“I’m just confused,” Jack says.“I thought you hated him.”
“I don’thatehim.”
I hold my breath, waiting to hear what Jack is about to say.
“You were so mad Barry hired him.”He also sounds exasperated.“And you were right to be.He was holding you and the team back, surely you can see that.”
“Jack, I want you to leave me alone,” she says, her voice falling now.
“Why?”
“You don’t get it?You hurt my team.”
There is a long silence, before I hear someone stand up.It’s Chloe, I think.
“If you won’t go, I’m going.”
“Chloe, wait.”
She doesn’t reply.She can’t reply.She can’t say anything that might end up in the newspaper tomorrow; she must know that now.
“You’re not a good person, Jack.You took advantage of me, and unethically printed an off-the-record conversation and added your own bullshit to it.”
I hear him scoff.“To be fair, you never said it was off-the-record.”
“I was upset, and you exploited that for your own gain.That’s not what friends do.”
“For the love of god, Chloe, I did it for you!”he says, his voice loud and clear.“Look at the press.When you were appointed, they were laughing at you.”I stiffen, my hand clasping my beer, as Jack continues.“Laughing at Barry.Matt was a disaster on the track and off.Arden was a fucking joke.Now, you’re the darling of the circuit.I did that.That was because of me.And I can undo it.”
“I didn’t want you to doanything,” she barks back, her voice strained and upset.“You hurt Matt and that’s the last thing I want.”
“Who gives a fuck about Matt Warner?He’s an asshole.Everyone who works with him thinks he’s an arrogant prick.”
There is a long pause.I can feel my blood pump, my body tense ready to spring up to protect her if I need to.But then I hear Jack laugh a pitiful, almost sadistic laugh.
“Oh my god,” he says.“You’re in love with him.Again.”
Chloe says nothing in response.I can picture her giving him a look, but then I hear her groan.“I’m going to bed.”
“Of course you are,” he says, sardonically laughing, and my fingers flex.I want to smack that guy in the face.“That’s pathetic.Just like when we were kids.He’s going to cast you aside like he did back then.He does to everyone.I thought you were better than that.”
“Good night, Jack.”
“You’re a fool, falling for him,” he says, sounding desperate now.“It’s going to ruin you.You’ll look ridiculous.Falling for a driver?It’s so fucking tacky.”
“I’d rather be a fool than a soulless snake,” she snaps.
Go, Chloe.I try hard not to cheer.Soulless snake?
“Have a lonely life, Jack.”
I hear her short, hurried paces as she crosses the bar and heads off, leaving Jack sitting exactly three feet behind me, with nothing but a high-backed armchair and a potted plant between us.
Fuck it.
I stand and walk around to the seating area to see a fidgeting, flapping Jack, playing with his phone, a recording app open on the screen.Concentrating hard on whatever the fuck he’s doing in there, he doesn’t look up and see me, and so I reach down and snatch the phone out of his hand.
“I’ll take that,” I say curtly.
