Don't Ask by Hilary Freeman Page A

I’d done, she codenamed my mission to find out
Jack’s secrets ‘Project Jared’.
    ‘Ready?’ said Alex. ‘It’s 079 . . .’
    I’m not going to repeat her whole number; it’s private. I don’t need anything else to feel guilty about.
    ‘Thanks,’ I said, and gave her mine. I’ll admit I did think, briefly, about changing one of the digits. I thought better of it: it would have been futile, no more than a
delaying tactic, and would merely have aroused her suspicions.
    It was time to be brave, time to get to the point. ‘So,’ I ventured, ‘I’ve told you all about Jared, but you never really talk about your love life. I know you’re
single at the moment, but is there anyone you like?’
    ‘Not really,’ she said. ‘There’s this guy at college who’s quite buff, but he’s really just a friend. We almost snogged once, but that’s all. I
don’t really want to get into anything serious with anyone.’
    ‘Why’s that?’ I asked, fishing, hopeful that she would bring up Jack.
    She didn’t. ‘You know, going away to uni next year and all. Seems stupid to.’
    ‘Oh right,’ I said. I changed tack. ‘Have you been single for a long time?’
    ‘About a year. I had a long-term boyfriend before that, but it didn’t work out.’
    Finally! I tried not to show the excitement that was rising in my chest. ‘What was he like?’ I asked, just to be certain that she was talking about Jack, just to be one hundred per
cent sure that I wasn’t sitting in a coffee shop, in disguise, with the wrong Alex Porter. You can’t be too careful. It’s not as if I had sampled her DNA, had I?
    ‘He was lovely,’ she said, her eyes growing sad. ‘Kind, cute, funny. Pretty much perfect. He was my first proper boyfriend and I was his first serious girlfriend. We got
together when we were fourteen.’ She sighed. ‘I can’t believe I’m telling you all this, the first time we’ve met. You’re really easy to talk to, Laura, a really
good listener. Anyway, a lot of stuff happened. Maybe we were just too young for it to last.’
    Her obvious sadness confused me. Did she regret breaking up with him? ‘He sounds amazing,’ I said. ‘But if he was so perfect, why did you finish with him?’
    She looked at me, strangely. ‘I didn’t,’ she said. ‘I don’t know where you got that idea. He broke up with me. He broke my heart.’ Her eyes appeared moist, as
if she was on the brink of tears. She got up from the table. ‘I’m going to get another coffee. Same again?’

 
Chapter 11

    Why would Jack say he’d been dumped by Alex, when he hadn’t? Why, for that matter, would anyone claim to be the ‘dumpee’, when they were actually the
dumper? What possible reason could there be? It’s not exactly something you brag about, is it? In my experience, if someone doesn’t want you to know that their girlfriend or boyfriend
had enough of them, they say, ‘The break-up was mutual,’ which we all know is code for ‘I was dumped, I’m gutted, but I’m not going to admit it.’ But Jack had
always been very clear: Alex had finished with him.
She
was the one who’d ended the relationship, for reasons which were far too painful to talk about. So, if it clearly wasn’t
about protecting his pride, what was it about? Gaining my sympathy? No, because if that were the case, Jack would have furnished his story with details, instead of shutting me out. Had he cheated
on her, or done something else to hurt her, something he was too ashamed to admit? Maybe he’d told Alex their relationship was over before she found out what he’d done, to save her
feelings and his reputation. It was the only possibility that made any kind of sense. And yet, that didn’t seem to ring true either.
    I wondered about this long after I’d said goodbye to Alex, all the way home from the coffee shop and in my bedroom, as I got ready to see Jack. So much for uncovering the information
I’d been after; I had come away from my