"No, no! I never told Minerva Jasmine's name!"
"But she did know who I was," Jasmine said. "She accosted me in a coffee shop and said I stole you from her."
George's face paled as he shook his head vigorously. "I never told her your name," he said insistently.
"There's another person who could clear this up for us. I'm calling him right now," Jasmine said as she retrieved her phone and started dialling. She turned on the speaker and put the phone on the coffee table so everyone could hear.
"Hello?"
"Tim, it's Jasmine."
"Hi, Jasmine. I'm afraid I still haven't found George or a number to reach him on."
"I want to ask you something else, Tim."
"Go ahead."
"Who told you that George said I was into casual sex and that I write porn stories for XXX magazines?"
"Uh, it was Minerva, George's ex-fiancée."
She shook her head in dismay. "Why didn't you tell me that before?"
"Well, you didn't ask and it didn't seem important."
George stood up and moved closer to the phone. "Tim, it's George. Did Minerva specifically mention Jasmine's name when she spoke to you?"
"George? Where the hell have you been, man?" Tim asked in obvious shock.
"Later. We need to sort things out for Jasmine and Kane first."
"Well, Minerva stormed into my apartment not long after you and Jasmine broke up and asked me what I knew about the … uh … slut you replaced her with. I got angry and told her that Jasmine Allen was not a slut and that she shouldn't use that term on her."
"And then what did she say?" George prodded.
"That's when she started telling me what you said about Jasmine."
"Tim, it's Kane. Can you tell us the story using the exact words Minerva used, as best as you can remember?"
"Uh, hi, Kane, okay," Tim answered, sounding flustered.
"Take your time," Kane said encouragingly.
"Minerva said I was wrong, that Jasmine was only after hardcore sex with various men because she wrote stories for porn magazines. I was shocked, of course. I said we must be talking about a different girl. She said if I was talking about George's girlfriend, then we were talking about the same girl because that information came from George. She said Jasmine liked going out with different men to get ideas for her stories.
"I told her that wasn't the Jasmine I knew, that in fact, I'd been wanting to go out with Jasmine for months and she kept on turning me down. Minerva said it must be because I was some goody-two-shoes and was too boring for someone like Jasmine. She even suggested I should try being more aggressive, more predatory, because that seemed to be what Jasmine preferred. It was hard for me to believe her but she swore all that information came from George."
There was silence around the room as a major piece of the puzzle was revealed.
"I can't believe you swallowed that story, Tim," George said eventually.
"I know. I'm sorry. I did try to contact you to confront you about it but your phone was disconnected and no one seemed to know where you went. I called Minerva to ask if she knew where you were and she said she wasn't surprised you disappeared because you stole money from her."
"What?!" George exclaimed.
"She said you took money from your joint bank account."
George slumped into the nearest chair, disbelief written in his features for the umpteenth time that day. "We didn't even have a joint bank account," he said weakly.
Heavy exhales were heard from around the room.
"Mystery solved, by the looks of it," George said. "Now I know why a lot of my friends have deserted me. They think I'm a thief, a cheat and, what did you say earlier, Jasmine? A blackmailer?"
Jasmine gave him a sympathetic smile. "There's one more thing that's unclear. How did Minerva know about Kane and Hannah?" she asked.
"I'm afraid I'm responsible for her knowing about Kane," Tim said contritely. "After I realised how wrong I was to believe that crap talk about you, Jasmine, I called Minerva and gave her a piece of my mind. She said your new boyfriend must be some lowlife thief like George. I said she was wrong about that, too, because your boyfriend was Kane Summers and if she Googled Kane, she'd find out that he was a high-profile, well-respected architect. I don't know anything about Hannah, though. Who's she?"
"Kane's ex," Jasmine explained. "Minerva could have found out about Hannah through Googling Kane."
"Gosh, guys. I'm so sorry. I really am," Tim said sincerely. "And I thought I was doing the right thing by defending your reputation, Jasmine."
"It's okay. I think we finally got to the bottom of things," Jasmine said softly.