Sleight of Hand [Show 'em Who's Boss #1]

19: Gamophobia

As soon as Jakob came home from work I took him upstairs to his room to talk to him about the plan that I had been gradually forming in my head. I made him sit down but I couldn't keep still. I kept pacing back and forth across the room, trying to figure out where to start.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" asked Jakob, beginning to look bored. I stopped my pacing and looked him. There was no simple way to start this, so I just went for it.

"I need to teach my dad a lesson before I even try to forgive him," I began.

Jakob rolled his eyes.

"Why can't you just be a normal girl, Ebony? Forget that he lied to you and move on for fuck's sake," insisted Jakob. I sat down on the bed in front of him.

"If you were in my situation, you'd do the same thing. Don't even try to lie to me. It's easy to forgive and forget but he won't learn a lesson if I just let him get away with it. He'll only continue lying to me. I won't let that happen."

Jakob reached over and took hold of one of my hands. I tried to keep myself from smiling at the cute gesture.

"Tell me the plan and then I'll tell you how stupid it is," he said with a smirk.

I told him about how my mum died shortly after discovering the truth about my father and that the car crash was actually caused by one of his rival gangs. I explained that I wanted to disappear too, just to scare my father. We could organise a kidnapping, pretend that one of his rivals had taken me. Maybe even fake my death just to really screw with him.

"You're not thinking big enough," said Jakob. He leant backwards on his bed. "We'll organise a fake kidnapping, then keep you as a hostage. Then we demand ransom money from your father. Tell him he can have you back, unharmed in exchange for say, one million pounds. We go somewhere to make the exchange and then reveal the truth. Then we drive off together with all the money, just you and me."

"We won't be able to do that with just the two of us though. To begin with, there needs to be more than one man kidnapping me. My father knows that I would put up a fight and I can easily take down one man. There will need to me more people in on it, so we might have to split the cash."

I crawled along the bed and lay down beside Jakob, resting my head on his chest.

"I have a few mates that could help out, for a price," suggested Jakob. I lifted my head up and looked at him, a smile on my face.

"I know someone who I can probably convince to help us out, free of charge. I'm sure I can come to some form of agreement with him," I explained. It was brilliant that for once I was the one with connections that were going to help us with our plan. The only problem was that I had no way of contacting him. Though I was sure if I wandered around for a while I'd eventually bump into him. He did have a habit of stalking me.

I was just about to fall asleep, still leaning on Jakob's chest, when he woke me up by tapping on my shoulder. I looked up and he waved a pack of cards in my face.

"Pick a card," he said as he fanned them out.

"Seriously, Jakob? You woke me up for one of your magic tricks?" I got up onto all fours.

"Just take a card and don't show it to me."

I rolled my eyes and took a random card from the deck: queen of clubs.

"Now put it back anywhere you like," he instructed.

I forced the card back into the cards Jakob still had held out. I watched as he shuffled them for a while. Then he picked out a card.

"Is this your card?" he asked. It was the seven of spades. I shook my head, smiling because it seemed as though he'd messed the trick up. He frowns and then picks out another card. "How about this one?" This time it was the two of hearts and I shook my head once again. "Oh, right, I remember where I put it," he said with a smirk. "Try the back pocket of your jeans."

With a frown I reached backwards and felt a card in my back pocket. I pulled it out and looked at it.

"How on earth did you do that?" I asked. The card in my back pocket was the queen of clubs; my card. I handed it back to Jakob and he put the cards back on his bedside table.

"It's magic!" he exclaimed and pulled me back down beside him again.

"You have got to teach me that one," I said as I cuddled up close to him.

"I can try to teach you, but you might struggle because you're not a mage like me." I rolled my eyes. He was referencing his Skyrim character. He liked to play the game as a mage whilst I was more of a sneak thief archer. In my opinion a weapon is much better than two glowing orbs in your hands.

For a moment we were silent and I thought that Jakob had fallen asleep. I was about to snuggle up closer to him and try to go to sleep when he spoke up again.

"We could get married, Ebony," he said. "Forget getting revenge on your father. We'll just get married and go somewhere far away to live together."

This isn't the first time that Jakob has brought up marriage. When he was still at school he used to mention it all the time. He said that as soon as we both finished school we'd get married and then go to university together. We'd get a house or apartment of our own too. Snuggling in bed in the winter when it's cold and we can barely pay the bills for heating and rent. Saving money up in a jar to see our favourite bands in concert. Eating pizza until crazy o'clock in the morning while playing Xbox together. He made it sound so perfect.

He used to imagine our future for us and it always began in marriage. It's probably hard to believe that someone like Jakob could want something like that but I think it all comes down to the fact that he's never had a stable life. I think he just wants something that's permanent, something documented on a piece of paper signed by us both. Something that's supposed to last forever.

The only problem is me. I don't see the point in getting married. To me, it's just a piece of paper that doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that I'll stay with him forever. It's not as permanent as he'd like to think. And it certainly doesn't guarantee a happy ending.

I didn't respond to Jakob. I didn't want to cause another argument. So instead I let him believe that I might actually be considering it, which is probably the worst thing I could have done.

★★★

Gamophobia: fear of marriage (or commitment)