‘Hold, please,’ I splutter as I try to compute what’s going on. I remember telling Callum who Hamish was after my ex spotted me when he was boarding the flight earlier, but I’m very confused as to why Hamish is now greeting Callum with unbridled glee.
Have these two known each other all along?
I watch in horrified silence as Hamish pulls Callum in for a bear hug. Seeing the two of them together is intense, like I’m witnessing a visual representation of my past and present collide. Hamish, with his blue eyes and long blond hair, wrinkled T-shirt and stash of woven bracelets up his arm, is now patting Callum, all dark hair cascading over tortoiseshell glasses, expensive watch around his wrist, on the back. I notice that Callum’s eyes do not leave mine.,
Eventually I shake my head in confusion. ‘Nope,’ I say. ‘I don’t understand. Do you twoknoweach other.’
‘This legend,’ Hamish leans back to admire Callum, ‘got escorted down to the spare seat next to me on the flight out here.He still won’t tell me why, but he had some very cross members of the cabin crew telling him in no uncertain terms to stay put. Looked like he’d got himself in some trouble. Dude still hasn’t told me what happened.’
They’ve been sitting together for the last few hours of this flight?
Dear God, please tell me they slept through it.
‘A gentleman never tells.’ Callam smiles affably, gaze still pinning me to the spot.
I can feel the heat building in my cheeks.
‘It’s good, I know it is,’ Hamish carries on. ‘I reckon you were making some moves. Look at you, handsome devil. I’m right, aren’t I?’
Callum says nothing.
‘Unless, wait, was it …’ Hamish trails off as he looks at me, joining the dots. ‘Nee, are you two …’
‘Absolutely not,’ I cut in.
A flicker of rejection passes over Callum’s face and I know instantly that I’ve messed up.
Fuck. What should I do, though? I don’t feel like I owe Hamish an explanation about what’s just gone on between Callum and me, mostly because I don’t understand it yet myself. We despised each other until very recently! Plus it’s none of Hamish’s business. And yet, in the back of my mind, that irritating voice is reminding me that Hamish could still be my escape route.
This feels messy.
‘We’re just colleagues,’ Callum explains. It sounds innocuous enough but his words hit me like a gunshot. Tears prickle in the back of my eyes and I have to aggressively blink to dismiss them.
‘Yes,’ I say eventually, watching the shutters close across Callum’s face. ‘We’re here on business.’
‘Cool, cool,’ says Hamish. ‘So who’s the boss?’
‘Neither of us,’ I say.
‘The lovely Miss Moss,’ Callum replies at the same time. ‘She’s the lead on this, I’m just here in a supporting role.’ His professional-grade charm has kicked back in, Callum in work mode, but it feels to me like a light has gone out.
Hamish is chuckling. ‘Nina in charge,’ he says. ‘Just how she likes it. Hey, Nee, don’t be too hard on poor Cal. He’s had a rough journey here.’
‘Why would I be hard on him?’
‘From memory, Nina can be a bit spiky when things don’t go her way,’ Hamish is saying to Callum. ‘But she has a heart of gold.’
Callum now appears to be quite enjoying this line of conversation, while I’m keen to get Hamish to shut the hell up immediately.
‘As much fun as this is, Callum and I should go and chat to our clients.’ I step in, motioning towards Cody. ‘Make sure they’re okay.’
Truth is I’m desperate to get Callum away from whatever is happening here. I feel compelled to apologize for shutting down Hamish’s (correct) suggestion that he and I were hooking up on the plane. I can tell I’ve hurt him and the feeling makes my skin itch. That and the fact that his ‘just colleagues’ comment is ringing in my ears, weighing heavy on my soul.
‘Nice to see you, Hamish,’ I call over to him as an afterthought.
Callum’s usual friendly work patter is back in full force now as he and Clio are laughing away, Brody slumped in his seat with an unwrapped protein ball. But I know that something is troubling Callum because he won’t make eye contact with me. He’s totally shut me down.
If I wasn’t traumatized from what happened with the first jeroboam of champagne, I’d crack open the second now, sending myself into total oblivion through sheer frustration.
