Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Scarlett and Bruce
Chapter 3: Just Lunch
John shut the door and made his way up the stairs, Sherlock at his heels.
"She isn't going to go out with you" said Sherlock sitting down by the fire once more.
"Oh yeah, do indulge me" said John rolling his eyes.
"It's rather simply, she sees you more as a brother type figure, besides you're not her type" said Sherlock simply, picking up a newspaper from a pile of papers.
"Oh so what is her type" said John, sometimes he really couldn't believe Sherlock, one minute he was up and the next he was down, sometimes his unpredictability just irked John a bit.
"Me" said Sherlock simply looking rather pleased with himself.
"You? No way" John said astonished.
"Well I could still try, to ask her out" said John a while later after a long period of silence.
"You will fail in every attempt to WOO her, you are not her type as I have already said" Sherlock didn't even look up from his newspaper and his voice had returned to its usual bored tone.
"Why do you care what I do anyway" said John, did Sherlock like Scarlett and was trying to get rid of the competition.
"I thought you were married to your work" he laughed slightly. Sherlock peered at him over the newspaper frowning slightly
"I don't care" he said finally though his voice was not as strong as he would have hoped.
That night while John was working nights at a local clinic, Sherlock found himself alone and bored. Mrs Hudson had taken his gun and his skull, he lay on his chair most of his body hanging over the side, he stared up at the bullet holes in the wall.
"Bored!" he cried loudly and stood up quickly giving himself head rush. He walked over to the sofa and cleared the papers off, and they landed with a silent Oof. He lay down staring up at the ceiling, then out the corner of his eye he noticed something.
The magazine had opened in the fall and no lay open on a page containing a blonde in a rather compromising position. He picked it up curiously; Sherlock had never looked through a porn magazine before. When all the other boys were getting interested in girls, he was developing his deduction skills. He turned it to the front, Scarlett was on the front page, wearing nothing but a pair of stockings and a waist coat. Sherlock didn't look at her bare flesh no matter how enticing it was. He looked at her eyes, in the picture she was biting her bottom lip softly, she looked playful, though her eyes told a different story, they look sad and empty. Far from the vibrancy he had seen in them today. She hated her job; Sherlock had work that out before, when she talked about it she sounded far too excited as though she were convincing herself. When she was on the phone she had stated she did not want a man who was only interested in her being a model. She was intelligent and wanted to not be judged.
He turned the page to her article, his breath caught in his throat. She lay on a bed looking up at the camera, her legs were turned to the side so he could not see much but she lay bare breasted, biting her lip once again. He shut the magazine and threw it across the room, he felt strange almost excited. He couldn't deny that Scarlett was highly attractive, but also she intrigued him, why did she work in a job she hated.
The was a light tap on the door, before Mrs Hudson stood her head peeking round the door. "Sherlock dear there is a young lady to see you" she said a small smile on her face, Sherlock stood and peered out the window; Scarlett stood there a large dog stood with her. She was scared to walk alone and felt safer with a large dog. Sherlock looked in the mirror and ran a hand through his hair, he stopped himself why was he doing this, why did he care what he looked like. "Thank you Mrs Hudson".
He made his way down the stairs he heart was racing, why did he feel so strange.
"Scarlett" he said peering round the door which had been left slightly ajar
"oh Sherlock sorry I think I left my purse in your flat" she said calmly, how could she feel so calm when he felt so uptight.
"At least I hope I left it her otherwise I fear I may of lost it" she said pulling the dog slightly nearer and peering around. Sherlock looked at the dog warily, the only dogs he had ever been around were the police German Sheppard's, but they were dwarfed in comparison to Scarlett's beast.
"oh don't worry about him, he's a soppy as anything just looks tough, I hate walking around London on my own at a night and Bruce make me feel safer" she explained the dog sat at her side and stared up at Sherlock it's head turned to the side making it looked dopey rather than forbidding.
"Bruce" he said quizzically
"I know cliché name but I couldn't resist" she laughed. He simply smiled
"Come in then and you can look for your purse" he said stepping inside and allowing her and the dog to pass.
