Chapter Nine Dane
I’m not actually expecting a response from Eliott.
The only reason I bother sending the message is because I know Cash will ask if I’ve done anything.
I fully expect her to ignore me. To delete the message and continue on with her life without any kind of acknowledgment that I’ve reached out.
So when my phone lights up, the last thing I expect to see is:
@ ERAYNEWEDDINGS
If you want to talk, feel free to meet me here.
She also shares her location, sending me a link to a restaurant and bar that’s actually not too far from me right now. I tell myself that the deciding factor in all of this is just how close she currently is, and not that I’m feeling strangely eager to see and speak to her again.
@ GREATDANECONSTRUCTION
cool. give me 30 mins
She doesn’t respond again and by the time I get to the Black Cat, I’m halfway convinced that she won’t be there. That she’s either chickened out or this is just some kind of game to her.
But she is there.
I spot her almost immediately, even through the rapidly growing Friday night crowd. She’s sat at the bar sipping on a drink, her focus is locked on the phone in her hands. I wonder if she’s aware of just how many eyes she has on her currently.
The bartender keeps sneaking glances at her, looking like he’s debating asking for her number but can’t quite work up the courage to approach her, and both men on either side of her can’t seem to tear their gaze away. I don’t blame them.
Eliott is gorgeous.
You’d think my reaction to her would have dulled by now, that I’d be immune to the small smile that quirks her lips as she scrolls through her phone, that the sight of her, wearing a strappy vest that shows a delicious amount of skin, wouldn’t immediately fill me with the urge to run my hands along her warm skin to find out if it’s as soft as I remember.
And yet.
Every time I see Eliott, it’s like I’m seeing her for the first time.
I cross the distance between us and slide into the empty space between her and the guy next to her. She jolts slightly as my arm brushes against hers and looks up, meeting my easy smile with a slightly wary one of her own.
Hell, I’ll take it.
‘Dane,’ she says with a nod.
‘Glad to see you remember me this time.’
She cringes, her nose scrunching up in a way I can’t help but find disarmingly adorable. ‘I definitely deserve that.’
I’ve never been one for holding grudges and it’s easy to tell that her even agreeing to meet me tonight hasn’t been the easiest of choices for her. ‘Consider it forgotten.’
‘No, I owe you an apology.’ She huffs out a long sigh. ‘And an explanation.’
She doesn’t owe me anything if we’re being honest here, but the guy next to me shifts slightly in his seat and I’m suddenly acutely aware that we’ve got an audience. ‘You want to grab a table and get something to eat?’
She hesitates for a moment and then shrugs. ‘Sure.’
It takes us a couple of minutes to flag down a waiter and then we’re guided towards a secluded booth towards the back of the restaurant.
As soon as the waiter shuffles away, having taken a quick order of some tapas to share between us, Eliott laces her fingers together and clears her throat. ‘Thanks for meeting me tonight.’
A bark of laughter bursts out of me before I even register the sound crawling up my throat.
Eliott narrows her eyes, suddenly on the defensive. ‘What?’
‘You’re just – You sound so formal,’ I explain, quite enjoying the way she scowls at me. ‘?“ Thanks for meeting me tonight .” I feel like I’m about to be fired or something.’
‘Is that a conversation you’re familiar with?’
‘Not since I was sixteen,’ I say. There’s a long pause, and she cocks her head to the side, obviously waiting for me to elaborate.
‘I had a summer job posting leaflets through doors for this restaurant and, long story short, I got bored one day and just tossed all the leaflets in a bin, thinking that my boss would never find out.’
Her eyes light up and she immediately looks more like the person I met that night two years ago. ‘Is this going where I think it is?’
‘If you’re thinking that my boss called me in for a meeting the next day, casually unearthed a stack of leaflets and asked me to explain why she found them stuffed in a bin right outside the restaurant, then yes, it’s going exactly where you think it is.’
She laughs, and it’s the kind of laugh that can get easily stuck on repeat in your mind if you’re not careful. Warm and all-consuming, like the sun in sound form. ‘Why would you get rid of them outside the restaurant?’
