Against the Tide by Nikki Groom Read Free Book Online Page A

coffee cup on the sideboard.
    “I got a new tattoo,” I answer, pulling my lips tight trying not to laugh at her reaction.
    “Megs, backtrack … actually, go right back to the beginning. You had sex with a stranger? And Damien was there too? Or just … What? I’m so confused!”
    “Okay, I’ll try and give you the condensed version.”
    “Oh no, you don’t, missy. I want the full version, every gory detail. I have enough chocolate to see us through at least a good couple of hours.”
    Jamie makes her speciality coffees, two hazelnut lattes, mine with a double espresso, which I’m sure is so that I stay awake long enough to tell her every detail of my life as it stands at the moment.
    “Here.” She passes me a steaming mug of coffee and the steam pushes out the familiar smell of hazelnut. “And just so you know, I’m drip feeding you chocolate to keep you talking. Go …”
    “Um. Well … There’s this guy, I’ve seen him around for the last couple of months. I don’t know what it is with him, but it’s like he sings in a pitch that only I can hear. I know he’s there before I see him, you know?”
    “And this is the guy you had sex with?” she mumbles around a huge square of chocolate. I grab my bag and take out my cigarette packet.
    “Not in here, you don’t. If you want to smoke, you and your little white cancer sticks will have to stand outside.”
    “Jamie, this is an emergency,” I whine, knowing that she hates me smoking. I don’t actually know why I do it. Habit, I suppose. 
    “You know how I feel about it, Meg,” she scolds and I grumble under my breath and push the packet aside.
    “Okay, okay. Gimme the chocolate instead.” She slides it across the counter top, “Where were we?”
    “You were telling me about the guy that’s got you all flustered,” she reminds me, not missing a beat.
    “Yes. The guy I had sex with … In the alley behind The Cabin …” I screw my eyes tightly shut, waiting for her reaction. That sentence made me sound, and feel like a right slut.
    “Megan, you fucked a stranger in an alley?” Jamie shrieks, and her eyes almost pop out.
    “No,” I say, looking down to my lap before whispering, “he fucked me.”
    “Jesus, woman, you really need to stop shoving that shit up your nose, and start thinking before you act,” she says none too kindly.
    I push back on the worktop and sigh. “I didn’t come here for a bloody lecture, Jamie.”
    “What did you come here for? For me to tell you that I think you did good? Well, let me tell you now, the only thing that I can see was good about last night was the fact that Damien has gone. Where’s he gone anyway? And why? Did he find out about you and alley guy? Who, by the way, I want to know more about in just a minute.”
    “No, he doesn’t know about him, jeez, I wish I knew his name,” I mutter. “Damien is probably sitting on a beach somewhere exotic, being brought cocktails by a topless waitress right about now.”
    “You’re not making a lot of sense, Meg.”
    “That’s because you’re not letting me finish,” I snap, and she rolls her eyes at me. “When I got back from … the alley, Damien dragged me out of the club and straight into a taxi. He wouldn’t talk on the way home and when we got in through the door he told me to pack.” I close my eyes, not wanting to go here, but I knew I had to some time. “He was selling, you know, as usual,”
    “Yeah, illegal drugs. Go on,” she encourages, inclining her head to push me to continue. Talk about making me feel like shit.
    “He gave some girl a dodgy E,” I say quietly, suddenly realising the enormity of the situation. God, I really hope beyond hope that girl’s okay.
    “And …”
    “And, she got taken to hospital. I don’t know any more than that.” I hang my head and pick at the skin around my nails.
    “Don’t you think you should find out?”
    “She’s not my responsibility,” I snap. “She probably just had to have her