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“
Morning,
beautiful,” he whispered as he kissed her softly on the
lips.

“
Morning.”

He pulled her
into him and brushed his mouth against her ear. “Don't ever spend
the night away from me again, you hear?”

She looked
into his eyes and instantly felt guilty. “I won't. I'm sorry.” He
kissed her again, slow and deep.

As he pulled
away he looked over towards Ciaran. She noticed Ciaran had been
watching them with an expression of interest on his face. Jack
nodded his greeting and took up his position at the table. She’d
expected the next World War but Jack had taken the sensible route.
She was thankful he was acting like an adult. Things resumed as
they had since Ciaran started helping at the shop.

Eli and Ayden
had appeared mid- morning and she’d immediately sensed the male
camaraderie going on. She wasn’t blind; she could see Ayden
eyeballing Ciaran. In response to this, Ciaran nodded and continued
with his work. It had been weird seeing the two of them together in
one room. They really did look so alike.

She sat with
Tabitha, Jack, Eli and Ayden a little after their normal lunch.
They'd had a busy morning. Ciaran had moved into the back room
allowing them a little time of normality which Cora thought was
very mature of him. Tabitha had made the decision to leave the door
open so customers could come and go as they pleased. The door
opened as she popped the last of her
Kit
Kat
in her mouth. She turned to see Quinn
stride into the shop. Christ!

Jack, Ayden
and Eli were already standing up but Tabitha remained seated
nibbling at her sandwich.

“
What do you
want?” Jack snarled at him.

She saw Ciaran
step out of the back room and then stand with his arms crossed. Oh
lord. That was four men pumped full of testosterone, and her.
Tabitha looked unwilling to help because she thought the entire
situation was ridiculous, and Cora agreed. It was, but Cora needed
help when dealing with men who were at boiling point.

“
Nice tae see
yer’ll. How are yer, Cora?”

“
She will be
much better when I drop your sorry ass on the pavement outside,”
Ayden snarled.

“
Really, A
would like tae see that,” Quinn goaded Ayden. Quinn smiled and
pushed his hand through his short hair, causing the blonde streaks
to do a Mexican wave.

“
Please, stop
it. This fighting gets us nowhere. Quinn, did you want
something?”

“
A date,”
Quinn smirked and looked directly at Jack as he said it.

Jack cursed
and launched himself at Quinn. Ciaran rushed around the counter,
trying to drag Jack away from Quinn. She hadn’t expected Eli or
Ayden to help.

“
Jack! Stop!”
She let her energy run free and watched as the wind pushed the both
of them to separate ends of the shop. Jack pulled himself to his
feet, panting and looking at her in shock. She hadn’t used her
element on him since they’d met.

“
Cora, A would
like tae tek yer out on Monday evenin’. A will pick yer up at
6pm.”

The silence in
the shop was crushing her. Quinn hadn’t asked. It sounded more like
a statement, but he was standing there, waiting for her
confirmation. She tried to breathe but the look on Jack's face was
killing her.

She sighed and
looked at Tabitha. Tabitha's face remained blank. Cora wasn’t going
to get an answer from her. She looked back at Quinn. “Fine,” she
snapped. With that one word, Jack walked out of the shop, slamming
the door behind him.

*

Jack sat on
the sofa and watched as she played with her hands nervously. She
felt nervous this time around because she didn’t trust Quinn. She
glanced at Jack and saw that his eyes were a deep, dark solid
chocolate, his jaw was set, popping with tension and his hands were
bunched up into fists on his knees.

The topic of
her date had not been brought up since it had happened. She hated
that Jack had walked out without talking things through with her,
but he'd come back Saturday night and they'd not spoken of it. She
was just thankful that he’d come back. Deep down, she knew that
this whole thing was affecting the foundations of their
relationship. She just didn’t know how to handle it.

Sunday had
been a whole lot of walking around on egg shells, still avoiding
the giant elephant in the room. But it was now 5:45pm Monday, and
Quinn was due to arrive in fifteen minutes. How much longer could
they keep up the act of believing nothing was wrong?

A car horn
sounded outside making her jump. She looked at Jack but his face
looked away from hers. She so desperately wanted to kiss him but it
seemed inappropriate somehow. Tabitha was standing in the kitchen
watching her. She sent a pleading look to Tabitha. Cora didn’t want
to do this anymore than they had to sit here and see it. Tabitha
nodded. So that was it. Tabitha’s support had come in the form of a
nod. Cora opened the door, took one last look at Jack, and left the
room.

Quinn was
leaning against his car door smiling at her. The car was gold in
colour and it was blindingly bright and elaborate. It screamed
Quinn. Why did he have to be so obvious? She nodded at him and
opened her own car door before he could get to it. She caught the
irritated clench of his jaw and enjoyed it. Quinn slid into the
leather seat and drove on. She sighed and looked at her
hands.

“
Is there
sumthin' wrong, Cora?”

Looking up,
she saw that Quinn’s brown hair was styled so that his hair flew at
all sorts of angles on his head, the blonde streaks had faded
leaving them chestnut in colour. His steel blue eyes were looking
at her.

“
Everything is
wrong.”

“
I’m sorry
aboot the way this has tae play out, but A’m sure yer will love our
date,” he smiled.

She didn't
know what to say so she just let him drive in silence. She didn’t
want this date to happen, and she knew that Quinn was the one to
watch out for. He was the one who made Jack the angriest. Quinn was
cocky and arrogant which were qualities she hated in a man. Well,
until she'd met Jack. But once she’d got to know Jack she’d found
him to be caring, sensitive and loving.

