Stumbling into Mischief

Six

It was 8:12 in the evening.

Richard and Clare had left work at around 7:45, and were now at Richard's house.

The station had been rather quiet before they left. Richard sincerely hoped that nobody noticed them leaving together - that would have been suspicious in itself. Richard never took a woman home with him. And people knew that. It just wasn't something he did. Ever.

Richard was in the kitchen, making himself a cup of tea, and trying to work out what drink Clare would like. She had refused his cup of tea offer, and now he didn't know what to do.

Meanwhile, Clare was wondering around in the living room, dishing out some random questions.

"Where is everything?" She half shouted over the dreadful racket that the kettle seemed to be making.

That kettle desperately needed replacing.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Something's missing."

Richard frowned to himself. "What?"

Clare appeared at the doorway of the kitchen, and Richard glanced towards her. Her amused, cheeky grin lingered upon her lips as she spoke. "Hmm... I don't know. The furniture, perhaps?"

"Oh. Yes." He replied, looking back down and concentrating on his tea.

There was a long pause. The kettle finally stopped screaming its heart out, and Richard glanced towards Clare once again.

She was stood with her arms crossed, looking at him expectantly.

Richard frowned. "What?"

Clare gave him an exaggerated frown back. "Do I get an explanation?"

"An explanation?" Richard nodded slightly, looking down at the kettle. "Oh. Well... I'm hardly here. So I don't need furniture, I suppose." He said, as he began to pour the water into a mug.

"That's not a proper explanation!"

"I'm not finished yet!"

"Oh, sorry."

Richard grunted to himself, before continuing, "And when I am here, I'm either sleeping... or doing work. And I do my work in the shed. So the shed has all the furniture-"

"Shed? You've got a shed?" Clare asked, suddenly sounding awfully excited. A little too excited, in fact.

Richard put the kettle down and nodded slowly, turning to face her. "I do. Why?"

"I love sheds!" She giggled.

Richard frowned at her for a moment or two, trying to work out whether she was being sarcastic. But he couldn't. No matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't tell. Understanding people was definitely Clare's thing.

"So, are you going to show me it?" She asked, gazing up at him with a huge smile.

"Of course. I'd... I'd love to." He replied, returning the smile. Although Richard would never admit it to himself, he quite liked the idea of showing Clare his shed. It was the most impressive part of him, after all. He was extremely proud of his shed.

"Actually, that's quite a good idea. I've got a little board in there that we could use for the case."

Clare's face lit up even more. "Really?"

"Really."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" She questioned, doing a little hop on the spot. Richard was starting to see her crazy side again.