Chapter 1 #3
“Trying to get my bearings. I’m on Maps and it isn’t making sense.” He turns the screen around to look at it upside down and holds his head to the side.
“Yeah that app is useless; we really should design a decent one.” I look around disinterested, glance at my chunky Rolex watch and put one hand into the pocket of my navy three-piece suit.
I’m wearing black oxfords, a crisp white shirt and a black tie, “I forgot how hot Aussie girls are,” I make an idle observation while rubbing my chin.
“Yes, I can’t wait to check out the Aussie men, apparently they are off the charts as well.”
I smile. “That goes without saying.” I widen my eyes at Adrian.
“Hmm, they’re conceited too, I found out,” Adrian scowls.
“Totally.” I raise one eyebrow and nod my head, still scanning the room.
Ben returns, pushing a trolley of luggage. “This way.” He gestures.
“This being on the wrong side of the road thing is weird.” Ben smirks while driving.
I smile as I sit in the front passenger seat, Adrian in the back seat. I start programming the navigation.
“What are you doing?” Ben asks.
“We are taking a quick detour,” I answer.
“Really?” Adrian whines. “I need to take a leak.”
“Shut up, enough of the backseat driving, who’s fucking this duck?” Adrian rolls his eyes in the rearview mirror at Ben who smiles at the usual banter.
Adrian scowls as he leans his head back into the headrest. “And for the record, I don’t fuck ducks.”
I smile and nod. “Good to know.”
Twenty-five minutes later we are driving up a one-way street in Rose Bay.
“Where the hell are we going?” Adrian asks.
I don’t answer as I crane my neck and look up the road.
“It should be just up here on the right. Pull in here.” I point to the left. I sit with my elbow on the car door, my thumb under my chin, rubbing the side of my pointer finger back and forward over my lips, deep in thought. We sit in silence for ten minutes.
“Mind telling me why we are here?” Ben asks quietly.
“Someone I used to know lives in that dark brick building over there.” I point to the large older style apartment block across the road, still deep in thought.
“And we are here because?”
“I want to find out what apartment 5B is. It looks like there are two apartments on each level. Is the left side A or B?”
“I’ll go look.” Ben hops out of the car and heads across the road. I stay silent, deep in thought. Adrian sits quietly in the back, as if assessing the situation.
Ben returns. “It’s on the right, five levels up.”
“Did you get in? Isn’t there a security door?”
“No, I went in when someone left.”
I nod and look up. “She’s home.”
“Looks that way,” replies Ben. We all stay silent for another ten minutes, then I get out of the car and walk around to the road side of the car, resting my rear on the door.
My hands in my suit pant pockets, my feet crossed in front of me, I continue looking up at the window.
Adrian and Ben follow, each standing on either side of me, also leaning on the car.
“What’s going on?” Adrian asks quietly. I stay silent.
“Why don’t you just go in and knock, man?”
I don’t move.
“Do you want me to go in and knock?” Adrian asks, but I shake my head.
“How long since you’ve seen this girl?” Ben asks.
“Seven and a half years,” I answer flatly.
“Does she know you’re back in town?”
"Nope."
“So where do your parents live from here?” Adrian opens the back car door and gets out his iPad.
“Toorak, Melbourne. About twelve hours south.”
Adrian and Ben frown at each other.
“But I thought we were here for three months so you can see your family?”
“Yes, we are, but they are in another state.”
“Please don’t tell me we are in Sydney for this girl?”
I am still staring up to apartment 5B. “Maybe,” I answer. “To be truthful, I have no idea what we are doing here, I feel unsettled already.”
Ben raises his eyebrows. “Joshua Stanton unsettled by a woman; never thought I’d see the day.”
“It’s…complicated.” I blow out a breath.
Adrian’s mouth drops open. “But I thought you said. . . ”
“Yeah, I lied.”
“So, this girl…is her name…Natasha?”
Yes,”
“Hmm, a part of the jigsaw puzzle fits into place.” Ben smiles. “So you do have a heart?”
I smirk. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Adrian lies on his back across the hood and blows out a breath, hands behind his head. “You know, I think Rod Stewart was right on the money.”
