Jane Lark - Just for the Rush

But I wasn’t sorry. Santa could leave me on his bad-girl list. I’d rather be on it than miserable still. It had been amazing how my depression had lifted since I’d left. But there was guilt. I’d hurt Rick, and that was the one thing that was preventing me from being wholly happy now.

‘Here.’ Jack pushed the door of Nero’s open and let me go in first. We were welcomed in with the sound of Wham, singing out ‘Last Christmas’ …

The place wasn’t too busy. Most people were buying Christmas Eve bargains, not wasting time in a coffee shop.

I joined the queue. Jack stood behind me. I looked back to see his face, ‘So go on, then, what’s the truth with you and Sharon?’

‘It’s none of your business.’

‘Harsh.’ It wasn’t all that harsh; he’d said it with a smile.

‘I don’t fancy talking about it. I save those conversations for my lawyer.’

‘Are you trying to get your place back?’

‘No. She can have it.’

Jack had many edges. As well as always bursting with enthusiasm. There was the risk addict and the control freak. The big picture that others glimpsed seemed ten miles wide when Jack described it. He was a true entrepreneur; an ideas man and a money-maker. Emma always said if you gave him a pound, tomorrow it would be ten thousand. Everything with him worked fast, his brain dodged all over the place and he loved long shots – loved anything that made his heart beat. You could see the light in his eyes get sharper when he had an idea or was after something. The harder a client was to convince the more Jack wanted the contract and the more he pushed us to win it. He worked stupid hours fighting to win new work. But that was why he was so great to work for, his energy was infectious and he was passionate about what he did.

The only thing that freaked me out sometimes was the intensity that came with the passion. He sucked us all in and had us screaming for more, no matter how heavy the workload was, but then he would suddenly stop and lean back and look at all the work, and my heart would be going like crazy because I wanted what I’d done to be what he was looking for.

‘She’s not getting a share of the agency, though.’

I’d never considered that his breakup might affect us. ‘Shit, I’d never thought—’

‘Of course she was going to be after it. Why would she not try to get her claws into the treasure trove of J’s Advertising?’

‘Sorry.’

He laughed sharply. ‘No. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t be telling you. Don’t worry, your job’s safe. And I’ll shut up. You didn’t ask me to rant at you and I said I wasn’t going to talk about it.’

‘It’s okay, I understand.’

‘No, I doubt you do.’

He probably didn’t know Rick and I had split. Jack didn’t sit around and talk much; he was always too busy.

I looked forward again and moved along with the queue, my hands slipping into the pockets of my parka once more.

Jack’s hands suddenly gripped either side of my waist and he shook me a little, sending my tummy into a backflip. ‘Hey. Sorry again. That was mean. I heard you split from Rick. But if you’re thinking it’s the same thing – it’s not.’

No probably not. I hadn’t cheated.

‘So, who got the house in your split?’

I looked back again and laughed, but it was a shallow sound. ‘Him.’

‘Where are you living, then?’

‘In a tiny flat; an attic room. I like it. Rick is in the place we used to rent together still. I think he’s hoping I’ll go back.’

‘There see, very different. Sharon wouldn’t want me back.’

‘And you…?’

‘Want her back? Are you kidding me, that money-grabbing, self-centred bitch. I’m celebrating being rid of her.’ His pitch didn’t say celebration, it was bitter – and maybe a little twisted.

‘Can I help you?’ The barista called along the counter, picking up the orders along the queue.

‘Hi, Susie.’ Jack smiled at her. ‘Here you go; there’s the list.’

The barista smiled at him. ‘Be with you in a minute, Jack.’

‘You’re on first-name terms with the Nero’s staff,’ I whispered as she turned away.

He smiled at me. ‘Why, aren’t you?’

My smile quirked. ‘Do you flirt with her?’

‘I talk to her. What’s wrong with that?’ His hands slid into the pockets of his coat, as if he was the most innocent guy in the world. He was so on Santa’s naughty list too.

But what was wrong with it? Flirting. Nothing. Flirting was fun and I hadn’t been able to do it for years because I’d tied myself down to Rick. ‘Nothing… But… I give up with you.’

‘That’s the sort of thing my mum would say, and I didn’t even know you’d started with me, Ivy.’

We moved three people along. ‘It’s no wonder Sharon is pissed off with you.’

His eyes widened, the pale blue challenging me as his lips formed a firm line, like he was going to blow off into a storm of rude words. His Adam’s apple shifted as he swallowed them, then he said, ‘What do you guys think?’

Awkwardness wrapped me up with a nice bow. But he should know what everyone thought. ‘That you cheated.’

‘That I cheated,’ he said it in a disparaging way and his eyebrows lifted, saying, are you kidding me .

I’d guess he hadn’t cheated.

‘Well, if that is what you all want to believe…’

‘Sharon told Emma.’

‘That was good of her, and good of Em to repeat it.’

Shit, I was digging a deeper hole. ‘You didn’t cheat?’ I took a step out of it.

‘Oh, no, she’s absolutely right. I cheated. Loads .’ He’d leaned forward when he said the last word, and it shivered down my spine. Being up close to Jack was more than a metaphoric slap around the face, it was like I’d eaten a mouthful of the hottest curry; he made me sweat, as my temperature soared.

I turned away and faced the counter as we reached the till. He’d given the list to Susie and so I started reeling off the drinks we had on order. He pulled out his wallet. I stepped out of his way so he could hold his card over the machine.

‘Sorry, that was declined. Do you want to try putting your card in the reader?’

He slotted it in, then typed in his PIN.

‘Sorry, it’s still declined.’

‘Oh, fuck,’ he said under his breath. ‘Try this one. It ought to work. It’s just mine.’ He put another card in. The payment went through.

We moved out the way to wait for our coffees as the Christmas music aptly changed to The Pogues, ‘ Fairytale of New York’.

‘Has she cleaned out your account?’

‘She cleaned out our joint account a month ago. Fortunately I didn’t have much money in there. Now she’s maxed out the credit card. I only left her access to one. She was meant to use it wisely. So if she hasn’t bought her Christmas dinner already she’s going to be hungry. That is probably what she was calling about. I had the limit lowered and didn’t tell her. It’s a full-on war I’m in, Ivy.’