He's After Me

Chapter TWENTY-ONE



Mum and Livi think the sun shines out of Jem. It’s quite the norm for me to come home from college to find Jem laid out on the sofa, drinking coffee and chatting away to one or the other. I swear he talks more to them than he does to me! Livi hangs on to his every word and sometimes I think Mum’s just as bad.

Our house has become his second home. Let’s face it, it’s much nicer than his first home, the manky staff hotel room he shares with two other guys.

But that’s not technically his first home, is it? When he’s in London he lives in a bedsit. I think. Though even that’s not his real home.

Actually, where does he go when it’s not term-time? Why don’t I know that?

Not for the first time it strikes me how little I actually know about Jem. When we’d talked, that first night on the boat, he’d poured his heart out to me and I’d thought how open and honest he was.

He told me he’d been hurt in the past and that’s why he’d backed off. He was scared to commit again – and I couldn’t blame him. A whole catalogue of women had let him down, starting with his mum and ending with his last girlfriend, who’d gone off with some older guy.

But it was no good. He couldn’t stop thinking about me.

I was so flattered.

But since then, I really haven’t found out that much more about his background. He’s a dark horse, my boyfriend.

Where are you from, Jem? I wonder. Who are you? Where do you call home? So I ask him and he looks surprised, then he does that annoying thing of tapping his nose and winking at me. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’ he says.

‘Yes. I would, actually.’

‘All in good time,’ he says infuriatingly. So I tickle him and he’s roaring laughing, but he still won’t give. ‘I’m your mystery man,’ he says. ‘It’s part of my charm.’

‘I’ll find out!’ I warn him but he just laughs.

Then he kisses me and I don’t care any more.

On the evenings Jem’s not at work, he eats with us now. He always thanks Mum politely for his meal.

‘What a nice boy!’ I hear her sighing to herself as we go up to my bedroom after dinner one night. I smile to myself. He’s got her wound round his little finger – she’s already planning what she’s going to feed him tomorrow night. Actually, if you think about it, he’s probably the first person in a long while who hasn’t taken Mum for granted. He thinks she’s ace and the feeling is mutual.

Upstairs, Jem waxes lyrical about my mum’s cooking, I tease him about it.

‘I’m starting to think you’re in love with my mother, you go on about her so much.’

His face breaks into a smile. ‘Oh no, you’ve discovered my secret! Say what you like about your father, he does have impeccable taste in women.’

‘He went off with The Bitch, let me remind you!’ I explode and dive on him. We are rolling over and over on the floor, playfighting, and then we are kissing, touching …

And the door opens and Livi walks in.

‘Oops! Sorry!’ she says and backs out quickly. Jem groans with frustration and I sit up and pull my top back down.

‘This is doing my head in!’ I say through clenched teeth. ‘We are never on our own in this place.’

‘We need to find somewhere we can be alone together.’

Downstairs the phone rings. I can hear Mum answering it and then she calls up the stairs, her voice sounding a bit strange. ‘Anna? Olivia? Someone wants a word with you!’

‘Who?’ I yell down but she doesn’t answer. I disentangle myself from Jem, who is still lying on the floor, and go downstairs.

When I come back up, I’m in an even worse mood.

‘What’s up?’ asks Jem.

‘Guess who it was? The Bitch!’

He sits up. ‘What did she want?’

‘They’re off to New York tomorrow, shopping. She wanted to know what we wanted from them for Christmas.’

‘Kind of her.’

‘Cow! I don’t want anything from her. She’s just rubbing it in. I feel like going down there now and writing all over her wall: Jude is an evil bitch. I don’t think she got the message last time.’

‘Can do. Just wait till they’re safely tucked up in bed. Better still, wait till tomorrow when they’re in mid-air over the Atlantic and you can write what you like. How long are they going for?’

‘I dunno. Three nights, maybe four.’

‘Plenty of time.’ His face takes on a dark, brooding quality that I’ve seen so many times before when he’s deep in thought. He knows how much I hurt inside. Then all of a sudden his expression changes, like a light has switched on inside his head.

‘What is it?’

‘Problem solved!’ He throws his arms around me, squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe. ‘Don’t you see?’

‘See what?’

‘We’ve found our place to be alone!’

‘You don’t mean … ?’

‘Your dad’s flat. It’s perfect! It’s going to be empty and you’ve got a key!’

‘I dunno …’

‘Anna, come on! It’s not like we’re breaking in or anything.’ Jem’s eyes are shining with excitement. ‘We’re just taking over an unoccupied building for a while. Squatters’ rights. It’s perfectly legal.’

‘Four days on our own.’ It is so tempting.

‘And four nights!’ His eyes soften and he picks up my hand and kisses it. ‘Anna, I can’t believe it, it’s the answer to our prayers. We can be together all night long.’

‘Jem, I can’t … Mum will be asking questions if I disappear for that long …’

‘Don’t worry.’ He kisses me – a long, unhurried kiss. ‘We’ll work something out.’ His lips move down to my throat. ‘We’ve got all the time in the world.’





Almost where he wanted to be.

Not with who he wanted to be with.

But he was getting there.

One step at a time.