Both women eyed each other curiously before another voice joined them.
“Oh my, Jim Maybury. I would say little Jim Maybury, but—”
The voice turned into a loud cackle and as Tasha saw the face that accompanied it she knew that this was Jim’s cougar, Mrs Carter. She immediately saw the family resemblance between the two women, although, she suspected Mrs Carter may have benefited from a little work, a nip and a tuck here and there.
“Laine, this is my fiancée, Natasha,” said Jim after the older woman kissed Jim gently on the cheek.
“Aren’t you cute?” cried Laine as she stroked Tasha’s face making her very uncomfortable.
Jim took Tasha’s hand back in his, holding it firmly then addressed the other women, “We really have to go. Nice to see you, bye.”
“Maybe we could catch up, the three of us,” called Laine, obviously excluding Tasha.
“I don’t think so, Laine. The past belongs in the past.” Jim tightened his grip on Tasha.
“Is that why you haven’t called?” Sally let her question hang there before expanding on its meaning. “I left my number with Bobby—I assume you got it.”
Tasha tried to hide her anger and confusion while Jim didn’t appear to miss a beat.
“Like I say, the past belongs in the past and that isexactlywhy I haven’t called.”
He turned and led Tasha back towards the lift and as they waited for it to arrive neither of them spoke; Tasha stared ahead while Jim looked at Tasha trying to figure out what she thought had just happened, but also why he hadn’t told her about Sally’s number.
Chapter 25
They sat opposite each other at lunch and Tasha finally decided to discuss their encounter with The Carters which she did with a serious tone. “I can now put a face to your cougar and her slutty daughter.”
“Not the way I would have put it, but that was indeed Sally and Mrs Carter.”
“Sally, whose number you apparently have.”
Tasha could feel her angst and anger rising at the knowledge that she had been oblivious to Jim having had any contact with either of the women. She pouted as she tried to process her thoughts and feelings.
“Eat your lunch, Tasha, before you say something you regret,” he told her.
She shook her head. How dare he intimate this was somehow of her making, that she was at fault. She wasn’t. She knew it and was determined for him to accept that.
“Like what? Like why did she give you her number or maybe why the fuck didn’t you tell me she’d been in touch?”
“Exactly like that.” He sounded irked rather than angry, but that only caused her own annoyance to rise, the audacity of this man.
“So?” she asked.
“So what?”
“You are such a fucking arsehole at times. You know,so what?”
“Tasha, lose the mouth, honey, it’s unnecessary.”
She stared, wide-eyed, unsure she’d heard him correctly or at least disbelieving that this was what he considered to be the issue here, her language.
He looked across and waited for her to sit back. His face almost said,if you’re sitting comfortably I’ll begin, but his mouth said nothing at all until she was settled.
“Sally left her number via Bobby’s office and he gave it to me. I have not called her or even considered calling her because I love you.”
“You could still have fucked her, for old time’s sake. Her and her mother,” she said, petulant until she remembered Gerry saying the same thing to her,for old time’s sake, although the Carter women would have undoubtedly jumped at an old time’s sake whereas Gerry had been joking, she was sure.
“I could have, still could, but I don’t want to. Now, for the last time lose the mouth, you know petulant tirades of bad language piss me off,” he said very, very seriously.
