‘Your sister. I like to be organised.’ She reached out for the package, trying to remain cool.Please don’t look at the sender information… Surely the company wouldn’t put their actual name on it?
Inwardly breathing a sigh of relief, Jenny managed a smile as Chloe relinquished the parcel and headed to the fridge to find a drink. ‘Can someone set the table and you can serve yourselves? I’ll be right back.’
She forced herself to walk from the room, despite the fact every nerve in her body was screaming to run. What would happen if her daughters discovered what was inside the box? Why the hell had she bought it? This was utterly mortifying. Where was she even going to put the damn thing? Oh my God … what if she died suddenly and the girls had to clean out her bedroom and they found it? Why the hell didn’t she think of all this before she ordered the stupid thing? She’d throw it in the bin the next time she was home alone. Until then, she’d have to stash it somewhere no one would accidentally find it.
Jenny eyed the bedroom and bit her lip. She couldn’t keep it in her closet, it was like a department store with the girlsconstantly raiding her wardrobe for clothing. Likewise her bathroom—someone was always hogging the main bathroom and hers was often being used. Her bedside table … it was just asking to be found there. She continued to scan the room until she spied the dirty clothes hamper. Perfect. The one place no one would stumble across it. Heaven forbid anyone except she would think of doing laundry around here.
Satisfied her dirty little secret was safely hidden at the bottom of her hamper, Jenny composed herself. It was a simple lapse of judgement. A moment of weakness. Tomorrow she’d dispose of it and everything would be fine.
It hadn’t been the best morning at work. Jenny let out a weary sigh as she sat down for the first time since her morning shift started and wiggled her toes inside her ugly, but very practical and comfy, work shoes. It was so good to be off her feet. She opened thePaw Patrollunchbox she’d had to borrow from Sophie, who had an extraordinary number of lunch containers for a two-year-old. She’d been too tired the night before to search for the lid to every other container she’d pulled from the cupboard.
As she ate her tuna salad, she flipped through the magazine on the table disinterestedly. There seemed to be a lot of celebrities with way too much time on their hands, Jenny thought, as she scanned the photos of some multimillionaire’s kid at a party that had got a bit out of hand on a yacht in some exotic location.
Her phone beeped and she dragged her gaze from the turquoise water and white sandy beach to look at the screen.
New message from Caffeine_Addict.
Jenny dropped her feet from the chair across from her and wiped her hand on a napkin before clicking the link to the app.This is new.Don’t these only open on my laptop?she thought, timidly reading the message. Then she muttered beneath her breath as she recalled opening a number of things in her search for the delete profile thingy last time she’d logged into the app. God only knew what she’d managed to activate—clearly receiving messages on her phone, for a start.
Caffeine_Addict
Hey. Whatcha up to?
Florence_71
Just having lunch. How are you?
Caffeine_Addict
Same. How goes the search?
Florence_71
I’ve decided online dating is not for me.
Caffeine_Addict
No. You can’t give up that easily.
Florence_71
I think I’ve gone through enough. If the only men
available are the ones coming up on my match list,
I think I’d prefer to stay single.
Caffeine_Addict
Yet you’re still on the app?
Florence_71
Well, occasionally I get interesting conversation from
some guy on here. So I guess it’s worth keeping for
that.