She felt the
car slow and looked out of the window. She'd been so lost in a daze
thinking of Jack and everything she hated about this situation, she
now found that it was dark outside, but she saw the blue
sign.

“
Blue Planet
Aquarium, why are we here?”

“
It is yer
date,” Quinn smiled.

He parked at
the front of the building and she noticed that there were no cars
in the car park except one, a blue car that they pulled up next to.
“But it looks closed.”

Quinn laughed
and stepped out of his car.

She opened the
door and stretched her legs. Before she could avoid him, his
hand touched her elbow and she jerked it away from
him. She heard him sigh as he strode to the front entrance, like
she couldn’t read the entrance sign and walk there herself. She
gritted her teeth biting back on her remark.

As they
approached the front of the large sea coloured building, a middle
aged man wearing an old tartan cap came into view. “Welcome tae the
Blue Planet aquarium. These are yer passes.”

The man
stepped towards them and hung her pass around her neck.

“
Huv a lovely
evening.”

“
Cheers
Dougie,” Quinn smiled.

She was about
to say something when Quinn whisked her inside.

Once Quinn
locked the main door behind, an action that made her heart race,
she turned to look around them. “There are no people,” she
remarked. It felt strange for the place to be so still and
silent.

“
Yeah, we are
the only ones haur.”

“
You got us in
after hours?” she asked surprised.

“
O'
course.”

She couldn't
believe it. How the hell had he managed to pull this off? And no,
she pushed it aside, she wasn’t going to be impressed by this.
Quinn was the one to watch out for. Cora put a snarl on her face as
they walked into the aquarium.

21

DINNER WITH A
SHARK

“
So, where
would yer like tae gae?”

“
I don't know.
I guess you can pick.” She remained emotionless, her face giving
nothing away. She’d learnt from the best, Tabitha.

Quinn nodded,
she could see how her answer affected him, but he walked off to the
right so she followed looking around her in amazement, but only
because Quinn wasn’t looking at her.

Cora came to a
standstill, staring at millions of beautiful neon fish. Citrus
orange, sky blue and baby pink fish, oblivious to the world around
them, were floating in a tank that spanned the entire wall. Quinn
was standing by her side watching the fish himself.

“
What kind of
fish are these?”

“
A havnae got
a clue,” he admitted.

“
So you don't
know everything,” she smirked, enjoying this new fact.

“
A would like
tae know more things aboot yer,” he smiled.

She ignored
his comment and continued walking, following the fish as they
moved. She stopped and gasped as she looked around her.

Okay, so the
ice was melting a little, she couldn’t act pissed off all night,
the colours and the whole room was too beautiful. Ahead of her was
a huge tunnel of thick glass, it was the only thing keeping the
water out. She loved how standing under the tunnel made it appear
like she was in the sea with the many fish.

“
Yer first,”
Quinn said, and pointed to a treadmill type thing.

It was slow as
it moved along, she giggled, excited by the whole thing and unable
to hide it. Quinn smiled as he joined her on the slow moving
treadmill. A shawl of fish, there must have been hundreds of them,
glided by her, darting excitedly in every direction. It looked like
a brilliant colourful rainbow of pinks and purples swaying over
her.

“
A had tae
fight Tavish tae become yer prospective date.” Quinn said. His
words were so quiet she wasn't sure she'd heard him
correctly.

“
Huh?” She
looked away from the life moving around in the water and turned to
him.

“
Tavish,”
Quinn said and coughed clearing his throat. “He wanted tae be yer
date and A couldnae allow it.”

Tavish? Why
would he want to do such a thing? That was a stupid question, he
was Alastair’s right hand man, of course he wanted to do it.
Alastair would have a spy closer to her.

“
Why?” she
asked, finding that she wanted to know the answer.

“
A wanted tae
know yer but who wouldnae want tae know a bonnie lass?” he
smiled.

She couldn’t
make her tongue form any words. Was every date going to do this to
her?

They moved
along the tunnel in silence. Had Quinn done her a favour by pushing
Tavish aside? Why was she even thinking like this? “I wish there
were no dates at all.”

“
Aye, A can
imagine it isnae pleasant. But it has tae be a compliment? Yer
know, all these men wantin' tae know yer.”

“
I'm not one
for all the attention.” He didn’t know her. This proved
it.

“
Over there,”
Quinn said, pointing above them.

She looked
above her and gasped.

Pearly white,
horrifyingly sharp teeth moved menacingly above her. The grey body
slipped through the water like a hot knife through butter. She'd
never seen a shark this close before and she didn’t plan on getting
any closer.

“
Huv yer read
yer book A sent yer?”

“
No, I've not
had the time.” She wasn’t going to make the time.

Yes, she was
cutting her nose off to spite her face, but at this exact moment,
she didn’t care.

“
Shame.”

“
How did you
know I liked the book?”

“
Yer left it
where yer were sat afore the meiting.”

“
I was a
little preoccupied with the whole death sentence meeting than
putting the book back on the shelf in the library.”

“
Bit
farfetched, don't yer think? There is nae death
sentence.”

“
Might as well
be.”

They neared
the end of the tunnel and she stepped off the treadmill thing right
into a candle lit room.

The room was
large and dark blue in colour, blue obviously sticking with the
theme of this place. A small table was strategically placed in the
middle of the room, she knew what this meant. An uncomfortable
dinner, minus the tacky restaurant.

As she neared
the table, she turned to her right and gasped. The entire wall was
clear. She could see the fish, the sharks, a complete television of
life. It was just a whole wall of colour.