“Fine. You’re on. Only you get the cheaper deal as you’ll be paying just for me.”
She leaned over the table and tapped my cheek as if I was a child. “You think that, Joseph, you think that.”
What struckme as I walked in Blue, the bar of choice to celebrate Eli’s victory, was how my sister was looking up at Eli as he talked about something to the people surrounding them. He was a quiet guy, said his piece and no more, a brilliant rugby player and would carry anyone’s worries without ever looking like he was bearing a load. But the way Ava was gazing at him was like he was a god.
They were finally getting married at some point this year, which was involving a big family holiday to the South of France, and I knew that Ava was enjoying the planning without freaking out.
Seeing how she looked at him, and how his arm tightened around her waist, made me smile, but something in me sunk at the same time. I’d turned up at functions or drinks with a date or more often than not, I’d left with one, but it wasn’t the same as having someone look at you like Ava looked at Eli.
“You look like you need a drink.”
I jumped as the words were said from behind me and I hadn’t realised anyone was there.
Georgia had gotten changed, I assumed, since we’d finished work. Either that, or she’d spent the day in tight black trousers with a top that dipped low enough to impale my eyeballs to it.
“Yeah.” And I’d turned into a one syllabled idiot. “Sorry.” I pulled my eyes up. “I’ll get these.” Two days of avoiding her hadn’t been enough to build up any resistance.
A big burly dickhead appeared like a goon next to me. “I’ll get them. Same again, Georgia?”
I looked at her to apologise in advance for whatever Shay was about to do or say, but she was looking at him and smiling.
“That’d be great, Shay, but the next drink’s on me.”
I didn’t like howfriendlyshe sounded.
“Pretty ladies don’t buy drinks. Ugly men, though.” He slapped my back. “They definitely do.”
“Fuck you.” I would murder him later. I looked back at Georgia, but she’d turned around to talk to someone else, one of the associates and she didn’t even seem to be aware of me.
Should I be surprised though? Since I’d kissed her, and she’d told me about her ex, I’d pretty much ghosted her. If I were her, I’d be ignoring me right now.
I groaned, watching Shay head over to her, his hand pressing between her shoulder blades as he stole her attention. I’d cocked up. Wasn’t the first time, definitely wouldn’t be the last.
I thought about what Ava had said, about balance. It didn’t matter; what I did was making Georgia believe I was a complete tool. Being a complete tool.
She was talking to Shay and he was in total flirt mode with the heavy eye contact, the slight touches and the wide smile I wanted to punch off his face. I’d seen him like this many times before as he built up to taking some poor unsuspecting girl home.
Listening to him with Georgia, hearing the door close in the morning as she left or seeing her over breakfast after she’d spent the night with him, was not on my list of things to experience this millennium, or the next.
Shay squeezed her arm and headed to the bar. A few fast strides later and I was standing next to him, listening to him put in his order and Georgia’s.
“I’ll get this.”
His smirk was one I’d think of next time I was training on the punching bag.
“Any reason?”
Ignoring him was easy. “I’m taking her drink over. If you want to earn yourself that bottle of port in the cupboard at home, you can by staying away.”
His laugh wasn’t subtle. “Fuck. You’re so transparent.”
“What do you mean?” In my head I was as stealthy and as secretive as James Bond.
He laughed again. “You can take her drink over. But if you don’t get your head out of your arse, I will ask her out.”
“What?”
“Ava phoned me before.”
