“Are you sure?” he asked for the thirty-third time in the past ten minutes. The filthy look I shot in his direction must’ve answered his question sufficiently because he quickly shut up.
Since I’d just shown up yesterday and interrupted his time in Melbourne, I’d thrown everything into chaos, which I was secretly loving. So, when he’d dragged my tired, cranky arse out of bed this morning, he was knocked off balance. He’d already made plans, and now that I was here, he didn’t know what to do. It didn’t seem to matter how many times I assured him I’d be fine people-watching in a café down in the centre of town while he did what he needed to, he just wasn’t listening.
Eventually I’d given up the fight and just agreed to tag along to his breakfast. He was meeting someone’s little brother or something. A soccer star in the making. I don’t know. Honestly, as long as there was pancakes and coffee, I was all good.
A moment later, we pulled up outside a run-down diner with a faded green awning dangling over the door. Luca helped me out of the cab and led me inside where Bryce, looking a little worse for wear, was cradling his coffee mug like it was the elixir of life.
“Morning.” Luca greeted Bryce with a handshake.
Bryce set his cup down on the chipped Laminex table before standing up and kissing my cheek. Dropping into the seat opposite, I was surprised to find it was Bryce we were meeting. I thought it was an important meeting, not a catch up with a mate. I mean, I’d learnt from Emma that they lived in Sydney and saw each other every now and then through Sienna. In fact, Emma and Bryce were on the invite list to the world’s most important birthday party, Princess Phoebe’s, in a couple of weeks.
“Where’s Emma?” I asked, looking towards the counter.
“Still sleeping it off. Tash, Emma and Sandra…”
“Sandra?”
“Sandra’s Gary’s wife,” Luca explained.
“And Gary is?”
“Sorry. Gary is the head of Burst Energy, the company who threw the party last night.”
“Ah.” Now I was starting to piece things together.
“Yeah. So not long after you left, they started ordering shots. And well, you can imagine how quickly things went downhill from there.” Bryce chuckled with a sly, smug smile.
“Oh dear.”
“Yep. I’d say they’re going to regret that decision when they finally surface.”
I was so glad we’d left when we had. Even after only spending an hour with Tash and Emma, I was under no illusions that if I’d been around when they started ordering shots, I’d be nursing the mother of all hangovers right now.
The waitress appeared and handed out menus. This was my biggest problem. How was I supposed to decide between the poached eggs smothered in hollandaise or the pancakes with vanilla ice cream and mixed berries? I ordered coffee to start, and when Luca asked her to give us a couple of minutes, she shuffled off with a scowl.
“Well someone didn’t get any last night,” Luca suggested, and I felt my cheeks burn just remembering the inventive positions he’d managed to manipulate my body into.
“That obviously doesn’t apply to you,” Bryce replied with a mischievous smirk.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Luca retorted defensively. I wanted to shrink in my seat. I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but he didn’t need the dirty details.
“Nice hickey.”
“Hickey?” I squawked, and I swear every other customer in the place turned in my direction.
Bryce rubbed the spot under his ear before pointing to me. If it’d been possible for the ground to open up and swallow me, now was the time.
“Oh shit!” Luca laughed.
Reaching out, I slapped him across the chest and shot him the dirtiest look I could muster. As annoyed as I was at Luca for leaving his mark on me, I was even more cranky at myself for missing it and not covering it up. Had I have known it was there, I wouldn’t have even left the hotel room. Not without a scarf or a turtleneck or something.
“I’ll be back,” I announced, quickly rising from my chair and causing it to squeak against the floor.
Reaching out, Luca wrapped his hand around my wrist, halting me where I stood. “Where are you going?”
“Bathroom,” I growled, shaking my wrist free and disappearing down the hallway.
The moment I stepped into the bathroom, I gasped. I don’t know why I was shocked at the state of the place, but seeing the tap dripping, the mirror smudged with something I didn’t even want to know about, and the floor sticky, made me want to gag. But the worst part was the stench. It was disgusting. Holding my breath, I carefully stepped over a pile of papers in the middle of the floor and looked into the mirror.
