Page 18 of Lie For Me

‘That’s what happens to pervy men—things get thrown at them.’

Lucy opened the passenger door.

‘Oh, I see. I’m driving, am I?’ Jack said, jiggling the keys.

‘We’ll take it in turns,’ Lucy said. ‘You lost the first coin toss.’

‘What coin toss?’ Jack grumbled.

‘Come on,’ Lucy said cheerfully, patting the driver’s seat. ‘Hurry up, or you’ll make us late.’

6

Lucy arrived back at the car clutching two cheese and onion sandwiches, two bags of cheesy puffs, and a family-size bag of M&M’s. They were half-way to Shropshire and, somewhat to Lucy’s disappointment, her car was running just fine.

‘That’s a lot of cheese,’ Jack said as she clambered back into the passenger seat and dumped some of the cheesy fare in his lap. ‘We’ll have some ripe breath by the time we get there. People will give us a wide berth.’

‘Here’s hoping,’ Lucy said through a mouthful of cheese and onion.

Jack peeled open the sandwiches.

‘Mmm, service station food. My favourite,’ he muttered. He shook his head at her. ‘This is all going on the list, so I can ensure you repay me with a suitably significant favour in the future.’ He eyed his curly-edged sandwich warily, took a tentative bite and pulled a face. ‘Ugh, it’s like eating a cheesy flannel.’

Lucy, already onto her second sandwich, rolled her eyes and patted her tummy.

‘Yummy.’

‘So’, Jack said, chewing frantically in what Lucy assumed was an attempt to hammer home his point about the food, ‘we need to work out our story, don’t we?’

Lucy blinked at him over her giant bag of cheese puffs. ‘What story?’

‘The story of how we got together.’

Jack pulled the crust off the second sandwich, looked at it with disgust, and then dropped the whole thing back into the packet with a sigh. Lucy pretended not to notice and dug deep into the cheesy puffs.

‘How about… we were out walking one day, and you slipped and fell, and I caught you,’ he looked at her earnestly and flexed his biceps, ‘in my strong arms.’

Lucy wished she didn’t have a mouthful of cheesy puffs.

‘And you suddenly realised you had all these repressed feelings for me.’

Lucy snorted and chewed furiously, desperate to interrupt this monologue.

‘Or,’ she said, forcing herself to swallow partially masticated cheesy puffs so she could interrupt before Jack’s imagination ran any further. ‘We could just say we were out with friends one night, had a few drinks and one thing...’ she shrugged, ‘led to another. And we crossed the line…’

Jack considered for a moment.

‘No.’ He crossed his arms. ‘I definitely think you made a play for me. Look at me.’

Jack ran his hands over his body and gave her what Lucy assumed he thought was a red-hot, smouldering look.

‘Who wouldn’t want a piece of this?’

He blew her a kiss.

Lucy snorted so hard her head hit the passenger window. Rubbing the sore spot, she decided she needed to rein this in.

‘Okay, okay, Mister Lover Man. This has to be a story I can tell people with a straight face.’

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