I Found You by Jane Lark Page A

really nothing special, Lindy always moaned I didn’t have a gift with style.
    To stop feeling awkward I finished off my beer, then turned and put the empty bottle down on the counter, saying, “Ready,” as I turned back.
    She’d taken her little black leather purse off her shoulder, and was pulling some dollar notes out of it.
    “Here.” She held them out to me. “You’d better take this before I get drunk and spend it.”
    “You don’t have to, Rach.”
    “No, I do. I’m not gonna keep owing you forever. Take it. And we’re Dutch tonight, right, no manly I’m buying all the drinks bullshit. We’re half and half.”
    I smiled. “Okay, it’s a deal.” I took the money off her. I couldn’t refuse. It would be cruel to refuse. She was busy turning her life around. I wasn’t going to stop her.
    After I’d put the money in my wallet, I reached her coat down from the peg and held it up for her.
    “Why, thank you kind sir, it’s amazing what a figure-hugging red dress can do.”
    “Very funny…” I was smiling at her, even though my words were dry. But she was right, the dress was figure-hugging, it clung to every curve and left nothing to my imagination. Not that I needed imagination, I could still see the image of her on that first night in my mind as she’d lain naked in the bath. Shit, tonight was not the night to be thinking about that.
    I reached for my coat, then put it on.
    “We’re going on the subway,” she said, hooking her little purse bag over her arm again. “So don’t take your hat and scarf, you’ll only lose them in the club––”
    “And freeze on the way home either way…”
    “You won’t notice the weather on the way back you’ll be too drunk.” She grinned at me, her devilish come-on-live-a-bit-wild grin.
    I grinned back, a sucker for a beautiful woman in a hot dress. “I wish all my friends looked as good as you,” I whispered to her as we went out the door.
    She glanced back, flashing me another bright smile. Then she said, “Likewise.”
    When we got on the subway train we sat on opposite sides of the carriage, grinning at each other, like a couple of kids. But then my cell buzzed in my pocket as it pulled away.
    I took it out.
    It was Lindy.
    “Yeah.”
    “What, not hi, darling , or, great to hear from you .”
    “I’m on the subway, Lindy. I told you I was going out.”
    “Right. I just wanted to check you’re okay.”
    “I’m, okay.”
    “You always call me, I just wanted to surprise you and call you for a change.”
    “On the one night I’ve gone out for a drink since I’ve been here, cheers, Lindy, thanks for thinking of me.”
    I didn’t look at Rachel. It was embarrassing to have Lindy check up on me. She was jealous of Rachel. Lindy had always held other women at a distance from me, it was just part of what she did, and the way she was. I knew it was because she was insecure, but I was a little sick of her insecurity lately.
    “Lindy, just give it a rest. Be the one to call me tomorrow if you like, it’s a Saturday, surprise me then…”
    She hung up.
    She’d be pissed off and angry now.
    My good mood deflated like someone let helium out of my balloon. I made a sorry face at Rach and stood up, then moved further along the carriage, and with one arm looped about the bar to hold me steady, I called Lindy back. The subway was coming off the far end of the bridge. I’d lose my signal soon.
    “Hi,” she answered, sounding annoyed.
    “Sorry.”
    “Yeah, right…”
    “I’m trying my best to make this work, Lindy. You know I haven’t been out, or really made friends here. Rachel just offered to get me out of the apartment and help me get to know the city a bit, to cheer me up, alright… It’s nothing.”
    “It isn’t nothing, Jason. She’s living with you in a one bedroom apartment. She’s after what she can get. She’s taking advantage, and…”
    And of course in Lindy’s opinion that could only be about money, nothing to do with