Popping the Cherry (17 page)

‘Whoa!’ Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jake run his hand through his hair. ‘I got your name, but the rest of it? Not a clue. It’s kind of sexy, though.’

My left leg jerked and made me press my foot down on the clutch. Unfortunately, I still had my right foot on the accelerator so the engine screamed from under the bonnet, the sound deafening.

‘Shit!’ I cursed.

‘Oops, sorry,’ he said, unable to hold back his laugh. ‘And mind your language.’

‘Ha! Yeah, yeah, good one.’ I turned the fans up to blow more cold air onto my flaming face.

‘Huh? Oh!’ Realising his own apparently inadvertent joke, he laughed even louder, the sound filling the car. ‘Mind your
language
, I get it.’

Jake’s laugh was too contagious. I couldn’t help joining in, all the while trying to carry out his instructions and get us home again safely. Driving lessons had never been so much fun.

‘Stop it,’ I said, between laughs. ‘I need to concentrate.’

Jake held a hand up. ‘Yeah, sorry, my bad.’ He took a couple of deep breaths.’ You’re so good, though, Tink, I forgot I was supposed to be actually supervising you. I have no idea how you failed your test: you drive better than a lot of people I know.’

The flutter that took up in my belly when Jake said ‘Tink’ whooshed into a tornado when he followed it with his high praise. ‘Thanks, Jake,’ I gushed. If I turned the blowers up any more, I wouldn’t be able to hear him over the loud whirring noise, which meant my cheeks would just have to glow instead.

We rode along in companionable silence until Jake said, ‘You and Nathan seemed pretty close the other night. I take it you know him.’

I nearly demonstrated my emergency stop right there and then. I’d never been so relieved to see a traffic light change to red as I approached. It gave me time to rebuild my composure, and gave me an excuse to pretend I was concentrating too hard to reply straightaway.

‘We’re friends from work,’ I said, playing it cool. ‘Although Nathan works upstairs in menswear.’

‘Right. I didn’t realise,’ Jake said, staring pointedly ahead. ‘I knew he had a weekend job as well, but didn’t know where.’

‘I didn’t realise you knew Nathan, either. He said you were kind of his boss during the holidays.’

‘Something like that,’ Jake said. He flicked a glance at me, complete with quirked eyebrow, and then turned his head to look out of the passenger window.

‘What does that mean?’

‘I just look out for him, that’s all,’ Jake said.

‘Why on earth would you need to?’ The lights had turned green without my noticing, too busy staring at Jake, and the driver behind honked his car horn at me.

‘A building site can be a hard place to work, and some guys are just looking to stir up trouble.’

‘But Nathan would never do that,’ I said, outraged on his behalf.

‘I know,’ Jake said coolly. ‘But, like it or not, trouble always finds him.’

‘What—’

‘Look, it’s not my place to say, Tink. I don’t even know for certain, it’s just a suspicion, a feeling. Please don’t ask me any more.’

Well that’s me told
.

I closed my mouth and fell silent. First Nathan sending ominous messages and now Jake saying odd things. There had to be some joke in there somewhere, but nobody could be bothered to tell me the punchline. What was I missing? Jake didn’t say much more, either, speaking only to relay instructions and leaving me to my thoughts.

Another three-point turn, a parallel parking and three roundabouts later, we were headed back to mine when a purple Corsa drove towards us from the opposite direction. A very familiar purple Corsa with two pink fluffy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror. My heart rattled and bounced around my ribcage, and my knuckles turned white, still holding the steering wheel in the ten-to-two position. I slunk lower in my seat but it was too late. Gemma’s wide eyes glared at us. She twisted her head to follow us all the way past.

‘Shit!’ Jake cursed. ‘I think we’ve just been busted.’ He echoed my thoughts exactly but hearing it still made me wince.

‘Yep, I’d say so.’

Gemma’s text message arrived before we’d made it back to my place. Both my and Jake’s phones went off together, so Jake read the message out loud, considering that I was still driving. It consisted of just three words—’what the hell’—but there was a whole lot more punctuation. By the time I pulled up at the next set of traffic lights, Jake had counted the question marks and exclamation marks and it turned out Gemma had used more of them than actual letters.

Jake shook his head. ‘What is her problem?’ he said, his tone gruff and his body tensed, but then he sighed. A long, deep sigh. He ran his fingers through his hair for good measure, then turned his head towards me. ‘Do you want to reply, or should I?’

‘I will. I don’t need the guilt of starting World War Three, and I don’t have to live with her.’

‘Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to, either,’ Jake mumbled. ‘But it’s not for much longer.’

