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“I’d better go,” I said. “Before I spend my rent.”
Jade shrugged, kissed my cheek and vanished into the crowd. I don’t think she gave me a second thought. I don’t blame her.
I settled up at the bar, winced at the total, and stepped out of the fire door at the side because it was closer to where I’d parked.
The alley was cold and smelled of bins. And Scarlett, the redhead from earlier, was leaning against the wall in a long coat, smoking.
“Hey,” she said. “Jade’s lost puppy.”
“I’m nobody’s puppy.”
“You sat at the bar for two hours buying her drinks. You’re a puppy.” But she smiled, and held out the cigarette. I shook my head. She took a drag, blew it up at the streetlight. “Twenty minutes left on my break. Freezing out here.”
Her coat was open. Underneath she was still in the black lace and nothing else. Goosebumps on her freckled skin. Nipples hard from the cold.
“You chose her over me,” she said. “I’m not offended. Just saying.”
“I’m regretting it slightly.”
“Only slightly?”
She flicked the cigarette into a puddle and looked at me properly, head tilted, green eyes very awake.
“I’ve got twenty minutes,” she said, “and I’m bored and cold. You could stay out here and keep me warm. Or you could go home to your sad empty flat.”