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Sara’s intense blue stare seemed to pierce his very soul as she played with the stem of her wine glass. For a split second he saw her waver and he recognised a mirror image of himself in that moment… the way he had felt before he told her that their first meeting had been a set up.
Those gorgeous eyes were way too bright and her lip trembled ever so slightly; lord he wanted to just gather her up and hold her, but she was fighting some kind of inner demon and he found himself frozen.
“A year ago,” she began slowly, “I discovered my husband had a lover and I made arrangements to get proof, so I could get divorced as quickly as possible. My husband was called David Fitzpatrick and as it turned out; he had two lovers.”
“So who is Tony? A second husband?”
“Tony is my brother,” she said at last.
Jake struggled to take this latest revelation in and then suddenly, a little glimmer of light dawned at the end of a very black tunnel. “Wait a minute, I remember that name David Fitzpatrick… when you say you made arrangements to get proof of his infidelities….. it was me wasn’t it? I followed that toe-rag around and presented the evidence to…”
“Frankie, the ex copper who recommended you.” She supplied quietly. “I watched you handing all the stuff over to him, I wanted to see you tell him about it, so I could believe it and make the pain stop. I was so angry back then, angry with him for betraying me, angry with you for proving he was even more of a s**t than I thought he was.
I watched it all from behind one of Frankie’s two-way mirrors and I looked at you and I just saw red. I mean, David was bad enough, but what sort of man makes a living spying on cheats, raking through people’s misery. And it didn’t stop there did it? You were up for hire, if there was no skeleton to be found you just stepped in and played the entrapment game?” She was shaking now and Jake really couldn’t see anyway back from this – she was a step ahead of him all the time, she knew exactly what sort of a man he was the day they’d met at Mario’s. She was better at this game than he was himself.

“I can’t take all this in, do you hate me so much?” he swallowed the rest of his wine and still dared to wonder if he could kiss those lips just one last time.
“I wanted to teach you a lesson and maybe see if there was a spark of decency left in you,” she shrugged with the effort of it all. “So I badgered Tony into playing along and setting it up, telling you where I would be that first Saturday we met and then, well you know the rest…’ “DO I?” he threw his hands up in exasperation. “I thought I did, I thought we had found something special… I thought you felt it too…”
Her phone rang again, the same 007 that was really starting to get on his nerves.
“While you’re at it,” he added coldly, “perhaps you’d like to explain why your ex-husband is still ringing you every bloody five minutes?”
“He wants me back!” she said it so simply, so innocently… as though she was prepared to consider letting a man she’d once loved, back into her life again. “That’s not going to happen!” Jake grabbed the phone and plunged it into Tony’s half empty wine glass, then he filled it up to the top.
She laughed and he kissed her then, long and hard, savouring the softness, the sweet smell of her, and the taste of wine on her lips. “I need you in my life,” he breathed into her hair, don’t fight the way you know we feel together!” He pulled away slightly and stared into the eyes that held his future in their power.
But she moved away, got to her feet and picked up her bag, leaving the phone still bubbling in the wine glass. “Tony took care of the bill, so we’re done here.”
Jake studied her face, trying to remember every last detail; he didn’t want to let her go. “Sara, please, can’t we start again, from now…let me call you…”
Her gaze lingered for a moment before she answered.
“I have a new number now... “
He felt his heart sink; she was ditching him and severing the last remaining link with her ex-husband too; ready for a new life without either of them.
He watched her walk away, poised, in control and tearing his heart out with every sensuous step. He saw a man near the door rise and open it for her; she was so perfectly feminine… with a vulnerability that drew men in to protect her. She pulled up her collar against the cold night air and moved towards a nearby taxi; then she disappeared down a road of misty streetlights, and it was over.

Jake thought about another drink, but he needed to get away from this place;. He emptied his pockets out onto the table searching for some money to cover a tip for Mario…. He found a couple of fivers and then like a fortune teller uncovering his own fate, he turned over a small white card. There it was…. Sara had slipped it into his pocket with her new number, it said simply. “Call me tomorrow...”

His heart was beating way too fast; when had she put the card in his pocket? She certainly hadn’t written anything while they were sitting here. Was it already in her bag? Had she planned this evening to the last detail, to test him?
He glanced at his wrist and cursed the pawned Omega. The time on his phone said 11.55pm – Jake waved Mario over and pushed the tip at him. Then he left the restaurant and as he headed back to his car, he heard the big town hall clock striking midnight.
He sat in his car and waited for ten minutes, wrestling with the “should I or shouldn’t I?” demons. Then he snatched up his phone and dialled her new number. It rang eight times before she picked it up.
“I wondered if you’d answer,” he said.
“I did give it some thought,” she replied softly. “Do you know what time it is?”
“You said ring tomorrow...” he reminded her, feeling dizzy with the fear of playing this all wrong, of pushing her away again.
“I know,” she whispered huskily. “what took you so long?”

The End