“No. I’m not one of those people who needs to have a partner all the fucking time. You know that.” I was starting to lose patience. I wanted to check my bags in and grab something to eat, maybe a glass of something fizzy before I underwent the trauma of having to sit in a tin can whilst tens of thousands of feet in the air.
Patience was definitely starting to wane.
“Just an extra hour.”
“No. Go back to Dubai. Have a nice time in an amazing hotel. Meet a model and forget about me. That’s what I want you to do.”
His expression darkened, a look I’d only seen a couple of times before, when something had gone wrong at work, badly wrong.
“I’m not going to do that.”
We were in the middle of an airport, with a few hundred people around us, and one very big Callaghan man who was watching with interest.
“I’m going to check my luggage in and be where I need to. I’m sorry, Matt. I didn’t want to hurt you, I really didn’t. But I can’t be who you need me to.” Words I’d pretty much said to Callum once upon a time.
“Wren…”
I turned around, needing to go, knowing there was no further point in trying to make him understand. Shit wasn’t the way to describe how I felt about him coming all this way out to see me, but he’d made that decision himself. I’d made it clear when I’d spoken to him about it being over.
The hand on my shoulder was unexpected. It was heavy and firm, the grip too hard.
“Get the fuck off her.”
Callum’s words pre-empted the grip loosening and then I heard a thud as Callum launched a fist at Matt.
I closed my eyes, hoping that what I thought had happened hadn’t.
“Fucking twat!”
Then we were surrounded by the crew and security. I saw them swarming towards the scene before I turned round, heard Callum’s name.
“You don’t put a hand on a woman unless she fucking asks you to!” Callum sounded different to how I’d heard him before. He’d never become heightened, cross. Always the laid back one, the one who stayed calm. Apart from when he’d walked out of the house we’d shared, when I’d taken his heart and thrown it back.
“Are you fucking her? Is that why she’s here instead of with me?”
I turned around, the fine line that tied up my patience finally snapping and headed towards Matt who was being held by two members of the airport staff
“This is nothing to do with who else I may be fucking. It’s to do with you being a fucking tosser. If you even consider calling or messaging me after this then you need to get your fucking self to a doctor. I. Don’t. Want. Anything. To. Do with a pillock who does not understand the word ‘no’. Do you fucking understand me?”
“But…”
Then I lost it. My right arm came back and my fist, complete with the silver ring I’d managed to buy when we stopped in a village, made contact with his jaw.
I was stopped from adding a second by Callum, who managed to get hold of both my arms and draw me away from Matt, eventually hugging my back into his chest. I was now kicking, my heel knocking into Callum’s shins.
“Stop it, Wren.” His words went straight into my ear. “He’s going. Leave it.”
“You hit him…”
That soft laugh, the one just for me, the one that made everything alright. “He put his hand on you. Although you pretty much sorted him out yourself. That’s one fuck of a hook you landed.”
My shoulders sagged, the adrenaline sapping away. “Self-defence lessons.”
“I’ll make a point of remembering that. How’s your fist?”
I shook my head. It wasn’t hurting – yet. “How’s yours?”
“Three brothers. And a sister who was intent on murdering us. I stopped feeling pain a long time ago.”
