Girls Best Friend: Part 14

Kate sat at her computer, poised to start typing the next part of Girls Best Friend, when it dawned on her that she had missed a week...would readers of this fictional series forgive her? She sat up straight, took a deep breath and began...


Millie wasn’t entirely sure if she was awake or still dreaming, and she really didn’t understand why she wasn’t fighting him, she knew he was hiding something but she felt groggy as if she had been drugged and decided it was better the devil you know as she sat down in the car and they sped off into the night, leaving Mark at the petrol station. Millie closed her eyes and slept.
Millie woke up with the hot sun beating down on her and for a moment was oblivious to what had happened. She stretched and rolled onto her back in time to see Jay stepping out of the shower, she paused and then turned back onto her side and stared out of the window, thinking it was best to act like she hadn’t seen a thing. When she heard his footsteps heading her way she closed her eyes and pretended to be sleeping.

‘Pretending to sleep are we? I saw you checking me out....’ he laughed. Millie couldn’t help herself and smirked, ‘I am surprised you and your ego both fit in that shower!’ she replied, ‘…anyway, nothing I haven’t seen and ignored before....’ she added and instantly wished she hadn’t. ‘You are a terrible actress Millie, you need to get up now though so we can go to the airport’ he said as he began dressing.

‘The airport?! What? What airport? Why? Have you found Elvis?’ she blurted out all at once and hardly had time to catch her breath.

‘Millie…’ he said, ‘you have to forget about that, you aren’t a spy, you aren’t on some kind of rescue mission, and you need to let the authorities worry about them. You’re not some heroine in some silly adventure story that you are always reading!’ he almost shouted the last bit and Millie could feel the heat rising up her neck and knew that she had to get a hold of her temper or lest he should get the better of her. He almost goaded her with ‘so…nothing to say to that? That’s because you know I am right Millie.’ And she clenched her jaw shut and just stared through him. Jay sat next to Millie on the bed and put a hand on her shoulder, in a much lower tone than before he said, ‘What would have happened if I hadn’t come along when I did and rescued you? Seriously Millie for once in your stubborn life, listen to me and take my advice, we shall go home and explain this whole mess and you will be back at work in no time and your life will be back to how it was…normal…predictable…and trouble free. That’s what suits you Millie.’ She could barely contain herself from punching him in the face and running out of the hotel there and then, her knuckles were now white and she could feel her fingers starting to cramp. She slowly climbed out of the bed and was relieved to see she was fully clothed and went to the bathroom and locked the door.

Here she was in another bathroom having to make another decision with only the help of her reflection in the mirror. She did look tired but she wasn’t ready to give up, she may be foolish to think that she could save her boss and Elvis but…but she was also trying to get away from that normal, predictable, trouble free life she had left behind. She opened the cupboard above the sink and a bar of soap fell out, landed on the glass that sat there and knocked it into the sink, where it smashed as it hit the metal plug hole. Millie picked it out and caught her thumb on the edge and it began to bleed, she shoved it in her mouth and grabbed some tissue with the other hand.

‘Millie? Millie? Are you ok in there? Open the door. Millie? What’s going on?’ Jay called out.

‘Calm down Jay, it’s just a bloody glass’ she answered.

‘Well be careful, I don’t want to have to pay for damages.’

‘Heaven forbid’ she mumbled under her breath and slumped down to sit on the edge of the bath, she unwrapped her bloody thumb and threw the tissue into the waste bin. As it fell it occurred to her what she had to do.

‘Jay? Jay? Are you there?’

‘Where would I be Millie, do you know you ask some stupid questions. What do you want?’

‘It’s nothing, its ok, I will be fine.’

‘What!? Don’t do that! I hate it when you say that when it is totally the opposite of what you mean.’

‘I don’t want to be a pain, you always say I am a pain. I will be fine. It’s ok. It’s not even that bad…not really’

‘For crying out loud! WHAT?!’

‘I can’t tell you now, not when you are shouting at me.’

He changed his tone and tried again even though Millie knew he was trying to be facetious, ‘Millie, please, is there something I can help you with?’ and then through gritted teeth he added ‘that will get you out of this bathroom so we can go already’.

‘I’ve come on’ she said, her whole body tense as she waited for his response.

‘What? Why are you telling me this?’

‘I need sanitary things…’ and she waited for the penny to drop.

‘What? Didn’t you bring any with you? Millie, I know most of your flaws if not all of them but I always thought planning was your strong point.’

‘I had OTHER things on my mind…I knew you would be like this Jay, that is why I didn’t want to tell you, you don’t know what it’s like!’ and she held her breath hoping that he would respond how she wanted him to, now who was predictable Jay, she thought.

‘Calm down Millie, don’t get all worked up about it. There is a chemist on the corner, you can go and get some there on the way to the airport.’

‘I can’t go Jay; I don’t have any change of clothes, when you abducted me from Mark you forgot to take my suitcase’

‘So?!’

‘So, these ones have blood on them!’

‘Ok, ok, I’ll go and I shall grab some trousers for you too. I won’t be long, about half an hour, just make sure you are ready when I get back.’

Millie turned the shower on and waited until she heard the room door click closed. She opened the bathroom door slowly to make sure that he had gone and went to the window to watch him leave. Once she saw him cross the road she knew she had to move fast, she grabbed her jacket and her bag, shoved her feet in her shoes and headed out the door. As she walked down the hotel corridor her stomach turned and she felt guilty for running off on Jay a second time but excited to be one step closer to finding Elvis. She checked her bag and luckily the money was still there and she saw the ID badge again, looking at the photo of herself with red hair, she decided that she would go undercover and tried not to skip out of the hotel.

On her way out she passed a door that said BANO and from secondary school Spanish she knew that meant bathroom which meant she must be in Spain already and she rushed out of the main door and turned in the opposite direction to Jay.

Millie could only have been walking for about five minutes when a car pulled up alongside her, she kept walking but glanced across to see the window rolling down, a head leaned into her eye line and the door opened and Millie climbed in.