Give Me Love (19 page)

“Speaking of which,” he continued without acknowledging my question, “it’s time to tell me what’s going on with you and Jared.”

Obviously my deflection wasn’t worth the effort; that was the trouble with having conversations with people who knew you too well.

As I took a gulp of wine my handbag buzzed a message, and thankful for the interruption, I reached in my bag to retrieve my phone.

J: Home from Adelaide, baby. Where are you?

E: Dinner at Coby’s for our chat.

He knew it was coming. He and Coby had words the other day. Jared had told me, though he refused to give a blow by blow commentary of what was said, much to my disgust.

I put the phone down and picked up my wine. “What did you say to Jared?”

He pointed his fork at me. “That’s between him and me.”

I took a sip of my wine to calm myself. It didn’t work, so I sat my glass down, picked up my fork, and polished off the last mouthful of food. “If it involves me, which it did, then I have a right to know.”

“Ask Jared then.”

Argh, bloody men.

It was lucky I was being plied with wine and exceptional Chinese food, otherwise this conversation had the potential to escalate into sibling violence.

J: Do you need me there?

Oh would you look at that? Jared had my back. The mere thought calmed me instantly, and if I’d have realised it did that, it would have thrown me into a complete panic and reversed the whole effect.

Coby put down his fork and gave me a look I couldn’t interpret. “Evie, he’s not who I would have chosen for you.”

I played dumb. “Who’s not?” I might’ve been summoned for
the chat
, but it didn’t mean I had to make it easy for him.

He rolled his eyes at me in exasperation.

“Okay,” I relented. “Who would you choose for me?”

I sat back in my chair, holding my wine as I waited to hear of the supposed virtues of the chosen one.

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Honestly? I don’t know. I just know I don’t want Jared to be the one for you.”

“Newsflash, Coby, it’s not about what you want.”

“Dammit, Evie!” He stood up so hard and fast his chair tipped over. “No, it’s not about what I want, but after everything that you’ve been through, that I’ve been through watching you, I should get a goddamn say.”

J: Baby?

Jared was waiting for a reply, and Coby was standing there waiting for a reply. Angry that choices I’d made left me unable to trust myself, made me a person that Coby couldn’t trust, and feeling backed into a corner, I snapped off a reply to Jared.

E: No, dammit. I don’t need you.

I put the phone down. “Fine, Coby. You don’t trust me. I don’t trust me. Where do I go from here? If you want your goddamn say, tell me what the fuck I do now?”

Coby righted his chair and sat back down, seemingly unsure on what to say for once.

“You…he…” He cleared his throat and tried again. “I see you two together. I see you look at him and him look at you, and it’s like...that’s how it’s supposed to be. You both share a joy of simply being in the same room as the other. Two people who can be loved just for being who they are is a special thing, honey, and I see that potential in the two of you.”

My mouth opened and closed like a fish as his words sank in, and I frowned in confusion. “You see all that? Why, if you see all that, would you not choose that for me?”

“His job, the work we do, it’s not safe. I know he wouldn’t ever deliberately hurt you, but if one day he was to never come home...”

My heart pounded at his words. It was not something I hadn’t thought of, but pushing it to the back of your mind and hearing it vocalised from someone else were two different things.

“You’ll have to trust me to make the decisions that are right for me. I know it’s not an easy task, considering my past decisions have been downright woeful,” I conceded, thinking of Wild Renny and Asshole Kellar, “but in this...you don’t get a say.” I held up a hand as he started to interrupt me. “I don’t say that to piss you off or shut you out. I believe that no one chooses who they love, so if you don’t get a say, I don’t get a say. The only thing I can control is what I choose to do with those feelings, and I’m tired of being too afraid to trust them.”

I sat back in my chair feeling completely wrung out. I needed chocolate and I needed this chat over with because I didn’t deal well with emotion. Lying to myself, pushing things down into the dark recesses where I couldn’t think on them, flippant remarks, I wasn’t above any of it.

“It’s not just you I’m worried about.”

He was worried about Jared? Did he think I was going to stomp all over him?

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Coby sighed and waved his hand. “Nothing.” He had a look that told me he was keeping something from me.

“You’re keeping something from me.”

“It’s not my place to tell you, Evie.”

Coby eyeballed my phone as it buzzed and vibrated across the table.

J: Okay then. Did you take your pill?

Shit.

I wasn’t popping it in front of Coby, no way.

“Evie.” Coby cleared his throat as though embarrassed. “I know I don’t need to discuss the birds and the bees, but promise me you’ll be safe.”

I gave him a suspicious look. Did he read my message somehow?

“We’re not going there,” I announced with as much authority as I could muster.

E: No. Remind me later?

J: You can’t take it now?

E:Negative.

I stood up and walked into the kitchen to get the second bottle of wine out of the fridge. “Jared and I are just taking things slow anyway.”

Carrying it back to the table, Coby gave me a look of disbelief as I added more to his glass. “Right,” he stated dryly. “Do you think that Jared is on your page?”

Absolutely not. After what had gone down the past few days, it appeared that Jared was heading towards Relationship Hyperdrive.

“Let’s go sit on the couch and watch a movie,” I suggested instead of answering the question.

“Okay,” he agreed.

This, obviously, signified the end of the chat, and I felt so pathetically grateful I staggered to the couch and collapsed on it like a starfish.

Sound blasted from the surround speakers as Coby shoved me over to make room on the couch, wine in one hand, remote in the other.

