I raise my eyebrows. “Really, and if you are going to make me have a bodyguard it is Max or nothing, the choice is yours.”
“No, I think I am going to swap Max with Ben,” he says in his best matter-of-fact voice.
I narrow my eyes. “Don’t you dare. I am not hanging around with Ben. No way in hell.”
“Well do as you’re told,” he snaps. He then walks into the bathroom and runs the shower.
I sit still at my kitchen bench and look at my eggs on toast as my blood starts to boil. All I want to do is yell you are not my boyfriend so shut up. But I need to keep calm and play the game, I want to win him back at all costs … this is going to be a damn tough assignment.
Adrian
The night before
I walk up the street towards the restaurant I am meeting Nicholas in. How did I let him ambush me like this? My security is trailing behind me and I am painfully aware of their presence. I’m proud to be gay but when I have people watching me on a date, or a brush off in this case, I feel uncomfortable. I guess everyone who has security trailing them everywhere feels like this. Joshua hates it probably more than me. Apparently at his dinner date with Tash the other night she cried at the table and he was mortified that they had security witnessing the whole nightmare. I hope they catch this maniac soon. We could all do with some much needed privacy. I blow out a breath in a nervous gesture. Nicholas keeps telling me there was something there between us on the last date and he wasn’t wrong … there was too much there. Too much sexual energy, too much intelligence and humour, too much yearning for intimacy and I know it can only end badly. He lives in France for heaven’s sake. I’m nipping it in the bud before it turns sour, as relationships always do for me. What I don’t like though is the way he has called me out on it. He obviously doesn’t get the brush off very often. Today when he rang me he was furious and told me if I don’t go out to dinner with him alone tonight he will come into the office and ambush me in front of whoever is there and he doesn’t give a fuck who hears what he has to say, those exact words.
I get out my phone to check the number of the street the restaurant is on. We are going to O’Shea’s, an oyster bar and restaurant. It’s just up here. I stop out the front and peer in through the window and turn to my two security guards who are four or five metres behind me. After the graffiti in our office back home a month ago, with the words Joshua Stanton and Adrian Murphy Next written in blood on our office wall, Ben has been security crazy. Joshua and I are being guarded to a ridiculous degree. The police don’t know whose blood the writing was in, but it’s messed with all of our heads. If you are crazy enough to use your own blood to graffiti someone’s office it’s a nightmare. If it wasn’t his blood … that’s worse.
“Just wait out here please. I will be fine,” I ask the bodyguards.
Their eyes flick to each other and they nod. “Ok, no worries.”
I open the large heavy doors and enter the restaurant tentatively as I look around. Nicholas stands up next to a table at the rear of the restaurant and waves. I smile and make my way over to him.
God, what am I doing here? I nervously walk over. He is dressed in a grey suit, white shirt and grey tie, and his tall stature dominates the space around him. His longish dark hair , hangs just above his collar and has a curl to it and he is wearing a long five o’clock shadow. His piercing dark eyes penetrate mine. He brings the term Greek God into a new stratosphere. Fuck!
He smiles warmly and holds out his hand to shake mine. I smile, take it and am immediately jolted by a strong charge of sexual energy. Oh, he’d be good alright. I feel myself harden, and my
eyes drop immediately to try and hide my arousal. He smirks and keeping hold of my hand, he lifts it up and tenderly kisses the back of it.
“Hello,” he smiles with my hand still in his.
“Hello,” I smile as I nervously pull my hand from his grip. The intensity of this guy is off the hook.
He holds out his hand to the table. “Take a seat,” he smiles.
I sit at the table for two towards the back of the restaurant. It is adorned with six flickering candles at all different heights. The crowd is eclectic and the music is earthy. The restaurant is quite dark and the candles on all of the tables add to the ambience.
“Would you like to order some drinks?” the waitress asks.
My eyes flick to Nicholas whose eyes are firmly on me. He smiles affectionately and I blow out a breath and read the drink menu. Right.
“I’ll have a Martini please.” I look at Nicholas.
‘I’ll have the same.” He smiles at the waitress and then back at me.
She leaves us alone. I don’t think I have ever been so nervous—why does he make me feel like this?
“I don’t like being ambushed into dates with people,” I say dryly as I pretend to read the menu.
He nods. “I don’t like having to ambush you to see me either.”
“So why do it then?”
He smiles. “Because I wanted to see you and I knew it was the only way I could get you here.”
“Ok, you have seen me, what now?” I raise my eyebrows in question as I look at him blankly.
He smiles broadly. “Are you always such a charming date?”