The night was almost over when Danielle and Josh were finally finished with the Police. Once they’d shown the video recording to the Officer who had arrived, he called in the local CID.

George’s car had been towed away by the Police contractor, leaving a very unhappy neighbour behind. The damage he’d caused had made both cars undrivable. George would not be very popular in that part of town that day and for several weeks afterwards.
Josh and Danielle shared a taxi back to his home. She was initially reluctant to return to his flat but she was glad that she did because they found her purse lying on the hallway floor when they opened the door.

“For a while there back at the station, I thought that George had run off with it,” said a very relieved Danielle.

“I’m glad you have got it back,” said Josh as he surveyed the damage.

Just then his alarm clock went off. Under normal circumstances, he’d be getting up and preparing for work right about now.

Danielle saw his hesitation.

“Can you call in sick today?”

Josh shook his head.

“I’d rather not. I really can’t afford to lose a day’s pay. I don’t get sick pay unless I am out for three days or have been employed there for three years. Too many short-term employees throwing a sickie and then leaving. Plus, what I said about being broke is true. I have just enough in the bank for my rent which is due tomorrow. Until I get paid at the end of the week I have less than a fiver in my pocket. I can manage if I walk to work. I can’t afford the bus.”

“I really had no idea that things were that tight,” said Danielle.

Josh smiled.
“That’s all right. I’ve managed for the past few years and if I keep my nose clean, I could become shift manager. That’s another two quid an hour. That will make all the difference at the end of the month.”

Then Josh changed the subject.
“What are you going to do about that?” he said at Danielle’s ring.

She thought for a moment.

“I’ll go to his parents’ home tonight and give it to them. They won’t like it. His Mother was just like what George wants me… wanted me to be, stay at home and look after the kids. She was so happy when he announced that I’d be giving up work after we were married. I only went along with it because I thought I could make him change his mind, but he was set on it. I was so infatuated with him at the time I couldn’t see what he was doing to me.”

She paused before continuing.
“Looking back at it, I realise now that I let myself be swept along with it all. He had me wrapped around his little finger. Last night’s events made me see clearly for the first time this year.”

Josh didn’t reply so Danielle carried on.
“There is the little or rather not so little matter of George. He’s still out there. We’ll both have to watch our backs. There is no telling what he’ll do next is there?”

Josh nodded his head as he rubbed his sore cheek. George's blow had been a huge wake-up call to him.
“I don’t think that we should be seen together for a while. You need to be clear in your mind how you are going to handle George long term. He’s always been very possessive and won’t take you rejecting him lightly. He will be out for revenge if only to retain his street cred.”
Danielle nodded in agreement.

“I’ve been such a fool. I guess I was flattered that someone like George would take an interest in someone as plain as me. Now that I think about it, I think that it was his mother’s doing. His older brother, Ray is a notorious womaniser. With him, they come and you start to get to know them, and suddenly, they are gone. George likes to think that he’s like his brother but he’s a pale imitation. George… George just does not have the chutzpah like his brother.”

Danielle shuddered.
“That whole family give me the creeps. I must have been mad to even think about hooking up with him.”

Then she smiled at Josh.
“I’ll text you in a week or so then we can have lunch together. I’ll time it for when George is away watching his beloved Chelsea. They are playing in Istanbul in a few weeks. He briefly talked about me going with him but one of his mates wanted the ticket. He didn’t mention it again.”

As Josh showed Danielle the door, she stopped and reached into her bag.
“I know how short of money you are so I’m going to pay for the cab and I will not take no for an answer.”

Josh wanted to say something but couldn’t.

Reluctantly, he took a £20 note from her.

Before she left, she gave him a little peck on the cheek.
“Thanks for being such a good friend.”

Josh felt happy for a few seconds. As he shut the door behind her, he started to feel sad at the thought that Danielle considered him to be just a friend. Deep down he knew that it was far too early for her to think about another relationship. She had to get George Boyd out of her system first. Josh wanted a lot more from their relationship... should they ever get that far.

---

[The next day at Josh’s work]
There had been some comments about the black eye that seemed to get worse by the hour when he arrived at work. Josh exclaimed that he'd been assaulted by someone who was not happy with his very platonic friendship with his fiancée.
Josh could see some doubt about how platonic the friendship was but as he'd never spoken about having a proper girlfriend, he was given the benefit of the doubt.

That was until the middle of the afternoon when two of the CID Officers that Josh had been interviewed by at the weekend turned up to ask him some more questions.

Josh shepherded them out the back entrance of the Coffee Shop before he would answer any of their questions.

“Mr Fisher, do you take drugs?”

“Me? No way. Well… not since I tried a few spliffs at the Reading Festival when I was eighteen or so, I haven’t. Why are you asking?”

