Chapter Four
Theo twirled the cocktail stick around the bulky glass in his hand. The jingle of ice cubes colliding filled his ears, muting his friend’s elaborate monologue.
“Come on, man. Stop looking so sullen.” Finn slapped a forgiving hand on his friend’s back before lifting the empty glass from the bar top and slinging back the remnants of his Guinness.
Clicking his fingers towards a waiter with black slacks, Finn continued, “We’ll find someone for you.”
Theo rubbed a hand across his forehead. His friend’s words made him feel like a man hopeless at love, but that wasn’t the reason for them sitting in the bistro with a strong drink in each of their hands.
His sister was getting married. What should have been an exciting time of planning and celebration had come to a halt when Theo announced he had broken up with his girlfriend of three years – eight months ago.
He knew he should have told his family, but in all fairness, they had only met her a handful of times.
It had taken him five months to build up the courage to introduce them, and he could count on one hand how many times since their first introduction that they had met again.
Theo could still hear his sister’s words from the weekend prior, her voice high-pitched and laced with evident worry over the phone.
“Theodore, we need your RSVP. Are you bringing Annika? I think she would make a beautiful bridesmaid. Becky’s grandmother just died, poor thing, so a bridesmaid spot has opened up. It would make me so happy.”
“Yeah, about that…” Theo had said hesitantly., earning an irritated sigh in response.
The problem was, Theo’s ex was, quite frankly, a horrible person.
Theo had discovered that she cheated multiple times throughout their relationship.
It was all rather unfortunate. Theo had never thought this would happen to him.
It had taken his best mate to show him a shady online dating profile and some scandalous comments on her Instagram to determine that she was playing him.
Well, that and him getting home to their flat only to find her legs swung over some other man’s hips and the haunting sight of their bare skin.
Denial was the first and the last step for him. Acceptance came all too quickly. Forgiveness was simply not in Theo’s vocabulary.
Not when Annika had decided to cheat on him with some businessman from an accounting firm downtown. The businessman in question had also been in a relationship at the time.
His about-to-be-ex-girlfriend’s feelings for him (or lack thereof) now starkly obvious, he’d promptly ended the relationship feeling like a complete and utter dipshit.
“Annika and I decided to part ways.” He didn’t want to beat around the bush.
Georgia scoffed. “That’s the polite way of saying you dumped her.”
Theo decided to stop avoiding the elephant. “That’s the polite way of saying I wasn’t the only one she was seeing, Gee.”
Georgia let out a gasp. “I swear to God, Teddy, if I get my hands on her—”
He was glad to know she had his back in the situation. “Calm down, Georgie, it’s not a big deal. It just means that my RSVP is just me.”
She laughed disbelievingly. “Oh, no, you don’t. I’m not having my wedding photos look uneven. We need an equal groom and bridal party. You need to find someone.”
The line cut out a bit, leaving Theo wondering if it were the cogs in his mind making the silence seem louder or it was just the shitty reception from across the Irish channel.
“Really, it’s not a big deal. I’ll just come by myself and dance with Mum…”
“No. Please. You have to find someone. For me, pretty please? You would hate to let your baby sister down so close to her wedding, wouldn’t you?” Georgia pulled the baby sister card, and Theo groaned, knowing he wouldn’t win this war.
She was taking full advantage of the fact he would do anything for her. Including finding a stupid plus-one for her wedding day. Strings or no strings attached.
“Please, please, pleeeease.”
Theo moved the phone away from his ear and sighed into the darkness of his empty apartment. “Fine.”
Georgia squealed on the other end of the line. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“But I get to choose who I take,” he interrupted her celebratory squeals. “No involving Mum, understand?” Theo stood firm on his condition.
He knew if his mother were involved, he’d be taking Janet from Zumba class or Stacy-from-bridge’s granddaughter.
Silence filled the line for a few beats before Georgia sighed. “I accept your conditions only if you promise you won’t bring Finn. He doesn’t count. You need to bring someone who would look good in the cowl-neck silk dresses I ordered.”
“You don’t think Finn could pull off a blue silk dress?” he teased.
His sister and best friend of ten years had a strange relationship.
