Perfect Strangers

“And here she is, my vision of beauty,” beamed Kai as she entered the room, “they want the story.” He announced it with an amused look.

“The story?” Panic consumed her body at his words and she realized that she hadn’t thought out this plan very well at all. She wished she had faked a life-threatening illness instead and stayed in London, she wasn’t sure how much more her fraught nerves could take.

“Yes, the story. Your father wants you to regale them all with how I proposed,” he said loudly, his voice echoed around the now still and quiet studio.

Myla felt her stomach somersault with dread as bile clawed its way up her throat. “Well, I think you should be the one to tell them, don’t you?” She threw back when he slung his arm around her shoulder.

“Oh, come on, Boo, I know how much you love retelling this story.”

Myla slightly shook her head and blew out a deep breath. “It’s a funny story actually. Rhett was uhm, going to surprise me, but uhm …well, what can I say, he’s not really that romantic s—”

He squeezed her shoulder in a vice like grip, “What? Myla how can you say my proposal in a hot air balloon 3,000 feet above the London Bridge at night, was not romantic?”

I’m literally going to kill him. She dug her elbow into his side and glared at him through pinched eyes. “Well, you did your best, I suppose,” she muttered.

“Shit the bed, really?” Grace squealed as she bobbed up and down excitedly, “that so beats Jack’s proposal, easily.”

“Excuse me? What the fuck was wrong with my proposal, Grace?” Jack asked looking at her incensed.

“Well, nothing, Jack but it was at the side of the hospital bed when you thought I was dying,” she replied with an eye roll.

“I did not think you were dying, you were only having your appendix removed. It felt right to ask you at the time while you were sedated, I was worried you would say no,” he growled back.

“Aww munchkin,” she gushed lovingly. She threw her arms around him and they began a game of tonsil hockey with each other.

“How have your parents not wanted to know how I proposed before now?” Kai whispered in her ear.

Throwing her arms around his neck, making it look like a loving embrace she whispered, “Because my mother was only bothered about me finding a man for my own so when I invented you, all she wanted to know, was what you did for a living, how much money you made, where you lived, what your parents were like, it was all the material stuff. She doesn’t give a shit about the finer details.”

“Well, that’s all changing. She’s done nothing but grill me since you left for the ladies, she’s like the fucking Gestapo.”

Myla removed her arms from his neck, laughed and took a step back. “We need to spend tonight learning more about each other, we must lock ourselves in the bedroom.”

“I’m sure down for that, Capulet,” he replied hoarsely with a sudden smoldering look radiating from his face.

“Not like that, dickhead,” she snapped.

“Kiss him, M,” goaded Grace across the room.

“I’m good, thanks sis,” Myla threw back over her shoulder.

Kai’s face suddenly pinched and hurt speared through his chest. Furrowing his eyebrows, he looked at her through hooded eyes. “You don’t want to kiss me?”

Are you mad? Of course, I do. “No actually, I don’t,” she replied dryly.

“He is your husband to be, bloody kiss him,” shouted Grace, sternly. Rolling her eyes at Kai, she stepped forward and quickly pecked him on the lips.

“What the hell was that? That isn’t a kiss,” he stated lowly. Before she could speak he grabbed the back of her neck and drew her closer, he could feel her heavy pants of breath flutter over his chin as he leant in and seared her mouth with a

lingering, passionate kiss that had her trembling in his hand. He slowly brought his other hand up and cupped her cheek, lazily caressing it with his thumb. She melted against his mouth, murmuring.

“Whoop! whoop! Sock it to him, M,” Grace said excitedly. Myla suddenly snapped her eyes open and lurched away from him.

“Now that is called a kiss, Juliet,” Kai said, his voice thick and raspy. His mouth pulled into a cocky smile and, turning away from her, he walked towards the door.

*

“Thank you for what you did back there for me, Kai,” said Myla as he opened the car door and held it for her.