“When you arrived at the Station, we had the Police Surgeon check you over. Do you remember that?”

“How can I forget. He asked me all sorts of very intimate questions as well as taking some blood. He said that it was for elimination purposes whatever that means.”

“Good. Well, the results of your blood test showed traces of Cocaine. Can you explain how it came to be there?”

This news came as a total shock to Josh. He showed it visibly. So much so that he had to sit down.

“I’ve never taken that sort of stuff in my life.”

One of the detectives smiled.
“Good. That agrees with the report from the Police Surgeon. He states that he could find no evidence of any injection or other means by which you could have ingested the drug. His conclusion is that it came to be in you through skin contact.”

This was still a mystery to Josh.

“How? I have no knowledge of ever coming into contact with any white powder. The only white stuff I do touch is the flour that this place uses to make its Muffins. I can’t imagine what would happen if the muffins were found to be tainted.”

“Neither did we. We reviewed the video evidence that you provided and it could well be that contact with the drug was made when you landed your right-hand square on the nose of Mr Boyd.”

Josh was still feeling the effects of that blow on his hand.
“Are you saying that George had been snorting cocaine before he came to my home?”

“That is exactly what we are saying. The evidence in Mr Boyd’s car does back it up.”

Josh was both dumbfounded and hurt.

“Why did you virtually accuse me of taking hard drugs then?”

“Sorry for that Mr Fisher. We had to be sure. Your reaction to our questions made it pretty clear that you were telling the truth.”
Josh felt very, very relieved.

“Have you found him yet?”

“Not at this point in time. Mr Boyd does seem to be a nasty piece of work. Please let us know if he makes contact with you.”

“I will do just that.”

Then Josh had an idea.
“George is a die-hard Chelsea fan. They are playing at home tonight. As far as I know, he is a season ticket holder. He won’t want to miss the game as it is against Real Madrid in the Champions League.”

Both detectives smiled.
“How do you know about his season ticket?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Mention football to him and he’s away. He just won’t stop telling you about how great a view he has from his seat and how he’s not missed a home match for four years. That sort of thing. We have three or four daily papers left out for our customers to read while they drink their coffee or tea. The back pages are covered with speculation about the match.”

“Thank you, Mr Fisher. We didn’t know about his passion for football. We will make every effort to detain him as soon as possible.”

The two men left Josh sitting out the back of the coffee shop. He wasn’t sure if they would find him at the match. If he was in George’s shoes, he wouldn’t go within 50 miles of Stamford Bridge that night but he wasn’t George.”

Josh returned to work and faced the inevitable grilling from his colleagues about the visit from the cops. He just said that the two officers were just confirming the statement he’d made to them at the weekend after the altercation that had given him the black eye.

Josh wanted to call Danielle but resisted the urge. She’d made it clear that she would call him when things had settled down.

---

[two weeks later on a Saturday afternoon]

Josh was at work when Danielle arrived.

“Hi Josh, a large Americano please.”

He was momentarily taken aback by her presence at his place of work.

“Danielle? What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t you get my text?”

“Nope. I’ve not had any texts from you. Here, look for yourself while I get you your drink.”

He took his phone out of the pocket in his apron and gave it to her. It was the same phone that he'd been using for… forever, well at least since they were at school.

Danielle found a seat and started to look at his phone. There were no texts at all from her. This was puzzling. There was a text from his work asking him to come in early for a shift a few days before but from her there was nothing.

Danielle sent a text from her phone to his. It said, ‘Not feeling well’.
Then she waited.

Josh brought her coffee over.

“Was I right?”

“Sorry to have doubted you. I just sent a test text. Let me see if it gets delivered.”

Josh looked back at the counter. One of his colleagues waved.
“I have a break due,” he said as he sat opposite her.

“What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it is my phone. I’ve had a few messages go missing in the past few weeks. One was about a job interview in London. I knew nothing about it until the agent called me up to ask why I’d not attended the interview.”

“Sounds like there is a problem with your phone. Is there someone you can ask for help?”

Danielle put her phone down on the table and sighed.

“I used to ask George. He bought the thing for me in the first place. He’s much more familiar with this stuff than I am. When I had an issue with spam callers, he did something to it and they all stopped.”

Josh smiled. He had an idea.
“There is that phone shop a few doors down. They supplied me with a new battery for mine a week or so back. They took it apart and gave it a good clean. With a new case, it is as good as new. It might be out of the ark but it works for what I want from a phone.”

Danielle smiled. She knew that Josh was not one of those people who craved for the latest tech unlike her ex, George.

