Chapter 11
Noa
N oa took a long, calming breath as she stared out of the plane window, looking out at the tarmac of the runway at Manchester Airport.
She’d arrived there way too early this morning, having thought being prepared would settle her bubbling nerves, and was now sat in her requested window seat.
The gravity of the trip had suddenly dawned on her last night, and the butterflies that took flight in her gut had not settled since.
Maybe Ryan was right, and she was not equipped to deal with this.
She had never left the country on her own in her life.
Arriving at the airport early had helped some.
Or, maybe, it was the three gin and tonics she had been able to get in before boarding the flight as a result.
Now she sat there buzzed and ready to go, but the longer she had to sit and wait for take-off, the more she could feel her booze-induced confidence wavering.
Her knee bounced and she sat tapping on her armrest, becoming more restless.
The older gentleman next to her chuckled, ‘You okay there, lovey? You scared of flying?’
‘Something like that,’ she whispered, offering him a polite smile.
‘Well, listening to music always helps me tune it all out. Won’t be long and we’ll be in the air and the free bar will be open. If all else fails, a good few drinks should knock you out cold,’ he winked at her.
As she regarded him, movement in her periphery caught her attention and a shadow seemed to be cast over their row before she heard the clearing of a throat, followed by a gruff voice.
She lifted her attention to the man towering over them.
Muscular, tatted arms rested on their row and that of the seats in front of them as he cast a devilish smile her way.
Her stomach dropped, and any worries she had earlier were soon replaced by the overwhelming realisation of what this was.
Alex Fletcher stood in the aisle, in all his handsomeness, and there was simply no way that this was a coincidence. He and Ryan had gone too far this time. She couldn’t keep her simmering anger from bubbling over. She should have realised that Ryan had let it go a little too quickly.
‘I don’t need a bodyguard, so you can turn right back around and head home,’ she hissed, grinding her teeth.
‘Sir, can you take your seat please? The doors are closing now,’ the air hostess sing-songed to Alex .
Noa gaped at her, wide-eyed in horror. This could not be happening.
‘What? No. He was just leaving,’ she protested.
She looked at him and shook her head as he took his seat and put on his belt, folding her arms to show him just how displeased she was. No way would she let him get off lightly.
‘This is just great. Fucking brilliant, actually.’
Alex didn’t speak, just stared at the seat in front of him, his perfectly chiselled jaw visibly tensing. Good. She wanted to rile him just as much as she was.
‘Have you lost your damn mind? My brother clearly asking you to babysit me is one thing, but you saying yes? That just goes beyond all comprehension. What were you thinking?’ She shook her head.
‘Wait, don’t even answer that because you clearly weren’t thinking or you wouldn’t be here with your big man shoulders taking up all the room on the aeroplane. ’
One of his eyebrows rose halfway up his forehead, clearly curious and amused.
‘Big man shoulders?’ he smirked at her.
It was infuriating. Yes, he had the sexiest smirk she had ever seen—eight years apart hadn’t changed that—but it was still infuriating. As was having to try and hide the effect it had on her.
‘Seriously? That’s the part that you heard?
You know, I don’t remember you being this insufferable.
But, I guess, a lot has changed,’ she spat the last words, lacing them with the anger intended as a clear dig at the way he’d ignored her since she’d come home.
And they clearly hit, because she saw him wince before he schooled his features.
His facial expression morphed into one of boredom then, or maybe it was irritation. Either way, she wanted to punch his stupid face.
‘Well, to answer your question, I wasn’t thinking of it as babysitting.
I needed a holiday, and I heard Thailand is the place to go.
So, don’t flatter yourself too much. But, from what I remember, your company wasn’t all that bad back in the day, so seeing as we both seem to be heading in the same direction, maybe we could enjoy it together,’ was his retort, ‘But I am sorry if that feeling isn’t reciprocated. ’
‘You’re telling me this wasn’t a plan cooked up between you and Ryan to ruin my fun?’
‘What I’m saying, is I have more important things to concern myself with than ruining your fun.
Believe it or not, it is not on my priority list. I was well due a break and Thailand was somewhere on the list, so when I heard you needed keeping out of trouble, it seemed like a win-win to me,’ he replied with a wicked wink and a grin.
‘I got the break I needed and didn’t have to listen to your brother whine about your safety for the next month.
We can catch up and have some fun together, or you won’t even know I’m there.
You don’t have to be all dramatic and get your knickers in a twist about it. ’
‘Dramatic,’ Noa whisper-shouted, pounding her fist a little too firmly on her armrest.
‘Does one of you want to swap seats with me?’ the man in the middle seat asked. Noa just then realised he was there, and that he had been watching them argue back and forth as if watching a tennis match.
God, could this get any more embarrassing ?
‘No,’ came from Noa in unison with Alex’s confident, ‘Yes.’
Noa just folded her arms and glared at Alex as he climbed out from his aisle seat and swapped places with the old man next to her. He took up so much space with his large frame that it almost felt like he was boxing her in.
Not there to ruin her fun her ass , she thought as she rolled her eyes and went back to continuing her staring out the window, resigning to ignore him for the rest of the flight.
It felt like a better option than a GBH charge.
A prison sentence would put a slight damper on her travels, even if she was all about trying new things at the moment.
She huffed and folded her arms, trying to make herself as small as possible so they wouldn’t touch. It was only partly to avoid the static electricity she felt from the touch of his arm against hers when he’d sat down, but Alex didn’t need to know that.
They spent the rest of the long haul flight in a tense silence that only got worse when they hopped onto the same coach to the same hostel. Perfect .
When planning this trip, spending it with her brother’s best friend was not what she had in mind. But apparently, she wasn’t getting much of a choice.
The last time they had spoken played on repeat in her brain, taunting her—her stumbling for her clothes at record speed, her demanding they never speak of it again.
Around and around the memories went in her brain. Alex wordlessly watched her from his seat on the coach across from her. It was like he could sense the tension radiating from her as she realised his presence brought with it a whole load of buried memories that she had tried to forget.
But, by being here, he’d made sure there was no hope of forgetting anymore. And that just made things a hell of a lot more complicated.