The Jitters Excerpt
Luke isn’t the sort of lad to panic at the drop of a hat. In fact he tends to laugh in the face of hat dropping, something that Trev would testify to in a court of law. He had been the source of Luke’s mirth when a strong gust of wind had lifted a highly fashionable panama from his head. The thief wind had then dropped it over the side of Saltburn Pier into the sea, never to be seen again. However, when it came to the dropping of other things Luke’s mirth was more circumspect. In fact in the case of a dropped mug of strong black coffee it was noticeable by its complete absence.
The dropped coffee was bad news on two counts. The china mug, an expensive affair depicting amorous ancient Greeks, was rendered useless by the fall. It would never again serve as a drinking vessel. Worse, the contents of the mug had spewed across the brand new carpet. The carpet did not suit coffee stains, they besmirched its pale sophistication.
“Shit!” Luke stared in dismay at the result of his clumsiness. He had meant to place the mug of coffee on the desk, but had misjudged the edge and it had crashed to the floor. He really ought to wear his glasses more, but vanity had persuaded him that he preferred to see the world with fuzzy edges. He had nice eyes, everyone said so, they were his best feature, so why obscure them.
Galloping downstairs to the kitchen he filled a bowl with hot soapy water, threw in a cloth and carried it back up to the study.
It didn’t really help. In fact it seemed to make things worse. Luke stopped rubbing and scrubbing. The stains seemed to have spread, slightly paler in hue, but bigger in area. The expensive new carpet now looked like a gypsy pony on a wet day, pinto and bedraggled.
“Fuck!” Luke pushed a wet hand through his hair making it stand up in damp little spikes. Perhaps the carpet wouldn’t look so bad once it dried out? Maybe the staining that was still visible was more to do with water saturation than coffee? He’d been aqua lavish in his efforts to rinse the latter away. He needed to dry it fast, before Trev got home from work, but how?
Copyright Fabian Black 2010
