‘Wow,’ Rachel said again.
So the lovely woman in the white dress had finished with him. Hadcheatedon him? Had broken his heart? This did not compute.
Yet it also made sense, in a ‘through the looking glass’ kind of way. Jack had transferred down here to lick his wounds, to get away from his messed-up marriage, Rachel supposed. This explained his behaviour that morning when they’d been at the office early: the sad set of his shoulders and his general air of defeat. Maybe he’d been on the phone to his wife, or a lawyer …
Andthiswas why Jack had been determined to stay at R/C after the takeover, in spite of the awkward discovery that he’d have to be around another, different ex in order to keep his new job.
‘Did you … Do you have any children?’ Rachel asked.
‘No. That was one of our issues. I wanted them, she didn’t.’
Rachel nodded, mute, not wanting to say ‘Wow’ for the third time in five minutes. Her head was fizz-foggy and this was too much to take in.
She couldn’t avoid the impression that this news threw some of Jack’s recent behaviour into sharp relief, and she needed to work out how she felt about that. Rachel was more thankful than ever for her recently acquired fake boyfriend – not to mention the no man’s land he’d laid down between her and the real, live man sitting two inches away.
Rachel felt her phone vibrating inside her handbag, shoved between her feet under the table. She ducked down and fished it out to see several messages from Anna, culminating in:
Anna:Heading home from the Hope. We all missed you! See you back at the flat??? x
Rachel tapped out a reply.
Rachel:Yep. Sorry, big celebrations here … Leaving shortly x
Anna is typing …
Anna:You’re coming home alone, right?
Rachel:FFS, OF COURSE I AM.
Rachel looked up from her mobile to find Jack watching her. ‘Time to head off?’
‘Yeah, I should probably get going,’ she said, aware that he’d assumed the messages were from her boyfriend.
‘I’ll walk you out – head back to my little bachelor pad.’
Rachel got her stuff together, not sure what to do with his self-deprecation.
They said goodbye to several colleagues still dotted around the pub and propping up the bar, some of whom were now quite worse for wear. Kemi and Ella had both been served large glasses of tap water by Toby, who was watching them fearfully – willing them to drink some non-alcoholic fluid before he had to find them taxis.
Greg squeezed Rachel’s arm, kissed her cheek and said, ‘Tell me he’s just putting you in a cab.’
She squeezed back. ‘He’s just putting me in a cab. There’s nothing happening here, I promise.’
‘See you Monday, everyone,’ Jack announced above the general chatter, waving as he and Rachel made their way to the pub door.
Brilliant, Rachel thought. She really could have done without him advertising the fact that they were leaving together. It didn’t look good, even though it was totally innocent.
They waited on the pavement for just a few moments before Rachel’s Uber appeared.
‘I’ll see you on Monday, then,’ Jack said. ‘Have a great weekend, and thanks for tonight. It’s the best fun I’ve had with anyone since moving here.’
He inclined his head towards Rachel’s, grazing her cheek with his lips. They were soft and cool, chilly as the winter air, but her skin blazed at the touch. Heat radiated from the spot where his mouth had been, spreading down, up and out until her entire body felt hazy and warm.
It would have been easy to lock her hands behind his neck and tip her head back, to let herself be kissed. In this moment she was sure that Jack wanted her to, and her certainty terrified her.
‘Bye,’ she said, stepping away from him, breathless and not a little unsteady.
Rachel climbed into the taxi without letting herself look back, fearful that – for all her assurances to Anna, regardless of her good intentions and despite his past misdeeds – she’d pull Jack in after her.
