Jake meets my eyes in the rearview mirror. He is frowning. ‘Why do you want to know?’
I shrug. ‘Just curious.’
‘Stay away from BJ, Layla,’ he warns in a steely voice.
I am immediately curious. ‘Why? I thought the feud is over and we are best friends with the Pilkingtons now.’
‘We’re not best friends. We’re friends,’ he corrects.
‘Ma said he saved your life.’
‘Yes, he did and I’ll be forever grateful for that, but I don’t want him anywhere near my sister. He’s a junkyard dog. He’ll fuck anything in a skirt.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Lily says. ‘I think BJ can be tamed. He is a bit of a beast, but a very seductive beast,’ she says and flashes a wink in my direction.
The car suddenly stops.
‘Out of the car, you,’ Jake tells Lily. His voice is deadly quiet.
She raises her eyebrows at him, then flicks her eyes in my direction, as if asking, You want to do this with you sister here?
‘I’m waiting,’ he says.
‘Are you serious?’ she asks incredulously.
I look from one to the other curiously.
Jake doesn’t reply. Instead he gets out of the car. As I watch totally bemused, he comes around to her side, opens Lily’s door, and takes her hand to pull her out and lead her around the back of the car. For a few moments I don’t turn around to look but then, oh fuck it, I have to know. I glance back, and my mouth drops open.
Whoa, Jake!
Lily is being crushed in Jake’s arms. He is kissing the shit out of her. The domination and forcefulness of his embrace is astonishing. I didn’t know he had it in him to be so intensely jealous and possessive. I swivel my head back quickly, not wanting to be caught staring like a half-wit at my brother eating his wife’s face by the roadside. I needn’t have worried though. It’s a good few minutes before he settles Lily back in the passenger seat. Her cheeks are bright red. And no wonder.
He gets into his seat and turns around to face me.
‘You’ve been warned. BJ saved my life. So I owe him big time, but if he hurts even a hair on your head I’ll have to break his fucking legs, and I really don’t want to do that. We’ve just made up with the Pilkingtons after centuries of pointless feuding. If you don’t want to start an all-out war again between our families, stay away from him. Can you do that?’
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.’
‘Ooook. You said to start with. What are the other reasons?’
‘I sometimes get the uneasy feeling that I am standing at the edge of a cliff and about to jump in when I’m with BJ. There’s this feeling of doing something deliciously destructive, but there is also the prospect of oblivion forever.’
‘Man, only you can make a simple fuck sound so dramatic.’