“You?” he asks.
I shrug. “It was ordinary, nothing exciting.”
He smirks a
s he sips his coffee. “We are heading back upstairs.” His eyes linger on mine.
I nod and smile and he rises from his seat and follows me out. We walk into the crowded lift and stand silently next to each other. He is so tall and big, his body oozes power in that dark charcoal three-piece suit. I can feel the electricity coming from him as my body weakens with want. I wonder if any of the other women in the lift can feel the heat oozing from this fine specimen. As I watch the numbers above the door light up I silently make a pact with myself. I am not mentioning last night or asking him when I am seeing him again. I need to be strong, even if it kills me, and it probably will because he is acting like he doesn’t have a care in the world and I could quite easily strangle him with a smile on my face. Calm, calm, calm … keep fucking calm. We walk to the lounge seating area and we sit opposite each other.
“Have you been in yet?” I ask the others.
“No,” they all reply flatly without looking up.
Joshua takes out his phone and starts to read and scroll through it. I sit with my legs crossed trying to look everywhere but at him. Bridget and the boys are deep in conversation about Adrian.
“So, is he seeing him tonight?” Abbie frowns.
Cameron nods and throws his hands behind his head. “Yep,” he answers as he leans back in his chair.
I frown. “Huh, who is he seeing tonight?” I ask.
“Nicholas Anastas,” Bridget replies.
“How did that come about?” I frown.
“He texted him this morning demanding to see him,” Cameron says as he raises his eyebrows.
“How hot. I love it when a man demands to see you. Now that’s romance.” My eyes flick to Joshua who doesn’t even hear me and is smirking at his phone. Hmm … take a hint, bastard.
Joshua laughs and bites his bottom lip to stifle his smile as he watches something on his phone and his eyes flick to me. I frown in question. What is he looking at?
My phone beeps a message. I pull it out of my bag.
It’s a text from Joshua. I smirk and open it—it’s a movie. I frown as I hit play, and my eyes narrow at the screen. I smile as I see the camera wobble around and I see Joshua sitting on my bed smiling at me. I press pause and retrieve my earphones from my bag and plug them in so I can hear what is going on. My eyes flick to Joshua as I put the earphones in and he smiles broadly at me. Jeez, what’s so funny? I press play again and sit still as I listen to my drunken voice. Oh my god.
“I know, let me do a dance for you,” I slurr.
The camera goes to me. Holy shit, I look like a train wreck, my eyes widen in horror and I feel myself flush. I look up and Joshua has just taken a picture of my face. I fake a smile. “Very funny,” I mouth. He laughs and looks back down with his arms folded in front of him. I continue to watch the nightmare unfolding in front of me. Oh no, what am I doing now?
I hold my hand up to my mouth as I watch myself start to spin on the spot. I feel myself blush as I see what I look like. What in the hell kind of sexy dancing is that? Oh shit … it gets worse. I start to do high kicks in the air like a cheerleader on crack. I smile in embarrassment as I hold my hand over my face. This is woeful, no wonder the poor bastard ran this morning. He has been forced to watch this tape, damn technology. My eyes stay glued to the screen again as I take off my clothes and straddle Joshua. I lean in and kiss him and his hand reaches out from behind the camera and he feels my breast and then his hand runs under the rim of my underpants.
I watch myself bend and kiss him and then say the words, “I love you Joshua.” The film goes off. I sit and stare at the phone in horror, do I laugh or do I cry? Here I am trying to channel Kate Middleton when I am actually channelling Absolutely Fabulous and so much for playing hard to get … I told him I loved him. I look back up to see that Joshua and the others have gone in to see Gran. I walk in slowly and stand behind the group with my heart still racing. Everybody sits around Gran’s bed and makes idle conversation with her. She seems happy and is laughing. Joshua turns to see me and stands to give me his chair and I smile and take it thankfully. We stay with Gran for over an hour and then gradually one by one say goodbye. This is the part I hate. I have to wait for him to say something about seeing me—what if he doesn’t? We walk to the lifts together and shuffle in. I stand at the back next to Joshua and the others all stand in front of us jabbering about something. Joshua links his pinky finger with mine, and I find myself smiling at the floor. The lift gets to the bottom and the doors open and everybody exits. Joshua pulls me back into the lift by the finger and pushes the button. The door closes.
We stand still, held together by the smallest part of our body.
He bites his lip as he looks at me. “What are you doing tonight?” he asks quietly.
“Nothing,” I reply as my eyes search his.
“I’m thirty, seventy wanting to see you tonight,” he breathes.
I frown. “Thirty, seventy,” I repeat.
A whisper of a smile crosses his face as his eyes penetrate mine. “Thirty per cent of my brain wants to see you and seventy per cent of my brain tells me it’s a mistake.”
I smile as I bite my bottom lip. “Can I change the odds with a closing argument?”
“Perhaps,” he whispers as he raises a brow.