Beth laughed. ‘You are unbelievable. You know, positive thinking can really make a different in a person’s love life, did you know that? I recently read that somewhere. Maybe that’s why you have issues with the opposite sex. You’re such a Negative Nancy.’
Jodi snorted. ‘Please, I’ll have you know I’m not having any issues with the opposite sex, or my sex life, for that matter. Beside the fact that they are useful for essentially only two things – reproduction and killing spiders – men are pointless.’
Beth rolled her eyes. ‘Not all men, Jodi. And sincewhendid you have a sex life?’
‘You met him, actually,’ she said matter-of-factly.
Beth’s eyes widened, surprised by this abrupt turn in conversation. She searched the recesses of her mind. ‘Metwho? Andwhendid I meet him?’
‘I believe he was bachelor number two. That last time we went to happy hour at 123?’
‘No way.’ Beth thought hard but couldn’t conjure up Jodi’s mystery man from the weekend she and Danny had called off their Florida trip. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t remember. Was he the bond trader?’ she guessed, knowing that at least one of the guys that Jodi had met that night was a Wall Streeter.
Her friend shook her head. ‘No, wrong guy, but he does work on Wall Street – for a hedge fund. He’s a tax attorney.’
Beth raised her eyebrows. ‘A tax attorney? I bet your sex life is wild. Off the scale.’
‘Hey, don’t judge. His name is Trevor and he’s fun. And while tax law might sound like the epitome of boring, this guy certainly knows how to live. We’ve been having some good times lately. I mean, it’s probably nothing serious. But, you know, he, um – he’s nice and charming, and he seems to enjoy my sense of humour, which makes a nice change. It’s all been nice.’
Suddenly, Beth realised that while Jodi was acting nonchalant, she was actually playing coy. She had just used the word ‘nice’ three times in quick succession. She was completely downplaying this crush. Shelikedthis guy, certainly – and as such, Beth decided to quash the teasing. After all, if there was one thing she did know it was that her friend deserved a bit of happiness in the romance department. If this Trevor was making Jodi’s heart sing, even just a little, then he was OK in Beth’s book.
‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,’ she admonished, and her friend blushed.
‘I wasn’t going to, ’cos it’s still early days. And I’m not the only one who’s been keeping things under her hat, am I? Still, at leastmyadmirer has a name,’ Jodi said, expertly turning the subject back onto Beth. ‘Let’s take a look at that clue and see if we can figure out yours.’
***
When Beth returned home from work later that evening, Danny could tell she was distracted. Yes, she had greeted him pleasantly enough on arrival, apologised about missing him at lunchtime earlier, and had even kissed him, but her mind was elsewhere, he could tell.
And when he casually suggested maybe sitting down and watching a movie together, Beth feigned tiredness, and said that she needed to get to bed – she had an early start the following day and she felt a headache coming on.
‘The last thing I need is to wake up with a migraine,’ she said. ‘I’m going to take some Excedrin and hit the sheets.’
Maybe she really did have a headache, he thought, maybe she really was tired. But it was strange for Beth to turn down the opportunity to watch a movie.
It was only after she retreated from the living room and shut the bedroom door behind her, that he realised that she hadn’t said one word about the so-called ‘errand’ she had been on.
***
Beth breathed a sigh of relief as she shut her bedroom door behind her. Truthfully, shehadbeen tired, though not as tired as she claimed to Danny – and she certainly didn’t have a headache coming on. If anything, she knew that she would be lucky to sleep that night. She had so many thoughts rushing through her brain that her entire being was operating on overdrive.
Angelina… Sail away… around the world… I promise you.
What did it mean? And how could she find out? More to the point, what was it all about?
A treasure hunt – she knew that much – but what was the end goal? If it was Ryan who’d instigated this, it really was taking flirting to the next level after all their playful (but harmless) banter over the last couple of weeks.
Notwithstanding what or who was behind it, there was no denying Beth liked it. She enjoyed the mystery it presented. And was dying to figure out what would happen next or what she was supposed to find.
If Ryan had concocted this treasure hunt, then he certainly wasn’t acting like the friend he’d so innocently proclaimed himself to be. And what’s more, if Beth decided to continue on this little adventure, she was condoning it – almost giving the green light to take things further, so to speak.
She swallowed hard. Of course, there was always the option to completely abandon this entire crazy thing. She could ignore the new clue; after all, there wasn’t anything saying that she had to play this game. She could voluntarily opt out.
And that’s all it was, a game. So if she just ignored this – maybe went back to Tiffany’s tomorrow and told the salesperson to pass on the message that she wasn’t going to pursue the clue – then she would have a clear conscience. There would be no secrets, nothing to worry about, and definitely nothing to lie about as far as Danny was concerned.
But…
Beth knew that it was dangerous and that clearly she wasn’t thinking correctly, but she didn’t want to do that. This was intriguing, challenging… it was daring, almost. She wanted to keep going with the hunt. She hadn’t had this much fun in ages.
