“Your wife-to-be took pity on you then?” Jackson reached forward, taking the cards and starting to shuffle them. “Good job it doesn’t take you long, isn’t it? She doesn’t have to suffer much.”
“Bastard.”
I listened to the banter, glancing at Sophie who had collected her winnings and headed to the bar where some of the women were sitting, drinking gin and tonics. It actually looked as if there was some form of organised gin tasting going on.
I headed over there, wanting to get a round of drinks in. “You not giving us the chance to win that back?” I kept the words quiet. “Not sure that’s playing fair.”
Sophie snapped her head round. “Sore loser?”
“Not at all. You won cleanly. I thought you were bluffing.”
She gave me a smile which reminded me of a cat that knew no one would be able to grab the cream because she’d drank it. “I don’t need to bluff. I know exactly what risks I can take.”
“You weren’t sure of the risks that night when I first met you.”
She’d turned away, her back to her friends so they couldn’t hear us, although I knew they were interested.
“I realised what they were with just enough time to spare. I’ll be in for a rematch shortly – when I’ve spent some time with the people I’ve come here to be with.”
I took it for the dig it was and carried the beers over to the table. When she came over to join in a game, I made my excuses and left.
5
Sophie
The water was quite possibly the perfect temperature. I tipped my head back and looked up at the cloudy sky, any thoughts of business or buildings completely evaporated.
“What did Liam say to you last night at the bar?” Vanessa’s words came from pretty much nowhere.
“Nothing much.” I was declining thinking about it. Liam didn’t have permission to take up any room in my head.
“He didn’t seem very friendly.” Vanessa was still pushing it.
“How’s Teddy? Is he sleeping okay for Marie?”
“That’s a really poor change of subject. Try again. What did Liam say to you last night.”
“He was surprised I hadn’t bluffed. He’s clearly a bit of a bad loser.” I stretched my feet out, holding on to the side of the pool. My toes came just above the water, the cool air tangible.
Vanessa swam out a little and turned around to face me. “What happened that night? You never said. Simone said you went after him but you were only gone an hour.”
“Nothing happened. I was on my man ban back then.” The ban that was still self-enforced. The ban that meant I was spending too much time at work to distract me from having nothing on the side, which was where I usually kept my boyfriend, if they ever got to that stage.
Vanessa was joined by Victoria, who seemed a lot more relaxed now that Max had spent the night in her room.
“What are we talking about? You seem serious.”
“Men,” Van said. “The things we cohabit with and for some reason choose to spend our lives with. Or in the case of Sophie, we avoid them completely for some bizarre reason.”
“How’s celibacy going?” Victoria rested her head against the side of the thermal pool.
We were at the end of a tour of the thermal springs, having spent the day visiting Deildartunguhver, a spring with a rapid flow rate and massively hot temperatures that heated a lot of the local pools. It had been beautiful and dramatic, and I was even more certain now that I wanted to open a spa here, especially because it meant I’d spend more time with this landscape and this sky.
“It’s fine.”
It wasn’t. I missed sex. I missed having someone close. I missed orgasms that weren’t self-induced. I had debated one lonely Saturday night setting up a studio that produced porn which was aimed at only women. This was after spending an unsatisfying night searching for some decent stimulus when a book wasn’t cutting it.
“You could just give up flings and look to meet someone who might be a bit more serious.” This was the fifteenth time Vanessa had made this suggestion.