"Bruce stay" she said sternly to the dog, who looked at her rather stupidly at her but laid down none the less. She made her way up the stairs Sherlock not far behind her.
It took just 15 minutes to find her purse,
"It's here" he called to her pulling out the heavy purple purse from behind the sofa and handing it to her.
"Thanks, Well I see you soon" she said before she swiftly left. He watched her from the window crossing the road and making her way home. She was like no one else he had met; she was hiding something, something big. Sherlock had never met anyone who was able to hide anything from him, never, no secrets, but he knew she had a secret and he would find out what. He didn't want to like her, she was suspicious, but some strange part of his brain went crazy when she was there, a part he hadn't even knew existed before. He would find out her secret and he would find out why she made his mind race. She was far to interesting to be left alone.
By the time Scarlett got back from Sherlock and John's flat it was around 8oclock, she ate and feed Bruce, but her mind kept returning to a certain person, Sherlock Homes. He was so strange he was not what you would call friendly but he was not rude either, but rather fascinating, something about him made her have a hundred thoughts at once. She knew he had probably worked out everything about her from the tiniest thing, but she was still enthralled by him.
She watched telly, nothing much was happening in the world, well nothing new anyway. There was a buzz on the intercom at around 9 that night, Scarlett stood, sighing. Who would that be so late at night?
"Hello" she called picking up the receiver.
"Oh hello sorry to disturb you, but my car has broken down and I wonder if you have any jump leads" called a man's voice it spoke strangely as though he were changing his voice somehow.
"Err no sorry don't drive, try the flat above he has a car" Scarlett said suspiciously, she pulled on the wire and peered out the window.
"Oh not a problem" said the voice and the line went dead. In the middle of the road there was a car, though its lights were on and the engine was running it had not broken down. Scarlett watched as a man walked over to the car and simply drove off.
"That was weird" she said out loud as she sat back down. His car hadn't broken down and why had he called Scarlett's flat why not the first floor why the third, it just didn't make sense. She racked her brains for an answer but came up with none.
'Maybe it was just a prank call and if I had gone out I would have got egged or something' She thought to herself as she got into bed that night.
Morning seemed to come quicker than Scarlett would have liked, she showered, ate breakfast and took Bruce for his morning walk, before returning to dress. She wore no make-up and didn't bother with her hair, what was the point they would do all that at the photo-shoot anyway. She wore tracksuit bottoms and a vest top, she pulled on her hoody and coat as she picked up her bag.
"By lovely" Scarlett called as the Great Dane watched her leave, he looked so sad. She shut and locked the door.
The walk to the main road didn't take long and soon she was sitting in a cab on the way to the shoot. Today Scarlett was doing a shoot for a perfume ad, she didn't need to act but she would be on billboards and magazines. They took hours to do Scarlett's make-up and hair; sometimes it seemed like such as waste because it would take hours to make her up and then only half-hour to take a photo. Her mind drifted off into other things while she posed, in the silky gold dress.
At 1oclock the shoot was over. God sometimes Scarlett really wished she had a more meaningful job, the only reason she still did it was because it paid well and living in London wasn't cheat. Besides at one point she had really enjoyed it and know felt as though she had grown out of it.
On Scarlett's way out her phone rang,
"Hello" she called cheerily pulling on her hoody, it did look quite strange, her clothes were mismatched and uncaring, but to contradict that her hair and make-up were so prefect.
"Hi Scarlett its John" he sounded rather pleased with himself,
"I was just wondering if you would like to go for lunch if you're free that is" he said quickly.
"I would love to, where?" She asked smiling to her manager as she left the studio.
"Umm how about that little Italian place, on Fleet Street" he asked
"Sounds great" Scarlett heard another voice say.
"Well I wasn't really inviting you" said John his voice seemed further away as though he was holding the phone away from him.
"That would be wonderful, I see you both there in a bit" Scarlett laughed slightly.
"yeah I guess so" John sighed and with that Scarlett put the phone down giggling.
I didn't take long to get there, it was freezing outside and though the sun was out it made very little difference. Revelling in the warmth inside the cafe she took a seat by the window to wait for John and Sherlock, taking off her hoody and coat.
"May I help you miss" said a waiter with a real Italian accent.
