‘Oh, I very much doubt that to be the case, Cassie – I’m sure you’re a lot more fun than you care to let on,’ Jeff replied eventually, studying me. There was something nefarious in the way that he said it. What did he mean by that? Was he coming on to me, or was it the alcohol teamed with the building tension between us getting to my head? I smiled a strained smile at him, fighting for my life to not give an inappropriate reply.
‘Well—’ I started, trying to measure my words carefully. I didn’t want to egg him on by entertaining it. ‘That may or may not be so, who knows? I find that the older I get, the less I like talking about myself, in all honesty. My boyfriend hates that – he thinks I should be a lot more outgoing, haha.’
Boyfriend? Like I’ve had one of those before, lol.
The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it and, in that moment, I saw Kofi out of the corner of my eye snap his head towards me, with an unreadable expression on his face due to the cloud build-up on his glasses. Jeff took off his own glasses to clean his lenses, probably realising how he had sounded in the moment. I couldn’t tell 100 per cent from his expression, but he looked embarrassed. I don’t know why I mentioned having a boyfriend, but if it could get Jeff off my back, then hey ho.
‘Ah. Well that’s fair enough, I suppose. I’m sure you’re aremarkable person nonetheless!’ Jeff cried, putting his glasses back on and giving me a wide, yet unreadable grin. I couldn’t tell if he genuinely meant it or if he was forcing a smile, but at this point I didn’t care.
‘I’m going to grab another drink at the bar – would you like another?’ he asked. I saw this, however, as my opportunity to start phasing out my exit.
‘I’m actually OK, thanks. I’m going to get going soon – early start tomorrow and all that,’ I muttered, making an effort to gather my bag and coat. After Jeff had gone back to the bar, Kofi slid over next to me, downing the last of his drink, and stared at me – incredulous.
‘So … a boyfriend, huh?’ he scoffed, smiling slyly.
‘No, silly! I just said that to get him off my back. That thing you said earlier about noticing him giving me the eye – you weren’t completely wrong. It was making me feel … some way.’
Kofi exhaled and looked from me to Jeff, then back again. ‘He works quickly, boy! He’s only been here five minutes. So, if he starts making you feel uncomfortable at any point, just escalate it to me, OK? I’ll deal with it.’
Sweet, protective Kofi. A surge of gratitude fell over me as he said that, and I gave him another side hug for good measure. ‘Thank you, friend,’ I replied, and started to put my coat on.
‘Now?’ I asked, looking around to see if we had the all-clear. The rest of the staff were three or four drinks deep and had reached the tipsy stage of the evening, with people shouting, laughing and slurring their words. Jeff had been dragged into a game of darts by a pair of strangers on the other side of the pub, which gave us a way to leave undetected.
‘Now,’ replied Kofi. We slyly packed up our things, shuffled towards the doors and slipped out into the frosty night. Pub drinks after work? Yeah; not for me.
Chapter 9
It was now Saturday and, like a child on Christmas Eve, I was awake at 2 a.m., excited about the busy day ahead. The last two days had fortunately flown by; the day after the pub drinks was full of semi-hungover admin staff so it was a quiet day. Jeff was starting on a part-time rota, so he wasn’t scheduled to be in on that day anyway, which was great for me as I didn’t fancy bumping into him after our awkward interaction at the pub. I still didn’t quite know what to make of it; I couldn’t 100 per cent tell if he was flirting with me or not, but the weekend wasn’t the time to worry about that just now.
My clothes had been delivered yesterday and, after trying them on for size, I laid them out on my sofa, excited for what was to come. A few hours before, I had received a message from Jericho:
No problem about the book store; I’m sure we can find something else to do! I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow – sleep well. :) J xx
I was so used to men cancelling on me at this point, however, that I knew I wouldn’t believe he would still be coming until I saw him in the flesh. I was paying good money for him, so a part of me believed that he would hold his end of the bargain, but I couldn’t help but wonder – what happens if an escortdoesn’t show up? Would the client get a refund? The thought of reaching out to the app to report being ghosted on a date gave me the ick. I just hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
As Toby purred in bed next to me, I scrolled through Jericho’s profile again, looking at his profile photos and imagining what he would be like in real life. Did he smell good? Did people stare at him everywhere he went? Would they stare at us? I was used to being the target of judgemental stares from strangers who had already decided that the men I dated didn’t align with my appearance, due to me always being bigger than said man. I wondered if that would happen to me and Jericho – this man was an absolute knockout to all intents and purposes and was by no means small in stature, but I knew it wouldn’t stop people from staring.
