“Happy birthday, bro.” The voice of one of my older brothers, Grey, greets my ear. “The big two-six. You’re getting old, mate.”
“Piss off.”
“Someone sounds way too grumpy to be the birthday boy,” my brother’s girlfriend, Delilah, laughs in the background. I must be on speakerphone.
“Is it because you couldn’t find a girl to give you a birthday blow—”
“Shut up,” I grit through my teeth, eyes flicking to Giselle’s figure just in case she can hear my idiotic brother. Thankfully, she’s unaware, dipping a sponge into hot soapy water and then running said sponge over our breakfast plates.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Grey continues. “Did I wake you up?”
I bend my knees, sinking down into Giselle’s sofa cushions. “Um… yeah.”
“Sorry.” He doesn’t sound sorry at all the dickhead. “Can you let us up? We’ve been ringing the buzzer, but I wasn’t sure if it was working after last time—”
“Let you up?”
“Yeah. Aren’t you home? You just said you didn’t score last night, so I’m assuming you’re home. Delilah and I thought it would be nice to all catch the train up to Mum’s together, birthday treat and all.”
“I’m not at mine, mate.”
There’s a pregnant pause on the other end of the phoneline which seems to stretch on for an age or two.
“But you said—”
“I never said anything. You assumed, brother.”
“Right. Well…”
“Give me thirty minutes…” I peer back at Giselle, who’s now drying our plates and… fuck me… she bends over, giving me an even better view of her heart shaped arse then I had before. My balls fucking ache. I swear she’s trying to kill me. “Forty if the traffic is bad.”
“There’s a coffee shop down the road,” Delilah utters, voice sounding tinny and far away through the phone line. “We could go get a drink while we wait, babe.”
I hear Grey mutter his agreement to Delilah and then return his attention back to me. “Don’t be late,” he warns, all big brother like. “We don’t want to miss the train, otherwise Mum will pitch a fit. See you, birthday boy.”
“Everything okay?” Giselle calls, watching me end the phone call with a stab of my thumb.
“Yeah… it was just one of my brother’s. He wants me to meet him in half an hour so we can catch the train to Burford together.”
“For your family Sunday dinner?”
I bob my head.
“Oh.” She swallows thickly and then tries to paint a small smile on her face, but I don’t buy it. I can see the way it wobbles, unsure, unnatural. “I’ve got to get going, too. I’m due at work in an hour, so—”
“You’re working on a Sunday?”
“Yep. Just one dance class and couple of meditation classes.”
“Will they be busy?”
She nods. “I think they’re pretty full up today…”
“Sounds like you’re in popular demand. Maybe I should come along, sometime. See what all the fuss is about.”
Giselle nods silently, thumb spinning the plain gold band around and around her middle finger.
That’s not exactly the reaction I was looking for…
