Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,11

or even snow, could arrive at any moment, Jilly didn’t need to think twice about Dave’s offer. She turned right toward London Road. “Thanks, but no again. It isn’t far.”

“Where do you live?”

“Near Holyrood Park.”

“Oh well, won’t take long in the car. I’m up here.” He grasped her arm and pulled her toward the side street where many of the office workers parked.

But this was too much for Jilly. She yanked her arm free with enough force to surprise him into stopping and staring at her.

“Do you not listen?” Jilly said. “I told you, I’m walking.” So much for her hopes of a second date. Even if she’d wanted to see him again, which suddenly she didn’t, she knew she’d just blown it with him.

However, after his first blink of surprise, he only grinned in an annoyingly patronizing sort of a way. “Aw, come on, sweetheart, I’m not an axe murderer, am I? We can go to my place, if you prefer.”

She stared at him. “I don’t.”

“Yours it is,” he said and grabbed her shoulder to haul her into his embrace. Perhaps he imagined it was all manly and Rhett Butler.

“Oi!” She jerked free of his hold and brushed down the shoulder of her coat.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Jilly, I didn’t damage the bloody coat. Hell, even if I did, I’ll buy you a new one. It only looks good on you because you’ve got a body to die for. Close up, anyone can see it only cost twenty quid in the local supermarket.”

He put both hands on her face and bent his head—before she knocked up his arms and kneed him once, hard, in the thigh. It was a warning shot. They both knew it hadn’t needed to be his thigh.

“Aye, the coat’s cheap,” she said contemptuously as he rubbed feeling back into his dead leg. “But I’m not. And since you seem a wee bit slow on the uptake here, let me make it a bit plainer. Fuck off, wanker.” She turned on her heels and strode off.

Three young lads were standing on the pavement, gawping. “What are you looking at?” she snarled, and the boys backed off with muttered apologies. Poor buggers had probably just wandered over to see if she needed help. As it happened, she never did, but it didn’t make her seethe less.

Bastard. So what if she wore cheap clothes? She couldn’t afford any other kind, not if she wanted to spend money on her computer and her flat. It didn’t make her a cheap lay.

She dashed the back of her hand across her eyes to dam the angry tears before they made her mascara run.

Your fault, a little voice whispered inside her head. It’s your fault he got the wrong idea. You made yourself into this ice cold, desirable doll that no one can touch.

Only some men didn’t get it and assumed they could. Assumed the makeup, the glamorous clothes, and the high heels meant she’d take anyone. Even more lowering, she’d actually been considering taking him, Dave. Not tonight, of course, because she didn’t know him from Adam…

Adam. Would Genesis Adam have treated her like that? Would he have talked computers with her if they’d ever met in his lifetime? Would he even have noticed her looks, and if he did, would he have liked them? His partner had noticed but done nothing, as his wife had known he wouldn’t. Why? Because she despised Jilly and her cheap clothes? Or because she was secure in her marriage?

I am so fucked up. I will not want what I’ve been avoiding all my life.

Why was she suddenly considering boyfriends, even marriage, things well outside her ambitions before now? Because Sera, her friend and ally from a hundred fights and awful situations over nearly twenty years, had found such unexpected happiness? Had it made her curious at last?

Or had it just made her lonely?

Jilly walked faster—no mean feat in stilettos of such height, but she’d had plenty of practice. She was damned if she’d let that arsehole drag her down to wallow in self-pity. She’d go home to her cosy flat, put the fire on, get some good dinner on the go, shower, and relax over the computer.

She’d made a good life for herself, and she enjoyed it.

****

“Where are you going?” Blair’s seductive, telepathic voice murmured in Sera’s head as she rolled out of his bed and reached for her clothes. It was the only way he could speak, a silent telepathy that she’d grown