‘Did you get the gates sorted?’
His face turns slowly towards me and I see his forehead slightly wrinkled, an indication that he’s frowning. I hold his stare, but he still doesn’t answer.
‘The gates of The Manor.’ I prompt. ‘They malfunctioned last Sunday.’
He starts nodding and turns his face back to the road. ‘All sorted, girl.’
I bet they are. Does John know what I’m thinking?
We travel in silence, except for John’s humming, and he drops me at Kate’s. ‘Thanks, John.’ I call, jumping out of his car.
‘S’all good.’ he rumbles, and he’s gone.
It’s eight. I have time, so I run up the path to Kate’s house.
I head straight through to find her whisking a gigantic bowl of sugar and butter. ‘Hey.’ I dunk my finger in her bowl.
She swats it with her spoon. ‘Out! I’ve got so much to do! I got absolutely nothing done yesterday.’ She’s really flustered which is a million miles away from her usual calm and collective façade. What’s got her in this state?
‘Oh yeah?’ I smirk.
‘Fun!’ she snaps, tipping flour onto the measuring scales. I take the sensible decision to leave it right there. ‘How’s your brother?’ she asks.
Oh, we’ve gone from Dan to brother? ‘He’s good.’ I won’t go into too many details.
‘Jesse?’ she asks, her tongue hanging out as she bends down to gage the scales.
‘Yeah,’ I flop down into one of the tub chairs.
She straightens up and looks at me questioningly. I haven’t got time at the moment to go into too many details, there is far too much to get her opinion on.
‘Ava?’
I sigh. ‘He wants me to move in. I said yes, but that’s only because he fucked some so called sense into me after I said no. He followed it up with a reminder fuck this morning.’ I shrug.
Kate gapes at me. ‘Wow!’
I laugh, ‘Yes.’
‘Isn’t it a bit soon?’ she asks.
The question shocks me, but I’m glad she’s of the same mindset as me. ‘I think so. He wants me day and night and a little bit in between. He’s bad enough already, with his demands, control and worrying. I can’t lose my identity.’
‘Well said. Have you told him this?’ She tosses the flour into the bowl and starts mixing again.
‘No. Hey what went down at The Manor on Saturday night and why didn’t you answer any of my calls?’ I fire the questions accusingly.
She shoots her bright blues to mine. ‘Nothing!’ she barks defensively. ‘I forgot to call you back.’
I’m immediately suspicious. ‘I was referring to the police turning up.’ I say with a raised brow. She was a bit quick to shoot that answer at me. What has she been up to?
‘Oh!’ She gets all flustered and flappy as she returns to mixing her cake mixture a little too frantically. ‘I don’t know. Jesse turned up and the police left shortly after.’
‘Hey, chick!’
Sam’s cheerful voice comes from the doorway and we both look up in unison.
I cough, looking anywhere and everywhere, except at Sam. ‘Hi.’ I wave a flappy hand in his direction. He’s a nightmare. I feel my face burning up as I glance at Kate in desperation, silently begging her to do something about the cheeky sod.
‘Samuel, put some clothes on.’ Kate scorns him on a small smile.
‘I’ve come to help.’ he whines.
I continue to direct my eyes all over Kate’s workshop to avoid him. Jesse was right, he is an exhibitionist. He’s completely naked, except for one of Kate’s miniscule Cath Kidston aprons, and as he walks past me, my eyes drift and I get a right eyeful of his tight, naked butt.
‘You’ve already put me way behind.’ Kate moans, slapping his naked rump with a spatula full of cake mixture.
‘I hope you’re going to dispose of that now!’ I laugh. She shrugs and starts licking the spatula on a smile. She’s enjoying my discomfort.
Sam turns to face me with the biggest grin on his cheeky face, clearly enjoying my embarrassment too. And then he bends slightly, shoving his arse in Kate's face. ‘Now you’re going to have to lick it all off.’
I jump out of the tub chair in a complete fluster. ‘I’d better be going.’ I blurt, my voice high and squeaky. I don’t want to witness the impending clean-up operation of Sam’s caked buttocks.
‘See ya!’ Kate laughs as I make my escape.
‘Hey, how’s my buddy?’ Sam calls.
I don’t look back for fear of what I might see. ‘Fine!’ I shout, slamming the door behind me. Kate’s short, curt response to my enquiries about The Manor is making my head spin. I don’t want to even think what I’m thinking.
I drive myself to work. I would’ve just grabbed my files and jumped on the tube, but I plan on collecting my remaining belongings from Matt after work. That chore, I am not looking forward to. I’ve been putting it off all week in light of his telephone call to my parents. I’ve not spoke to him about it, and I don’t plan to either. What would be the point? I don’t want to get into a spitting match with him and in fact, I don’t ever want to see him again. Not after today, anyway.
I arrive at the office on time to a huge bunch of calla lilies lay across my desk. I sigh. How does he arrange flowers so quickly?
I find the card.
You’re a savage and a tease.
You drive me crazy,
I love you.
Jx
I drive him crazy? The man is delusional. I fire a quick text to him;
I know u do. Flowers r beautiful. Thank u for the ride…2 work. Ax
I settle at my desk and bring up my email and list of things to do, but I’m quickly distracted from my work when I remember that I’ve not taken my pill. I grab my bag from the floor and rummage through.
After a good few minutes of searching, I have my bag turned upside down on the desk and everything sprawled all over the place.
‘Shit shit shit!’ I curse. Please, not again.
‘Morning, flower.’ Patrick strolls into the office.
‘Morning,’ I don’t look up from my futile searching. I deserve a medal for being so bloody careless. ‘Did you have a good weekend?’ I ask, scrunching up a handful of loose receipts and chucking them in my wastepaper bin.
Patrick grunts a few times. ‘No, I bloody didn’t. Look!’
I drag my attention from the pile of handbag crap all over my desk to see what I’m supposed to be looking at. ‘What?’ I ask. He points to his head, so I get out of my chair and lean up on my tiptoes, but I can’t see anything. ‘Patrick, what?’
‘That, there, look!’ He bends slightly.
‘Patrick, what am I looking at?’
‘There, that ruddy great bald patch!’ he says, his voice annoyed.
I scan his mop of thick silver hair looking for a bald patch, but I’m damned if I can see one. ‘Patrick, there is no bald patch.’ I appease him.
‘Damn well would be if I didn’t take my vitamins.’ he grumbles. ‘Nice flowers.’
‘Oh yes. My brother.’ I blurt out quickly. I need to have a word with Jesse about this.
‘How lovely.’ He smiles, making his way to his office.
My phone starts dancing across my desk, alerting me of a text.
YOU are beautiful and I know you know. Cheeky! I miss you. Jx
He misses me. I melt all over my handbag contents. I miss him too, but I’m now dreading having to go back to Doctor Monroe for the third time. This is ridiculous.
With my phone in my hand, I decide I may as well get the one call I really don’t want to make out of the way. I dial Matt, and it rings twice before he answers.