For some reason, I shuddered. ‘Why’s that?’ I asked, pretending somebody hadn’t just walked over my grave.

‘Oh, er … nothing.’ He found something very interesting to look at in the glove box.

‘No! Spill!’ I met his gaze just for a second, so had to put everything into my super-glare. ‘Are you moving out?’

‘No! Well, not yet, anyway.’ Jake smacked the heel of his hand against his forehead. ‘Damn it, Tink, why do you have to be so easy to talk to?’

‘You say that like it’s a bad thing,’ I said, hoping I didn’t sound anywhere near as cocky as I felt all of a sudden. ‘A girl could take offence, you know.’

‘Yeah, sorry.’

‘So? Have you found a place to rent or something?’

‘Or something?’ He fell silent again.

‘Do I have to pull over and beat it out of you?’

A smile lit his face instantly. ‘You could try. Hey, it might even be fun.’

I smacked his thigh and was met with pure muscle. ‘Ow! OK, maybe not.’ My fingers were still stinging when I moved my hand back to the wheel, rubbing it over the cool leather. ‘You know you
can
talk to me, though, right?’

‘Yeah, I think I do.’ Jake’s silence stretched over the course of several heartbeats. His gaze scorched the side of my face but I kept my focus on the road ahead and refused to be the next to speak. ‘There’s a house coming on the market soon, one that needs a lot of work doing.’

‘And?’ I prompted when Jake didn’t say any more.

‘I know the owner,’ he said. ‘And he’s giving me first refusal.’

‘What? To buy?’ I dragged the steering back to the left after I almost swerved into the oncoming traffic. ‘Can you do that? Buy a house, I mean?’

‘Yeah, I reckon so. I mean, I’ve been saving ever since I started work and I’ve built up a pretty decent deposit. I’m on a good wage too, and Dad’s making me a director now I’m twenty-one, so the mortgage shouldn’t be a problem.’

I choked. I couldn’t help it, but it got so bad I had to pull over to the side of the road. Thankfully, we were off the main road and back in Sleepyville, so dropping my mirror-signal-manoeuvre mantra wouldn’t get anyone killed. My eyes watered and stung as I stared at Jake’s amused expression.

‘A mortgage? At twenty-one?’ I spluttered. ‘Aren’t you supposed to be going out drinking and partying all weekend?’

‘Nope, I’ve never been into that crap. Besides, this could be great for my career.’ He recognised my confused look and took pity on me. ‘My plan is to do it up in my spare time, then sell it on again, hopefully for a pretty decent profit. I can then use the proceeds from the sale to buy the next one.’

‘What, like those property-development programmes my mum loves?’

‘Yeah, exactly like that.’

‘Wow!’

Jake hit me with a smile and I knew in that instant he would succeed. In fact, the longer I looked at him, the more I saw a guy with a plan, a clear vision for the future, and he had the drive and determination to achieve it. He had it all worked out. Older, wiser, more mature than I, Jake wasn’t just a guy any more: he was a man. And here I was, nothing more than a glorified schoolgirl; I had no big plan, and absolutely naff-all clue about what to do after college, let alone with my life. Jeez, I hadn’t even had sex yet, whereas he’d probably been with loads of girls.

Why on earth would Jake ever look twice at me?

Reality sucked. Our stark differences put Jake so far out of my league it was untrue. No way did I want to become the girl who held him back—assuming he even noticed me—or be the pitiful cling-on who followed him around with huge doe eyes. The crush had to go. Dejection threatened to set in, but I ignored the knot building in my stomach, and the way it churned and lurched all at once. So what if I couldn’t be his girlfriend? I could at least be a good friend, as he had been for me.

‘That’s incredible, Jake. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant!’

‘Do you really think so?’

‘Well, duh.’
Yeah, really mature, Lena
. ‘I do, Jake, I really do.’

‘Thanks.’ Jake squeezed my leg. ‘It’s so good to be able to talk it over with someone at last, but you can’t tell anyone, OK?’

A flush of pride crept over me. I was flattered that Jake had confided in me. Just me, and nobody else. ‘Sure thing.’

‘Now are you going to drive or have we got to sit here all night?’

I laughed but checked my mirrors, then signalled and rejoined the road. ‘So can I help?’

‘Help with what?’

‘Your house.’

‘Are you any good with a sledgehammer?’

‘God, no. Well, not that I’ve actually tried, but I can imagine.’ Great, I was babbling again. ‘I know I can’t do the construction bit, but I can wield a paintbrush, and I think I have a good eye for colours and accessories if you wanted another opinion.’

