His only response is a small, knowing smile, and we eat the rest of our lunch in companionable silence. On the way back to the office, Jay gets recognised by a couple of women as they pass us by.

“Disgraceful what he did to that poor man,” one of them tuts, her snooty nose raised high into the air.

“He should have been arrested,” another one adds.

I lace my fingers with his, running my thumb along the inside of his wrist. “Ignore them.”

“I am.”

“Everyone thinks their opinion is the most important, even when they have no clue about a situation.”

“I know.”

As the women go by us, I pull him into an alcove by the shop next to our offices. His eyes are on the retreating women for a minute before he focuses on me, his pupils dilating. I remember him telling Michelle that was a sign of arousal. Hmm, I think I like that.

“Hey,” I whisper.

He runs his fingertips over my collarbone. “Hey, Watson. What’s up?”

“Can I have a kiss before I go back to work?” I ask shyly, licking my lips.

He grins and bends his head to me. “That depends.”

“On?”

“What are you making for dinner?”

I wrack my brains for ideas on what he might find appealing, settling on the most obvious man food. “Steak.”

“Good answer. Okay, you can have a kiss. Just one, though.” His licks a line from my jaw to my earlobe, sending my pulse hammering. Then he grips my chin and sinks his tongue into my mouth. My breathing accelerates as I clutch at his shirt. His tongue moves in and out, and it’s a little lewd for a daytime outdoor kiss, but in the moment I don’t care. I moan, and his other hand grabs hold of my hip. Drawing away too soon, he nips at my mouth, and I whimper.

“What’s wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have asked for a kiss.”

“Why not?”

“Because now I’m not going to be able to focus on working, and I have a lot to get done.”

He laughs and slides his arm around my waist, guiding me inside and up the stairs. “You should let go in case Dad’s around,” I say quietly.

“Am I your dirty little secret, Watson?” he whispers deviously in my ear.

I use one of his own comebacks against him. “You love it.”

His response is adamant. “Yeah, I do.”

Inside, I settle back into my desk, and Jay goes to use the bathroom before he leaves. His jacket rests on the edge of my desk, and I only become aware of it because his phone starts vibrating in his pocket. Without thinking, I slide my hand in and retrieve the phone. A text message runs across the screen from an anonymous sender.

Tonight. Nine o’clock. The usual place.

My brain goes into overdrive as I quickly shove the phone back in his pocket and try to make his jacket look like it hasn’t been interfered with. What the hell is that message about? I come to the nauseating conclusion that it sounds a lot like a booty call. A night time meet-up. The usual place. God, is Jay seeing someone as well as me?

Instantly, my heart plummets from the lofty heights to which it had previously been soaring.

A second later he walks back out, grabbing his coat and shrugging into it. Leaning across the table, he gives me a soft, momentary peck on the lips before telling me he’ll see me later for dinner. I don’t even have the capacity to worry about Dad seeing the kiss because I’m still focused on the message.

It takes a couple of deep breaths for me to gather myself and sneak a peek into Dad’s office. He’s furiously typing into his computer, oblivious to the world, so it’s likely he didn’t see the kiss.

For the next few hours I mindlessly complete my work for the day, but the question about the text remains at the forefront of my mind. I need to know what it was about. I need to know it’s entirely innocent and that I have nothing to worry about. So I decide there’s nothing else for it.

I’m going to have to follow him.

Twenty-Three

As soon as I get out of work, I head for the bus and call Michelle. I haven’t spoken to her since Jessie’s party on the weekend.

“Well, hello, stranger,” she croons into the phone.

“Hey, how are you?” I reply, trying to sound chirpy.

“I’m okay. Well, I’m still a little hung over, actually. I ended up spending the entire weekend at Jessie’s place. I’m telling you, that girl knows how to keep a lady occupied. I know I’d had my sights set on the blond guy. Ben, I think his name was. But he vamoosed with his friend Stuart after Jay punched him for dancing with you, so that was a dead end. Anyway, I only left her place this morning and had to go straight to work. One of my colleagues pointed out that I had ‘freshly f**ked’ hair. I was, like, mortified dot com.”

“Michelle.”

“Yes, Matilda?”

“That’s a delightful story, but please don’t use mortified dot com ever again.”

She laughs loudly down the line. “Fine. So, what happened with you and Jay? And don’t say ‘nothing.’ I swear to God, if you say ‘nothing,’ I will find a way to teleport through this phone so I can strangle you.”

“Stuff happened, but we’ve agreed to take it slow. I really like him,” I gush, unable to hold back.

“Well, well, well! The girl who doesn’t like any man finally finds a man she likes,” says Michelle, sounding a mixture of smug and pleased.

“I didn’t not like any men. They just didn’t like me.”

“Oh, shush. None of that matters. Now you’ve got the bad-boy hunk to end all bad-boy hunks, so who cares about past failures? I have to say, I’m feeling a touch of the green-eyed monster coming on.”

“I thought you were all loved up with Jessie?”

“Loved up? Please. It’s just sex with the two of us. She knows it. I know it. We’re both fine and dandy with the concept. Now, back to you and Jay. Has he gone down on you yet?”

“Michelle!”

“What?”

“Where are you right now?”

“In the queue at Boots. I had to stock up on shampoo and conditioner. Why?”

“This is not a phone conversation you should be having in the queue at Boots. So, let’s wait until we see each other in person to talk about…those sorts of details. Right now I need your advice on something else.”

“Okay. I’m intrigued. Continue.”

I tell her about THE TEXT. Yes, over the past few hours it has become such a huge issue in my head that I now have to refer to it in all caps. Michelle listens and then mulls it over for a moment.

“Okay, I don’t think you should follow him.”

“Why not? It’s the only way I’m going to find out.”

“Eh, how about asking him?” she suggests, and I decide to let her sarcasm slide.

