Page 60 of The Price of Love
‘No, it’s all right. We really ought to be getting home. I’ve told them I’ll be back at work tomorrow and I still need a lot of sleep. Recuperation, you see.’ As I spoke, I got to my feet. Luke duly followed, and I folded the rug over my arm. ‘I’ll put this away.’
Again Luke popped the boot for me. This time, whilst he was putting the jacket into the car, I managed to shuffle his laptop onto the rubber edge of the boot, balancing it against me while I put the rug into the recess.
‘Ready?’ Luke came behind the car and I pretended to jump.
‘Oh, you startled me! Oh,bugger!’ As I’d hoped, the laptop had fallen with a rather nasty cracking sound, onto the stony ground underneath the boot. ‘God, I’m sorry, Luke. Is it all right?’
Luke, a little grim-faced, retrieved the machine. ‘Fuck. Looks like the battery might be damaged. Shit, these things cost an arm and a leg to fix.’
‘I’m really sorry.’ Contrition came easily to me. I was always sorry for something.
‘Ah, not your fault really. Stupid place to keep a laptop, but I like to have it on me.’
We surveyed the dented black casing for a moment. ‘Expensive to fix, you said?’
Luke’s head came up. ‘Fairly. More ready cash than I was looking to lay out right now, why?’
He’d bitten. I was almost ashamed of myself. ‘Well, you remember Cal? The guy who owns the farm up on the moors? He fixed my laptop. He’s absolutely brilliant. I’ll pay, of course. It’s my fault it’s broken. But he doesn’t charge too much.’
Luke thought for a moment. ‘If you’re sure. And he’s good, you say?’
‘Fantastic.’ But I wasn’t necessarily thinking of his winning ways with a computer.
‘Here you are then. Could you get it back as soon as possible? Only I need it, for business.’
Yeah, sure you do.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The following evening I went round to Cal’s flat and caught him leaving for the farm. ‘I need a favour.’
‘Oh?’ He stuck his head out through the window of the Micra. ‘You’d better jump in then and tell me about it on the way. It’s good timing, actually. I need to shift that bloody goat again.’
‘Why don’t you employ someone to do it?’
‘Because I’ve got you, and you need a favour.’ I climbed into the car and sat on a pile of magazines. Cal looked at me sideways. ‘So. How are you?’
I had the lie lined up on my lips ready. The ‘oh, I’m fine’ that was working so well for Katie, but once his cool gaze landed on me, the lie failed. ‘Pretty shitty, actually.’
‘Uh-huh? Feel like talking about it?’
‘I’mangry, Cal.’ Until now I hadn’t even been surehowI felt, but now I knew. ‘I’m angry that I’ve been duped and that I fell for it. I should haveknown.’
‘Why?’
‘What?’
‘Why “should” you have known? Did he approach you wearing an I’m-a-fraud badge and covered in lipstick marks?’
I laughed. ‘Of course not.’
‘Well, then. Stop beating yourself up about it. He’s clever, he’s good-looking and he thinks on his feet. There’s no way you could have sussed him.’
‘Maybe, but I still should have known. Good-looking men don’t exactly fall for me, you know.’
‘Perhaps they do, but you’re so worried about throwing up on them that you step over and make a beeline for the boring ones. Now, what’s this favour you need?’
‘It’s this.’ I held up Luke’s laptop. ‘I want you to hack it for me.’
