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The repercussions of blackmailing Jodie into being friends kicked in the following morning. Mitch had been asleep when the coward had slunk out of bed and his room. When he woke, it was to thumping on his door. He glanced at the clock and realised Jodie had made him sleep through yet another morning run. The woman was hard on his desire to stay fit.
He opened the door to find Dougal standing with a package. “Do I look like a delivery boy?”
Mitch rubbed his eyes as he looked the hotel owner over. He looked like a Las Vegas lounge act. Maybe a Liberace tribute? One that looked like gay Santa and sounded like a foghorn.
Mitch took the package from the frowning man and swung the door shut. It was way too early to be dealing with Dougal.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he opened the package. It was a plaque. He read it twice before he started laughing.
Friends are like stars, it said. You can’t always see them but you know they’re always there.
There was a Post-it note attached to the plaque. It read, This is good advice. Let’s only see each other in the dark. It’s enough that I know you’re there. It was signed with the letter J.
Mitch picked up his phone from the nightstand and dialled Jodie. He’d stolen her number from her phone while she’d been asleep the night before. Yep, that was how dysfunctional this relationship was. Yet he was strangely pleased about the state of it.
“Who’s this and how did you get my number?” Jodie snapped.
“Good morning, love. I see you’re still as paranoid and unfriendly as ever.”
“Mitch.” It was said on a sigh. Not the happy kind of sigh, more the long-suffering kind.
“I got your gift. Thanks. Personally, I didn’t think we were at the gift-giving stage of our relationship, but if you think we’ve reached that level then I’m happy to catch up.”
“We don’t have a relationship.” It sounded as though the words were forced through her teeth.
“Really? What is a friendship if not a form of relationship?”
Her reply was a low-level growl.
“Anyway, I wanted to call and tell you that the gift is lovely and that friends don’t sneak out on friends during the night. Seriously, Jodie, do I have to teach you everything about how friendship works?”
His answer was a dial tone. Mitch was grinning when he hit the redial button.
“What?” she snapped.
“Friends don’t hang up on friends, Jodie.”
He got the dial tone again. With a laugh, Mitch tossed his phone onto the bed and headed for the shower. There was only one thought in his head: Let the games begin.
––––––––
Jodie resisted the urge to throw her phone at the wall of her office. Bloody infuriating blackmailing man.
“Problem?” Brenda asked from where she was sitting on the other side of Jodie’s desk.
Jodie looked over at the blonde she’d come to consider a friend.
“Men.” Jodie felt that explained everything.
And apparently it did, because Brenda nodded. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Jodie thought about that for a minute. Did she? Really what she wanted to do was throw someone around on the workout mat in the basement, but Brenda looked like she might break if Jodie tried that with her. So talking it would have to be. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the desk.
“It’s like this,” Jodie said. “I have a friends-with-benefits arrangement with a guy in town.”
“Okay.” Brenda seemed eager to help, so Jodie carried on.
“And everybody knows that friends with benefits is just code for sex and nothing else, right?”
“Totally. It’s like when some guy invites you over to Netflix and chill, you know that really means he’s calling for some booty.”
Jodie stared at her. “I’m not even sure what any of that means.”
“It’s okay,” Brenda said. “I spent a lot of time these past couple of years watching the E! channel and pretty much every reality show that’s ever been made. I’m totally hip with the lingo.”
The twinkle in Brenda’s eye told Jodie she was being had. “You’re messing with me, right? Nobody says ‘hip with the lingo.’” She paused. “Do they?” Holy crap, she was getting old. Any minute now she was going to ask what young people today were into.
Brenda waved a hand. “Of course I’m messing. Carry on with your story.”
Jodie was beginning to question the wisdom of confiding in Brenda. “As I was saying, Mitch and I have a friends-with-benefits agreement and he threw a hissy fit to enforce the friends part. I mean, who does that? What man in his right mind, when offered string-free sex, demands strings? He threated to cut off the benefits unless I complied with the friends part.” Jodie wasn’t proud that she blushed. “I caved and now I have to be friends.” She felt like she was being forced to have a root canal. “I have to hang out with him. He wants to talk.”
“Oh my.” Brenda put a hand to her heart. “If he gave you an ultimatum and you gave in, those benefits must be amazing. How hot is he in bed? On a scale of one to ten. One being ‘I will kill you if you ever touch me again,’ and ten being ‘I would totally be your sex slave.’”
Jodie just stared at her. The woman was completely missing the point. She’d been bullied and coerced into being friends with Mitch. That was just wrong. Plus, it seemed a little desperate on his part.
Brenda nodded as she held up a hand. “Say no more. He’s a twelve isn’t he? I get it.” She fanned herself. “I remember sex,” she said wistfully. “At this rate all I’ll have to keep me warm until I hit old age are the memories.”
“What are you talking about?” This was why Jodie never sat around chatting with the girls. Half the time she didn’t have a clue what they were going on about. “You’re almost ten years younger than me. Of course you’ll have sex again.”
“No, I can’t see it in my future. The problem is that men can’t get past my history. Well, the good ones, anyway. The bad ones like the history because it makes them think they can abuse me. The good ones run screaming. Either because they think I have too much baggage and they don’t want to deal with me, or because they’re afraid I’ll fall to pieces if they say or do the wrong thing. I am doomed to be single for the rest of my life.” She frowned. “Is it possible to become a born-again virgin? Can your hymen grow back? You know, the way piercings close over if you stop wearing earrings.”
