nice to make friends. Companionship is a positive thing. There is no need to think people are whispering about you. Or gossiping. Or pitying you. What happened with Tom Harrison is over and done with. Why would anyone even know about it? You are no longer in that job or in contact with people from that firm.
Jade mentally nodded in agreement, willing the paranoia to dissipate as she now leant against her front door, exhaling gustily. Hopefully, in another moment or two, her pulse would stop leaping about. Sweat beaded her forehead and upper lip, as if she’d run a marathon rather than scurry up her path on this dark and bitterly cold early-March evening. She undid the buttons on her coat and was about to slip it off when her conscience stirred.
That was rather rude.
What do you mean?
You know perfectly well what I mean. Brad could have taken that space outside. After all, he was the closest to it. Instead he let you have it. He was a gentleman, and you didn’t even pause to thank him.
No man is a gentleman.
I’m not talking about men like Tom Harrison. This is hardly the same situation and you know it.
Did you really think I was rude?
Yeah! Go and knock on Brad’s door. Thank him for the kind gesture.
But that means going out of the house again.
Is it really such an issue?
I … I … oh for God’s sake.
Jade yanked open the front door and stepped out into the early evening air. It was freezing. She wondered if it might snow and hugged her unbuttoned coat tightly about her body.
Hastening down the garden path, her cold fingers momentarily fumbled with the catch on the gate. Thirty seconds later she was shivering outside Brad’s front door. As she rapped on it, the heavens opened.
‘Hey,’ said Brad, when he saw Jade standing on his doorstep. ‘Everything okay?’
‘Y-yes,’ Jade stammered, partly through nerves and partly from cold. The rain was making her fringe stick to her forehead.
‘Come inside,’ he invited.
‘No need,’ Jade replied. ‘I just wanted to say thank you’ – she waved a hand at the road – ‘for the parking space.’
‘Oh, that’s fine. No problem at all. It’s a pleasant enough street, but the parking situation isn’t the best, eh?’
Brad smiled, revealing very straight white teeth.
Jade instantly compared Brad’s smile to Tom’s. Her ex-lover’s teeth had been slightly crooked. She’d thought that the minor imperfection had somehow added to his attractiveness.
‘So… thanks again.’
‘Any time. Um…’ Brad paused briefly, as if considering something. ‘I was about to start cooking dinner. Nothing fancy. Pasta and a jar of supermarket sauce, but you’re very welcome to join me.’
‘Oh, er–’
‘Don’t tell me, you can’t stand pasta,’ Brad bantered.
‘No, it’s not that,’ said Jade, hesitating.
She was torn between wanting to accept the impromptu dinner invitation, but also feeling a desperate need to run away. The old Jade would have batted her eyelids and thought, “Hell, why not?”. But this Jade was struggling. Her therapist’s voice echoed in her head.
Don’t be afraid to date again, Jade. Relationships are healthy. Indeed, a new relationship can even be part of the healing process. Take small steps, and one at a time.
Accepting Brad’s dinner invitation would be a small step. Heck, it was just dinner, not a frigging date! But Jade couldn’t push herself to take that small step. She really couldn’t. Not yet.
‘I do like pasta, but I already have my dinner in the oven. I just wanted to say thank you for the parking space.’
‘No worries,’ Brad smiled. ‘Enjoy your meal.’
‘Thanks,’ she said, putting up one hand in farewell.
Tucking her chin into her coat, Jade hastened back to Number 3 through the now driving rain. Pushing through the garden gate, she noticed the twitch of a net curtain at Number 2. She presumed it was Greg Good spying again. Bloody man. Having him as a neighbour was like living in a goldfish bowl. She failed to notice the silhouette’s slight hunch. Wiping rainwater from her eyes, Jade stuck her key into the door’s lock.
Back inside the sanctuary of her hallway, Jade took a deep breath. Okay, she’d just turned down a casual dinner invitation with the twinkly eyed Brad Grimshaw. That was a negative. But she’d also come out of her paranoid comfort zone to venture out on a filthy night and thank the man for his neighbourly gesture. That was a positive.
She let out a shaky breath as a sudden sense of exhilaration flooded through her. She’d done it!