The Cunning (Dark Romance 18+)

1

The monotonous beeping of Madison's till was nearly enough to lull her to sleep. Her body moved mechanically, sliding items from left to right.

Lozenges. Butter. Squash. Hairspray.

"That's £8.05," she said, her eyes falling to the frail old lady pulling a purse from her battered handbag.

"Sorry, dear, you'll have to help me. My eyes aren't what they used to be." The lady smiled. In the palm of her papery hand sat six pound coins, a fifty-pence piece and two twenties.

Madison took the money with a smile. Enough people told her to keep the change that the till would balance itself out.

"That's all done. Have a nice day."

The lady wished her the same, shuffling towards the door just as a group of dishevelled youngsters filtered in, shirts untucked and ties hanging loose, eager for their post-school sugar rush.

There wasn't another customer after the kids until the final fifteen minutes of Madison's shift. The bell chimed above the door, breaking the silence between the loaves of bread and cartons of milk.

Madison looked up from the stock list she was checking. A head of curly hair drifted above the aisles towards the drinks fridge. Shoes peeled from the freshly mopped floor like Velcro with every step.

She returned to her place behind the checkout and waited.

"Twenty Marlboro, please," the customer said when he circled back, placing a can of Coke on the counter.

His attention remained fixed on the phone in his hand, the kind you could throw at a wall and have a better chance of chipping the plaster than cracking the screen. Madison slid the cigarettes across without bothering to ask for ID.

"That's £13.95," she said, her voice coming out higher than usual.

The stranger looked at her through his lashes, moss-green eyes giving her a slow once-over. They settled briefly on the name badge pinned to her red polo. It wasn't hers, but a spare she had found in the staff room with the name 'Tara', a new starter that had never got round to getting started. Her boss could be quite anal about the uniform.

After a moment's silence, the stranger handed her a twenty, pocketed the change and left without another word.

Madison clocked out shortly afterwards, grateful for the late-afternoon finish before her day off. She was working nights the following week and would need to adjust her sleeping schedule.

She didn't live far from the shop, a thirty-minute walk if she hurried, or seven to ten songs, depending on what she was listening to.

The neighbour's cat sprang from the hedge lining the path to her front door and wound himself around her shins.

"You hungry?" Madison asked, scooping the black cat into her arms and kissing his sleek head.

The gentle vibration of his purr rattled against the hand beneath his chin. The two of them had fallen into a routine of spending evenings together whenever her mum went away on business, something she had been doing more frequently over the past few months.

Madison suspected there was a man involved, but she never asked.

Their relationship had withered years ago, after the incident with her brother. Now they were strangers living beneath the same roof, leading entirely separate lives.

The cat leapt from her arms, tracking damp paw prints across the white envelope on the welcome mat.

Another overdue bill.