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Chapter 9 - Can't Fight this Feeling

“Well, I look after the other guys.   I want to stick with them.”

 “Hmm, you just might have just earned yourself, ‘I ain’t got nobody, I’m just a gigolo.”

He laughed as he drove, “If you are going to do David Le Roth, you should do ‘Just like Paradise’”

“Smooth Operator,” Patience countered confident that he wouldn’t know Sade.

“Hang on to your Love,” he smirked.

“What?  How do you...?”

“My mum loved the eighties,” he stopped mid-sentence and clenched his teeth. “Look if you are determined to do this why not ‘I can’t fight this feeling anymore’”

“The REO Speedwagon song?

He lifted an eyebrow in acknowledgement.

“And even as I wander,” Patience sang softly the words of the song, “I'm keeping you in sight, you're a candle in the window on a cold, dark winter's night and I'm getting closer than I ever thought I might”

“Yes that’s the one,” he said without looking at her.

She found song and made it his ringtone, even though she had reservations for some strange reason it just seemed right.

“So you didn’t answer my question,” he broke the uncomfortable silence that followed.

“What question?”

“Serenity's Charity event, what’s that all about?”

“Ohh, that, she does it a couple of times a year.  It’s part of the reason she is Mum’s perfect little angel.  She raises a stack of money for the Charities that Mum supports.  The last one she organised had a telethon and raised half a million.”

“What?  $500 thousand?  Seriously?”

“Yeah.  Don’t know how she did it and I’m not sure I want to know.  I didn’t watch it but apparently it was ‘entertaining’”

“Watch it?”

“Yeah she got a cable station to broadcast it.  Serenity has a knack of getting what she wants, especially from men.  She’s pretty determined once she sees something she wants,” Patience shrugged.

“So I’ve noticed,” Jake mumbled so that Patience only just caught the comment.  Then he quickly said, in a normal voice, “And Murray and the local police contribute?”

“Ohh yeah, almost everyone seems to get swept up in it.  Murray and the other guys always pull out all the stops and raise heaps!  They’re great.”

Jake didn’t say anything but his forehead creased like he was thinking deeply about something.  Patience couldn’t think of anything to lighten his mood so looked out the window instead.

As the car drove into the carpark, Patience had her hand on the door handle ready to jump as soon as it stopped.  And she would have escaped quickly if a firm hand didn’t grip her arm.

She turned to see what he wanted but he looked at her as if he was struggling with something.  Eventually he dropped his hand releasing her.

“You go ahead,” Jake frowned, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Patience blinked at him.  He smoothly swung himself from the drivers side.  Patience closed her eyes and wished for such elegance as she stumbled out of the car.  Knowing she had just made herself look like an idiot she didn’t turn, she kept walking until she reached the entrance.  Only then did her eyes betray her.  Jake was talking on his phone.  He ran his hand through his hair dragging his dark long fringe off his face.  Then he looked skyward as if he was searching for something.