Mya had never felt so hot.
But Brad missed her scorching thoughts. ‘Mint it is, then.’
She nodded. Just. ‘You’ve really got into this,’ she said, trying to pull herself together as he replaced the lids on the pottles and put them back in the bag.
‘I’ve discovered my latent party-planning talent.’ The smallest smile quirked his mouth. He glanced at her and caught her staring. ‘So you’re all set up to bring her?’
‘It’s all sorted.’ Mya nodded. She’d arranged it with Lauren a few days ago. But now that the party was so close, she felt irrationally ill at ease—even unhappy. She’d be glad when it was over, wouldn’t she? She wasn’t sure any more. But the worse feeling was the jealousy—she was envious of how much effort he’d gone to for his sister. Which was just mean of her.
She walked away from him, hiding from his intent gaze, back out to the table she’d been studying at. Hopefully he’d leave right away. But he didn’t. He pulled out the seat next to hers, sat and flipped open his iPad, hooking into the university’s wireless network.
How was she supposed to study now? He didn’t get that when he was around, her brain shut down and all she could think of now was lewd behaviour in the library. She coped for less than five minutes and then she spoke without thinking.
‘Did you ever get it on in the library in your librarian days?’
He shot her a startled look.
‘I mean—’ she felt her blush growing ‘—that’d be the kind of thing you’d have done back then, right?’
She trailed off as his intense look grew. He slowly shook his head.
He hadn’t? Really? She’d have thought that Mr Slayer like him would have … but no. He hadn’t. Nor had she, of course. And now here they were …
Oh, hell, why did that excite her all the more?
She looked at him and decided honesty was the best policy. ‘I can’t concentrate on my study when you’re around,’ she mumbled. ‘At the bar, the café, it’s different. I don’t need to think as hard as I do here. But I can’t think with you …’ She trailed off.
He didn’t say anything, just looked at her with those penetrating eyes. He hadn’t moved in the past ninety seconds. She wasn’t sure if he was even still breathing. Mya felt even hotter than before but now there was a huge dose of embarrassment twisted into her inner furnace as well. She’d all but admitted she still fancied him. But the fact was now she fancied him more than ever. And he’d gone all buddy on her.
‘Maybe it’s best if we work out any last-minute plans over the phone or something,’ she said quickly, trying to recover. ‘It would be easier, don’t you think?’
Slowly he blinked and then seemed to see straight through her. ‘That’s what you want?’
‘That would be for the best,’ she squeaked.
He remained still for a very long moment, still watching her. And then he whispered, ‘What are you going to wear?’
She froze; like his look, his question breached the boundaries from friendly to intimate—but she’d done that herself already. Now she felt she’d plunged off the edge of a cliff and was swimming in darkness. Who knew which direction the safe beach was? ‘I’m not sure.’
‘Not black,’ he said quietly.
‘Probably.’
‘No,’ he muttered. ‘Give me that at least.’
‘Okay.’ Mya could hardly swallow and her skin was doing that hot-and-cold tingly thing again. ‘You’ve done such a great job,’ she said softly, aiming for that conversation-closing platitude—that she meant with all her being. ‘She’s going to be so thrilled.’
‘You think?’ His smile lanced her heart. ‘I hope so.’
Suddenly he stood, not pausing to pack away his gear, just shoving it into his case as he left.
Instantly she felt bereft. But it was for the best. She looked down at the black-and-white text in front of her—the case names and details she had to understand and memorise. She didn’t see any of them. She sighed and blinked to refocus. The sooner the party was over, the better.
He didn’t text the day of the party. He didn’t need to, of course; he had everything planned to the nth degree. But he’d got her thinking. She wanted to get dressed up. Really get dressed up in a way she hadn’t in years. Her kind of dressing where she’d been as loud and unconventional—deliberate, girly. Everything unexpected. She’d been in the black jeans so long she’d almost forgotten her old style. But she didn’t have any money for anything new and had no time to make anything.
Yet there was one dress she could wear. She shied away from the thought—it would be so obvious, wouldn’t it? But she could adapt it, she could wear a wrap or a cardigan or something to dress it down a little … she could get away with it. Maybe.
She went to her parents’ house and picked it up, smiling to herself throughout the long bus-ride. She realised she was more excited about seeing him than she was about seeing Lauren’s reaction to her surprise.
Once dressed, she went to Lauren’s as she’d arranged for their ‘girly night out’—their first in ages.
‘Look at you!’ Lauren squealed when she greeted her at her door.
‘Ditto.’ Mya laughed at how glamorous Lauren looked.
‘Where should we go first?’ Lauren asked, her eyes sparkling.
‘I promised Drew I’d drop something in at the bar. Is it okay if we go there first?’ Mya spun her line.
‘’Course!’
Mya sent the ‘we’re coming’ text as they climbed into the taxi. All the way there she kept up an inane patter about one of her regular café customers—not Brad. Mya’s heart thudded as they swept up the steps. Kirk was on the door and he winked as they walked up and he swung the door open for them.
There was a moment of silence. Then a collective scream.
‘Surprise!’
The cacophony of almost a hundred people screaming momentarily deafened her, but Mya chuckled. The glitter confetti bucketing down on them might have been a touch OTT but that was all the more fun. She gazed at Lauren for her reaction.
Only then she noticed that Lauren was looking right back at her with a huge grin on. And then she heard the crowd chanting.
‘Mya! Mya! Mya!’
‘What?’ Mya gazed round in confusion.
Then—who knew from where—a gong sounded and they all screamed again in unison.
‘Happy Birthday, Mya!’
Mya clapped her hand over her mouth and shook her head.
‘This is for you,’ Mya tried to tell Lauren.
‘Uh-uh.’ Lauren shimmied closer with a wicked smile. ‘Fooled you. We all fooled you.’
Shocked, Mya stood immobile. She didn’t even breathe—only her eyes still functioned, sending images to her brain. And OMG they were all in on it. Jonny was laughing, her varsity mates. Even Drew was grinning. Her fellow baristas from the café were here. They’d all fooled her. They were all here for her.
It seemed Lauren had breathed in giggle-gas as she laughed delightedly, putting her arm along Mya’s shoulders.
‘But it’s not my birthday.’ Mya’s mouth felt as if she’d been at the dentist for a ten-hour procedure and she had all that cotton-gauze stuff still clogging it.
‘You never had a birthday party because you were working.’ Lauren laughed more. ‘So we took matters into our own hands.’
We.
Mya looked into the smiling crowd once more. Her mouth automatically curved into an answering smile even though she was still in shock, still couldn’t believe any of this.
Then she saw him. Brad.
And heaven help her he was all in black—black suit, black tie, black shirt. It emphasised his height, his eyes, his aura of simmering sexuality. The tailored tuxedo a perfect foil for her recycled old prom outfit. If they were a couple, they couldn’t have planned it better. Except they weren’t and they hadn’t.
But he’d planned it—this whole party. Had it been a set-up right from the beginning? What did he mean