“She’s the one who’s jealous, Jules,” I remind myself, Nana’s voice ringing in my ears;when jealous people stew in their dark feelings, don’t climb in the pot and boil with them. Slam the lid down and leave them to it.
Easy to recall, not so easy to enact.
I make it to the back of the warehouse without seeing anything. Then turn around and slowly make my way back, forcing my eyes over everything just to distract myself. By the time I reach the clothes rails again, I’m much calmer. Lafferty leaning into Aiden up at the front desk doesn’t bother me. Not at all. Not in the slightest.
I pull out my phone.
“Tell Laffing-girl, if she puts her hands on your muscles again, I’ll pull out her fucking teeth. And no christening anything for you later. On principle.”
I hear Aiden’s laughter and know he’s received it.
“Hey Tiger!” he shouts. “You doing okay back there?”
I refuse to answer.
“I’m good if you don’t find anything. I mean, you’ll have to walk around naked, but I’m sure I’ll cope.”
“Mind your fucking manners, Aiden Driscoll!” I’m furious that he’s justifying her whore comment, but also oddly pleased that he’s publicly claimed me as his. Are relationships always this diametrical?
“That’s my fierce girl! On a serious note, Rutledge will be here in ten. Think you can be done by then? I’d like to introduce you both.”
“No problem. I’m almost done.” I stare into the empty trolley and sigh at my own lie. Time to focus on what I’m here to do. I grab a few pairs of jeans, joggers, some new yoga pants(that make me smile when I think of the last pair I wore)a dress that I’ll probably never wear, three blouses in the same style but different colours, and a range of cute t-shirts with sarcastic slogans. On the way to the till, I grab a basic white bra, one in black, and a six-pack of white thong panties. I count the bill at two hundred and sixty-seven pounds. Not bad at all, given there are some named brands among the haul.
On the counter already are a pair of white sneakers, fluffy pink slippers, a thick winter jacket, and fur-lined boots.
“Are we going skiing?” I ask, running my eyes over the tags and calculating my new total.Three hundred and fifty-two.
“Winter’s coming in,” Aiden says with a shrug. “I want you tobe cosy.”
“I’ll just bet you do,” I tease and then smirk at the throat clearing behind us.
“Ready to ring it up?” Lafferty snaps, drawing Aiden’s eye. She clears her throat again and offers him a weak smile.
I lug the clothing onto the counter for scanning. Lafferty snaps off every tag and scans them that way. Except, I’m fairly sure she’s scanning some of them twice.For God’s sake, why couldn’t it have been some other girl on the counter today? One not obsessed with my…boyfriend…man…lover…ugh…with what’s mine!
“Five Hu—”
“Nope.” I pop the P. “Do it again. This time, read the tags out.” She shoots a glance at Aiden. We both read the subtext in the look just fine.Save me…she’s crazy…do I really have to do this?
“Do it,” Aiden demands without even questioning me.
For each item she reads out. I fold the clothing and pile it up. By the time she’s finished, I have three neat stacks ready for bagging.
“Total?” I ask. She rolls her lips. I can see she’s getting ready to lie, so I grab the display and swivel it to face me and Aiden.
£352.00
“Three fifty-two with the discount,” she murmurs.
Thankfully, I don’t need the discount, but the fact that she’s trying to save her own skin by tricking me out of it really burns me up.
Aiden notices too. He pulls out his UACT ID, hands it to her, and asks, “Wouldn’t you need this then?”
“Oh, yeah. My bad. Hang on.” She takes her time inputting the code and then returns the new amount. She’s trying so hard to smile innocently, but we’re all aware she just fucked up.
“£281.60,” she trills. “You got a nice haul for the price.” She distracts herself with bagging, not noticing the grey-haired, dour-faced gentleman who has stepped in and watches us all from thedoor.
Aiden spots him. He shifts from my Aiden to the UACT operative with stiffened posture and showing deference to a man of authority.
