Page 35 of It's Now or Never

Outside, I was grateful to feel the light wind on my face and took a breath of the cool night air, trying to gather my senses. All the time it had been just Alex and me alone together we’d got on famously, but seeing him with Tom tonight brought all of Angie’s warnings to mind again. Me giving Tom a dressing down had just been a huge joke to the pair of them. I noticed the exchanged glances, the rolled eyes, the sheepish grins. They were probably having a good laugh about it now over a pint of beer. Well, good luck to them. Don’t they say you should listen to your gut and my gut had been telling me ever since I met Alex that I should steer well clear.

I tucked my hands into the pockets of my jacket and waswalking along by the side of the river, looking out over the water, trying to forget what had happened when I heard a voice calling from behind me.

‘Jen, wait!’

I turned round to see Alex running to catch me up. He grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around, his eyes full of dark confusion.

‘What the hell was that all about?’

I batted away his hands and walked away muttering. ‘Tom. He’s out of order and it just makes me so angry.’

‘Yeah, I got that quite clearly, but what has that got to do with me? I thought we were having a great time there. Why did you walk out on me? What have I done that’s so wrong?’

‘I saw you both smirking. As though it was one big joke, but it’s not, Alex! It makes me cross to think that he’s still behaving as though he’s a single man while Angie’s stuck at home feeling sorry for herself. I saw her a few nights ago and she was in a right mess. Pregnancy can be a hard time for a woman. She needs her husband at home, not down the pub drinking himself silly.’

‘For your information I wasn’t smirking, but I honestly don’t think it’s anyone’s business but Angie and Tom’s. She’s a big girl, she can surely fight her own battles. How can you possibly know what’s going on in someone else’s relationship anyway? I don’t doubt you’re getting Angie’s side of the story, but what about Tom? Aren’t there two sides to every story?’

‘Really, Alex, I wouldn’t expect anything less of you. You’re Tom’s friend and you’re going to back him to the hilt whatever happens. You’re two of a kind. Two peas out of the same pod. I knew that from the first day I met you. Angie warned me against you and I should have taken heed of that warning. Sorry, but I should never have come out with you today in the first place.’

‘Sorry?’ He grabbed hold of my wrist and pulled me closer tohis body, his eyes boring down onto me. Eyes that spoke a million words in their expression as they flickered into my soul. ‘What exactly did Angie say about me?’

‘That’s not important. This isn’t about you and me. It’s about Tom and Angie.’

‘Well, you’ve just made it about me. You can’t come out with comments like that and then not follow them up. Tell me what she said.’

He was staring at me, unblinking, and I gulped under the intensity of his gaze – wondering what the hell had possessed me to say that. This had got way out of hand and his proximity, the scent of his aftershave wafting beneath my nostrils and his hand clutched tightly onto mine was playing havoc with my concentration. Suddenly all the fight had gone out of me and all I really wanted was for him to kiss me again, like he had back there in the pub. I could quite easily have fallen into his arms and laid my head down on his shoulder.

‘Don’t worry,’ I said, in what I hoped was a light-hearted way. ‘Nothing too damning.’ I took a step backwards to put some distance between us, but I could tell Alex wasn’t satisfied with my answer. He tilted his head to one side and nodded, urging me to go on.

‘Well.’ I took yet another step backwards and he dropped my arm. ‘All she said was that you weren’t really boyfriend material.’

‘Really?’ His expression was dark and unforgiving. ‘And why is that? According to the gospel that is Angie Cooper?’

‘Something about you being a serial dater and a commitment-phobe? That you don’t keep a girlfriend for longer than three months before moving on…’ My voice trailed away.

‘That’s nice.’ I could tell by the set of his mouth, the flicker of a pulse in his neck and an iciness in his eyes that he thought it far from nice, but why was he taking it so badly?

‘I think she was just worried that I might get hurt,’ I explained, feeling guilty that I’d broken Angie’s confidence for the second time this evening. I grimaced, hoping she’d understand when I told her the circumstances. ‘She didn’t want me going through that again and assumed that you and I were looking for different things in a relationship. That’s all.’

‘Really? That’s all, you reckon? Why doesn’t Angie concentrate on her own relationship instead of interfering in mine?’

Alex shook his head and gestured for us to walk on, joining me at my side. The wind had picked up and the temperature seemed to have dropped by several degrees in the last few minutes. Well, it was either that or else I was being buffeted by the severe cold front wafting my way from Alex’s direction.

‘She was only looking out for me. That’s what friends do. I look out for her. She looks out for me.’

‘Everything makes absolute sense now. It’s why you’ve been avoiding my calls, isn’t it? Why you were so reluctant to see me again. Didn’t you think it would be worth finding out for yourself rather than just taking Angie’s word for it? I mean, she hardly knows the first thing about me.’

Anger radiated from his entire body. I hadn’t intended to make him feel that way, but it was just bumping into Tom like that, and thinking about Angie and what she’d been going through these last few weeks, that had brought a whole set of emotions bubbling to the surface.

‘What happened to Tom?’ I asked, to break the ensuing silence.

Alex shrugged, a rueful smile on his lips. ‘He decided to go home. With his tail between his legs, I don’t doubt.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, although I couldn’t feel any remorse for what I’d said to Tom. He’d needed telling and as his wife’s best friend, I was the person to tell him. Although there was a tinypart of me that worried Angie might be upset with me. I hoped she’d realise I was only trying to help. Someone needed to point out a few home truths to her husband.

‘I didn’t mean to spoil the evening,’ I said now to Alex. ‘It was a lovely day up until that point. And I apologise for having a go at you. It really wasn’t about you.’

‘No, I get that.’ He stopped and put a hand on my shoulder, turning my body to face him. ‘Look, let’s not allow what happened back there to spoil what’s left of the evening. Come back to mine for coffee, Jen,’ he said, his hand finding my waist again, his lips, detectable kissable lips, a hair’s breadth away from my own.

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