They had known each other forever, but every time they were in a room together, it was like watching a WWE match fought with words.
Insults were fired everywhere, and there was no protective gear to stop them from spitting blood.
Theo thought ‘relationship’ because, amidst the quarrels and not-so-subtle jabs at each other, the two would sit and smile nicely in holiday photos or laugh at the same crude joke made by one or the other.
Georgia scoffed in annoyance. “Not funny. You have two weeks to RSVP with a plus-one.”
“I’ll see you in June, Georgie.”
“Okay, see you, big bro.”
“Love you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Georgia spoke hurriedly before clicking off, the thrumming dial tone resounding in Theo’s ears.
So here he was now, sitting alongside Finn at the bar of a small Italian bistro in central London.
“On the hunt,” Finn had said during their overpriced taxi ride.
Theo had given his bachelor friend the side-eye and a disapproving shake of the head before he had even finished the comment.
Propping themselves on two bar stools, overlooking two sturdy wooden slabs holding liquor, and illuminated by blue neon lights, Theo and Finn had ordered drink after drink.
Gazing over the restaurant every now and then, they eyed up the middle-aged women sitting lonesome at the bar down from them and the sickeningly happy couples at the square white linen tables, holding hands and eating spaghetti Bolognese far too elegantly.
Theo regarded the women with a watchful but respectful gaze, admitting defeat at the fact there were no women here who were single, emotionally available, or crazy enough to agree to a random wedding invite to Ireland.
“Look, we’ve been here for over an hour now. There’s no one here.” Theo took another swig of his drink.
The sound of a chair scraping back harshly got the pair’s attention; they watched a short, dark-haired man storming off with a pointed “Bitch” thrown over his shoulder.
Theo lowered his glass from his lips and frowned, turning on his stool and facing the small dining area, finding where the man had come from, eventually landing on a small table on the far side of the restaurant.
There sat the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Golden locks, curled at the ends and shining under the dull lights of the bistro, adorned the edges of a heart-shaped face.
Bright blue eyes, which he noticed flickered with something humorous, before his attention was drawn down her button nose to her bottom lip.
Painted a daring red and tucked into her mouth in a look of contempt.
She wore a tight black dress, the neckline teasing him with a small glimpse of voluptuous cleavage.
He wondered what it would feel like in his hands, what it would be like to kiss down her throat and down her décolletage, paying special attention to those pale soft mounds.
The woman, who had at this point captivated every cell in Theo’s body, leaned down and scribbled something in a small, A5 green notebook. Something sparked deep in Theo’s mind, a glint of curiosity beaming across his face.
“Oh no,” Finn resounded.
“Oh no, what?” Theo asked, still looking towards the woman, who was now shaking hands with another man.
He watched as the other man sat down, noting their polite meeting, the way her lips curled up seductively.
The shift of her eyes over the figure in front of her.
This second man, wearing a worn leather jacket and with slicked-back dirty blond hair, seemed to get her attention enough.
Even Theo had to admit the man in front of her was one his own sister would probably swoon over.
The ladies often called that style the bad boy look.
They appeared to be enjoying each other’s company.
The woman licked her lips before wrapping them around the end of a breadstick far too suggestively, more so than she probably knew.
He had no doubt the man had picked up on the action and noted how he shifted in his seat not so subtly.
The woman leaned back and shook her head with laughter.
It looked as though she was having a nice time, laughing at jokes and sipping red wine.
It was only when she leaned over the table and placed her delicate hand on the man’s sitting across from her that Theo noted how his smile dropped, eyes narrowing at her.
The corner of Theo’s lips quirked in interest as he watched her ruby-red mouth form words too far away to decipher before Leather Jacket pushed the same velvet chair back and stormed past him and Finn, muttering “Fucking bitch” in the same degrading and offensive manner as the last.
Clicking his tongue, Theo shifted his eyes back to the woman, who, to his surprise, exhaled loudly before pulling that same notebook out from her bag and making an aggressive stroke across the page.
“You’ve got that look.”
“What look?”
“The look.” Finn followed Theo’s gaze and began to shake his head. “No way, man. No way. Her?”
Theo grinned.
“Her.”