Glazier

Excerpt

After shaking out my clothes, I ran a hand through my hair before going into the pub. There was a table in a back corner that still afforded me a good view of the front door and the one restroom in the opposite corner. Thoughts I had been trying to bury for a lifetime invaded my mind like a painful, unwanted disease.
The waitress sat the pub special of mystery meat and potatoes down with a mug of ale making sure to give me a generous view of her backside as she walked away, halting any more thoughts. A few months ago, I would have flirted with her, perhaps taking her out back and showing her my bike. Stealing a few kisses or two. But today, just like all the other times in the last few weeks, my flirtatiousness was at an utter loss, drowned out by my melancholy. Digging into my meal, I did what came easiest, ignoring my feelings and burying them down deep, allowing Glazier to numb any pain.
Ah, Glazier she was the power that had created this life I lived. She enabled me to join the Queen’s Army then be recruited by Abram for the work I did now. A vibration in my pocket demanded my attention. It was a text from my informant at the base. While I was away, I liked to monitor my boss and the operation he ran. To say there was a lack of trust would be an understatement. Calling the latest burn number I had given the informant, I took another swig of ale as the phone rang.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“It’s me. What’s up?”
“You need to get back quick. We need to talk in private.”
“Just tell me now,” I responded, setting my cup down and sitting straighter in the chair. It wasn’t like him to be so insistent for a personal meeting.
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“Tell me now,” I demanded again, making my voice go down even lower than it was, a trick I had learned to get information.
Sighing the man agreed. “Abram has found another Glazier, and they’re at the base.”
My hands shook and it was as if everything finally might make sense. I cut the call. I ran to the bathroom as I shoved the phone in my pocket and locked the door. Hands still shaking, I ran warm water in the sink, splashed my face, and then rubbed the back of my neck. I’m not alone. Finally, a comrade that can understand. Maybe he’s older and can teach me. For the first time in a long while, things were looking up.
The phone vibrated again. Looking in the mirror at my own reflection, I took a deep breath in through my nostrils and out through my mouth before I answered.
“Yeah.”
“You okay?” asked the informant.
“Yeah, I’m leaving now. I’ll be there soon.”
“Wait. There’s one more thing.”
“What?” I asked holding the phone with my shoulder while drying my hands on some paper towels.
“The other Glazier…it’s a woman.”
The words echoed through my mind. The phone slipped through my fingertips, this time falling to the tile floor and breaking into several pieces.
Instead of driving back to Norway after the call, I had found an airport and boarded the first flight available.
Marie sighed and moaned, her creamy leg peaking out from under the sheet, almost identical to the woman I had left in London.
Only now, I realized that everything that had happened was for a reason. It was as if I had been prepared for Marie. Sure, I had expected another male, but frankly, if fate dictated all this, I owed her because Marie could be the best thing that had ever happened to me.
I just didn't quite understand why yet.