I jump to answer it and spill hot dark liquid all over my hand. For a second I try to cure the burn by waving my hand in the air and yelling ‘fuck,�...� which doesn’t work real well, and then I take a breath and pick up the receiver. ‘Hello?’ I try to sound casual. I’m not sure how well ‘over caffeinated, exhausted burn victim’ translates into casual, but I try. ‘H…hello?’ a female voice responds. ‘Is this Jake Currie?’ I know that voice. My mouth goes dry and my heart gets loud. It can’t be.. Did I know then and just blinded myself? Intermittent flashes from my phone told me I had another message and I knew it was from Jason. Since I kissed him then fled, he’d been trying to get hold of me. I had ignored every single text and call but two months on he wasn’t giving up. I was running out of resolve. I hadn’t had the balls to block him, and now I was weakening. I fled because I was a coward and now I wasn’t facing him for the same reason. His messages followed similar themes; ‘speak. You are going to say something or do something that she’s going to suspect or later she’s going to catch us and then she’s going to leave you. Look Robert maybe you should rethink this – my man is in Afghanistan and he’ll never know about this and Robert I’m not leaving him for you. So, is this game you are willing to play? Because the only loser here is going to be you! Emma will find someone else and you’re never going to find anyone like her again!!! So, again do you really want to do. " She blew out her breath and shut up and looked over at the fire."You sounded like you were going to ask something, then chickened out." Yeah, I did." She said with some irritation. "I don't know how to ask for things, sometimes." Well, don't chicken out now," I said, "You were doing fine with being brazen a minute ago."She gave me a flash of smile. "I'd like to go to bed." Sure."We managed to get off the couch, with some laughing and giggling at our inebriated state, then headed up the.