I nod slowly.
‘Good. He’s not the only man in the world. There are millions of good guys out there for you. You don’t need to pick a drug dealer.’ He pauses. ‘He’s a criminal, Layla. Don’t ever mistake him for anything else. You deserve better than him. Much better.’
‘Ok,’ I whisper.
He turns around and starts the car. We drive the rest of the way in complete silence.
‘Thanks for the ride, Jake. Bye, Lily,’ I say, opening the car door.
‘No problem. I’ll wait until you get in,’ Jake says.
‘You don’t have to, Jake. What can possibly happen to me in broad daylight?’
‘Layla,’ he sighs wearily.
‘OK, OK,’ I say and, slipping out of the car and shutting the door, I run up the steps to my front door. I love my family to death and all, but sometimes they are so overprotective I feel stifled. I close my front door and I hear Jake’s car drive away. My flat is quiet and still. So much so I jump when my phone rings. It’s Madison.
‘Hey, Maddy. How’s it going?’
‘Same old, same old,’ she says, sounding bored. ‘How was your party last night?’
I take a deep breath. ‘I kissed … someone.’
‘Wait one moment,’ she says and I hear her moving around, doing something. ‘Right. I’m back.’
‘What were you doing?’ I ask.
‘Getting a tub of ice cream out of the freezer. So … who, what, where, when? Spit it out,’ she demands bossily.
So I tell her.
‘No fucking way!’ she screams so loudly I have to hold the phone away from my ear.
I open the freezer and take out a carton of chocolate-chip ice cream and open it on the granite countertop.
‘Are you kidding me?’ she asks incredulously.
‘Nope,’ I say, getting a spoon out of a drawer and shutting it with my hip.
‘But you hate him!’
I sigh, plonking myself on a stool and stabbing my spoon into the ice cream. ‘I know.’
‘What do you mean you know? Is this like some sort of a hate fuck?’
‘I’m not sure I’m taking it any further than dinner.’
‘Liar,’ she accuses.
I slide the spoon into my mouth and let the ice cream melt on my tongue. Maddy is right. In my heart of hearts I know I’m not walking away.
‘So what are you going to wear tomorrow then?’ she asks.
‘I don’t know yet.’
‘Wear your red dress.’
‘No way. That’s a summer dress.’
‘You won’t be wearing it for long, anyway.’
‘Even if I do decide to go further, I’m not planning on sleeping with him tomorrow.’
‘Of course, you’re not. You’re just practically salivating through the phone and into my ear,’ she says with her mouth full.
I scoop more ice cream. ‘Want to bet I don’t sleep with him tomorrow?’
‘To be really frank, I’d sleep with him.’
The spoon halts mid-way. ‘What?’
‘Wouldn’t be the saddest day of my life.’
I lick the spoon. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah, he has badditude and that intense, laser stare going on.’
I grin. Badditude and a laser stare. That’s one description for BJ.
‘I like the way he fills out his jeans from the back too,’ she adds.
I laugh outright.
‘Oh! And I suspect he’ll be very good in bed. He looks like he gets laid often.’
That observation shouldn’t have troubled me, but it does. Which is strange because after Jake’s warning I am of the mind that even if I do sleep with him it will only be the once or twice.
‘So come on, what are you going to wear?’
‘Something subtle. Maybe a white shirt and my dark green trousers.’
‘Isn’t that what you were planning to wear for your job interview?’
‘No, I was going to wear my black trousers to the interview. I just don’t want to give the impression that I’m a slut.’
She laughs. ‘You? A slut? Pleeeease. You’ve got ‘Don’t Touch’ written across your forehead.’
‘I do not.’
‘All right, I’m wrong. You’ve got Don’t Fucking Touch Or I’ll Call The Police blazing from your forehead.’
‘Don’t exaggerate, Maddie.’ I sigh. ‘Actually, I’m a bit confused.’
‘About what?’ she demands.
‘I think I’m torn between excitement and panic,’ I reveal.
‘I get the excitement bit, but why the panic?’
‘Because I know it’s a bad idea.’
‘Why?’
‘Well to start with, Jake has threatened me off in no uncertain terms. Absolutely don’t go there stuff. Forbidden in capital letters. Huge family feud stuff. Jake actually called him a drug dealer and criminal. And he didn’t say it just for effect. He really believes BJ is a massive gangster.’