“So, Erin called today. She’s coming home in a few weeks,” I tell them, licking my lips.
“I didn’t think she could leave her mum?” Lucy questions, her brows drawing downward in a frown.
Hmm, I didn’t think about that. “Yeah, I’m presuming she has someone to help her whilst she’s here.” I shrug. “She wants to use the studio office. I thought we could plan a night out with her.”
“Do you even need to ask?” Megan grins.
“Will she be up for it? She didn’t seem like the type to hit the clubs when we met her,” Lucy asks.
“She said she wanted to. And she had just found out about her mum when we met her. Having to leave everything behind here to go look after her can’t have been easy.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think about that. It will be nice to see her! I bet she could use the break,” Lucy says into her coffee.
I hear my phone ringing in my bag and lean down to dig around for it, pushing all the crap inside about to find it.
Shit.
I cringe at the screen when I see who it is. “It’s Joey,” I tell the girls. I stupidly gave him my number the first night I met him. He seemed like a cute guy at the time, and I didn’t know he would be a clinger.
I let it ring out, missing the call.
“The note that managed to crawl out of the bin,” I pin them both with a pointed glare. “it was from Joey. The flowers, they weren’t from Mason.”
“What? Ugh, damn Joey.” Megan waves her hand dismissively.
“But then Mason turned up at the gym last night. I was covering Henry and didn’t have anyone for backup.”
“No?!” Lucy places her hand on her chest dramatically, hanging off my every word. “How did he know where you work?”
“I’m presuming Elliot and Charlie told him.”
“Really? I don’t think they would have remembered. I can barely remember anything past the second round of tequila,” she says, wincing at the memory.
“Well, he knew. He apologised for Saturday and then wanted to drive me home. I refused.”
“Why? I thought you said this guy is hot,” Megan asks.
“He is. Trust me, girls. He is beyond hot! But hedemandedthat he was driving me home, and he called me a child for running out on him on Saturday morning.”
“Oh, dickhead comment.” Megan shakes her head, dropping back to the seat as Lucy’s face drops in disappointment.
“Yep,” I mutter, staring into my cup. “I’m not going to fall at his feet. Again. I need to put aside his looks and keep my wits about me. He needs to understand who’s in charge here.” I smirk. “Also, I think he made his driver come for me so I wouldn’t walk home alone when I refused to go with him.”
“You went with his driver?” Lucy asks.
“Yeah, Mason must have called him. I thought he was a better option than Mason’s car.”
“You’re an idiot,” Megan sighs.
“What? Why?”
My phone starts to dance across the table again. Joey. I go to pick up the phone.
“Don’t answer that.” Megan smacks my hand in a rush, sending the phone to the ground and causing her coffee to spill over the table.
I bend to snatch it up off the floor before someone stands on it. My accusing eyes meet hers. The screen has smashed into a million pieces. “What did you do that for, you tit!”
“Sorry!” She shrinks in the seat. “I will replace it, but you cannot seriously be willing to talk to Joey when you have Mason actively seeking you out, following you home, making sure you’re safe,” she points out, and Lucy all but swoons in her seat.
