag in hand and was at the front door she remembered she didn’t have her keys, the door would lock behind her but she’d either have to go back to the coffee shop to look for them or she would have to rely on Kevin to be home to let her in when she got back. She didn’t know which was worse right now.

That was a problem for later though, she closed the front door behind her, hearing the lock click into place as she did, and headed outside.

The moment Jodie reached the outside door of the building she paused; it was raining again! She’d been in such a rush to get dressed she hadn’t even looked out the window, but she was locked out of her flat until Kevin came home, whenever that would be! And when he did, would Mark have told him about what he had seen? She definitely did not want to see either of them before having a chance to talk with Mary, who was waiting for her at the cafe.

There was nothing she could do but to head out into the rain, walking as quickly as she could.

Jodie finally reached the door of the cafe, pushed it open and stepped out of the rain into the warmth. Although right in the city centre, Wulf’s cafe seemed to have gotten stuck in time when it was built a few hundred years ago.

With heavy wood flooring and furniture, furs and the occasional pair of antlers decorating the walls where there wasn’t a large, working fireplace it felt more like a woodland tavern. The cafe had a sizeable yard out back as well, where large wood burning barbecues and smokehouses where constantly in use, so along with the warmth you were instantly hit with the smell of cooking meat as you walked in.

Everything on the menu came with large amounts of meat, which you were never asked how you wanted it cooked; anything smoked would melt in your mouth like butter while steaks and burgers where quickly seared rare on the barbecues. Any newcomer to Wulf’s Cafe who dared ask for their steak well done would be met with disgusted disappointment from Teo, the current owner.

Teo was big. Not only was he tall but large muscles slowly rippled beneath the tight t-shirts he always wore every time he moved. He would simply tell the complaining customer that the meat had been seasoned and cooked in a way perfected over the last three hundred and so years, tell them to try it and then loom over them until they did.

Teo could be a little… scary, but he was really friendly and kind once you got to know him, he was just a little too passionate about some things. Jodie was sure Mary had a crush on Teo, she was constantly glancing at him when he wasn’t looking but she never said anything, she seemed to shrink in on herself when he spoke to her and then go back to watching him when he left the table, it was so unlike her.

Jodie made her way across to the booth where Mary was sitting, currently draining her third milkshake. As she sat down, instantly starting to apologise for being late, Mary just looked at her and chortled out milkshake.

“Damn, girl! I knew you were going to pounce him, but I didn’t think you’d still be at it when I messaged you!”

“What? No!” Jodie was aware she probably looked a bit of a state, but that was because she was soaking wet and Mary had hurried her!

“Boop!” Mary said, poking her finger right into Jodie’s exposed cleavage, giggling.

“Mary!” Jodie looked down at her chest. In her haste she had miss-buttoned her blouse!

At that same moment, with Mary's finger still lodged between her breasts, she felt something thick, heavy and warm weigh her down. It was Teo. He had placed one of the large, fleece lined furs decorating the cafe over her shoulders. How did such a big man move so quietly?

“You’re wet. Burgers.” He boomed, more a statement than a question. Smiled at each of them, nodded and headed off to the kitchen as Mary silently watched him go.

“Mary…”

“Ye, Jodie?”

“Could you… your finger…” Mary pulled her hand back as they looked at each other, looked at Teo disappearing into the kitchen and then back at each other before bursting out laughing.

As they ate their lunch Jodie caught Mary up on the events of the previous day, Kevin skipping work, Mark being… Mark, her odd encounter with the stranger and how he had made her feel, her plans for the evening and finally, how they had gone so horribly wrong!

Mary had listened, stopping Jodie any time she had tried to defend Kevin. Mary had been telling Jodie she should leave Kevin for at least a year, that he was lazy, wasn’t going anywhere in life, didn’t deserve her and would hold her back. After some early pleading, she had said she would at least try to tolerate Kevin and would refrain from killing him, but only because Jodie loved him.

Mary had made clear her feelings about Mark though and refused to be around him. She had said that he didn’t smell right the first time they had met and had taken an instant dislike to him.

A couple hours passed as Mary went between consoling Jodie, offering to ‘take care of’ Kevin and generally chatting and laughing until Jodie heard the cafe door open and Mary just seemed to pause mid-sentence and look towards the door. In fact, the whole cafe seemed to pause.

The chatter of most of the diners, the sounds of food preparation and orders being thrown around in the kitchen all just simultaneously stopped as all the staff and regulars turned as one to stare at the door. She joined the few other patrons who seemed unaffected by this mass freeze in looking around the now eerily quiet cafe, puzzled, before sliding to the edge of the booth which had been blocking her view, and looking towards the door.

Standing there was the stranger. The tall, mesmerising stranger from the coffee shop… and he was looking straight back at her.