“Because, that would require me to be a mature adult, and it would also require me to admit to snooping on his phone. I’m not prepared for any of that. At least if I follow him, I’ll know for certain. If it’s a booty call, I can be all, We are over, sir! I said, good day! And then flounce off to nurse my wounded pride. If it’s something normal, like he’s meeting up with an old friend for tea and crumpets, I can nod approvingly to myself and scurry home happy that all is well with the world. Jay will be none the wiser of this highly bunny boiler activity that’s going on with me right now.”

Michelle groans. “Oh, God, Matilda. Please don’t follow him. It’s only going to end in tears.”

“Saying stuff like that only makes me want to follow him more. It makes me want to know why there will be tears.”

“Can’t you just take my word for it?”

“I will consider my options. My bus is coming now, so I need to go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’re going to do it. I can tell.”

“’Bye!”

I hang up before she has the chance to dissuade me further. I’m doing this. I’m going to live up to the nickname Jay gave me, and I’m going to do some sleuthing. If anything, it’s his own fault for coming up with the nickname in the first place.

After dinner Dad offers to wash up, and I go to catch some soaps on the television. Jay saunters in and drops down beside me, too close, considering Dad could walk in at any moment. And yes, I’m quite aware of the fact that I’m an adult. It’s just that Jay is such an obviously sexual person, which means if I tell Dad we’re together, he’ll know we’re doing sexual things together. Just the thought of it makes me feel like crawling out of my own skin.

Yes, when it comes down to it, I’m a baby. A big, stupid, embarrassed baby.

Jay sits there all casual for a minute before randomly leaning in and licking me on the face. I laugh and wipe at my skin.

“What was that for?”

“Just felt like it.”

“Okay.”

“I have to go out for a little while soon,” he says, his voice lowering a notch. “Can I come visit you later?”

“You mean like how you visited me last night?” I ask, one eyebrow raised, a half smirk on the go.

“Kind of like that. Perhaps there’ll be a little more activity this time.”

Well, I don’t need to be a sex addict to know what that means. This is good news. If he’s planning to “pay me a visit” later, then it’s likely that the mysterious meetup isn’t a booty call. Shivers break out on my skin when he leisurely runs a finger down my arm.

“Maybe you can visit me then,” I tell him quietly.

Dad walks into the room at that moment, and Jay quickly draws away. Dad doesn’t notice a thing, sitting down in his armchair and flicking through the channels with the remote. Later on, I put on some dark clothes and find an old knitted hat to wear on my detective adventures. You know, so that I’m inconspicuous and all that. I have a taxi idling by the curb just as Jay leaves. I follow soon after him and hop into the taxi, telling the driver to follow Jay’s car.

The driver is a nosy one.

“Well,” he declares, “isn’t this all very mysterious.” If I’m not mistaken, there’s a touch of dry humour in his tone.

I scoff. “You don’t get out much, do you” — I crane my neck to look at his I.D. stuck to the dash — “Mr Paul Donnelly?”

He eyes me through the mirror and goes quiet then. I’m satisfied that I won the sarcasm war. The journey isn’t long. Jay drives out toward the docklands, finally turning into an old abandoned building site left over from the Celtic Tiger days. When the recession hit, there were a bunch of building projects that got left half-finished, effectively creating a sort of spooky ghost-town vibe.

“You can let me out here,” I say, handing the driver some money.

He gives me a concerned look. “Are you sure? There can be a lot of dodgy types out here, love.”

“I’ll be okay,” I assure him, and he finally takes the money, not without a few grumbles under his breath, though.

The cold air hits me as soon as I exit the vehicle. It was a warm day today, but the temperature always drops at night, and it’s even worse out here so close to the sea. I sneak around the corner of a building and watch as Jay parks his car and gets out. I quietly follow him as he walks across to another building, down the side, and around to a secluded corner. I hover by the other end of the building, and that’s when I see the men. There are about four of them, but only one steps forward to greet Jay. The others hang back, their postures belying some sort of security or bodyguard work.

The main guy is wearing a suit, but I don’t let that fool me. He’s got the look of a bad egg, a shoddy neck tattoo peeking out of his collar.

This isn’t what I’d been expecting at all. I’d been expecting something bad, but I think this might be worse. There’s no mistaking the dangerous, criminal air about the men Jay’s meeting with, and the mysterious, anonymous nature of THE TEXT makes it that much more worrisome.

Words are exchanged, but I’m too far away to hear. Everything seems to be going well, despite the shady location and nature of the meeting. But then it looks like the conversation is turning heated, Jay’s stance growing defensive as the man he’s talking with starts gesturing with his hands.

The bodyguards move closer to the two, surrounding the man who I’m imagining is their boss. Jay puts a hand up in a gesture that I’m thinking says calm down, then reaches inside his pocket. I catch my breath, because when he does, all three of the bodyguards whip out their guns. Guns!

My pulse is going ninety.

Jay doesn’t bat an eyelid, and when his hand emerges from his pocket, he hands something to the main guy that looks like a credit card or a key card of some sort. The man takes it and says a few words, and then he and Jay shake on it.

It seems the meeting is over when the men turn to leave in the opposite direction that Jay came from. When Jay turns around to return to his car, my heart jumps, and I scurry to find a hiding spot. Without thinking, I rush inside the abandoned building and hide behind a stack of wooden crates. I put my hand to my chest, willing myself to calm down.

I stay like that for about five minutes, waiting to make sure Jay’s definitely gone. It’s so dark in here that I can hardly see a thing. Getting up from my crouched position, I pull my phone from my pocket, hoping the light from the screen will illuminate my way out. When the light comes on and I hold the phone up in front of me, I let out a startled yelp to see Jay standing there, watching me with a furious expression.

I’ve been caught.