‘Which is exactly why you can do it. You’ve got the drive.’
‘He doesn’t like me. He likes you! Please?’
Jesse swallowed his mouthful of coffee and turned to me with a frown. ‘Who said he doesn’t like you?’
‘Well, nobody. But I can tell. He never talks to me and I’m sure he thinks I’m just a hooray from London playing about down here.’
Jesse shot me a look.
‘He wouldn’t be the only one. Even you thought that the first time you met me.’
‘The first time I met you, I had tweety birds circling my head after you gave me concussion so that doesn’t count. Ray doesn’t dislike you so get that out of your head. He’s just a bit shy. I’ve got an appointment in a couple of hours but nothing on right now other than working on my girlfriend’s money pit. Fancy a ride up there?’
Jesse put out his hands to help me up from the wall and then scooped one arm under my bum, lifting me against him. I wrapped my legs around him and had the novel experience of looking into his face on the same level while vertical.
‘Hello.’
‘Hello.’
I felt him smile through his kiss before he placed me gently back down on the ground and hefted the three items into the back of the pick-up. The marble side table had taken both Adrian and me to lift it. Jesse did it alone.
‘What are you smiling at?’ he asked as he swung himself into the driver’s seat and pulled the door closed.
‘Nothing.’
‘Liar,’ he replied with a grin, then started up the truck and pointed it in the direction of Ray’s Salvage Yard.
* * *
‘I did it!’ I said, practically bouncing back into the cab of the truck, my voice unnaturally squeaky. ‘I got what I wanted for the pieces. Actually a bit more!’ I flung my arms around Jesse’s neck and did a little dance in the seat. ‘I can’t believe it!’
‘Why not? Fliss, there’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it. Haven’t you noticed that yet?’
‘It’s not the same. Here, I mean. I’m… I knew that world. The world I was trying to get back into. How to be, how to talk, what to say. Everything’s different here. And I’m different.’
‘Yep, you’ve got a posh accent, but the rest of it? That’s all you. People, for the most part, will treat you how you deserve to be treated. Do unto others and all that.’
‘I didn’t know you were religious.’
‘I’m not. Not especially. Alice loved to go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and I’d go along to that but she went periodically on her own. I don’t think that particular rule has to be linked with any religion. It’s just a good ethos for life in general.’
‘You’re right. It is.’
‘Went well then, did it?’
‘Yes! Ray’s super nice, actually. I think you were right when you said he’s just shy. But once I got him talking, he was fine.’
‘So you don’t think he hates you now?’
I stuck out my tongue.
‘Want to know a secret?’
‘What’s that?’
‘You know the reason Ray never spoke to you?’
‘Why?’