‘Didn’t you get roped into decorating Gemma’s room?’

‘Er … that depends on whether you like it or not.’

Jake grinned. ‘Yeah, I like it, Tink.’

‘Good. In that case I’ll take full credit ’cause it was all my idea. Gemma was going to paint the whole room hot pink but I managed to talk her round to a feature wall and splashes of colour. I enjoyed it, too, especially the shopping part.’

‘Ugh, shopping.’ Jake faked a shudder. ‘Consider yourself hired, ’cause that’s the bit I hate. I’ll do the structural stuff, and you can be the interior designer.’

Interior designer?

I wasn’t an artist, so it was pointless thinking about it as a potential career. Wasn’t it? But, hey, it appealed a hell of a lot more than going into law. There was no harm in doing it as a hobby, maybe even testing the waters to see if it clicked. I could always go back to college and learn.

‘You’re on,’ I said, steering the car onto my driveway to park up next to Jake’s van.

‘Great. And that’s not all that’s great,’ Jake said. ‘You did really well, driving, I mean. I can’t believe they failed you.’

‘Thanks.’ Another flutter, the butterflies waking up from their slumber.

‘I’m free on Wednesday night if you want to go again.’

Damn
.

‘Umm … I can’t on Wednesday.’ I cut the engine and kept my gaze fixed on the dashboard. ‘I already have plans.’

‘Hot date, huh?’ His words sounded ridiculously loud without the background hum.

Still I couldn’t meet Jake’s eye. ‘I’m umm … meeting Nathan.’

‘Nathan?’ Jake twisted in his seat, ready to face me full on. ‘Like on a date?’

Butterflies à gogo! They forced an anxious laugh out of my tight throat. ‘I’m not sure.’

‘Do you want it to be a date?’

I’m pretty sure I cringed. Could I really handle having this conversation with the one guy I actually did fancy? ‘I’m not sure?’ I repeated, turning it into a question.

‘Just don’t get your hopes up, OK?’ Jake pressed his hand onto my thigh and the butterflies practically leaped out of my mouth. The sudden zap charged the blood in my veins, building until I didn’t dare touch the metal of the car for fear of an electric shock. ‘Tink?’

‘Hmm?’ I looked away from Jake’s huge hand on my leg and back to his face, with its furrowed brow and watchful eyes, filled with concern. ‘Oh, yeah. OK, I won’t.’

‘Good.’ His shoulders relaxed and he released my leg. ‘So what are you going to tell Gemma?’

My phone buzzed again, still on vibrate mode, and Jake’s went off, too. ‘Speak of the devil,’ I said, grateful for the distraction.

‘She can wait,’ Jake said.

‘No, I’d better not. She’ll only get even more pissy.’

‘True. I’ll head off, then.’ Jake unclipped his seatbelt and opened the car door. ‘Speak to you soon, Tink.’ He shot me a smile that had my heart turning somersaults and then he was gone.

Sheesh!

Please don’t let it take too long for the rest of me to catch up with my head, my body and heart couldn’t take much more. My fingers trembled when I reached for my phone and called up the two new messages.

‘What the hell?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ said the first. Gemma kept it short for the second one: it simply said, ‘Well???’ Maybe she’d worn out the exclamation mark.

Another reason to stay away from Jake. He was still totally out of bounds. I shot a message back to Gemma, trying to keep it casual: ‘Extra driving practice. Don’t go nuts at Jake, he’s only doing me a favour. Probably taking pity me on me after the attack.’ There was no harm reminding her of it, and it may help her to see reason. ‘Anyway, about to have dinner. Catch up with you tmrw x.’

My phone bleeped before I’d had time to get out of the car. ‘Damn right! I’ll pick you up. C u @ 8 x.’

Oh goody
.

Gemma showed up at exactly eight o’clock. Not a minute earlier or later. I would have made a joke about how miracles really do happen, but one look at her face told me not to go there. Oh, well, she’d saved me from having to get the bus to college, even if it
was
just to get my ear chewed. It didn’t take much to deflect her though.

Overnight, I’d come up with a plan, a way to save my arse—or rather my ear—all thanks to my impending is-it-a-date-or-isn’t-it? with Nathan, who, while I’d been in the bath before bed, had texted to say he’d pick me up at seven. Fine. No problem with the time, none whatsoever, but he hadn’t let on where we were going. Seeing that he’d previously said he wanted—no,
needed
—to talk, I figured I could rule out the cinema. Unfortunately, that left a whole lot of other options, from café, to restaurant, to fast-food diner and everything in between.