Jodie is my dirty little secret, and that’s the way it’s going to have to stay until I get what I need from her.
“I think you might be more than enough for now,” she jokes.
“So…” I start. “Tell me something. Something real.”
“Other than that I’m currently drowning in grief and my family is falling apart around me?”
“Yeah, other than that,” I say, needing to keep clear of any talk of families for now.
“Okay… uh… I finished sixth form last year with all A’s and an offer from my top university, but I freaked out and deferred. Now I’m working in a coffee shop while secretly harbouring a desire to forget it all and become a stripper.”
I damn near spray her with the mouthful of hot chocolate I’d just sipped.
“You okay?” she asks when I start coughing up the bit that went down the wrong way.
“I wasn’t expecting that.”
She shrugs. “I’d hate to be predictable. What about you?”
“Similar. Well, aside from the stripping thing. Not sure I’ve got the rhythm for that.”
She smiles. “Bullshit, you’re a good dancer.”
“Glad you think so. But seriously, I’m still in sixth form. Doing my third year because—“
“You’re scared of the future too?” she guesses.
“Yeah, something like that. I want uni but…”
“It’s terrifying?”