They exchanged mobile phone numbers and he promised to call her in a day or so. Feeling pleased and nervous at the same time, he tucked the piece of paper she’d given him into his warrant card as she drove off. Fiona Barton was undeniably stunning, and he knew he should be feeling pleased with himself. Trouble was, he doubted they had any sort of a future together. She didn’t seem the sort to sit around waiting for him to finish work, never knowing if he would get off on time or not.
His job wasn’t exactly conducive to long-term relationships. Or was he using just work as an excuse to prevent himself from getting hurt all over again, the way he had with Jenny?
Perhaps he should consider hooking up with someone in the job, someone who understood how the system fucked up your social life. He bet Kelly Flowers would understand.
Jack scratched his head, wondering what had made him think about her in that way.
Now that he had, he had to admit that there was something about her that he found alluring.
In fact, since Dillon had pointed her out to him last night, as she walked past their car outside the hospital, he had started to become...
He wasn’t really sure what he had started to become. Interested he supposed.
Interested?
Was that the right word to describe his feelings? Probably not, he thought cynically. Whatever, he had become aware of her, and he suddenly realised that he didn’t want Kelly to find out about his date with Fiona, although God alone knew why she should care.
It was all Dillon’s fault. If the big lug hadn’t goaded him about Kelly last night, he wouldn’t be thinking along these lines now.
Jack had been married once, but the relationship had lasted less than a year. He now accepted that the marriage had been completely wrong for them both. Of course, it was always easy to see such things clearly with hindsight. His wife detested his job; she liked the people he mixed with even less. She hated the frequency with which he phoned up to say that he’d be late home because he had ‘prisoners in the bin’.
Most of all she hated the fact that he was independent.
The arguments had been explosive, especially when he missed one of the numerous social functions that she had committed them to. They say that ‘make up’ sex is great, and it can be, but it wears thin when it’s the only kind of sex you ever have.
Jenny had been a glamorous, charismatic career girl who put her social standing before their relationship. They had grown apart quickly once the first cracks had appeared in their marriage. Jack hadn’t been too surprised to discover that she had embarked on an affair with her boss. In one of their more heated arguments, he accused her of being willing to sleep with anyone who could advance her career prospects. She had sneered at him, spitefully admitting it was something she would willingly consider. The divorce had been rushed through after that, the split uncontested by either party. Jenny had remained in the matrimonial home, and he had gone his own way, tail between his legs, to begin life anew. At least there were no children to be harmed by the separation.
Jack had remained on reasonably good terms with his ex-in-laws, Mr Justice Parker, QC and his wife, Elaine. They spoke infrequently but always sent each other birthday and Christmas cards. Jack occasionally drew Brendan Parker as the presiding Judge at one of his murder trials at the Bailey. It amused him that they acted like they didn’t know each other in public but sometimes shared an afternoon sherry in Brendan’s chambers after court.
For a long time after the divorce, the wounds had remained raw. As a coping mechanism, Jack ploughed himself into his work and avoided any form of serious commitment. There had been girlfriends along the way, of course, and that was fine until they started wanting to get serious.
He always made it clear that he wasn’t ready for another commitment. Having been hurt once he was in no rush to repeat the experience. Once bitten, twice shy. At least, that’s what they said.
And yet, Jack had always believed in his heart that the right woman for him was out there somewhere. He would know her when he found her, he felt certain of that. Perhaps it was time to start looking for her in earnest, while he was still young enough to enjoy a family and all that it entailed.
Jack was thirty-one years old and, while he wouldn’t go so far as to say he was becoming broody, he had to admit that he was disappointed to have reached that age without having any children to share his life with.
Yes, he was close to his family, and he saw them regularly, but in general his life consisted of work, work-related piss ups with work-related friends and little else, unless you counted his thrice-weekly trips to the gym, which he often made with Tony Dillon, his work-related best mate. It was a sad and rather hollow existence if he was honest, and he would gladly have swapped the miserable freedom he had now for the joyful ball and chain of a loving wife and a couple of doting kids.
Increasingly, Jack found himself wondering what it would be like to have a son that he could teach to play football, a son he could take to Highbury to watch his beloved Arsenal.
He wanted a daughter, too. He wasn’t sure what little girls liked, but he figured it would probably include wearing pretty dresses and playing with dolls.
Ideally, he would have one of each, which would be amazing. He could teach them both how to ride bicycles and fly kites, all kids loved that, and at weekends he could take them to the park, or the zoo. For family vacations, he
