Carly was a lovely young woman. She had recently turned eighteen and glowed with joy di vivre. She had red hair and green eyes. Forget euphemisms like auburn hair or ginger. She was a redhead. Her skin was a flawless cream and her figure would have Venus de Milo looking at her with envy. She stood about five foot six and was superbly fit with an athlete's body. Her voice sounded like tinkling bells and her smile would charm birds out of the sky.
One would thing that all these attributes, combined with her sparkling personality, would mean that she had a very solid boyfriend who would spend all his time fighting off the competition. You would be partly right. There was a lot of competition but no boyfriend to fight off all the wannabe's, and she seemed to do a pretty effective job of fending off the boys by herself, without offending any of them.
A gold-digger, you're thinking, waiting for a rich sucker to come along. Wrong again. Her parents were well off and she had received a nice inheritance from her grandparents. She didn't seem to particularly care where money was concerned. She did enjoy sport and loved winning.
Did I mention that she was high-spirited and had a bit of a temper? Well, she was and she did have. The temper was certainly a bit of a minus but it just seemed to make her a little more human. An angel with a human side, let us say. She was wildly popular and loved by all.
Well, possibly I was an exception to the loved by all rule. I quite liked her and enjoyed her company but I had no illusions about her. For all her angelic looks and disposition she had a touch of the arch-fiend in her, and that touch always made me very wary about dealing with her. If you got on her bad side she would do you an injury, not that she would ever be blamed for your little bit of bad luck.
Right now she was contemplating her lack of a boyfriend and was determined to do something about it. She wanted a nice prestigious boyfriend. One that would add to her lustre, and she had just the right candidate in mind.
Roger was on the team and was successful and popular. Handsome, fit, and intelligent, similar to Carly in a number of ways. (OK, maybe Roger wasn't the brightest bulb, but he wasn't dim.) Carly thought that the pair of them would deal very nicely together.
Now I knew that Carly had chosen Roger as her boyfriend as she'd told me so. She needed a little help in landing her fish.
"Um, Carly, you do know that Roger has a steady girlfriend. From what I've seen they both care about each other very much. Why Roger? There are plenty of others out there that would be only too willing to be your boyfriend. Why not go out with some of them and see how things go?"
"Because I don't just want a boyfriend. I want to win one, and that means someone else has to lose. Where's the fun in taking some guy who isn't already attached. That's just a case of picking up an also-ran in the street. I want a boyfriend that I've taken off someone else and I've decided on Roger and you're going to help me nail him."
I had no intention of doing so. I fully intended to warn Roger of what Carly intended so that he could get his defences up. Roger was a genuine nice guy and didn't deserve the closet bitch that was Carly.
"Forget it," I told her. "Do your own dirty work."
"Andrew, you will help me and do exactly what I tell you to or I might just remember that it was you who scratched the shit out of Mr Jenkin's car."
"What the hell are you talking about? I did no such thing. I didn't even know that his car had been scratched up."
"It happened last night. Just after he took my parking spot down at the mall. A pity, because he really likes that car."
Yes, I could just imagine her temper if someone took her parking spot. It wouldn't even matter if they'd seen it first and been waiting. As soon as she saw it, it was hers. I knew who'd been scratching the car and it hadn't been me.
I didn't even try to defend myself or accuse her. If it came to a case of he said, she said, I was on a loser right from the word go.
I was older than Carly by a year and I'd known her all my life. I knew exactly what she was capable of and how she would divert the blame when something went wrong. Generally in my direction. I was six foot tall, had a voice that sounded like grating rocks, bulged with muscle, and looked generally the sort of man that sent thugs fleeing in terror. The fact that I was brilliant and that small children and animals loved me didn't count when my looks indicated I was trouble.
"You know we're going on that ski-trip next weekend?"
I nodded and she went on.
"Well, you remember that small emergency hut that used to be on the site of the ski-lodge? That hut is still there and available for anyone who doesn't want to take rooms in the main lodge. Some people want the added privacy. What you're going to do when we get to the lodge is this. . ."
Both Carly and I were of the opinion that Roger and Suzy had not yet started having sex with each other. I suspected that this was probably because Suzy was still a virgin. I also suspected she wouldn't be one for much longer the way she and Roger were looking at each other. This ski weekend was the sort of thing designed to help them lose their inhibitions and getting laid. Carly was counting on this.
After dinner on the first day of the ski-trip I went looking for Roger. By chance I found him in a secluded nook, chatting to Suzy. I sat down next to them.
"Hi," I said affably. "I won't keep you long. I'm just here to pass on a message to Roger."
Roger just grunted, unimpressed with me being there.
"When you're ready for bed tonight I suggest you should sneak out and go down to the old emergency hut. Someone will be waiting for you to finally make your night memorable."
There was an outraged squeak from Suzy and Roger was looking openly
confused. He looked at Suzy, shrugged helplessly, and turned back to me.
"Ah, who left the message?" he asked me.
I looked pointedly at Suzy and smiled.
"Who do you think?" I asked.
"It wasn't me," she protested.
"I didn't say it was," I protested in turn. "If asked if you'd be there I might admit that I've been asked to make sure you would drop past that hut. Early in the morning."
There was dead silence from the pair of them while they tried to figure out what was going on. I think Suzy caught on first.
"Tell me, Andrew," she said giving me a really sweet smile, "were you supposed to give that message to Roger in private?"
"That might have been the intention of the person sending the message," I humbly admitted, "but she didn't actually say that. I am merely doing what she did request."
