Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

Alice startled awake, eyes squinting against the harshness of the morning light. The uncomfortable seated position of her sleep had caused her muscles to tighten, and she winced at their aching complaints.

Ring ring ring! Ring ring ring! Phone call! Phone call!

The phone was nowhere in sight and yet the jaunty tune seemed overwhelmingly loud as it bludgeoned her senses with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. As she hauled herself up from the chair, Alice hissed through her teeth. Pins and needles arced up her leg from her left foot.

My handbag, she realised, before stumbling towards the kitchen with all the grace of a three-legged giraffe. The blue clutch lay discarded on the countertop. Half of the contents lay sprawled beside it as though caught mid-escape.

“Hello?”

“…Well?”

Alice’s face screwed up in confusion at this unexpected response. “What?”

“Oh, come on! Don’t play coy now. Wait… Is he still there?”

Realisation finally dawned on Alice. She glanced at the clock on the wall and her heart almost skipped a beat.

“Jess, it’s six-thirty?!”

“I know! I’ve been up for what…. A whole hour now and still no gossip. It’s shameful really.”

Alice smiled, unable to hold back in the face of her friend’s absurdity. “You know… Some people actually sleep in on Sundays”. She switched the phone to speaker and laid it on the countertop so that she could grab some breakfast.

“I know. Maniacs, right? Deets girl. Come on. Stop holding out. How was he?” Jess replied without skipping a beat.

The silence was palpable as Alice hesitated. She stared blindly into the cereal cupboard with her bowl in hand. She didn’t want to lie, but how could she possibly tell the truth?

“Alice?” The worried question startled her out of her stupor.

“Sorry. Sleepy. He… well… He didn’t stay over,” Alice replied, cursing herself at the vagueness of the answer.

“Eh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He just didn’t stay over,” she replied dismissively as she grabbed the open packet of Weetabix more roughly than she had meant to.

“Did something happen, Alley-cat?”

Ah shit, thought Alice before sighing softly. It was rare for Jess to use her childhood nickname.

“Nothing happened.”

“If that dick did anything, so help me I’ll…”

Alice interjected quickly. “Woah! Nothing happened!”

The reply from Jess dripped with sarcasm. “So what? He dropped you off at the door and just… bid you farewell?”

Heat began to rise in Alice’s cheeks. Her head still thrummed with pain from both her lingering hangover and lack of sleep. All she wanted was a quiet morning to recover… and maybe a little sympathy.

“It wasn’t like that. Look. I don’t know what happened. I woke up and he was gone.” Just a little white lie. It’s close to the truth, she thought to herself.

“Uh-huh… and you waking with no memory is supposed to make me feel less suspicious?”

“I woke up still dressed if that counts for anything?” Alice added, “with a blanket wrapped around me.”

“Hmmm… I suppose I feel a little bit less suspicious.”

Alice sighed inwardly with relief. “I guess I had a little too much to drink.” She headed to the fridge to grab some milk.

Jess chuckled on the other end of the line. “You lightweight. Did he leave you his number or anything?”

“Nope,” Jess answered, closing the fridge door, “I’m making breakfast now. No note in the kitchen.”

“Ah well. How’s your hangover?”

“My skull feels like it’s in a vice,” Alice replied honestly. She twisted the lid off the milk and drank from the jug. Even though she lived by herself, the act made her feel guilty. Thankfully, the refreshing coolness of the liquid was worth it.

“You got paracetamol?”

“I’d prefer morphine”

There was a snort of a laugh. “Will ice cream work instead?”

Alice poured a generous splash of milk over the Weetabix, though it was far less appealing when compared with the idea of ice cream. “You buying?” she asked.

“Get some sleep. I’ll head over later this afternoon after I get some errands done.”

“You are an angel,” Alice said gratefully.

“Wings and all,” Jess joked, “Speak soon.”

“Speak soon,” Alice agreed before she watched the call end. She left the phone where it was and plodded through to the living room with her food. Paracetamol would be useful, but Alice still felt too exhausted to head upstairs to the bathroom where the medicine box was stored. She moved the discarded blanket out of the way so she could sit in her chair and then smoothed it over her knees. Even watching the TV seemed like a poor idea when her headache continued to rage unchecked, so she sat in silence while she ate.

Without distraction, her thoughts returned to the conversation with Jess. She would need a more concrete explanation for what had happened to Austin. She was thankful for the lack of security cameras in her area. Her, mostly elderly, neighbours were only interested in protecting their own properties. Most cameras only pointed towards their own garden plots and driveways. Even if anyone had physically seen them enter the building together, there was nothing to suggest that he hadn’t left later or through the rear of the building. The insurance company’s tracker box in her car also showed that she hadn’t left the building by vehicle either. Surely anyone looking for him wouldn’t assume that she had done anything anyway. Just a one-night stand. No motives to chase, thought Alice as she chewed thoughtfully on her spoon.

Who else knows?

Now that was a worrying thought. Jess and her friends were obvious witnesses, but what about his friends? Had he been out with friends? A pang of guilt flashed through Alice as she realised that family members might be looking for him. He’d be considered a missing person soon. Shit.

She trudged to the kitchen with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders and deposited the empty bowl and spoon in the sink. I didn’t do anything though, she thought bitterly.

She glanced out of the window at the grey, overcast sky. June skies were supposed to be bright and sparkling with sunshine. Thoughts of bad omens flitted through her mind despite her efforts to quash them. She continued to watch the clouds despondently for a while, before coming to a decision. I’ll just tell the truth, she thought; not the truth in its entirety, but enough that her story wouldn’t be questioned.

Alice went over the story in her head. He came home with me. Everything was going fine. I went to the bathroom, but when I came out, he was gone. No note. Not sure where he is now. It wasn’t a lie. She truly didn’t know where he was now. Her eye flickered in the direction of the stairs and she swallowed hard. Please be gone.

With gritted teeth, Alice padded softly towards the bottom of the stairs and peered up them. She gathered the blanket around her so that she wouldn’t trip on the soft folds as she carefully made her way up each step, before stopping at the top. Nothing appeared to be out of place except for the missing photo frame from the night before. The bedroom door remained ominously closed.

She huffed softly in frustration before creeping slowly towards the door. Her heart was pounding almost as fiercely as her headache by this point. With a sharp intake of breath, she placed her hand on the handle and yanked it open.

A wave of simultaneous relief and worry washed through her. There was nothing. The room appeared exactly as it should, bathed in muted light through the pale curtains that remained drawn from yesterday evening. The photograph, sans frame, sat upon her bedside table as expected. The rest of the room was tidy, except for hastily discarded work clothes on the back of her desk chair in the corner of the room.

Dissatisfied with this preliminary inspection, Alice took the time to open both her small wardrobes and even peer uncertainly under the bed. The room was reassuringly devoid of hidden menaces.

Finally content, Alice removed the blanket from her shoulders and left it loosely piled on the bed and then headed to the bathroom. It took her only a short time to locate the box of paracetamol and she deftly popped two from the foil-backed tray. She realised that she had forgotten to bring up a glass so instead, she cupped her hand under the tap for a mouthful of water to aid with swallowing the pills.

Alice had originally planned to head downstairs and vegetate in front of some mindless daytime TV show but a quick glance in the mirror dissuaded her. She took the time to examine her face, turning from left to right to fully observe her exhausted visage. Get some sleep, echoed Jess’s earlier instructions in her mind.

Alice returned to the bedroom and wrapped herself back in the blanket before lazily flopping on the bed. Within minutes, she was asleep once more.