Chapter 8 #4
‘I feel you,’ replied Jeff, his eyes scanning mine thoroughly, as if looking for me to expand on my answer.
As my eyes looked into his, I realised that he had the longest eyelashes I’d ever seen on a man, and that his lower set of lashes had flecks of grey among them.
‘So … tell me more about yourself,’ he finally said, his voice lower, smoother, as his gaze dragged over me from head to toe.
The playful, easy-going energy he carried just days ago seemed to dissolve, replaced by something heavier – charged.
It almost felt like we were in a very sexually tense movie scene where I played a nervous interviewee and he was the CEO of a company, where the interviewer’s interest shifts from professional to something far more primal.
The way he leaned in, the way his eyes lingered – there was no mistaking it.
His interaction definitely felt suggestive.
‘Um …’ I began, scrambling to find the most boring and uninspiring facts I could find; the sudden physical closeness between us felt awkward and inappropriate and I wanted any reason to escape it.
‘Well, I’m born and raised in South London and I live with my cat Toby.
Um … I’m Ghanaian, as you know—’ Jeff’s eyes lit up as I said this ‘—and I have a law degree. I’m quite boring, to be fair; there isn’t really that much to tell.
’ Of course this was a lie, friends. As confident and as awesome as I liked to think I was, I knew better than to reveal too much to this man.
He was already unsettling me more than I cared to admit.
I took another sip of my drink to fill the space – I was nearly done with it now – an indicator that I could leave soon.
Why did each minute in Jeff’s presence feel like an hour?
‘Oh, I very much doubt that to be the case, Cassie – I’m sure you’re a lot more fun than you care to let on,’ Jeff replied eventually, studying me.
There was something nefarious in the way that he said it.
What did he mean by that? Was he coming on to me, or was it the alcohol teamed with the building tension between us getting to my head?
I smiled a strained smile at him, fighting for my life to not give an inappropriate reply.
‘Well—’ I started, trying to measure my words carefully.
I didn’t want to egg him on by entertaining it.
‘That may or may not be so, who knows? I find that the older I get, the less I like talking about myself, in all honesty. My boyfriend hates that – he thinks I should be a lot more outgoing, haha.’
Boyfriend? Like I’ve had one of those before, lol.
The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it and, in that moment, I saw Kofi out of the corner of my eye snap his head towards me, with an unreadable expression on his face due to the cloud build-up on his glasses.
Jeff took off his own glasses to clean his lenses, probably realising how he had sounded in the moment.
I couldn’t tell 100 per cent from his expression, but he looked embarrassed.
I don’t know why I mentioned having a boyfriend, but if it could get Jeff off my back, then hey ho.
‘Ah. Well that’s fair enough, I suppose. I’m sure you’re a remarkable person nonetheless!’ Jeff cried, putting his glasses back on and giving me a wide, yet unreadable grin. I couldn’t tell if he genuinely meant it or if he was forcing a smile, but at this point I didn’t care.
‘I’m going to grab another drink at the bar – would you like another?’ he asked. I saw this, however, as my opportunity to start phasing out my exit.
‘I’m actually OK, thanks. I’m going to get going soon – early start tomorrow and all that,’ I muttered, making an effort to gather my bag and coat. After Jeff had gone back to the bar, Kofi slid over next to me, downing the last of his drink, and stared at me – incredulous.
‘So … a boyfriend, huh?’ he scoffed, smiling slyly.
‘No, silly! I just said that to get him off my back. That thing you said earlier about noticing him giving me the eye – you weren’t completely wrong. It was making me feel … some way.’
Kofi exhaled and looked from me to Jeff, then back again. ‘He works quickly, boy! He’s only been here five minutes. So, if he starts making you feel uncomfortable at any point, just escalate it to me, OK? I’ll deal with it.’
Sweet, protective Kofi. A surge of gratitude fell over me as he said that, and I gave him another side hug for good measure. ‘Thank you, friend,’ I replied, and started to put my coat on.
‘Now?’ I asked, looking around to see if we had the all-clear.
The rest of the staff were three or four drinks deep and had reached the tipsy stage of the evening, with people shouting, laughing and slurring their words.
Jeff had been dragged into a game of darts by a pair of strangers on the other side of the pub, which gave us a way to leave undetected.
‘Now,’ replied Kofi. We slyly packed up our things, shuffled towards the doors and slipped out into the frosty night. Pub drinks after work? Yeah; not for me.