Stanton Box Set

I smile. “Always thinking of me.” I pull from his grip. “How thoughtful you are, no my shit is completely together,” I sneer.

He narrows his eyes at me. “I’ll be over around eight?” he replies as he leans in and kisses my cheek.

“I look forward to it,” I reply. I walk back to my car with a red glow shooting from my ears. He has got to be joking.

My phone dances silently around the table. “Are you not even going to answer it?” Bridget frowns.

“No.” I screw up my face as I drink the last of my margarita. “I’m off him, he can go to hell.” We are at the Cargo Bar. I’ve ditched Joshua. I didn’t even tell him I was going out. This is the fifth time my phone has rung in fifteen minutes.

“Who is this chick anyway?” Abbie asks. “You could take her.”

I nod. “Totally, but if he thinks I’m going to be a mushroom and kept in the dark for the rest of my life he can think again. Our whole relationship is one-way traffic. His fucking way and I’m over it.”

The girls both nod as they listen.

“I told him I wouldn’t be his booty call and yet I am.” I take a drink. “I constantly open up to him and tell him I love him like a pathetic schoolgirl and yet he says nothing back. Every damn night he turns up at eight o’clock and it is just assumed that we will have awesome sex all night.”

Abbie glances at Bridget. “Yeah, sounds totally shit.”

Bridget laughs into her drink and I giggle. “It is.”

They both shake their heads at me. “So, let’s get this straight, you are annoyed because he comes around to your house every night and gives you awesome sex without complications.” Abbie frowns.

I nod. “Basically.”

“God, I wish, where do I find a man like this?” Abbie sighs. Bridget giggles and clinks glasses with her. The group of young guys we know are here and bound over to the table. “Let’s dance.” They start to groove on the spot. The girls both stand and move to the dance floor and I stay seated. “I’m not dancing,” I sigh.

“Yeah, me neither,” replies the young one with the curly brown hair.

“Where have you been? You haven’t been here for weeks,” he asks.

I nod. “I know,” I frown. “My gran got sick so we have had some stuff on.”

“Oh shit,” he replies. “Is she ok?

“No, she has cancer,” I sigh.

“Sorry,” he mutters.

“I met a girl,” he blurts out to change the subject.

My eyes widen. “Really? Tell me.” I smile.

“She’s blonde and beautiful.”

I smile.

“She’s away at the moment with her parents.” He shrugs.

“How did you meet?” I sip my drink, this guy is so cute.

“At work,” he replies.

My skin prickles. I feel him before I see him. My eyes flick around the space and sure enough there he is. Tall, dark, handsome and extremely infuriating. Shit. I turn around in a rush and swallow the lump in my throat. Bloody snitchy bodyguards. Joshua is talking to my bodyguard against the wall.

He walks over to

the table. “What do you think you are doing?” he snaps.