Learning To Trust Again

Jake was silent for a minute and he looked away. He didn’t like the idea of Todd not getting a medical clearance and he liked keeping it from Rebecca even less. But then again he couldn’t help but worry that telling her might put her in harm’s way. If that happened, he’d never forgive himself. If her brother was in some sort of trouble, and it looked like he was, he didn’t want to put her in the middle of it. From Todd’s evasive behaviour and the fact that he wasn’t pushing for the person who had beaten him to be found, Jake was pretty sure Todd knew who was responsible. If that was the case, it’s unlikely it was a random event which meant Todd may still be in danger. No, Jake would like to know more about what was going on before he told her anything. However it was clear Todd didn’t want to tell him, so the only way he could see to get the information was to make it a condition of his help.

‘Can you help me get cleaned up?’ Todd asked again.

 Jake’s eyes moved back to him. Looking at him in silence for a minute he finally agreed. But as he nodded to indicate this he added in an uncompromising tone ‘okay but later you tell me what’s going on, right?’

Todd sighed and thought for a minute. As he expected, Jake wasn’t going to let this go, but at the moment it was more important he get back to his party without anyone knowing what had gone on. To do that, as much as he hated it, he needed Jake’s help. So unable to see any way out of agreeing to his condition, he nodded ‘okay, but not tonight.’

Jake was okay with that. He didn’t want to get into it with Rebecca there anyway. ‘Tomorrow morning’ he said, not prepared to give him an indefinite time line.

Todd nodded again. He’d have to find a way out of telling him later, or come up with some inconsequential lie. But for now he had no option but to agree to whatever terms the other man set. To say he had been surprised to hear from Rebecca that she was bringing Jake to his party was an understatement. He had thought, after the other man had turned up at her door when he was there, that she wasn’t going to see him anymore, at least that’s what she had said. There was no doubting it was what he’d hoped. He never liked the way Jake had worked his way into her life. Whether he was a cop or not, it didn’t seem right, he’d taken advantage of the unfortunate situation Rebecca had found herself in to push his way in. And as a consequence of that, here he was now forcing his way into Todd’s life as well. Todd resented the hell out of that.