Ben and I frown at each other and then him.
“You know, the first cut is the deepest.” All three of us smile.
“That is true. You remember every minute in detail. Come on, let’s go. Enough of this shit, she fucks with my head.”
“Aren’t we going in?” Adrian asks.
“No, I just wanted to see where she lives.”
“Does she have a boyfriend, married, what’s her story?” “No, no, nothing. Nothing I can dig up anyway.”
“You’ve kept tabs on her?”
“Yes, from a distance.”
“When did you last speak to her?”
After a silence of five minutes, “Seven and a half years ago, the day she dumped me.”
Adrian and Ben look at each other, the shock evident on their faces.
“So, you haven’t spoken a word to her since?”
“Nope.”
“You haven’t called?”
“Nope.”
We all look back to the window and the lights go off. Ben urges for a second time. “Just go in, man.”
“Even if I wanted to, the law forbids it.”
“She had a restraining order put on you?” Adrian gasps.
I shake my head. “No,” I answer quietly.
“Her parents did?”
I look back up to the window. “Something like that. Get in the car, let’s go and don’t let me come back here. This is pointless.”
“OK. But are we not here because of her? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?”
“Shut up, dick.” I smile at Adrian. “Stop making sense.” As the car speeds away, I put my head back into the seat and rub my face.
“I need a drink, a strong fucking drink.”
Bondi, 11:50 p.m.
I lean over the railing of the balcony looking out to the ocean, sipping my Cointreau and ice out of a thick short crystal tumbler.
The place Adrian has rented for me for the three months is swank, on the water.
It is a little dated and well below the standard of my LA house.
We chose it because it was the only one near a surf beach that had another house next door for Ben and Adrian.
Having just run for an hour on the treadmill, I am freshly showered and barefoot and wearing a loose pair of sweats and a white Bonds tank top.
It’s March. Here, it’s the first month of fall, a cool briskness hangs in the air.
Desperately trying to rein myself in from googling her and finding out her phone number, I take another sip of my liquor and enjoy the warmth as I swallow, temporarily closing my eyes.
“This is a fucking disaster. I should have stayed in Melbourne,” I mutter to himself.
The doorbell rings and, assuming it’s Adrian, I saunter to the front door and open it. A beautiful caramel blonde in a trench coat and white high heels stands before me, a sexy smile playing on her lips.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Joshua Stanton,” she breathes in a husky voice.
I raise an eyebrow. “You’ve found him.”
“I’m a friend of Carson’s. He asked me to deliver your housewarming present.”
I smile and raise both my eyebrows. “Did he now, and what would that be?”
She opens her coat and there she stands.
White silk stockings, suspender belt, a white lace thong and short-cut white satin corset.
Her body is tanned, toned and amazing. My jaw tics, I bend my head to the left as if trying to crack my neck.
My eyes scan up and down her body and I stand back, raising my hand, gesturing for her to enter.
“I do love housewarming presents.” I smile a slow smile, which she returns.
“You know, I think tonight, for once, I will too.” She takes my hand. “I heard a little secret.”
“Oh yes, and what was that?”
“You like having your cock sucked.”
“You did, did you?” I smile. “Show me a man who doesn’t.” I open my eyes wide.
“Yes, it’s a coincidence don’t you think?” I look at her, puzzled. “Because tonight I’m in the mood to suck your cock dry.”
“Hmm. That is a mood that I like. Coincidental or not.” I smile. “I do have great friends, don’t I?” I add.
“You do. I’m a very expensive housewarming gift.”
I unashamedly look her up and down. “I can see that.” I lead her to the bar where I pour another Cointreau for myself. “Do you want a drink?” I hold up my glass and tip his my head to the side, cracking my neck again.
She shakes her head. “No thanks.”
I smile, raise my eyebrows and take her hand, leading her back to the foyer to go up the stairs to my bedroom, still carrying my drink.
“You know, you are just the distraction I needed tonight.”
She smiles.
“What did you say your name was?” I ask.
“What do you want it to be?”
I continue walking up the stairs, then and stop mid-step to turn and look at her. I narrow my eyes and put my chin at an angle.
“My bedroom is this way…Natasha.”