The end of her relationship with George hadn’t gone well. She’d even shown his mother the video of George attacking her and Josh but George’s Mother instantly decided that it was all her doing. In the end, she’d just left the engagement ring with his mother, and a note telling him that it was all over and that he should never contact him again and that if he did, then she’d report him for stalking to the Police.

That hadn’t stopped George from pestering her at her work where she was working out her notice and at home. He’d only stopped when one of her neighbours called the Police to complain about this ‘shady character’ that was hanging around outside at all hours of the night.

George was pretty much stalking Danielle. For several weeks, wherever she went, he wouldn’t be far away and watching her every move.

So far, the Police had not managed to catch up with him.

“Josh to planet Danielle. Come in please?”

She’d been miles away.
“Sorry, I was thinking. You might be right. I’ll go there right away.”

Danielle stood up. Her coffee was untouched. She noticed this and felt guilty.

“I’ll pay for the coffee and… I’ll let you know what happens.”

She left Josh thinking about what might have been. He waved as she headed towards the nearby phone shop. Danielle waved back.

Josh didn’t see any more of Danielle that day. At first, he was a bit put out but put it behind him as he got busy at work just before the shop closed for the day.

When Josh arrived home, he was surprised to find a note had been pushed under his door. He was carrying his weekly shop so he left it on the floor while he put things away. It was only when he was preparing for bed later that evening, that he saw it lying there. This time, he read it.

“Josh,
That bastard George has been bugging my phone. He had some software on it that copied everything I did on it to an app on his phone. He also blocked your number from me sending or receiving texts with you. The people at the shop found what they called ‘heaps of tracking malware’ on the device. Now I know why it was so slow. I bought a new phone. I’ll text you the new number tomorrow when I have calmed down. I need to think.
Love
Danielle.
“

Josh read the note several times. With each reading, he got more and more angry at George. Josh had never liked George from the first day at primary school. What Danielle had said made him think that George was a scumbag lowlife of the first order. Josh went to bed that night thinking that George needed to be taken down a peg or three but that might be hard if he was high on cocaine.

Josh only wished that he could do more to help Danielle but the almost complete lack of funds was stopping him from doing little more than surviving from week to week. Late that evening, Josh renewed his search for a better job. Most of the time his applications went unanswered. He’d had just two interviews in the past year but despite him knowing about the role and what it entailed, he didn’t get the job. Lack of experience or that’s what the agent told him. A few months later, he had the satisfaction of seeing the same role advertised once more. The agent was sure that he would get it this time so he went for the interview. Once again, he was overlooked which baffled the Agent when he told Josh the bad news. None of the other candidates that had been interviewed was even remotely as suitable for the role as Josh.

There was one thing that Josh was able to do that infuriated people who thought that they knew him. That was the ability to just shrug his shoulders and move on with life and importantly not dwell on chances missed and bad things happening to him. Josh however knew that it was the right thing to do. Move on and get on with life and don’t let life get you down too much.

The next day, Josh waited for Danielle's text to come. The almost constant checking of his phone was even noticed by his work colleagues.

“Now Josh, have you gone all ‘social media’ on us?” asked Emma.
Emma was one of those sixteen-plus some years people. Time had moved on but her psyche and appearance hadn't. She was addicted to at least three social media platforms. She'd been told off for looking at Facebook or something during work on a regular basis.

“No, I have not gone all ‘social media’ on you or anyone. For the umpteenth time, this is a dumb phone. All it does is take or make phone calls and does texts. I’m waiting for a text and so far, it has not arrived. That good enough for you?”

“Phone calls? Oh, how retro of you,” exclaimed Emma.

“It is a phone. That thing that seemed to be glued to your right hand is also a phone. When was the last time you actually made a phone call on it?”

“Er… never. No one who is anyone does anything but social media these days. They are all it. Kim, Kylie and… me.”
Josh had no idea that Emma was talking about Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner. Besides not being into social media, he tuned out when anything about a celebrity came on the news.

“Well, I’m not and if your time wasting is anything to go by… then I’m glad that I’m not on it.”

Emma took the hint and went to clear some tables.

Danielle’s text arrived late that evening just as Josh was going to bed.

“Sorry for the delay. I think I have a plan to get back at George and …”

That was it.

A few minutes later his phone went ding again.
“Sorry. Pressed the wrong thingy. Have some great ideas for getting back at George and getting you a new job. I’ll call you soon. Love Dani”

While Josh felt relieved that Danielle hadn’t forgotten him, he was worried that she’d try to take over his life on the rebound from George. If Josh had one failing, that was being fiercely independent. He put up barriers to everyone who even began to get close to him and almost without exception he pushed them away.

The only exception was Danielle. She was the only one who knew his inner secret. Then the text told him that she wanted to help, and Josh was at a loss for what to do next.

[to be continued]