‘Are you vacuuming the dog?’
Jay switched it off and Bruce lifted his head to glare at him. ‘Yeah. With his coat he needs grooming daily and this is way easier. He killed the robovac. There was only so much soil it could take on board before it died. I bought this as a replacement. He barked at it so I thought I’d show him it wasn’t anything to be scared of, which was when we discovered it doubled as a very effective dog groomer.’ He fired it up again and Bruce looked like he was in heaven.
‘He does seem different,’ said Nora, impressed by how chilled-out Bruce was now.
‘See, I told you. Swapped for a doppelganger.’
‘Just like you,’ she said, pointing at the cardboard cut-out.
The next morning Nora checked the weather before choosing an outfit and as the forecast was sunshine she went for a simple summer dress. She’d already got all her beach things together the previous evening so all she had to do was load them into the car and leave. She always liked to plan ahead; she felt it took out a lot of stressand also reduced the odds of forgetting something vital.
As promised, Jay and Bruce were standing by the gate when she pulled up. Bruce barked excitedly but Jay waved a little chicken in front of him and gave him a command and the dog stopped barking and ate the chicken.
‘Impressive,’ said Nora, getting out of the car. ‘Renee has trained you well.’
‘But I will now forever and more smell like a walking deli counter.’ Jay pulled a Ziplock bag of chicken pieces from his pocket.
Nora tried not to laugh. ‘But if it works that’s a good thing.’
Jay mumbled something as he brought Bruce to the car. The dog was determined to get in the passenger seat so there was a bit of a stand-off but the chicken won and Bruce eventually lay down on the back seat, securely strapped in.
‘Tell me about Mickey,’ said Jay once they had set off.
Nora’s mind flew back to when she’d dated Mickey. It had been a bit of a whirlwind. ‘I mainly remember lots of sex. Great sex and takeaways.’ She was surprisingly comfortable telling Jay honestly about her relationship with Mickey.
‘And you classify that as a relationship?’
Nora tipped her head from side to side. ‘We had fun. I like someone who can make me laugh. We did other stuff together.’ Nora had to rack her brains for what that other stuff was. ‘Mickey is big into his fitness so we went jogging together.’
‘You jogged?’ When she glanced across, Jay was staring at her agog.
‘Yes. Is that so hard to believe?’
‘Er, yeah. Because youhatejogging. And I quote: “If we were meant to run around in circles, we’d all be hamsters.”’
‘I might have said that. Anyway, we got on well together, enjoyed each other’s company and the sex was—’
‘Yeah, you mentioned that already. Why did you split up?’ asked Jay.
This bit was less comfortable to discuss. ‘There were rumours about him cheating on me with the receptionist at the gym. But they weren’t true.’ She took a breath. ‘However, I did walk in on him having sex with the head receiver of a local warehouse.’
‘Head receiver? How ironic.’
‘Exactly what I said!’
‘So he was a cheat and you’re considering a long-term relationship with him. Have I got that right?’ asked Jay.
‘I did consider skipping over Mickey but people are capable of changing and if I’m going to apply the theory then I need to apply it fully.’
‘Hmm.’ Jay didn’t sound like he agreed with her approach.
They got to Skegness with plenty of time to spare– Nora always built in contingency.
‘If we find a good spot on the beach we can set upcamp and then I’ll go and meet Mickey,’ she said, getting the things out of the boot.
‘Or we could all grab a coffee and then me and Bruce will set things up.’
Nora gave him a look.
