There was a knock at the front door, making Charlie look up from the vegetables he was carefully peeling. He was the only person at home, having been allowed to leave work early given the light load of the day, while Mattie, Lucien and Jean were all off somewhere.
He put down the potato he was working on, wiping his hands and walking to the door. An impatient rapping started up, augmented by a few enthusiastic thumps. He paused, apprehensive, until he heard a giggle from the other side of the wood.
He swung open the door to reveal a pair of young women, each with a hand still raised to knock. They both looked surprised, as though he had no reason to open the door.
"Mattie?" the one on the left called around him, swaying slightly and grinning sloppily.
The other, with dark brown hair framing her face in tight curls, grabbed to other girl's arm to support her. "Who are you?" she asked suspiciously.
Charlie raised an eyebrow. They both seemed tipsy, the blonde particularly, and had appeared at his place of residence unannounced. "Charlie Davis. I live here," he stated plainly, waiting for some kind of explanation. He supposed they were friends of Mattie's, but as to why they were here, and seriously inebriated, he had no clue. It was only 5 o'clock, for goodness' sake.
The blonde's face lit up in a combination of recognition and delight. "He's the copper that lives here now," she whispered far too loudly. "She said he was handsome."
Charlie sighed, resisting the urge to cover his face, or close the door in their faces. "And you are?" he prompted, offering a civil smile.
"I'm Susie and this is Ellen," the brunette stated confidently, her words only slurred ever-so-slightly, while Ellen batted her eyelashes at him. "We're here to see Mattie, please."
"Oh, she's not here right now," he answered, earning a glare from Susie, and wondering if she was always this ill-tempered, or if that was an effect of the alcohol in her system. The latter was more likely if she was a friend of Mattie's, who had a sunny disposition by default.
Ellen's eyes went wide and her red lips pulled downwards. "What are we going to do now?" she wailed.
Susie rolled her eyes. "She's not the only one that's not here at the moment," she mumbled.
The man pursed his lips, eyeing the women and weighing up his options. He didn't want to have to deal with this, but he couldn't in good conscience send them off to traipse around the Ballarat streets until they either found someone willing to help or got themselves into trouble.
Looking at his watch, he sighed. "Mattie should be home in a few minutes, you can come in and wait if you want," he said resignedly.
"Thank you," Susie said stiffly and brushed past him. He moved to the side to let Ellen in, and she bounced in, darting close enough to press a kiss to his cheek before he could stop her. He stood shocked as she pushed herself off his chest, giggling as she went into the house, unable to walk in a straight line and supporting herself on walls and furniture as she went.
Mattie turned her key in the front door, walked inside and hung up her coat. Within a few seconds of being inside, she knew something was off. A feminine giggle came from the kitchen. Jean wasn't the giggly type, and she was the only other woman who lived here.
She put her bag down quietly and edged into the house, heading towards the kitchen. She peeked through the large window in the wall, surprised to see two glasses of water on the table, as well as the slumped form of a young woman with her dark head resting on her arms. A cutting board, small knife, bowl of scraps and pile of vegetables lay abandoned nearby.
Charlie's voice, cautious and low, came from the next room, followed by a muffled noise of protest and a wet, smacking noise. He spoke again, this time more aggressively, loud enough for her to hear the words. "Hey, I'm serious. I'll arrest you if I have to. I may not be in uniform, but don't think I won't use force," he said forcefully. Another giggle followed.
Mattie crept into the kitchen, peering around the wall to see into the lounge. Charlie stood defensively with his back to her, slightly crouched with arms out, at the opposite end of the couch from a grinning Ellen. As she watched, Ellen stalked around the obstacle and he slowly mirrored the act, keeping it between them.
As the side of his face came into view, Mattie pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from laughing. He had the same bright red lipstick that Ellen wore in several spot on his face and neck, where his casual, open-collared shirt exposed the pale skin there. She must have failed to keep her laughter internal, because he turned towards her, offering her a relieved smile.
"Mattie. Your friends here have been waiting for you for half an hour," he said, standing up straight to face her. Which, as it turned out, was a bad decision.
While he was distracted, Ellen retraced her steps and ran up behind him, wrapping her arms around him from behind. His face was priceless, looking scandalised and beseeching Mattie for help as Ellen wiggled under his arm and walked her fingers up his chest.
"Don't 'spose you'd let me see the uniform?" she said coquettishly, apart from the slurred speech and hiccoughing that interrupted. The discomforted policeman strained away from her.
"Mattie. Do you know what we should do with them?" he hissed desperately.
The nurse felt like this was going too far, and her friends were making him seriously uncomfortable. They were embarrassing themselves and her, really. "Lucien should be back soon. I'll drive them home when he gets here," she resolved.