"Urr I'm waiting for some friends but I'll have an espresso while I wait" She replied smiling, the waiter was rather good looking. He was defiantly her type, tall, dark hair. But he was tanned and she had to admit she liked pale guys and he was quite muscular something which she was not overly keen on, but what was some harmless flirting.
He grinned back before walking away to place her order, Scarlett sat adding sugar to her coffee as Sherlock and John approached her table.
"Hi" said John cheerfully
"Hi" she replied as he took a seat opposite her.
"Hi Sherlock" Scarlett said he simply nodded in return before picking up a menu and hiding himself behind it.
"So how was the shoot" asked John looking up for his menu sometime later when they had drinks as well.
"Yeah it was great" She said happily,
"If you're in a job you hate why do you stay" said Sherlock not even peering up from his menu.
"I don't hate my job" Scarlett lied
"You're an awful liar" he said slowly.
Scarlett glared at him, why was he being so strange when before he had seemed perfectly nice.
"You're a strange man Sherlock" She said to him frowning.
"I've been told" he said simply,
"So anyway, what have you been up too?" Scarlett asked trying to break the tension "Got any cases".
"Yes but apparently it's not interesting enough for Sherlock. I mean I don't think I can afford to pay Mrs Hudson for any more bullet holes and I'm getting less and less sleep because of his violin playing" John said Scarlett laughed slightly though she was a little worried, about bullet holes.
"You play violin? Me too" She questioned looking to Sherlock
"Really" he said sounding very bored
"Yeah, I'm not very good, learnt when I was young, think I've probably lost it now though" She said turning away from his gaze and turning to look to John.
"Are you ready to order" asked the waiter eyeing Scarlett a little too much, she grimaced he wasn't that good looking.
After he had taken their orders he left to place them.
"That waiter is sexually attracted to you" said Sherlock suddenly making Scarlett choke on her coffee.
"In fact around 75% of all the men here including John have looked at your breasts at least three times" he said slowly, John went a rather shocking shade of pink and hid his head in his arms.
"John it doesn't matter, everyone does it, it's because there so in your face, I even find myself looking at them sometimes" She laughed slightly though he didn't raise his head.
"And Sherlock I had noticed, you didn't have to point it out" Scarlett said glancing around; he was right though even now half the men there were still staring at her. Feeling uncomfortable she put her hoodie back on to cover her chest.
"That's hardly going to make a difference" said Sherlock looking at her pompously.
"Well what do you expect me to do" She asked, he simply shrugged. John was looking up now though he was still rather pink, the food arrived the waiter winked at Scarlett before leaving. Sherlock went to speak.
"I know" Scarlett said rather annoyed that he had to point out the obvious. He shot her a rather nasty look before eating without another word. Once they were all finished, John seemed to find the courage to speak again
"So going on any dates" he asked throwing Sherlock a look which was ignored.
"Oh really John use your brain. She hasn't dated anyone for just under a year" he said simply
"Yeah thanks for shouting that out, Sherlock" Scarlett said rather embarrassed, he simply stared at her, his face unchanging.
"And she hasn't got any dates as she just turned down all the men her friend Samantha has found for her" he said boredly.
"Do you ever get bored of telling people things they already know" Scarlett spat, she didn't know why these comments were annoying her but they really were.
"And for your information I have date tomorrow night with a guy called Jay" She said irritated. Sherlock was quiet after that and did not speak for a long time finally when they had all paid and when hailing cabs, the first turned up and she jumped in followed by John and Sherlock.
"Remington House, Dorset Square" She said loudly to the driver, who set of almost immediately. The ride was silent and awkward, Scarlett felt sorry for John who sat between Scarlett and Sherlock.
Finally after what seemed like hours the driver pulled over next to her building.
"I'll see you later John, and next time maybe me and you should go out just the two of us" she said smiling sweetly to Sherlock,
"Have a nice time on your date" Sherlock scoffed.
"You know I feel sorry for you Sherlock. Living in that big brain of yours, unable to appreciate the small things in life. It really is a shame" Scarlett said to him as she jumped out the cab, slamming the door after her and making her way to her flat without another glance.
Please review, all comments welcome.