Page 96 of Bad Influence
‘I guess it is,’ Jimi said, turning to me. ‘I hope I’ll work with you again, Amber. You’re brilliant at what you do.’ Then he added to Rob, ‘Let’s go for that beer sometime.’
It had started raining outside and, assessing the luggage I had piled up by the door, Rob said, ‘I’ll go and bring the car closer.’
‘I’ll come with you!’ I announced.
‘No, you wait here.’ He was already moving. ‘I’ll be back in a sec.’
Then it was just Jimi and me. He gave me a churlish look.
I thought back to the night of the kiss on the lips.
‘So, were you going to pretend Rob isn’t your boyfriend?’ he asked, when Rob was out of earshot.
‘I wasn’t,’ I protested weakly.
‘You so were.’ He smiled. ‘And you’re blushing, so that confirms it.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Did you forget you showed me a photo of him? When you were telling me about how you accused him of being unfaithful?’
I shrugged.
‘I’ll forgive your amnesia because you were drunk,’ he continued. My mind flipped back to the night of the party at the house.
‘I forgot about that,’ I mumbled.
‘Don’t worry – I raised it with him, and you have no reason at all to be worried.’
‘Youwhat?’ I felt a hot fear spread through my body.
‘I asked him about it. As a friend. You wanted to know, didn’t you?’
‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’
‘I’m not joking. But there’s no need to panic—’
‘Jimi! You broke my confidentiality.’ I collected myself, not wanting to draw any attention to us. ‘Well, what did Rob say then?’ I whispered.
‘I can’t tell you. But you have absolutely nothing to worry about. In fact, the opposite.’
‘Well, this is weird,’ I said.
‘What’s weird?’
‘You. Knowing something about my boyfriend that I don’t.’
He looked straight at me. ‘Relax, Amber. He seems like a great guy. I’m happy for you. You don’t want to let that one go.’
‘I don’t intend to. What else did you talk about?’
I kicked a loose pebble on the stone beneath us and it just missed hitting him on the shin.
‘He told me about his job, and I think I can give him some work. We had a chat about what he does – he’s got great experience and is available to start straight away.’
‘What do you mean, his job?’ A new wave of fear rose inside me.
‘The fact he doesn’t have one. You didn’t know?’
I was floored. And especially hearing this news from Jimi.How long have they been standing here chatting for? He’s learnt more about my boyfriend in five minutes than I have in eight weeks.
