“Well, how did it go?” Margie asked excitedly as I led her inside.
I shot her a disparaged look while handing her the coffee I’d prepared for her just before she arrived. I knew exactly how she liked it: two shots of espresso, frothy milk, and one spoonful of sugar.
“I don’t think I’ll be seeing him again.”
She frowned. “That’s too bad. I had high hopes for Rufus. Well, at least you’ve gotten the first one out of the way. Now you can move onto the next potential love of your life.”
She waggled her eyebrows, no clue that her words caused a tiny twist of sadness to stab at my belly. I’d already met the love of my life, and look how that had turned out. Now I’d behappy to meet someone who was reliable, trustworthy, and kind. I didn’t need excitement, crazy butterflies, or a wildly intense sexual connection. I just needed stable companionship where love might follow.
“Come now, don’t look so dejected. Give me your phone.”
Picking it up, I handed it over. “Why?”
Margie glanced at the screen. “Unlock it.”
I pressed my thumb to the biometric reader, and she immediately pulled up my dating app. “What are you doing?”
“Finding your next date.”
Nerves seized me. “Margie, I’m not too sure I’m ready to go straight back to it. I need a week maybe before I—”
The doorbell rang, and I sighed because Margie was already speedily tapping away. Instead of trying to wrestle the phone back from her, I went to let Jace in. I knew it was him because he always arrived at the same time.
When I opened the door, he was standing there in ripped black jeans and a pale blue denim jacket with a white T-shirt underneath. There was something very, very appealing about the combination, and I was momentarily distracted. When I finally managed to extract myself from a fog of unhelpful lust, I heard a door slamming to my right. It wasn’t just any slam; it was a pointed slam. An “I’m super pissed, so I’m going to shut my door aggressively” slam.
I stared at Jace accusingly as he stepped inside. “What did you do?”
“Let me first say this, the two of them were standing outside when I arrived. They obviously planned on ambushing me, so I was well within my rights to stand my ground.”
I shut the door behind him and folded my arms. “Jace,” I repeated. “What did you do?”
He scratched at the stubble on his jaw, then tilted his head with a charming, soft smile that begged me not to get mad.“Well, the woman, Viola, started saying I needed to move my car and park farther down the street. I tried reasoning with the husband, thinking maybe he would be a little more laid back, but they’re clearly two cheeks on the same arse because he just repeated the same shit his wife said, telling me my car was blocking their sun.”
“Okay, and then what?”
“Then I might’ve threatened to buy Zara a drum kit for Christmas if they bothered me about parking again.”
“All right, well, that’s not the worst thing you could’ve said,” I allowed.
His flattened lips, and a vaguely guilty expression told me there was more.
“Jace,” I grumbled. “What else?”
“Listen, you were the one who planted the idea in my head, so technically, I’m not entirely at fault.”
“Oh my God, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?” When I saw his lips twitching, it infuriated me because he was clearly finding some part of this humorous. “Out with it, and you’d better not be about to laugh right now.”
He made a concerted effort to flatten his mouth again. “So, I remembered what you said about the complaining being some kind of a sex thing.”
My eyes bugged. “Jace!”
“I started telling them about our old biology teacher, Mr McIntyre, and how he used to wear trousers a size too large with no belt. He’d hitch them up at the start of class, then slowly over the hour, they’d start to slip down until eventually we could all see his crack.”
“Yes, I remember Mr McIntyre. How he never got fired was beyond me.”
“So, in the beginning, we all thought he was just oblivious or too cheap to buy a belt and the right-sized trousers. Then, overtime, we realised he did it on purpose and was getting some kind of sick thrill out of a classroom full of teenagers having to look at his backside.”
“Why on earth did my neighbours need to know this story, Jace?” I asked, growing impatient.
