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The three weeks he had with Sara, were nearly over now and he had arranged to meet up with her back at Mario’s Italian café – the place where it all began and now, where it was destined to end. Jake sat waiting for her at the table where he had first seen her; it was a dark, misty evening which only depressed him further. He watched the passers by outside the window, wishing he had their problems and not his own.
Jake had lost himself in thought, his heart raced and he wondered if he could summon the courage to tell Sara how he felt and that their first meeting had been nothing more than a set-up.

Sara walked through the door, her face lit up when she saw him. He looked away, not trusting himself to meet her gaze. She caught the look and frowned.
“Hey, what’s up?” she sat down close to him.
“We need to talk…” he began, “Sara I have something to tell you”. Lord, he didn’t want this to end, he was truly in love.
“Mmmm so serious, ok, but can I have a coffee first?”
“Sure thing,” he shot up, clutching at any excuse to put off the inevitable for a while longer.

The steaming coffee reached their table and Sara glanced at Jake thoughtfully.
“Well, what do you want to tell me?” she prompted.
He added sugar to his drink and stirred it for several moments. How the hell had he let himself end up in a situation like this? Living a life of deception and so little depth. He heard the group ‘Plan B’ playing their hit ‘She said’ on the café sound system – he wished he had a Plan B – as right now he was standing on the precipice of a lonely cliff and he wouldn’t blame her if she gave him a final push..
Sara continued to smile disarmingly and he knew he’d have to take the plunge himself and try and explain the dangerous game he’d been playing with her feelings.

Her phone lay on the table and suddenly rang with the James Bond theme; Sara quickly cut the caller off. Jake felt a pang of something that could have been jealousy, as he imagined the sort of man she had chosen the 007 theme for.
“Do you have a ring tone for me?” he asked, even less sure about telling her the truth now.
“Of course,” she smiled and left it there.
He felt cornered; she was playing with him.
“Just Tony wondering where I am, why I’m not there to welcome him back from his trip…” she gave Jake a pointed look, which unsettled him further.

He added more sugar to his coffee and resumed stirring. Since the beginning of his ‘relationship’ with Sara, she had never made any secret of the fact that she was unhappily married. Jake struggled to reconcile the 007 ring tone with Tony, the husband who had hired him to prove his wife was unfaithful. Granted, Tony was a rich and powerful man, who probably drank pre-dinner Martini’s, but the thick-set physique, the lack of sophistication and obvious inability to keep his wife shaken and stirred, made Jake shudder. “You were about to tell me something?” Sara reminded him again.
Bite the bullet Jake! He told himself and kiss goodbye to this gorgeous creature who has captured your soul. He took a deep breath and heard himself signing his own death warrant.
“You know I told you a bit about my line of work...” “For sure,” she nodded. “You chase bad debts and deal with some sad cases.”
“Yeah,” he ran a ragged hand through his unruly hair. “Well, there’s a bit more to it than that...” he paused, unsure how much more verbal garbage he could churn out, before the truth finally crushed her view of Jake Morgan.
“I know it’s not easy for you,” she whispered. “but if “these people” can still spend all their money on alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, drugs… whatever – then why should you feel so bad about having to act when they can’t pay for their big TV’s and rent?” she shrugged those glorious shoulders that had never had to worry about the complexities of making ends meet. “Don’t be too hard on yourself Jake!”
Heaven help me, he thought, she’s trying to justify my work – but all that would end once she found out how low he’d been prepared to go, to earn an extra grand here and there.
“Sara, please… just stop!”
She stared at him in surprise and touched his hand. “What is it, what’s wrong?”
“I’m not the man you think I am...” there… he’d said it.
She pulled her hand back ever so slightly, but it was the first hint of withdrawal. “You’d better tell me what you mean?”
“My job includes some undercover…. detective work… ” Hell, why was he trying to put a spin on this?
She looked at him, staring straight through his attempted smoke screen. “What have you done?” she asked quietly, but with an edge that was so sharp it hurt.

Click here to see Chapter Four >