Better on our own - English

The unfortunate encounter

"Hey, young man, aren't you Penny's colleague? The one who lives with her?" a voice broke me out of my thoughts and I looked around, only to see mayor Davies standing at the garden gate. His car was right behind him. What was he doing here? My God! Had he seen Sam and Penny?"Niall, right?" he then asked me and smiled. That told me he hadn't seen her yet. I had to get rid of him and make sure it stayed that way."What are you doing here in this old abandoned shack?" he then asked me when I nodded and walked towards him.

"Renovate it. I bought the house," I replied shortly. If I kept it short, he would definitely lose interest quickly, right?

"Really?" he asked, visibly surprised and looked up at the house again. "Is there a specific reason for that?" Huh?!

"I don't quite follow you, Mr. Davies," I replied because I really didn't know what he was getting at.

"Oh, I'm just asking. Could it be that Penny has suggested that you look for something else sooner or later because she has certain plans for the future?" Uh! That's why the wind blew! Did he actually think that Penny had thrown me out because she wanted to accept his proposal?! For heaven's sake, would my impending move out make her consider actually marrying him?!

"Not really, Mr. Davies. I bought the house because I have various plans for the future. That has nothing to do with Penny." He paused in surprise, but immediately regained his composure.

"Tell me, is she okay?" he asked me hesitantly and I found that more than interesting. Hadn't he heard from Penny all week? She had spoken to Sam on the phone every day - well, it was about the plans for the new fire station, but still!

"Pretty much, yes. She doesn't give me the impression that she isn't," I couldn't stop myself from teasing a little more.

"Isn't she a little...let's say lonely? Or sad?" he asked, obviously not very happy that Penny didn't really seem to miss him.

"Certainly not lonely. She has Cody," I objected calmly, as if it were obvious. I thought of the phone calls in which she often laughed and then always came out of her office in a good mood. "And she doesn't make a sad impression on me either. Penny is no different than usual," I then added with a shrug and I had to manage not to grin as his surprise almost turned to disappointment.

"Really?!" he asked again and I almost felt a little sorry for him before he paused and his gaze went past me and darkened. "What is he doing here?" he grumbled in disgust and I followed his look to see Sam heading straight for the container.

"He's my girlfriend's uncle and he's helping us a little bit with the clearing out," I explained to him briefly, hoping that this would be enough for the mayor to decide to run away before Penny got out too. Davies certainly wouldn't like that.

"Davies? What are you doing here?" I heard Sam ask in surprise, but he also sounded suspicious and I involuntarily jumped and looked at him as he came over to us.

"I'm just checking to see what's going on here," the mayor replied shortly, but he was definitely not happy about this encounter.

"This house is not on the land you are responsible for. So get out of the way!" Sam said seriously as he crossed his hands in front of his chest. There was absolutely no friendliness in his entire demeanor and I felt a shiver run down my spine as a smarmy smile appeared on Davie's face.

"Penny's house doesn't do that either and yet it's my territory!" he replied to Sam and I gasped at this bold statement. Not only was it not true, the mayor clearly wanted to show a certain kind of superiority, which didn't seem to faze Sam in any way.

"As far as I've noticed, you haven't been seen there very often at the moment," he replied briefly and the mayor seemed surprised for a moment - but I was too. Did he get it from Cody or from Penny herself? Davies immediately caught himself and also crossed his arms over his chest. The tension that was in the air was almost palpable.