BORN TO LOVE YOU ━ Joe Mazzello

FOUR. IT STARTED WITH A COAT

A.N. Sankar is a noob, pass it on.

Ravi is my spiritual animal

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The rest of the Saturday night went as a Saturday night would and Cleo felt a pang in her heart when she watched Joe leave with the others. She quickly pushed the feeling away as fast as she thought it, not wanting herself to get involved with all that. Deep down she did, but the whole thing with Glenn was enough to make her scared and not make that leap again.

"Morning." Jack smiled at Cleo as she appeared from her bedroom and into the kitchen the next morning. Her hair was a bit dishevelled from her sleep and her eyes were still droopy, her night was not as smooth sailing as it usual was. Cleo yawned and waved at her dad before making her way over to the bread to make herself some toast.

"Morning dad."

"Me and your mother will be leaving soon so I'm putting you in charge. You remember what we said?" Jack asked, leaning against the counter top as he waited for his coffee to be made.

"Yes dad. Be here from opening to closing, no leaving the pub except for lunch and no parties. It's all up here dad." Cleo tapped her temple.

"That's my girl." Jack smiled at his daughter, planted a soft kiss on the top of her head before taking his finished coffee with him as left for his bedroom to get ready for the wedding he was going to.

"Morning dad." Cleo heard Sankar's voice come down the corridor before he appeared round the corner. "Put some in for me, please." Sankar yawned into his hand as he made his way to the kettle. As he made his way over, his eyes never left a coat that was randomly hanging over the back of a stool at the island in the middle of the kitchen. He didn't recognise it as his own, or Archers and it definitely wasn't his dads. So who's was it?

Cleo stood and waited for her toast to be done before putting some in for Sankar, getting a plate out for his pieces.

"That your coat?" Sankar asked, pointing to the coat on the chair.

"Oh no, it's Joe's. He forgot it last night." Cleo explained, spreading butter on her slices of toast.

"Wait, he forgot his coat?"

"Yeah."

"How is that possible?" Sankar's eyes then widened as he thought of a reason why. He didn't know for sure if it was the reason but he really wanted it to be true. "Oh my god Cleo, you are so blind."

"I'd like evidence in this case against me before you press charges." Cleo said, waving her knife in the air for him to carry on.

"Don't you see? He didn't accidentally forget his coat. He 'forgot' it on purpose so he could get it back from you and see you again. Classic move, my old son I must say. I remember when I tried that with Clem from that Costa round the corner. Didn't really work out of for me but it could for him. Man, I miss that coat." Sankar explained, pouring hot water from the kettle into one of his mugs with a tea bag in it.

Cleo tried to wrap her head around why Joe would leave his coat on purpose. She gave it back when she came back in from outside last night, like he told her to. So why would he leave it on purpose? No, there was no way Joe would do that just to see her again. He didn't like her that much did he?

"Think about it. Why would anyone go out into the coldness of London and not think 'Oo, it seems a bit cold. Oh that's why, it seems I've left my coat inside. How silly of me.'" Sankar mocked an american accent as best he could, ending up sounding more like a cowboy than anything else. That made Cleo chuckle.