Jodie stared at Brenda again, because, well, honestly, she had no idea what to say. Fortunately, Brenda didn’t seem to need an answer.
“Carry on.” Brenda waved a hand. “Mitch, who’s great in bed, wants to be your friend, and you don’t want to because...?” Her eyebrows arched as she gave Jodie a pointed look.
“Because friendship leads to dating, and dating leads to relationships, which might lead to marriage, and I don’t want to get married again. I don’t want to be in a relationship. I don’t want to date. I just want to get physical and get out of there. Men are too much work and, frankly, I’m exhausted. I don’t have the energy to deal with one again.”
Brenda seemed to be thinking hard. “You’re barely in your mid-thirties. Maybe you just need some iron in your diet.”
Jodie groaned and let her head hit the desk in front of her. “You aren’t listening to a word I say.”
“Sure I am.” She felt Brenda pat her head. “You like Mitch, you want to get to know him and you’re terrified you’ll get hurt again.”
Jodie’s head came up to see a sympathetic smile. “That isn’t what I said.”
“It’s what you meant. Your ex screwed you over, huh?”
As usual, at the mention of her ex-husband, Jodie felt her body begin to tense. It started at her toes and worked its way up until it settled in her brow and brought on a migraine.
“He wanted someone more feminine.” She didn’t know why she was sharing. It wasn’t even something she let herself think about. “No, not feminine exactly—weaker, maybe. He said he didn’t feel like the man in our relationship.” She looked at her friend, feeling the same mix of tension, guilt and bewilderment she normally felt when she thought about her ex. “I don’t know how to be anyone but me.”
“Of course you don’t. He was obviously an insecure loser. There’s nothing wrong with you the way you are. You’re lovely. Don’t let your ex-husband mess with your future.”
“I scare men off. They say I’m too bossy, too strong, too forceful.” And it hurt, damn it. Why were all the qualities that men admired in other men so awful if they found them in a woman?
Brenda’s smile was slow and mischievous. “You don’t scare off Mitch. In fact, he’s trying to get closer to you.”
“Only so he can change me. Or worse, tell me over and over again what’s wrong with me.”
Brenda shrugged. “Then you kick his backside out the door and find someone who doesn’t define his masculinity by the woman in his life.”
“It’s that easy?” Yeah, she wasn’t so sure.
“At least you’ve got a man who wants you. I can’t even get the one I like to spend five minutes in the same room as me.” Brenda’s face went a deep shade of red, as though she’d unwittingly shared too much.
Jodie mentally went through the list of workmen who’d been hanging around the spa over the past two weeks, wondering which one had caught Brenda’s eye.
She was just about to guess a name when her brother stuck his head into her office. When he saw Brenda, he gave her an awkward nod and Brenda leaned towards him slightly. Jodie looked between the two of them and everything fell into place. Brenda was right. She was stuffed. There was no way Deke would get past her history to make a play for her. He had too much baggage of his own to even try.
“Tara’s here with your nail technician. Fiona, right?” Deke said, keeping his gaze firmly away from the curvy masseuse.
“That’s the one. I thought she was arriving this evening.” Jodie stood up and headed for the door.
“I’m not sure this was a good idea,” Deke said. “I don’t think Fiona’s ready for a placement here.”
“What makes you say that?” Jodie, with Deke at her side and Brenda following along, went to the side of the building and the carpark.
“She wouldn’t get out of the car until I left,” Deke said.
Jodie’s heart sank. Fiona was the one person she hadn’t interviewed personally. Tara had done it for her and Jodie had made the decision based on her old friend’s word. Jodie pushed open the door to find a little red Kia parked out of sight of the front of the building. Tara was standing beside it, looking harried, and Fiona was curled in on herself in the passenger seat.
“Tara?” Jodie said as she walked up.
“Honey.” The older woman engulfed Jodie in a bear hug. “She’ll be fine once she gets used to the place.”
Jodie looked at the slight woman who was studying the dashboard while she rocked in place.
“How long has she been out of her situation?” Jodie said.
Tara shifted nervously. “About six months.”
“It must have been bad for her to still be in this state,” Brenda said from behind her.
Jodie looked over her shoulder and noted that Deke had stayed in the doorway out of sight. This was not good.
“I don’t think this is going to work,” Jodie said. “The spa might be women only, but we have a restaurant and there are guys around most of the time. She’s bound to bump into someone. This place is meant as a last stop for women who’ve dealt with the worst.”
“She’ll be fine.” Tara opened the passenger door and ignored the fact that Fiona cringed away from her. “You’ll be fine, won’t you, Fiona? Fiona worked in the best nail salon in Edinburgh for years. She’s perfect for you here.”
“I don’t doubt her skills.” It was everything else that had Jodie worried.
“Come on.” Tara reached in for Fiona. “Let’s introduce you.”
Trembling, Fiona climbed out of the car. She cast her eyes around for Deke and seemed to calm when she couldn’t see him. She gave Jodie a tremulous smile.
Jodie felt for the woman, she really did, but she also had a business to run. “Fiona, honey, tell me honestly. Can you cope with being here?”
Fiona opened her mouth to speak, but then her eyes hit something behind Jodie. She went deathly pale and started to shake.
“Hey, baby,” said a male voice behind Jodie. “I come bearing gifts.”
Mitch.
Jodie turned to order him back from the group.
And that was when the screaming started.