“Thank you.”
“It’s just a basic Americano. I wasn’t sure what else you liked.” A smirk pulled one side of his mouth up as he gazed at me.
He’d bought me a coffee.My brows lifted, “It’s perfect.” I took my eyes from his and dropped my gaze to the ground for a second, before bringing it back up, “So, do you want to sit, or would you like to walk?”I asked, nerves hit me now he was here.
“I’m not really fussed, to be honest. It’s whatever you want to do.” Gav said, as he nodded my way.
I turned to look around me, and saw that there weren’t that many people around really. “Why don’t we walk?”
“Sounds good to me.”
We fell into step with one another, side by side in a weird silence. We sipped on our coffee, while I snapped a couple of pictures. “What made you want to do photography?” He asked as I stopped to capture a squirrel. I took a few shots before it scurried away, and turned to him.
“I love how a picture can tell a whole story. It could have a million captions, but every person is different in their own mind. I love to capture beauty and elegance.” I got lost in my own thoughts as I looked up and found him staring at me. “For me, there’s nothing more beautiful.”
“Shit.” His brows lifted, “I’ve never looked at a photo like that. A photo is a photo.”
He shrugged as I looked up at him and smiled slightly. It gave me the chance to admire his handsome face again, although I wasn’t sure why he was here with me.
“What can I say, I’m a nerd.”
I lifted the cup to my lips and sipped my coffee before it went cold. He leaned towards me and grinned, “There's nothing nerdy about your art or your career.” I couldn’t take my eyes from his. There was something in them, it had me mesmerised. I just wanted to know his story, what made him the way he is. For the first time ever, butterflies fluttered around in my tummy. I exhaled and dropped my gaze to the ground. The path was dry, in fact we hadn’t had rain in weeks. I don’t know what made methink of the weather, there was a gorgeous man drinking coffee with me, and all I thought about was something as mundane as the weather. Maybe it was the colour of his eyes. They were a powdery blue, striking and they stood out. Other than his bare chest, that first day I met him, those were the next thing I saw. Maybe it was the thought of running through the rain. Jesus, who am I?
“Shall we carry on walking?” I asked, hoping to draw his intense gaze from being on me.
“Yeah.” he breathed in reply, and looked ahead. I took the first step and started down the pathway again, he fell back into step alongside me. “So, Karen, tell me about yourself.”
“Well, I have one brother, my dad died a couple of years ago, so it’s just Mom now. My brother has his own bachelor pad, but he’s usually at home more than he’s there. He’s a momma's boy.” His mouth lifted at one corner, I noticed he did that a lot. “How about you?”
“Ahhh, you don’t want to know about me, babe…”Babe. Is that an endearment or is it something he does?
“Of course I do.” He came to a stop and turned to me.
“I don’t have much to do with my parents.” he looked away from me. I could tell he didn’t like to talk about himself. Shadows engulfed his gaze.
“Would you like to talk about it, I’m a good listener.”
He sniggered, “I’m sure you are, but believe me, if I get started now with my life story, you’d need a counselling session by the time you’d finished that coffee.” His head dipped toward my takeout cup, which reminded me that I still had some left and it was going cold. I drank the remnants, but I was right it was cold. I cringed as it slid down my throat.
“I’m always around if you do want that chat.” A lazy smile formed on his mouth. It wasn’t the cocky one, or the sexy one this time, it was a real one. I had a feeling he didn’t use thatone often. I smiled back at him. There was definitely something about this guy, I thought. And it was something I wanted to know more about. “Okay, tell me something easier. How did you and Roman meet?”
“That’s safe, I guess. We met at school. Same class from the day we started high school.”
“What age is that? Sorry, I know it’s all different here with education.”
“Sorry. Eleven. Me and Roman never had a plan. We never had that career mind where we knew what we wanted to be. We went to college because we had to. We studied sports and IT. But I dropped out with six months left. My parents never knew, I made sure to turn up a couple of times a week but that was it, just so they didn’t question me. College in England isn’t like school as such, they don’t check up.” I didn’t stop him as he talked, especially while he was being forthcoming, anyway. I guessed this was what he thought was safe. “Paisley was at school with us, too.”
“Aw, were they childhood sweethearts?” My hand moved to my chest and rested it over my heart. He turned his head with his brows lifted. Then that smirk appeared again and creased his forehead.
“Sweethearts? Fuck no. They hated each other. Or should I say she hated us.”
“Really?” From what I’d seen of them together that would be the furthest thing from my mind.
“Oh yeah. I’d tell you the story there, but again you might go running for the hills.” I threw my empty cup in the trash as Gav did the same, and we started to walk along slowly again. “Roman and Paisley got together after she came to work for him as his publicist. His agency said he needed controlling, and she was the best person for the job.”
“I bet that was awkward.”
“Very.” His hands slid in his pockets. “Rhys came into the fold in college, and Roman’s agency appointed Nikki as his PA. The rest, as they, is history.”
