Page 37 of Just Date and See

‘Do you need to check that?’ I ask, vaguely annoyed.

Mum picks up her phone, still careful to make sure only she can see it, and then she smiles that same big, dumb smile Dad had on his face and I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. No! They’re not messaging each other… are they? They can’t be. It must be a coincidence. Still, I need to tell Jess.

‘Where is Jess?’ I ask her. She’s still grinning at her phone. ‘Mum, Jess?’

She looks at me for a second or two, while her ears inform her brain of what she hadn’t quite been taking in for the last minute, before eventually answering.

‘Oh, she said she was taking the bins out,’ Mum replies casually. ‘A little while ago, actually.’

I narrow my eyes.

‘And that didn’t flag as weird to you?’ I ask her.

‘Well, nothing Jess has done has ever really surprised me,’ Mum replies. ‘Lord knows she’s given it her best shot, though.’

I head downstairs where I grab my shoes and my coat, quickly hurrying them on, to head outside and check Jess’s last known location.

I am momentarily surprised to find her by the bins at the side of the house, not just because it’s so unlike Jess to do one of the less desirable chores, but because from what Mum said, it sounds like she’s been out here for a while now.

All becomes clear when I approach her and realise that she isn’t alone. She’s talking to Kenny.

‘A lawyer? That’s so sexy,’ she tells him with a wiggle of her shoulders.

Scratch that, she’s not talking to him, she’s flirting with him.

‘I can get almost anyone out of trouble,’ he replies. ‘Or into it.’

Oh, my God, no, gross, he’s flirting back. I pick up the pace, hurrying over to join them. There’s already a fence between them but still, I insert myself in the space between Jess and the fence.

‘Jess, can you come inside, I need you,’ I tell her firmly.

‘I was just saying similar,’ Kenny jokes. I shoot him a look. ‘Jess was just telling me she made that gorgeous wreath on your front door. I was saying I didn’t even have my artificial tree up this year, she’s appalled.’

‘It’s Christmas,’ Jess protests. ‘You can’t not have a tree up.’

‘Well, you are talking to a regular Ebenezer Scrooge,’ I can’t resist pointing out.

‘Jess is going to help me see the light,’ Kenny informs me.

I look over at Jess, who can’t control her grin. Jesus Christ, what is it with this family, being so thirsty? It’s embarrassing.

‘Actually, she’s going to help me with our parents,’ I inform her. ‘I think Mum and Dad are flirting.’

‘Ew,’ she replies simply. ‘You must have that wrong.’

‘Go in and see for yourself,’ I tell her.

‘I’d better go sort this lot out,’ Jess tells Kenny in a tone that suggests she’s often solving problems, whereas anecdotal evidence would suggest she’s more likely to cause them.

I notice that Jess is holding the plastic bins from inside the island, where the recycling goes, but that she’s standing next to the general waste bin.

‘Which bin did you use?’ I ask her.

‘Er, this one, I think,’ she says.

‘You think… Was it just recycling, or the black bag from the bin too?’

‘A bit of both,’ she says with a sigh. ‘Why? Don’t tell me I’ve put the bins out wrong.’