are my good friends. I’ve known them longer than I’ve known you. What would any of them gain by me being out of it?’
‘I don’t know. You said Jas is always telling you how much she misses you. She might just have thought if you were in a bad way, you’d have to go back with her and stay over, and she’d have you there with her, where she wants you. Doing her bidding.’
A vague flash of memory hits me from last night. Jas putting her arm around me, saying I could stay with her. I feel a shiver now. ‘I woke up this morning to loads of messages and missed calls from Jas, asking where I was,’ I admit. I’d immediately texted her back. I know how she worries, but this does make me think.
‘Yeah. I was going to text her from your phone when I got you back here, tell her where you were, but she beat me to it, and called you. When I picked up, she kept demanding I put you on the phone, kept going on about your safety, like I’m some serial killer.’
My heart sinks. ‘You were nice to her though?’
‘As nice as one can be when someone’s virtually accusing them of kidnapping their own girlfriend. It wasn’t like she didn’t know where you were. When we left the bar after you were sick, I actually left you in the car – I locked it – and went back in to let them know you were with me and I was taking you home.’
‘Oh?’
‘I couldn’t find them at first, but then I found Jas by the bar. I told her I was taking you home and if she wanted a lift home, she could have one.’
‘Was she on her own?’
‘No, she was with a group of guys. I’d never seen them before, and I don’t think she knew them. She was all over them, though… ugh.’
‘She gets like that sometimes when she’s had a drink. She’s been through some tough times. I think she misses Tony and is looking for a shoulder to cry on, I guess. She’s had a difficult life.’
‘Yes, so you’ve told me, but it’s no excuse. The way she was going on, she had her arms round one of them, making all kinds of lewd suggestions.’
I have to laugh. ‘Alex, you sound so pompous! She was probably only messing around.’
He smiles. ‘You’re right, I’m sometimes a bit much I know, but I just hate the way some people sleep around.’
‘Enough, Judge Judy,’ I say, and give him a gentle slap. ‘Hopefully Harry and Sameera were looking out for her.’
‘Well, your friend is a grown woman. I suppose it’s up to her who she molests in a wine bar.’ He sighs.
‘Whatever gets her through the night,’ I reply.
He’s looking at me, like he’s thinking about something, then he says, ‘I’ll never understand how you two are friends – you’re so different.’
‘We’re not so different.’ I sigh. I hope he wasn’t too short with Jas – she seems to antagonise him without even trying, and vice versa. Is it too much to want my partner and my best friend to like each other? I guess it’s the kind of people they are, both strong and both quick to judge. Both very much alike, come to think of it.
‘You know,’ he starts, making himself comfortable, ‘Jas didn’t know I would come along to the wine bar, so if she did spike your drink, you’d do everything she wanted you to. You’d go back with her, and also hang around with the guys she was with.’
I wish he’d leave this, he’s totally barking up the wrong tree. ‘Alex, she didn’t spike my drink – no one did. I must have eaten something dodgy, or my body reacted to the drink – that’s all. And Jas doesn’t need me to pick up guys.’
‘Well, I hope you’re right – and I’m wrong. But do me a favour, and just be careful if you go out with them – especially Jas – again.’
‘Alex, don’t, they’re my friends,’ I say softly, so he knows I know he’s gone too far. ‘I think I’m being a bit of a crap friend myself at the moment where Jas is concerned. I rarely do anything with her any more.’
‘I know. I just… I’ve seen stuff like this through work, people do dangerous things when they’re scared of losing what they love, Hannah. The courts are full of neglected and abandoned people,’