“I need a lift! Can you give me a lift?” I say, breathless.
“Where’s Ellis?”
“Maggie, she picked him up this morning. I planned to run in, but I left it too late.”
“Where’s Vinny?” he asks.
I sigh, getting impatient with him. “I know you’re busy, but I really need a lift in please, Joe.”
“Of course, here.” He picks up his keys and tosses them to me. “I’ll be down in a minute.”
“Thank you!”
He climbs into the car ten minutes later and passes me a coffee cup. “Sorry, I had to get the print finished.”
“It’s fine. Thank you for driving me. I know you’re busy.”
He waves me off, pullingout onto the road. “You had a good weekend? I didn’t see you,” he asks, relaxing into the seat.
“Yeah, I went out for Elliot’s birthday, didn’t I?”
“I remember” He turns to look at me. “Mase was there?”
“Yup.”
He grins wide. “How’d that go?”
I shake my head, a small smile making my dimple pop. “How do you think?”
“Humour me.” He slides his hands around the steering wheel, dropping his head back to the seat.
“We bickered. He told me we were leaving?—”
“And you left,” he finishes for me, dropping his head to the side to look at me.
“Not willingly.”
“You wanted to.”
“Fuck off.”
“You can deny it all you want, you’ve been different since you started seeing him again.”
“No, I haven’t,” I snap.
“That right there is what I’m talking about.” He nods at me. “He seems to bring the bitch out in you.”
“Joe!”
He shrugs unapologetically. “Facts.”
“Let me out here.”
He rolls his eyes and carries on driving. “Don’t be a queen.”
“I know you don’t like Mason?—”
“Understatement—”
