Page 111 of Fling

‘Wait a minute, Colin has a date at Dún Laoghaire Harbour?’ Emily asked curiously. ‘That’s weird, so does Tara.’

‘That’ll be awkward,’ Rory laughed as he unzipped the back of Emily’s dress.

‘Well, I don’t know if I’d call it a date. Tara’s going there in the hopes this guy called Jack will show up. Which he probably won’t. Anyway . . .’ Emily ripped open Rory’s shirt, felt his bulging pecs and began kissing him again.

‘Hold on,’ Rory said, pulling back. ‘Did you say . . . Jack?’

‘Yeah, that’s the guy she’s been texting,’ Emily said. ‘They met on that app Fling.’

‘Oh my GOD,’ Rory said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

‘What?’

‘By any chance . . . is Tara’s name on Fling . . . Claire?’

‘Yeah, how did you . . .’ Emily said. Then realizing what was going on, ‘OH MY GOD!!! COLIN IS JACK?’

‘TARA IS CLAIRE? So they’ve been talking to EACH OTHER for the past few weeks?’ Rory said in complete disbelief.

‘They must have been! OMG, we have to call them!’ Emily said, taking out her phone.

‘WAIT!’

‘Wait for what? There’s no time!’ Emily said frantically.

‘Hear me out,’ Rory said, thinking everything through. ‘Why don’t we just sit back and see what happens? I mean, who are we to get in the way of Jack and Claire’s first date?’

‘Hmm . . . that’s a good point, actually,’ Emily smirked. ‘And I’ve just realized we have a far more urgent problem that needs fixing.’

‘What’s that?’ Rory asked as he lifted Emily up against the wall.

‘I’ve never done it on a pool table . . .’

Chapter 39

Colin leaped onto his Triumph Bonneville motorcycle.

He only had twenty minutes to get to Dún Laoghaire Harbour. The odds were against him. But he was never one to let the odds stop him.

He rolled on the throttle and revved up Bonnie’s engine. He zipped out of the car park of Rory’s building and sped onto the street. This wouldn’t be a calm and steady Sunday ride. This was all or nothing. He had messed things up with Tara. He couldn’t do the same with Claire.

He drove through the city centre streets, swerving in and out of traffic. Bonnie was truly being pushed to the limit but this was the journey she was born to make.

He came upon a lane of bumper-to-bumper traffic that was going nowhere.

‘Not today,’ he said, turning into the middle of both lanes and zooming past the traffic jam. Some drivers beeped at him bending the rules but he didn’t care. There was too much at stake.

He finally got out of the city centre and arrived at a red light.

He hit the brakes and checked his watch.

2.45 p.m.

Getting there was still improbable.

But it wasn’t impossible.

And that was good enough for Colin.

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