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Bit of insight into Jenny's life in this chapter. Hope you like it! Thanks so much for reading

Chapter Three

Jenny stared blankly through the windscreen as she waited at the traffic lights. She had watched Emma scurry away down the road until she'd turned a sharp corner that obscured her from view. Jenny sighed heavily, finally enabling the hands-free system in her car to check her phone messages, a task she'd been disturbed from doing by Emma gracelessly slamming into her door. The phone began bleeping and hiccupping with messages and reminders the second she turned it on, and Jenny sighed again. She was used to incessant phone calls, they came with the territory really, but sometimes their obtrusive persistence left her with an irrational desire to fling the unassuming object from the nearest window.

'Hi Mario,' she said, pressing the button to answer an incoming call from her secretary.

'Hey Jen, how did the Bauer meeting go?' asked a smooth male voice on the other end.

'Pretty much as expected,' Jenny answered, her gaze trained upon the red glare of traffic lights as the stationary car hummed quietly. 'He's quite violently opposed to the thought of losing his business. Won't go down without a fight. He's talking about getting a lawyer involved.'

'I thought he might,' Mario revealed, 'so I consulted with our legal team. They don't think he's got a case. That property belongs to Hartmann Holdings, and has done ever since Bauer sold it to your Father. A lawyer would be a massive waste of his time and money.'

'Great,' Jenny said, easing down on the accelerator as the lights changed from red to green. The car growled forwards slowly.

'Could you sound any less enthusiastic?' Mario asked.

Jenny rolled her eyes. 'Sorry, just ... long day,' she mumbled.

'Come on, tell Uncle Mario,' he said, and Jenny allowed herself a small smile. Somehow, over the last few years, with long working hours perpetually blurring the boundaries between her professional and personal life, Mario had ended up being her best friend.

'I ...' Jenny paused, considering how to phrase her problem, 'I just saw someone I used to know, years ago, working at the bookstore,' she said. 'Made me feel a bit strange.'

'Oh yeah?' Mario asked with interest. 'Are we talking 'used to know' in a strictly platonic capacity; or 'used to know' in a hot, steamy, naked capacity?'

Jenny laughed at Mario's shameless lack of subtlety. 'Neither,' she admitted, indicating a right turn off the main highway. 'Someone from high school that I ...' she paused again, steering the car into the turn. Had Emma really been anything more than a friend? 'I guess it was somewhere in between those definitions.'

'Ah ...' Mario said, catching on. 'The unrequited love of adolescence.'

'Something like that,' Jenny muttered, not wishing to dwell on it.

'So ... the myth of Jennifer Hartmann slowly unravels,' Mario speculated.

'Oh leave it out Mario,' Jenny told him. 'Anyway, it's not important. Though there is a ding in my car I need you to square with the insurers.'

'What happened?' Mario asked. Jenny could hear him typing the memo.

'I don't know,' Jenny lied. 'It happened while I was in the meeting.'

'Sounds like a pretty eventful day,' Mario observed.

'Could say that,' Jenny agreed. She tried her best to listen as Mario informed her of her schedule for the rest of the week and not let her mind drift to thoughts of Emma, but somehow, that simple task seemed thoroughly impossible. She thought about how Emma had looked, all bewildered and spread-eagled in the snow-lined road, looking up at her. That same flawless face and impossibly pale skin, her nose and ears tinged with red from the cold, and those wide, hazel eyes, alert and questioning, not quite believing what they were looking upon as her soft lips parted in shock ...

'Jenny?' Mario asked sharply, and Jenny quickly snapped back into focus.

'Y-Yeah?' she asked uncertainly.

'What do you think we should do?' Mario asked.

'Um ...' Jenny bit her lip, completely ignorant as to what Mario was even referring to. 'I think ... we should ...'

'... You've not been listening have you?' Mario asked.

'Not exactly.'

Mario sighed dramatically. 'So who was he? This high school hunk. Captain of the debating team?' he joked.

'Not exactly,' Jenny repeated. 'And ... besides, I'm not thinking about them!' she insisted. 'Just because you dream about boys all day, doesn't mean I do,' she reminded him. Mario was terrifically, unashamedly, flamboyantly gay, and it was one of the many things Jenny loved about him.

