British Accents Are Sexy 7

Jana took a taxi to work and back for the next several mornings. That weekend, she discovered that she was fifteen dollars short of meeting her share of the grocery bill. "Having to take a taxi every day is just getting to be so expensive," she complained to Nick and Tracy. "Could you please cover my share just this once? I swear to you, I'll pay every single penny of it back to you when this is over with."

"Well...all right," Nick muttered, looking very unhappy about the situation.

"It's really too bad things didn't work out between you and Colin," Tracy added.

"Yeah, well, it's a good thing I found out what he really was before I got even more deeply involved with him."

Nick and Tracy had barely been gone for five minutes when the doorbell rang. Jana hobbled to the door to look through the peephole and, when she saw who it was, turned around to shuffle back to the sofa. She hadn't quite reached it when she heard the sound of the doorbell ringing again, followed by that of urgent knocking.

"I insist that you let me in, Jana," Colin called through the closed door. "I'm getting to the bottom of this straight away."

Jana didn't reply, and a few minutes later, the knocking started up again. "You might as well let me in, Jana, because I'm standing right here until you do."

With a deep sigh, she opened the door and let him in, then returned to the sofa. "I have nothing to discuss with you."

"On the contrary, I think I'm owed at least an explanation for why you've suddenly turned a cold shoulder to me, and I'm not leaving until I get one."

"All right, then, I'll tell you. I'm not about to share you with Candy. I found that letter you wrote to her."

"And what letter would that happen to be?"

"The one where you thanked her for the most memorable night of your life!"

"I wrote no such letter," Colin insisted indignantly. "I have no idea from whence you got such a ludicrous notion."

"It was stuck down next to the seat in her car. I saw it when she was stopped at a red light and read it when I got to work."

Colin gasped. "Do you mean to tell me that after my friend gave you a ride to work, you returned the favor by taking something that belonged to her without even asking first?"

"The guilty dog always barks the loudest, doesn't he?"

His face tightened in anger. "I refuse to dignify that with a response."

Unable to sit still, Jana began to hobble around doing whatever housework she was still capable of. She was still at it when Nick and Tracy arrived home from the supermarket with the groceries. "What are you doing, Jana?" cried Tracy. "You're gonna hurt your foot all over again!"

"That Colin just makes me so mad!" Jana fumed.

"What do you mean?"

Jana told her about Colin's visit and their argument. "But what if he was telling the truth? What if he really didn't write it?"

"But of course he did. He signed it 'Love, C'!"

"But what if it was written by a different 'C'?"

Jana didn't respond. It hadn't occurred to her that that might indeed have been the case.

The food had barely been put away when the doorbell rang, and Nick opened the door to find Charlie standing there. "Hey, Nick, do you have plans for tonight?" he asked.

"That depends," Nick said warily. "What's going on?"

"Well, you see, I'm dating this really hot number named Candy. She's a stripper at Timmy's, and I'm taking her to that new place on the other side of town tonight. Problem is, her friend Nicole wants to come along too, and she needs a date for the night."

Of course! It hit Jana like a bolt out of the blue. 'C' is Charlie, not Colin! Why didn't I realize that right away?

"Is something wrong, Jana?" Charlie was puzzled.

"Uh...no. I...just remembered that I have a very important phone call to make."

She dashed into her bedroom and dialed Colin's number. "Colin?" she asked when he answered the telephone, but all she heard was the soft 'click' as he hung up on her. Devastated, she threw herself across the bed and sobbed her heart out. She'd finally met the man of her dreams, and within just weeks she'd managed to screw things up. What an idiot I am! she berated herself.

After agonizing over the situation, she decided that if Colin wouldn't talk to her over the telephone, the only option left would be to write him a letter of apology. She found a pen and some paper and got busy right away.

Dear Colin,

I am very sorry for jumping to conclusions and assuming that you were the one who wrote that letter to Candy. I should have known all along that it was Charlie, but I was too stupid to realize that. Can you ever forgive me for falsely accusing you? I promise I'll never do anything like that again. I really like you a lot and hope that we can put this behind us and be friends again.

Love,

Jana

She went to his apartment and taped the letter to his front door. Then she waited for several more days, but he didn't call or come to visit at all. One afternoon, she saw him outside the living room window, grabbed her crutches, and hurried outside. "Colin!" she called. He turned and gave her a cold stare. "Did you get my letter?"

He nodded.

"And?"

"I don't want to talk about it." He turned his back to her and walked away.