First, I had to go to my mum’s house and hear about her engagement. My phone alarm eventually buzzed for 8 a.m. and after brushing my teeth and changing Toby’s food bowl, I headed straight for the coffee machine for some much-needed caffeine, considering the fractured sleep I’d had.
I then took a long shower using some fragranced toiletries and, afterwards, put on the outfit I’d bought, looked in the mirror, and whistled. ‘You scrub up quite well, bitch – I know that’s right!’ I said to myself while doing a 360 turn. The jeans fitted immaculately, shaping my bum to perfection. The blue tie-string top showed just enough cleavage, and the colours of the pieces complimented each other perfectly. I carefully wrapped my hair in a high bun to accentuate my cheekbones and did my make-up – I didn’t want to do too much – a slick of pink blush here, a dab of mascara there and a generous offering of my rose rude Fenty lip gloss and I was set to go.
I grabbed a small bouquet of flowers for my mum on the way to her house – I had to practise my surprised face – Steven and I could not under any circumstances let on that we knewabout the proposal. Despite our feelings about her and Dad, she deserved this second chance with Femi. He was a nice guy, very quiet and he kept to himself for the most part, but we could see how much he loved and adored Mum – practically worshipped the ground she stood on – and if she liked it, we loved it.
‘Oh, well, look who it is! Are these flowers for me? You shouldn’t have, but also, you should have. Thank you, dear.’ My mum grabbed the bouquet from me as she ushered me into the house. I could see Femi in the kitchen making breakfast as I placed my bag in the living room.
‘Cassie, my dear, good to see you! I’m making breakfast, would you like some?’ Femi yelled from the kitchen, with a huge grin on his face. Mum had disappeared upstairs, so I went into the kitchen and half-hugged him while he was at the stove. Femi had no children, and so I think he saw Steve and I like his own. He wiped his hands on the tea towel draped across his shoulder and opened his arms for a full embrace. His hug was warm and he smelled of Old Spice, which immediately made me feel hungry.
‘What’s for breakfast? And when is Steven coming?’ I asked as I made my way to the dining table. Before I could sit arse to chair, I heard my mum’s voice thundering down the staircase as she strode into the kitchen. ‘Sitting down for what, please? Didn’t you say you were going to treat us for showing up early? Or was this bouquet the treat?’ she said, peering over at the bouquet of hydrangeas that so happened to match her violet-coloured moomoo dress.
‘I mean, Femi’s already got breakfast covered but I can help?’ I replied, trying to avoid staring at the blindingly sparkly ring that had caught my eye just at that moment. It was obvious she’d gone upstairs to put it on. Femi must have spent an absolute grip on it, for it was a unit of a rock. In response,Mum very conspicuously raised her left hand to her forehead, feigning tiredness as she sighed loudly, making sure her left fingers were in full view. ‘Oh, don’t worry about it, my dear. What have you been up to anyway?’
Now was my cue. I looked from her to her hand and made sure my mouth formed the perfect ‘O’. I stood up, looking from her to Femi and back, and started to dance up and down on the spot. An actress! Viola Davis who??
‘I KNOW that ain’t what I think it is, Mum?’ I screamed, reaching to give her an embrace as well as pull her hand in for a further look. It was a gorgeous emerald-cut diamond set in a single gold band. Classic, elegant, and absolutely stunning. She waved her hands to her face, wearing the biggest smile I’d ever seen. She looked so radiant, happier than I’d ever seen her with Dad, anyway. I turned to Femi, who was standing by the stove – spatula in hand – beaming at us both.
‘Come here, mate!’ I said as I pulled him into an embrace. ‘I’m so happy for the both of you! It’s time you made an honest woman out of her at last, because at one point I thought she was headed for the streets.’ I was met with a light slap around the back of my head as Femi burst into fits of laughter.
‘It was about time, I agree!’ replied Femi, as he went back to attending the sausages. ‘I love your mum so much, and already knew this was the woman I wanted to spend the remainder of my life with. A kind, upstanding, strong, intelligent woman. And one heck of a mother, too – look at how you and Steven turned out!’