Mario chuckled. 'Touché Hartmann. Look, I'll send you an email about this stuff,' he decided. 'Go home, get some rest.'

'Yeah, thanks Mario. See you in the morning,' she said as she ended the call. Her phone buzzed urgently a few more times, but Jenny flicked on the radio, turning the volume up loud to drown it out.

Darkness descended quickly as she drove.

Jenny scooped up her bag and folders from the passenger seat before she climbed out of the car. Closing her door, she paused to lean forward and inspect the vertical dent in the bodywork. She traced the crumpled metal gently with the tip of her finger. Emma Muller. Even the name filled her with a strange, anxious feeling. She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to push away the unwelcome sensation before she straightened up and walked towards the elevator that led from the basement car park to her apartment on the third floor. She couldn't care less about the damage really, she thought, as she aimed the keypad behind her in the car's general direction to lock it. The car belonged to the company, she got a new one every year.

She flung her keys and bag onto the kitchen sideboard as soon as she got through her front door, and carelessly kicked her shoes from her feet. Her apartment was dark and empty. It always seemed so uninviting, and Jenny spent as little time there as she possibly could, especially at the moment, when the whole place smelled like paint and dust-sheets covered most of the furniture. It was being redecorated – just another company benefit stemming from the desire to increase the value of their properties. Everything was an investment, Jenny had learned; a way to accumulate value. Nothing ever really felt like it was hers.

Jenny stilled, suddenly, her hand poised to press the light switch. She sensed movement from the kitchen – a faint, gentle rustling from the corner of the room – and she smiled as she realised that her nightly visitor had arrived. She was grateful, she could use the company; the reassurance that only he seemed able to provide. He was a loner like her, answerable to no one, owned by no one, never staying in the same place for long, moving on whenever it suited him, guided only by his instinctual desire for comfort and warmth.

'I know you're here,' she said quietly, and the rustling stilled. Jenny gently padded further into the kitchen, narrowing her eyes in the darkness, trying to bring the ambiguous forms and shadows into focus.

Two bright eyes flashed back at her in the dark.

'Hello Luther,' Jenny said softly as the cat sprang from the floor up onto the counter beside her.

Jenny reached out and stroked her fingers through his short, ginger fur and a soft, low purr rumbled from his chest. 'And to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?' she inquired. 'Were you just lonely?' she asked him.

The cat lifted itself onto his hind legs to bump his face more forcefully against Jenny's palm.

'Come on then,' Jenny said, rolling her eyes and walking over to the fridge. Luther followed tight at her heels as she opened the door. She squinted at the abrupt intrusion of bright light from the poorly-stocked fridge as she took out a small dish of cooked fish. 'You're only with me for my food aren't you,' she asked Luther as she placed the dish on the floor in from of him. Jenny watched him eat from a few moments before moving out into the living room. She flipped the living room light on and collapsed on the sofa, tucking her feet up beneath her and closing her eyes.

Luther followed her after a few minutes, springing deftly onto the arm of the sofa and arranging himself into an elegant sitting position beside her.

'I saw someone today,' Jenny said, stroking her hand along the soft fur of his back as he purred contentedly. 'A girl,' she clarified as Luther stretched out his front legs, splaying his claws. 'She was very beautiful,' Jenny continued. 'Even more beautiful than I remembered.' Jenny sighed heavily, opening her eyes and running a hand through her hair. 'But she's no good for me,' she told Luther, who looked at her earnestly, as if aware he was being addressed. 'The way she looked at me today. Like really looked at me ... like she used to ... it made me feel so weak. So vulnerable. You know? Like in just one look, you know she could destroy you.'

Luther blinked at her.

Jenny snorted softly at her own ridiculousness and pinched at Luther's soft ears affectionately. 'What do you think I should do?' she asked the cat, who inspected her fingers interestedly for more food and, finding none, merely regarded her with a vaguely unimpressed expression. 'What?' Jenny asked. 'Like you've never lost your head over a girl before?'

Luther gave Jenny's hand a final nudge with his cold nose before standing and dropping to the floor with a soft patter.

Jenny sighed. 'You're right,' she told Luther as he slinked back into the kitchen. 'I should just walk away.'

Really Jenny? Taking advice from a cat? Fairly sure that's the first sign of madness ...