A Little Place in Prague (Romantic Escapes #12)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

September

‘H oney, I’m home,’ called Leo through the open door of the top-floor apartment, stepping past the suitcases left inside the doorway.

There was no response but Leo heard a muttered curse, so he walked to one of the open doorways to find a large man, his own sort of age, squinting down at the instructions for a flat-pack construction.

‘Hello, you must be my new flatmate,’ he said, dumping his rucksack on the floor and looking around the light airy room with Velux windows tucked into the sloping roof. At first glance, his home for the next six months didn’t look too bad at all. Hopefully his roomie would be okay, too, although Leo’s immediate impression was that he seemed a little taciturn – but then, who wouldn’t be when they were surrounded by little packets of screws and the pieces of a half-completed bed frame?

His new roommate glanced up. ‘What?’ he mumbled through a deep frown, his mind clearly on what bolt went where. ‘Yeah, right.’

‘Leo Knight.’ He waved as the other man clearly wasn’t in any sort of position to shake his hand. ‘Sorry to barge in. Looks like you’ve got your hands full there. Need a hand?’

‘I’m all right. Steve Munt.’ He lumbered to his feet. ‘You just got here?’

‘Yeah, I flew into Václav Havel this morning.’ He got a kick out of saying the Czech name with what he hoped was the correct pronunciation.

‘What?’ The man frowned, leaving Leo with impression number two, that his new room-mate was either a bit slow or a bit dull. The jury was out.

‘Prague airport,’ responded Leo. Maybe the guy needed a bit of tickle. ‘Great transport links. I only got off the plane an hour and a half ago. Looks like you’ve been here a while and had time to go shopping.’

‘No, drove here.’ The other man nodded towards the bedframe in pieces on the floor. ‘Brought it with us. My girlfriend’s gone out to do the shopping. We only got here half an hour ago.’ He gave Leo a careful and slightly suspicious study which almost had Leo checking himself over. Did he look that threatening? Or odd? They were both wearing T-shirts and jeans, although Leo’s Armanis had put in a few miles and the fashionable rip was actually genuine – the result of a close encounter with barbed wire when a very displeased boyfriend hadn’t taken kindly to Leo kissing his girlfriend. Not that she’d complained or even mentioned said boyfriend.

‘Looks okay, doesn’t it?’ Leo ploughed on, determined to give the guy the chance to warm up.

‘What?’

‘This place. Not bad at all.’

Leo turned and surveyed the hallway and the smaller, empty room opposite. Someone was very organised. His plan was to nip to the nearby Ikea, grab a mattress, bedding and the basics and come back in an Uber. The store was open until eight. Plenty of time. When you were offered a very low rent on an unfurnished flat, you weren’t going to turn it down, especially when you were going to be living on a bursary for six months.

‘Fancy a beer?’ he asked. ‘I picked up a couple of cold ones from the shop down the road.’

‘A beer?’ Steve looked at his watch and then down at the instructions he was following and then scrunched up his face. ‘Why not? This is doing my head in. It’s a two-man job, so I can’t do any more at the moment.

He rose to his feet.

Leo grinned. ‘You’d better tell me where the kitchen is. All I’ve had time to do is dump my bags.’

‘Up the stairs. This place is upside down for some reason.’ The other man scowled. ‘The kitchen and lounge are up there.’

Leo thought it sounded fun. ‘Cool. Great views, I’m guessing, as we’re top of the building.’

‘Not my idea of fun, traipsing up the stairs all the time but I’m not the one who’ll be living here.’

‘Oh.’ Leo, following him up the stairs paused, suddenly grateful for this news.

‘It’s my girlfriend. I’m helping her move in. Staying the weekend. Took the shuttle. Drove through. France, Belgium, Germany. Took fifteen hours.’

‘Oh, right. Well, nice to meet you.’ That explained the suspicious look, thought Leo. He wasn’t vain but he also wasn’t stupid.

Steve carried on, ‘She’s here on a cultural placement with some brewery. It’s a bloody long way to come to learn how to make lager, if you ask me.’

‘No sympathy, mate,’ said Leo with a forced grin, feeling solidarity with his unknown flatmate, delighted to find he’d have something in common with her. ‘I’ve got the same bee in my bonnet. I’m doing a placement, too.’ All he’d been told was that he’d be sharing an apartment with another European who was on the same scheme to further knowledge of Czech culture, produce and industry. If they were also into beer that was a big tick. There was an induction meeting on Monday, where he’d meet his brewery sponsor and find out where he’d be working for the next six months. Although securing the placement was pretty prestigious and had been fiercely contested, he was actually more interested in the prize that was up for grabs during the placement. There was an amazing opportunity, at least amazing to him, to win a couple of brewery tanks as well as all the equipment to fit out his own small, craft brewery. On paper it sounded relatively simple: create a bespoke beer, along with a marketing and distribution plan that needed to demonstrate how he would raise the profile of Czech beer in the UK. The winner would be the headline beer at the newly established Christmas Beer Festival. It would be an amazing publicity opportunity. He wondered how many of the other people who’d snagged a placement would be interested in winning their own brewery kit.

He stopped dead as they walked into the lounge area, grinning when he spotted the unexpected roof terrace. ‘Now that’s a bonus.’

Steve shrugged his heavy shoulders. ‘S’pose, if you like looking at roofs. Be better with a decent view. Like the sea, or a beach or something.’

‘Bit difficult here. I’m pretty sure the Czech Republic is landlocked. Although, cool that you can visit four different countries crossing the border.’

Steve looked at him as if he were talking gibberish.

