Learning To Trust Again

Rebecca swallowed hard as she recovered from the shock of seeing him again. Her voice a little higher than normal, she said ‘Jake, hi’

Jake was frowning as he fixed his eyes on her, ‘hey.’

But before Rebecca could say anymore Todd’s head had spun around.  Looking hard at her he said ‘Becs is this the guy that’s been following you around?’

‘Todd’ Rebecca hissed through her teeth, furious with her little brother’s lack of tact. She hadn’t missed the frown on Jake’s face deepen as Todd’s asked the question. Tuning back to him hoping to take the sting out of Todd’s uncomplimentary comment, she made the necessary introductions ‘Jake this is my overprotective little brother Todd, Todd, this is Jake, the policeman who kindly came to the rescue the other night.’

But to Rebecca’s surprise Jake’s frown just seemed to deepen more still and she noticed he didn’t even greet Todd. Obviously he wasn’t impressed with Todd’s implication. She sighed. Todd didn’t exactly help either. He didn’t even look at Jake. His eyes on her, Jake got straight to the point of his visit. ‘I just came by to give you this’ he said, holding out her scarf, that she hadn’t even missed since the other night. ‘I went back to that restaurant this morning to pick up a cup of coffee on my way home and the girl who served us remembered me and asked me to pass it on.’

Thinking what girl wouldn’t remember him, Rebecca took the scarf out of his hand, her fingers brushing his in the process sending a jolt of electricity up her arm. ‘Thank you Jake.’

He nodded. ‘No worries.’

Desperate to ease the tension Rebecca had hope in her eyes as she said ‘would you like to come in? We are just having coffee.’ She really did not want him to disappear now he had turned up again.

But Todd was staring hard at her. His look telling her did not like what he was hearing. That she should not be encouraging this guy.

Rebecca ignored him.

But as it turned out Todd didn’t need to worry. Jake just continued to frown and shook his head. ‘Nah, I’ve just had one. I’m on my way home after working a night shift. I need to sleep so more coffee wouldn’t be a good idea. I’ll just keep going.’

Disappointed that he was leaving but at the same time a little relieved, because god knows what Todd may have said given more time, Rebecca said ‘oh okay’ and holding up the scarf she added ‘thanks again.’

‘No problem’ he said and lifting his hand in a gesture of farewell he jogged back down the stairs.