Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life (The Jessie Slaymaker Series) by Jo Iles

relief that he’d gone, but this was also tinged with a smidgen of regret. It would have been nice to have curled up next to someone and woken up with them on a Saturday morning. That didn’t happen to her very often. But she couldn’t. She mustn’t think that way. It wasn’t fair to him. Jessie didn’t want to string Jack along when she had all these feelings still very much in the forefront of her mind for Charlie. It just isn’t fair to him, she kept repeating to herself.
    Jessie then proceeded to commit the absolute cardinal sin of beauty. She proceeded to open up another bottle of wine, half of which she managed to drink before she fell asleep in front of the TV, fully clothed and with all her make up still on.
    She was awoken by a hammering in her head early the next morning.
    ‘Shit,’ she exclaimed aloud. She felt like crap. Had she really had that much to drink the previous evening? She knew she’d had a lot but she hadn’t felt drunk. Well, not that drunk anyway.
    ‘Just dehydrated,’ she croaked, continuing her solo conversation as she staggered to the kitchen and chugged down as much water as she could, along with a couple of painkillers.
    ‘Twenty minutes,’ she told herself. That was all it would take for the painkillers to kick in and for the hammering to subside. She made herself a coffee and returned to her makeshift bed on the sofa. A shower could wait until the room stopped spinning and she felt like she wasn’t going to throw up.
    Jessie must have drifted off to sleep again because the next time she woke up she felt better. Not perfect, but definitely better. But there was still hammering.
    ‘Why is there still hammering?’ she groaned, dragging herself off the couch in order to investigate further. She wasn’t imagining things, either. There was definitely a hammering noise, and it was coming from outside of her head this time. It seemed to be coming from the door.
    ‘Alright, alright. I’m coming,’ she yelled as she traipsed down the hall to her front door. She stole a quick glance at herself in the mirror and was surprised to see that she didn’t look like a total train wreck. A bit tousled in the old hair department, but everything else was passable, if a little over the top for a Saturday morning.
    She opened the door, fully expecting to see Tom or the postman even. She was therefore shocked to see Jack standing there, looking all clean and fresh like he’d had a great night’s sleep, in a crisp blue shirt and jeans combination. Jessie suddenly felt very small and conscious of her height standing barefoot in front of him. She went up on tiptoes automatically. Those four inches of stilettos had worked wonders for her confidence the night before.
    ‘Morning,’ he said breezily as he pushed past her. ‘Do I smell coffee? Yes please.’
    ‘Help yourself,’ Jessie muttered to the doorway as she closed it back up. She was in two minds as to whether to follow him through to the kitchen, or to leave him to it and disappear to her bedroom for a shower and a change of clothes. Next to Jack’s clean look and fresh scent, she felt more than a little stale for still sporting last night’s getup. She was still having this internal debate when he shouted out her name.
    ‘Jessie. Hey Jessie, where do you keep your milk that isn’t going off?’ Jack yelled.
    That was it. Decision made. Jessie decided to avoid the kitchen altogether and head for the shower instead. She’d nearly crossed the threshold into her room when she was yanked unceremoniously back into the hallway by the arm.
    ‘Oh no you don’t,’ Jack said to her, pinning her to the wall.
    ‘I need a shower,’ she protested feebly. Next to Jack’s freshness, Jessie just felt gross.
    ‘I know that. But first, where’s my good morning kiss?’ he said, leaning down to kiss her fully on the lips. She surrendered the little fight she had within her and enjoyed the touch of his lips on hers.
    ‘More,’ she whispered