The Bodyguard

Chapter 25 - Jill's

Once we dress he tells me he’d like to take me to his local bar and restaurant ‘Jill’s” so we can eat before it’s time for me to leave. He is friends with the owner and he’s a regular there. He’d also like to introduce me to one of his friends who is also usually there on Sundays.

He decides to take his ‘baby’ since it’s a short drive so we climb into the white Porsche and he lowers the roof. Once we get through the tree archway and onto the road, the wind blows my hair everywhere so I hold it in a makeshift low ponytail with my hands. It’s not annoying though, the air feels fresh on my face and I lean into it closing my eyes.  I open them to see him glancing at me with a grin on his face, it's nice to see I make him smile.

When we pull up at the restaurant, it’s a cute little place and quite lively for a Sunday. There is music playing and almost all the tables are full.

Gabriel walks to the bar and talks to the young man behind it. I’m not listening because I’m too busy absorbing my surroundings.

The many tables are all circular with red cushioned chairs. The walls are cream, but they are pictures dotted around of famous people with the same couple. The carpet is red and flat like many, many people have walked on it, it's nice and has a great atmosphere.

Gabriel starts to move and it brings me out of my daydream. He takes my hand and I follow him to the back of the restaurant. He heads towards an area separate from the rest with a huge table.

There’s a couple sat together talking. They immediately stop when they see us and they both stare at me, it makes me feel uncomfortable but I wait for the introduction.

Gabriel smiles when he sees them and goes to hug the woman. She’s a little older than me with shoulder length thick brown hair and dark eyes. Her skin is tanned and she is dressed very casually in jeans and a white and blue patterned t-shirt which make her look slightly masculine. She’s taller than me and is skinny but clearly very muscular.

“This is Anna,” Gabriel tells me. “Anna, or Spanner as she’s more commonly known, is one of my trainees, a wiz at fixing cars and a close friend.”

She smiles at me and says, “you must be Kristen, we’ve heard so much about you and how you managed to get Mr cool, calm and collected totally smitten.”

She’s teasing Gabriel with this I can see and he looks slightly coy as he puts an arm protectively around my waist and pulls me close.

“Give it a rest Anna,” he sighs with a bored expression. I can see he’s trying to change the subject.

“Kristen, this is Matt, Anna’s long suffering partner,” says Gabriel in revenge.

Anna frowns at him.

“Hi Kristen,” Matt says, “don’t worry, you soon get used to their bickering.” He smiles.

We order food and a bottle of red wine to share. We talk until the food arrives and I discover Anna met Gabriel when she was going through a rough time and he sort of saved her. She was addicted to drugs and had experienced some really bad stuff, he gave her a job and money and looked after her until she was able to cope on her own. That was when she met Matt.

I’d be jealous of how close Anna was to Gabriel if it wasn’t so clear they were like siblings.

I laugh like I haven’t laughed in ages and I find myself at ease with Anna and Matt. Anna takes my side on everything just to annoy Gabriel, but it’s clear she wants us to be friends and that is important to Gabriel who she adores.

Once we’ve eaten and Gabriel and Anna have annoyed each other at least another three times, a middle aged lady walks over and sits at our table next to Anna.

She is smartly dressed and is wearing several thick layers of makeup, which makes her look older than I’m sure she is.

“Jill, this is my girlfriend Kristen,” Gabriel announces confidently.

Girlfriend? Am I his girlfriend? Well I suppose I’m certainly acting like it, but we haven’t even had that conversation. Is that what he meant when he said I was his?

“Nice to meet you,” Jill beams at me.

She seems nice so I smile back at her, still trying to get my head around the girlfriend comment.

She is talking about some event they had one evening last week, how it went well and was great for business. I’m not really listening because I'm still dwelling on the word 'girlfriend', but she’s very animated while she’s talking, making big gestures with her hands and laughing loudly.

She’s quite a character and I can see how she’s confident enough to run such a place on her own. I find out she also runs the nightclub I first met Gabriel at and I’m impressed, that place is huge!  She clearly has her s**t together and is a formidable business woman, I respect anyone with that amount of drive and confidence. 

“Kristen and I met the night of Zach’s party,” Gabriel explains.

Zach? I’m assuming he’s the businessman who needed security at his party. He let us have a lovely night though so although I didn’t actually meet him, I’m grateful for the invite. I had fun and met Gabriel there.

“You look so young!” Jill exclaims.

“I’m 21,” I say and she smiles.

“Nice work my friend, she’s very pretty,” says Jill and I blush.  

"It’s getting late and we have a long drive back," Gabriel announces so we say goodbye and head outside to the car.

I don’t want to leave, but I have a busy week of studying and work ahead. Gabriel tells me he’s away again this week, but he’ll message and he’d love me to stay next weekend again.

I can’t wait to return and I know I'll spend the week counting down the days.