“I should’ve known you’ve been here before.”
“I only live a couple of streets away, so this is sometimes a regular place when I can’t be bothered cooking, When Cassie and I…” He stopped talking.
Giovanni, the owner and permanent front of house staff, came over, recognising me and took us straight to our table. He’d already opened a bottle of the usual red wine that I always ordered. Maybe I was becoming predictable.
Seph had a glass too, the first time I’d seen him drink wine, then looked at me seriously as soon as Giovanni left us, promising to be back to take our order soon.
“I shouldn’t have brought up Cassie.”
“Why not? She was a big part of your life.”
He nodded. “She was. But she isn’t anymore. Hasn’t been for nearly three years.” He sipped his wine. “Maybe two. It probably took me a year to get over her.”
“What was she like?” I didn’t know why I was asking. It was the equivalent of picking at a scab.
He shrugged. “When we first met she was fun and lively. We broke up every other month, and I don’t think either of us were ever properly faithful, not while we were at uni together. When we both finished our LPCs we tried being serious.” He took another mouthful of wine.
“It didn’t work?”
He shrugged. “I wanted it to. Callum – the brother you haven’t met – was great at being single, but I didn’t like it, and I had it in my head that me and Cassie were meant to be. I didn’t cheat, but I was pretty sure that she was. Not with anyone serious, but at law balls and nights out when I wasn’t there, I was sure she would hook up with other men. If I asked her about it, we’d end up having an argument and breaking up anyway.”
“That doesn’t sound healthy.”
“It wasn’t. My focus at work was shit and then I started doing what she was doing to get revenge and it all became a bit pathetic. Then we decided we’d give it one proper go and it was going well – she was going to move in with me – and I found out she’d been seeing someone behind my back. It ended – I don’t know who did it and then a couple of weeks later she told me she’d been pregnant, and she’d had a termination.” He studied the bottle of wine.
“Shit Seph, that’s harsh.” Because it was.
He nodded. “She wanted to get back together about a week after we split, but if I had I knew my family would disown me. They interfere a lot because they’re opinionated, but they never told me what to do. If I had’ve gotten back with her – they were worried about me, I guess.”
I topped up my wine and his. Unsurprisingly, it was going down quickly. “Did you suspect she was pregnant?”
“She wasn’t. She made it up to make me feel bad. If she had been pregnant, it would’ve been her choice and I would’ve supported her. She knew that. But she took the one thing she knew would hurt me and used that.” He shook his head. “So you know my sordid past – whatever Claire and Payton haven’t told you anyway.”
I ran my foot up and down his leg under the table and touched his hand with mine. “It’s an experience you’ll learn from. If I see her again, I’ll scratch her eyes out for you.”
He laughed, his face brightening again. “I didn’t realise you were so bloodthirsty.”
I laughed, a little sardonically. “I can hold my own.”
The meal passed almost too quickly,but not quickly enough. We stopped drinking after one bottle of wine and didn’t stop for dessert, causing Giovanni to give me a very knowing look. After Seph had paid – completely ignoring me when I tried to insist it was my turn – we headed straight out of the restaurant, not even having a conversation about stopping at a bar for a drink.
My hand was held tightly in his, and I had a feeling that if he thought he could get away picking me up, throwing me over his shoulder and running us home, he would. However, there was no way my skirt was long enough for him to do that without me flashing half of London my underwear, something I knew Seph would be aware of as he’d checked me out enough, and I got the feeling he definitely didn’t like to share.
“Do you want to come in for coffee?” I dug around in my bag for my keys.
He smiled, that dirty, dirty smile that did things to my insides that should be illegal.
“Coffee?”
I felt his hand land on my hip as I fiddled with the keys, his fingers digging into the top part of my ass.
“I’ve been wanting to touch you all night.” He whispered the words into my ear, causing me to lose my ability to get the key into the lock. “I wanted to know what you had on under this skirt.”
His hand slipped lower, onto the part of my thigh that was exposed below the hem of my skirt.
“No one can see if they walk past. Can I find out, Georgia? Can I put my hand up and touch you?” The vibration of his words made my centre clench.
I nodded, unable to do anything with the key, frozen with anticipation.
