Perfect Strangers

“What? No, Myla. Brody told me,” she replied. She spun away quickly before her beetroot face gave her away.

Spraying some Flower Bomb over herself, Cass raked her eyes over Myla with a beaming smile. “You look fuckable,” she stated swinging down towards the floor, she reached for her purse. “Ready to go?”

“Not really,” replied Myla as angst poured over her. She proceeded to start messing with her dress, pulling down the hem, pulling up the front. She suddenly felt uncomfortable.

“Come on, Avery and Brody are meeting us there,” said Cas

s. She hooked her arm in Myla’s and headed for the door.

The cab pulled to a standstill down a narrow alleyway and there stood an ominous warehouse, with a red carpet leading into it. An array of men in suits and women dressed to the nines loitered around the entrance holding glasses of champagne, laughing, and smiling.

“Where are we, Cass?” Asked Myla, as she followed her towards the building.

“You hoo, over here,” called Avery who was stood manically waving, causing heads to swivel and frowns of disgust to be thrown her way. I feel so out of place.

“God, Myla, you look stunning,” she complimented as she hugged the life out of her.

“Thanks babe, you too. Where are we and what are, we doing here?” she asked lowly pulling away.

“You’ll see,” she replied coyly and winked. Slipping her hand in Myla’s, Avery pulled her inside.

Paintings adorned the makeshift gallery inside the warehouse and blue velvet carpet was laid on the floor. Bright lights shone above her making her instantly feel hot. “Okay, joke’s over. What’s going on?” Myla snapped as Brody approached, and pulled Cass into a make-out session. Myla instantly diverted her eyes. An ache seared through her chest. An ache for Kai.

“I’ve got to do this thing first and then in half an hour we can go onto a club,” said Brody, pulling himself away from Cass. “Myla, go ahead and look around, I just need to borrow Cass and Avery for a second, I need help with the champagne, and as you’re a tee-totaller now, best you steer clear,” smiled Brody.

“But …we’ve only just got here,” her protest was ignored when she watched the three of them practically run away. Thank you so much guys!

Slowly, she pushed forward and smiled awkwardly at the faces of intrigue that turned her way. Her eyes glanced at the walls, taking in some of the paintings on show, each one seemed to have the same woman in them. One in particular, caught her eye and caused her to come to a standstill. With trepidation, she hedged towards it and slowly trailed her eyes over the naked woman. She looked beautiful, her long dark hair flowed around her shoulders and her back arched away from the wall, her eyes were half shut and her lips were seductively parted, the look painted on her face was that of pure adoration.

She looks familiar. Myla’s eyes glanced to the bottom of the picture where the details of the painting were engraved on a small metal plaque and her heart slammed to a sudden stop in her chest. The piece was entitled JULIET.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Jumping from the car he raced inside, completely wound up. He tucked in his shirt, straightened his tie, and smoothed down his jacket. It was his night tonight, he’d spent eight months working on this project, and now finally he had a small collection of work worthy of displaying and tonight was the night, of all nights, he arrived late.

“Where have you been, dude? I’ve been running around like a headless turkey for the past hour,” quizzed Brody as Kai skidded to a halt in front of him.

“It’s chicken,” replied Kai. Snatching a flute of champagne, he knocked it back.

“What’s chicken?” Brody asked with his face creased in an exaggerated frown.

“The expression, it’s running around like a headless chicken, not turkey,” laughed Kai. He could feel the warmth of the alcohol flow through his chest and he instantly felt calmer.

“You’re here, finally. What the shitting hell kept you?” Cass snarled with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side.

Rolling his eyes, he sighed. “I’m sorry okay, I drove by Myla’s hoping to see her but she hasn’t been home all day, then I burnt my shirt trying to iron the damn thing and the—”

“–Wait, back up there. You sat outside Myla’s house, all day?” Cass asked, wide-eyed, and with an even wider smile.

He nodded and mentally kicked himself for letting that little fact slip. The truth was, he regretted wholeheartedly telling her not to contact him when she had returned to London, it was so selfish of him but at the time he couldn’t see the woods for the trees, all he saw was her and him, together. He was shattered to the core that she sent him home without her. The day he learned from Avery that she was coming back and going straight into counselling, he had hidden in the bushes opposite her house, just to see her again, to reassure himself that she had come back to London. It had taken all his willpower not to run across the road and drop to his knees begging her to forgive him. It wasn’t the first time he had hung around her house in the hope to finally pluck up the courage to speak to her and apologize for being so heartless in her time of need, but of course he had kept that to himself.

He couldn’t force her hand, he understood eventually, that she needed time to deal with the events and to start the healing process, without him by her side. He had clung onto the hope that one day their paths would cross again, that one day she would come back to him, because deep down, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t let her go completely, she was his Juliet.

“Yes. I wanted to wish her a Merry Christmas,” he mumbled rubbing his hand across the back of his neck in embarrassment.

He heard a scoff and a snigger emit from Brody’s mouth. “Isn’t that what cards are for? Come on dude, hanging around your ex’s house is borderline stalking.”

“Shut up, Brody,” Kai snapped. His eyes bore warning into Brody.