“What are we watching?” I asked tiredly as I felt my eyelids droop.

I heard my phone buzz from somewhere but the couch and I had already become one.

“I thought we could watch
The Notebook
.”

I sat up excitedly, all tiredness immediately forgotten. “Really?”

He snorted. “No. We’re not watching that rubbish.”

I relaxed back into the couch, wondering why it appeared all men had it in for that movie. My last thought before my eyes drifted closed was that perhaps it was because Ryan Gosling set the bar too high.

* * *

Coby kept frowning into the rear view mirror as he drove.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

My head thumped as I asked the question because I was suffering the Barnacle Hangover. It was like someone bashing my head with a hammer, and no matter how many painkillers I took and no matter how big my sunglasses were―and they almost covered my entire face―the hangover latched on and refused to let go.

We were cruising down Mount Street in my Hilux to the duplex so I could get changed and pack a beach bag, though at the moment crawling under my doona and staying there until the end of time sounded like an excellent idea.

“I’m not sure,” he murmured as he continued to frown at the rear view mirror. “I think someone might be following us.”

“Pffft.” I snorted. “You James Bond types are a suspicious lot. How close is our tail? Can you see if he has a mouthful of metal teeth?”

I laughed at my own joke, and then hissed when my head pounded painfully.

Coby rolled his eyes at my lameness before continuing to eye the rear view mirror. I ignored his daft antics and flipped my seat back so I could recline in all my hungover glory. I felt the car pull to the curb and peeked one eye open.

Coby picked up his phone from the centre console and began dialling. As it rang, he put it on speaker and pulled back out into traffic.

“Coby,” I heard someone answer. “Aren’t you supposed to be lying on a beach right about now?”

“Frank. We were on our way to Evie’s, but I think we might have had a tail.”

Who would be tailing us in my car?

“Make, model, rego number?” Frank asked, sounding very capable.

“Toyota Camry, silver,” Coby replied before rattling off the registration number. “Can’t see it now but I don’t want to take any chances driving to Evie’s place if we’re followed there.”

“I’ll run it. Call you back.” Frank hung up.

Coby drove down to the end of the street, turning left again and heading in the totally opposite direction of both my house and the beach.

I sighed. So much for our day out together, and I owed Mac shoes for this. “Who’s Frank?”

“Frank’s the operations manager, heads up the office control room,” he answered as we sped down Coogee Bay Road.

I raised my eyebrows. “You have a control room? Do you have a watchtower? And a moat?” I snickered.

Coby ignored my inane questions and pressed a button when his phone rang. “Yeah?”

“You know a Sarah Jenkins?” Frank asked.

Coby was silent for a moment. “Nope.”

He gave me a quick glance. “Do you?”

I shook my head.

“That’s who the car is registered to. I’ll keep digging. You coming in?”

“Yep. See you in twenty,” Coby replied.

“Righto.” Frank hung up.

Wow, did this mean I finally got to visit the Batcave? Not even Mac had visited the Batcave yet. I could dine on this for weeks.

Coby looked at my gleeful expression as we stopped at the lights. “What?”

I shrugged and tried to look blank. “Nothing,” I replied and grabbed my phone to message Mac.

E: Guess what, Macface?

M: You’re pregnant and eloping with Jared?

Oh shit. I didn’t take my pill last night. I
told
Jared I was unreliable. I checked my messages and saw that he both messaged and rang me last night, and I’d missed both. How did that happen?

E: No, I’m on my way to the Batcave!

When we pulled into the underground car park of a two storey nondescript building in Darlinghurst, just outside the city centre near Hyde Park and the Sydney Police Centre, I felt like I literally deflated. I was hardly expecting a real life version of Get Smart’s control headquarters, but this was, well, not exciting.

M: Holy shit. How did you manage that?

Coby parked and turned the engine off, starting to get out of the car as I madly messaged Mac back
.

E: Gotta go. Can’t talk now.

Coby eyeballed me impatiently. “Coming?”

I hit send and winced when I lifted the sunglasses to my head. I promptly lowered them back on my face as I staggered out of the car. Doing a scan of the car park, my heart skipped a beat seeing Jared’s black Porsche parked two cars down. I had a thing for hot cars, and this one was definitely a car that suited the man.

I followed Coby up the inside stairs and into a plush carpeted reception area via a side door. A young looking guy that I could only describe as pretty with his short black hair, blue eyes, and long black lashes, was manning the sleek dark desk and looked up as we came through.

“Hey, Coby.” He gave a small wave. “Oh, this must be Genevieve,” he squealed and came running out from behind the desk to wrap me in hug. “The two of you look so much alike,” he gushed.

“Uh,” I managed as he hugged me in a vice grip while my arms were trapped at my sides. If he wasn’t so little, I would have expected him to actually lift me up and start swinging me from side to side with his enthusiasm.

Coby grinned at me. “This is Tim. Tim, this is my little sister Evie.”

Tim pulled back, grabbing both my hands in his. “I can’t believe I get to meet the big bad rock star!” he gushed again, pumping my hands about in excitement before letting them go.

I waved my hand about in mock weariness. “No autographs please.”

He pouted. “A photo then?”

Coby rolled his eyes at us. “Maybe later. We need to get upstairs.”

Tim shooed him away. “Go then. I’ll show Evie about and bring her up in a minute.”

Coby looked at me and I nodded to say I was fine.

“Okay,” he muttered and disappeared through a door behind the reception desk.