Chapter 33
Jess
But he had been all those things. A couple of weeks later the post-coital delusions weren’t passing. If anything they were even stronger. The more I tried to forget about Brodie, the more I seemed to remember. The titbits he’d told me, each thing contradicting some assumption I’d made about him.
We had almost moved out of the building now. Just a few boxes and some furniture remaining. And then Julia appeared out of her office in a flurry, with a big smile on her face. ‘Come on, we’re going to look at a new potential home for the charity.’
‘What?’
But she wouldn’t tell me anything then, she made me grab my stuff and go with her. We got in her car and she finally explained. ‘They’ve found us a potential new location. It needs developing, but it’s on a great street with loads of possibilities for other businesses to grow alongside us.’
Sometimes Julia’s brain worked faster than she explained stuff and I said, ‘Who’s they?’
She rolled her eyes. ‘Sorry, it’s your friend.
’ She winked at me. I looked at her blankly, too afraid to assume she was talking about him.
I hadn’t told her what had happened beyond the fact that I’d just agreed to go with him to the work event as a favour.
‘Brodie Montgomery. He’s setting up a new company with some friends and they want to use this as their inaugural flagship project. It’ll help get us funding too.’
My mouth dropped open. A multitude of things hit me, chief of which, I was ashamed to admit, was hurt.
That Brodie hadn’t told me this himself and that he’d obviously had some kind of plan to leave the company he worked for.
The company whose team building event I’d attended with him!
Where he’d used me to make it look like he was in a relationship and as soon as he hadn’t needed me any more, he’d cast me aside.
You used him too and you got a hot night out of it. And he never promised you anything else. And... I shut down the annoying voice.
Why on earth was he doing this? I didn’t want to suspect it had anything to do with me, but I also didn’t not want to suspect that. But rising above it all was a sense of anger. Coming from a place of hurt and vulnerability.
We got to the address. It was a quiet side street with a mix of residential buildings – flats in houses – and commercial premises. A lot were closed. It was on the shabbier side of trendy, but it was trendy adjacent. It was a good location.
The building was obviously an old office block; it looked around 70s era. My heart was thumping as Julia knocked on the glass doors. And then a tall figure appeared. Brodie.
I vaguely took in that he was wearing a suit and looked pretty edible. I, on the other hand, was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and my hair was up in a scrunchie. He opened the door, greeted Julia and then me. ‘Hi, Jess.’
‘Hello.’ I felt tight inside and I avoided his eye, letting him lead us through the building. He spoke mainly to Julia. It was hard to focus on not looking at him, or grabbing his arm and saying, Oi! What is going on?
But I was taking enough in to see that it was perfect and much better suited than the last building had been. There was even some land out at the back that could be turned into a little garden.
‘It’ll take at least a year, but it’s in our interests to get planning permission and start building asap,’ Brodie was saying.
Julia was looking at him with stars in her eyes. I couldn’t really blame her. Then she turned to me. ‘Do you want a lift home, Jess?’
I shook my head. ‘No, it’s totally out of your way. I’ll get the Tube.’
‘OK, love, see you tomorrow.’
Then she left and it was just me and Brodie in the very dilapidated foyer. I turned to face him and folded my arms across my chest.
‘What the hell do you think you’re playing at?
’ I didn’t even care that he really didn’t deserve that tone of voice.
I was so aware of him it was mortifying and right then I hated him for having ever appeared in my life, because after years of protecting myself I’d fallen for the worst person possible, and the thought of having to be involved with him on any level for the forseeable future was excruciating.