Charlie nodded, then jumped suddenly, probably in reaction to something the flirtatious blonde had done, given her satisfied expression and the fact that one of her hands was still hidden by his body.
"That's it," he declared. He pried the girl off him, not exactly gently but more carefully than he was with most of the suspects he handled, and wrenched her hands behind her back, ignoring her complaints. "Either you sit in this chair and don't move, or I will tie you to the chair," he threatened, face dark.
Ellen hiccoughed again, pouted, but sat down. Charlie stalked out of the room.
Mattie was standing on the veranda when Lucien pulled up in front of the house.
"Mattie, what are you doing out here? It's getting dark," he called as he got out.
She walked forward to meet him as he approached. "May I borrow your car? Two of my friends came to visit, and they seem to have had a drink before they got here. I don't want them walking around at night like that," she explained.
Lucien blinked. "Yes, yes, of course. You'll be back for dinner?" he said.
She followed him back inside to collect her friends from the kitchen. "Yes, it should only take a few minutes. They board in the same house," she replied, hauling the dozing Susie upright.
Ellen got to her feet and followed them up the hall, pausing beside the doctor. "Your policeman is very handsome," she whispered conspiratorially. "I don't think Mattie liked me… talking to him though," she confided, tapping her nose sloppily before trudging out of the room.
Lucien shook his head with a chuckle and sat down, turning on the television. A few minutes later, the young man himself poked his head into the room tentatively. "Are they gone?" he asked.
The doctor turned his head to properly look at him in order to answer, but the sound got stuck in his throat. A shocked but hearty laugh broke out, just as the door swung shut behind Jean. She strode into the room and caught sight of Charlie, halting in her tracks.
The sergeant looked between them. "What?" he demanded. Lucien laughed harder, and Jean looked uncomfortable and moved to the abandoned vegetables. Eventually, the older man waved his hand at his face, and Charlie frowned and walked to the mirror in the hallway. He let out an annoyed sound and leapt back up the stairs.
Mattie walked down the corridor, dropping the car keys onto the side-table as she passed. Jean and Charlie were in the kitchen, she knitting and he reading the paper, Lucien sipping at whisky and watching the telly.
"Something smells good," she complimented as she entered the room, nodding at the oven from which the mouth-watering odours were wafting. The housekeeper favoured her with a smile, but Charlie glanced at her, face blank, and strolled out of the room. His normally pale face was a little red, presumably from scrubbing the rouge off.
"Do you know what's the matter with Charlie this evening?" Jean asked innocently, but Mattie was sure she was covertly studying her from the corner of her eye. She was wearing a little lipstick, but hopefully it was clearly the wrong colour.
"He let a pair of my friends in, before I got home. One of them was Ellen, and she can get… a little too friendly when she's had something to drink. He tried to fend her off, but she's nothing if not persistent. I suppose I should've told him about the mess she got on his face, but it was too funny," she said, stifling another laugh.
The other woman looked like she was making a conscious effort to stay stern. "Yes. If they were your friends, I think you should at least apologise on their behalf," she advised.
The nurse nodded, conceding, her brown curls bouncing and made her exit. As she ambled up the stairs, she heard Jean say something quietly and Lucien guffaw in response.
Hesitating, she knocked on Charlie's bedroom door, swinging it open when he answered with a neutral 'yeah?' The room was neat, looking little changed from how it had before he had moved in a few months ago. Starkly neat desk, shelves half filled with his books and various objects, neat desk, a large window whose curtains were still completely open despite the already set sun. Charlie sat, open book in hand, across his double bed with his back against the wall and long legs stretched out on the covers. They looked at each other while she tried to think of an apology that would appease him but not sound incredibly stilted, since she really hadn't caused the incident, per se.
He gave her a minute shake of his head, widening of the eyes and wave of the hand that indicated his impatience, the "well?' written clearly across his face.
She decided to let his rudeness pass in view of the evening's events. "I just wanted to apologise on behalf of Ellen and Suzie. I know they'll feel embarrassed about their behaviour tomorrow, but I suppose that doesn't really change much for you, today. It shouldn't have been your problem to deal with my friends. So… sorry," she said, her speech measured and as sincere as she could make it.
He considered her for a moment, then relented with a small smile and a shrug. "It's okay. It wasn't really your fault either. And they weren't aggressive, at least," he replied, before grinning. "But maybe you could tell them to ease up a little bit. To be that far gone so early…"
She laughed. "I'll try, but I don't think there's any stopping those two," she replied. He laughed with her briefly, until Jean's voice floated up the stairs to call them down to eat.
Taking note of his page number, Charlie put the book down and walked out of the room. As she moved to follow him, she noticed half a pair of lips printed behind the hinge of his jaw in lipstick. She bit her lip, judging it best to pretend not to notice. The poor boy.