Page 13 of Lie For Me

Her voice cracked slightly.

‘It might be more than I can take. And if it is, the next time you see me, I will be in prison wearing a jumpsuit and ankle cuffs.’

Jack shrugged.

‘At least you’ll have time to focus on your poetry.’

‘No, I’ll need to join a gang to protect myself. Or start one. Or be someone’s bitch, or something.’ She shook her head. ‘Okay—I get it. I am a terrible friend. I have taken your good nature for granted, and I will—' she gazed earnestly into his eyes across the table of dirty plates, hoping she could will him to feel her plight, ‘stop doing that. But could you just do this one thing to stop me from chewing off my own hand?’

‘You haven’t even said the magic word yet, have you?’

Lucy frowned.

‘Yes, I-I did, didn’t I? When I said….’

She wracked her brain. Maybe she hadn’t said it. She sighed.

‘You want me to say please?’

Give the man what he wants.

Jack shrugged and poured more coffee.

‘As my father said, good manners go a long way.’

‘Wow. Says the man who just ate most of his breakfast with his fingers.’

Lucy ran her fingers through her tangled caramel waves, wincing as she caught a knot. She cleared her throat and then exhaled dramatically.

‘Jack.’ She winked at him. ‘Jacky Boy, Jack the Lad. My dear, good, kind, and supportive friend.’ Lucy was bouncing in her seat. ‘Won’t you pleeeaaase do this one—’ Jack narrowed his eyes, and she paused. ‘Do this other favour for me, for which I will be forever grateful, please and pretty please and thank you?’

Jack smiled and looked at her, his dark eyes inscrutable. He tipped his head to one side and rubbed his chin.

‘That’s better, thank you.’ He paused and sipped his coffee. ‘I’ll have to think about it.’

‘What?’ Lucy’s voice was nearly at a pitch only dogs could hear. ‘No, no, there’s no time!’

‘Lucy, I can’t just go away for three days at short notice. I have other important things in my life besides you.’

Lucy pulled a face. ‘You really don’t. And the wedding is in two weeks—that’s plenty of time!’

Jack started listing, counting things off on his fingers.

‘I have a business to run, staff to consider, football practice I need to go to, to work off Kathy’s cakes, Pete and Aislinn are doing a BBQ party for Riley—’

‘Wait.’ Lucy held up her hand. ‘A BBQ birthday party for a three-year-old? Happy to get you out of that one. You’ll practically owe me.’

‘Yeah, okay, that was a weak case…. But I really don’t know if I can take time away at the moment, not at such short notice. Like I said, there’s a lot going on at work.’

Jack shrugged and looked earnest as he took a sip of his coffee. Lucy wished he’d dribble a bit of it on himself.

Lucy could feel her face getting flushed. Impatient customers were eyeballing them from the doorway, spying the empty plates, willing them to hurry up and move so they could sit down.

‘Jack,’ she said, making one last attempt. ‘In all seriousness, won’t you please come with me? It’s not for two weeks. Surely you can get someone to cover things for you at work?’

She locked eyes with him as she urged him to take pity. If he didn’t say yes now, she’d buy a bottle of wine and then head home to make that call to Ollie and await her mother’s pained call to follow. She thought of her mother’s pinched expression when she showed up solo—no doubt wearing an outfit her mother would have something to say about, too.

She imagined Heather watching over her mother’s shoulder as Valerie explained to her middle child what dreadful trouble the late change in seating arrangements had put them to, and her father’s well-meaning but meagre efforts to head off trouble at the pass by making bad jokes to jolly everyone along.

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