“Yup. I’m thinking of inviting the old First XV to run a train on me. Reckon they’d be keen?”
His expression answers for him.
“Great,” I say. “I’ll keep you posted.”
Jake grips his takeaway cup hard enough to dent it. “So, what? You’re gonna sleep with every guy in Pukekohe just to get back at me?”
“Oh, no, Jake. I’ll do it because it’ll feelamazing.And if that ruins Main Street for you forever, if every handshake becomes ‘Was it this dude, as well?’ Then that’s just a bonus.”
It’s a lie. I don’t want anyone. Right now, I have the sex drive of a zoo panda, but I resent Jake taking the fake moral high ground almost as much as I resent having to show up for this stupid conversation.
“So, that’s my petty insults and nebulous threats,” I say. “Can I go now?”
He softens. “Please stay?”
“Why?”
“I just… Whatever you do because you’re mad at me, just please don’t go near Thrasher?”
I snort. “Mate, if Thrasher Thompson was drowning, I’d throw him a cinderblock. Even you’re not worththat.”
He bursts out laughing, and I feel that old, humiliating flicker of pride. My drinks arrive, and my hand hovers between the spiked coffee and the wine, unsure which is the more appropriate starter.
“Bubbles,” Jake says with a faint smile.
I pick up the coffee and take a swig. “Cheers.”
“Brat.”
He’s right, Iambeing a brat, and I shouldn’t be. The opposite ofattraction isn’t ‘flirty combativeness,’ it’s indifference, and I didn’t come here to give him hope.
Jake seems to sense my shift in mood. He leans in. “I know I’ve said it a hundred times already, but I’ll say it again: I’m not interested in Jenny. I never have been. I met her for coffee about the reunion. I was wasted when we hooked up. I barely remember anything that went down between us.”
“Cool.”
He scowls. “You never regretted hooking up with anyone?”
I scowl right back. “Sure. But I didn’t sneak off to have coffee with them to bitch about you.”
“I didn’t bitch about you to Jenny.”
“Yeah, I’m really in the mood to believe you, champ.” I take another swig of coffee, the alcohol sinking into my chest like lead. “Let’s set aside the sex. You lied to me about meeting up with her the day you got back from South Africa. And you’d have kept lying if she hadn’t posted about it.”
He flinches. “I didn’t know?—”
“If I wanted to hear a man talk shit, I’d go to church. You knew we hated each other. That’s why you wanted to keep me from going to the reunion, right? You realised if we showed up together, Jenny would go out of her way to inform me she’d sucked your stupid dick and we’d be done for.”
Jake looks down at his hands.
“Quite the bind, huh? Having to front with your mates like you want to marry me, while simultaneously hiding me from the lizard running the reunion. I’m not surprised you wanted to keep me away.”
More silence. I pick up the wine and take a long slug. It’s too sweet. Too fizzy. I can feel the waitress watching me from the counter, and I decide I’m about done with this conversation.
“Here’s my closing statement. Your bullshit plan to whisk me away, dodging Jenny and any consequences for your stupid life choices, failed. You could have pulled it off, but you love the taste of boots too much. You metJenny for coffee and posed for that picture and gave her enough ammunition to ruin my lifeagain, because God forbid anyone in Pukekohe ever have a bad word to say aboutJake Graves-Holland.”
I watch the last of his hope drain from his eyes. “You’ve got me dead to rights, Renaldo.”
“I know. That’s why meeting up today was pointless.”