Thank God Steve wasn’t staying, thought Leo as he carried his smaller rucksack into the kitchen. Maybe he took a while to warm up.

‘Watch your head,’ warned Steve. ‘Why anyone would put a kitchen in here, I don’t know. Every wall has a sloping ceiling. Complete botch job and a bloody nightmare. I’d have stuck the kitchen at one end of the lounge and made it open-plan.’

Leo bit back the words ‘I’m sure you would.’ He rather liked the quirky kitchen with its wood-framed Velux windows. It felt rather like an eyrie at the top of a mountain, with views from every window. He opened a couple of cupboards before finding some suitable glasses. At a push he wasn’t averse to drinking out of the bottle, but a true aficionado knew it didn’t do the taste of the beer any favours.

Taking the glasses and separating a couple of bottles from the ones he put in the fridge, he moved out to the roof terrace, keen to get back into the late August sunshine after being cooped up in an airport, plane and cab for most of the day. Sitting in one of the bistro chairs, he took a deep breath and pulled his keyring with its bottle-top opener from his pocket to flip off the cap of one of the bottles of Pilsner Urquell. A safe, standard choice for day one here, but he was looking forward to trying some of the craft beers in the local brewpubs.

He handed a bottle and the keyring to Steve.

‘Thanks.’ Steve sank into one of the chairs and flipped the crown cap off his beer.

Leo carefully poured the beer into the glass, watching the foamy head froth up, already anticipating the flavour of the golden brew.

‘Cheers,’ he said and took a long, thirsty pull, before slapping down his glass with a grin. ‘Absolute nectar.’

Steve wrinkled his nose, ‘Not so sure about all that head.’ But he took a sip.

Leo closed his eyes to savour the cool, refreshing flavour of the beer and the sun on his face. This was heaven right here.

He opened his eyes and squinted into the sunshine. Holy shit!

His hand clenched on the condensation-covered glass and the sudden grip forced it out of his fingers, so that it landed with a crash on the table, sending a spray of beer up his arm.

‘Anna, you’re back.’ Steve jumped to his feet, ignoring Leo’s mishap, and went over to the woman who’d stepped through the French doors onto the terrace. He wrapped his arm around her in a proud, proprietorial embrace, as Leo brushed ineffectually at his wet arm, all the while staring at Anna.

‘This is Leo, the guy you’re going to be sharing with.’

Leo’s mouth turned dry and his stomach dropped to his feet. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the–– He grabbed his drink and took a quick slug of beer to give his hands something to do.

‘This is my girlfriend, Anna. Anna Love.’ Steve actually puffed out his chest as he laid claim to her in that and-you’d-better-remember-that-mate, territorial-gorilla way. Which was an effing joke because he clearly had absolutely no idea who Leo was.

‘Anna,’ said Leo, swallowing hard.

‘Leo. Nice to meet you,’ said Anna without so much as a pause, not moving from Steve’s protective hold. She stared at him with the sort of smooth, bland poker face that gave nothing away.

He blinked and waited a second. Had she really said that? Nice to meet you? Did she not recognise him? Of course she bloody recognised him. How could she not?

He could feel his upper lip curling in … he wasn’t sure what. Disbelief? Amazement? Disappointment?

Seriously? She was going to pretend she didn’t know him?

Even after all this time, it was a kick to the stomach.

‘I got you some milk. So you can have a proper cup of tea,’ she said, turning to Steve. Her boyfriend.

B-b-boyfriend. Sharp acid soured Leo’s stomach like curdled milk.

‘Would you like one … er, Leo?’ she asked, as if she wasn’t sure of his name.

Ouch, that hurt. His heart crumpled, with a crisp, cellophane crunch.

‘Uh, er, no. Uh…’ Incapable of finding consonants, let alone words, he held up his beer in response as if she spoke a different language.

She nodded, almost dismissively, and turned to her … to Steve. ‘Want one?’

Steve gave her an apologetic grimace. ‘I’m on the beer, too. It’s not bad.’

‘Mmm,’ said Anna, and, if anything, she looked a little disapproving. As much to annoy her as by natural instinct, Leo immediately offered her one. ‘There are a couple of Pilsners in the fridge, if you’d like one. I’m looking forward to trying some of the local brews while we’re here. I was thinking about visiting BeerGeek tonight. Do you two fancy coming?’

Anna’s eyes brightened as a spark of enthusiasm lit up in them, and then she glanced at Steve and her mouth straightened – a little, but the change was enough to tell Leo that she’d seriously considered his idea for a moment.

‘No, mate,’ said Steve. ‘We’re going to be apart for the next few months, so we’d rather do something … just us.’

Anna nodded. ‘I’ve bought a few bits to cook with.’ She paused and Leo very nearly laughed as he saw her natural good manners warring with her desire to do the right thing by the boyfriend. ‘You could … er … join us, if you want.’ It was possibly the most grudging invitation he’d ever been given, and Leo could guarantee that his presence would be as welcome as a Siberian blast of winter in June.

‘You’re all right. I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it. I need to get a bed sorted.’ He picked up his phone and began to tap details into his Uber app.

‘How are you going to do that?’ There was a slight sneer in Steve’s voice.

‘Cab to Ikea. I ordered a load of stuff online, including one of their magic mattresses that come vacuum-packed. I need to go and pick it up.’

Feeling as if he’d had the last word, Leo stood up and took his beer and glass. ‘I’ll see you guys later.’

Downstairs he shut the door of his room and said out loud, ‘I don’t effing believe it.’

He was going to be living with Anna flipping Love for six months. What weird alignment of the stars had created this mess?