‘Fuck knows?’ I laugh. ‘I was sixteen, stupid, and didn’t want to spend my summer as an underpaid mail boy. But don’t try to change the topic—’
‘I wasn’t—’
‘That’s how my boss started the meeting, “ Thanks for meeting me today ,” and that didn’t end very well for me.’
‘You got fired?’
‘I got fired and she told my parents. Definitely not a fun time to be me.’
She laughs again, a quiet chuckle this time that echoes in my mind for a few seconds after she’s finished. ‘Well, I’m not about to fire you or snitch to your parents.’
‘Good.’ I smile at her and I’m relieved when she mirrors it with a small one of her own. ‘And, on a scale of one to ten, how well is tonight going to end for me?’
‘One being?’
‘One being you tell me you’re going to decline photographing Cash and Bailey’s wedding.’
She winces. ‘And ten?’
‘You agree to photograph the wedding and—’ There’s been a slight shift between us. The air isn’t as tinged with awkward tension as before, so I decide to push my luck. ‘And we pick up where we left off two years ago.’
Her eyes widen a fraction and I half expect her to look away, but she doesn’t. She holds my gaze as her lips curl upwards into the kind of smirk I’d love to kiss off her face. ‘We might be able to get to a solid five.’
I lean back into my seat and grin. ‘Are you saying that door’s closed?’
‘I’m saying that I didn’t agree to meet you tonight for that.’
‘Ah,’ I wiggle my brows. ‘ Tonight .’
Her lips twitch. ‘Can we stay on topic?’
‘And the topic is?’
‘Right.’ She nods and looks, for a second, like she’s steeling herself for something. Any hint of a smile has been wiped from her face. ‘I wanted to talk – to clear the air. I know I didn’t handle things well at the engagement party. It wasn’t fair and—’ She swallows. ‘And I’m sorry about that.’
I blink at her. If I’m being honest, I wasn’t expecting an apology tonight.
‘I’ve got some hang-ups,’ she says slowly, and I wonder if I’m imagining the way she winces slightly. ‘And seeing you there kind of brought them right to the front of my mind again. I guess I just panicked.’
‘I won’t lie and say it wasn’t a little weird.’
‘I know, but if it makes you feel any better, it was quite possibly the most mortifying experience of my whole life. I regretted it straight away and I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed. Second only to—’ She stops abruptly and laughs dryly. ‘Second only to our night together, I guess.’
I raise a brow, not entirely sure if she meant to insult me or not. ‘Well, that’s a blow to the ego.’
‘Not because of you,’ she says quickly. ‘But because of… you know… how things ended.’
I frown. ‘How things ended?’
‘You know . How we didn’t end up finishing things because—’
Eliott trails off, leaving me to finish the end of her sentence.
‘Because you weren’t feeling it?’ She squirms a little awkwardly in her seat and realisation suddenly dawns on me.
‘Because you started faking it and I caught you?’ Is that what this has been about the entire time?
Why she was so desperate to avoid me at the party? Because she was embarrassed?
It’s probably the worst thing to do in a situation like this, but I can’t help but laugh.
Eliott’s reaction is almost instantaneous. Her eyes narrow, her lips twist into a scowl, and she looks like she’s about five seconds away from sliding out of our booth and making a run for it.
‘I’m not laughing at you—’
‘You sure?’ She glares at me from across the table. ‘Because it definitely looks that way.’
‘I’m not,’ I tell her honestly, because I’m genuinely not. ‘It’s just… I don’t want to tell you how to react to things, but if I ran away from everyone I’ve ever had an embarrassing sex experience with, I wouldn’t be able to leave my house.’
She rolls her eyes. ‘You don’t—’
‘Once, I ended up slapping myself in the balls – don’t ask how, just know it was thanks to a truly Olympic level of acrobatics on my part – and spent the rest of the night curled up in the foetal position holding a pack of frozen peas to my balls.
Definitely not an attractive look. I’d say that definitely counts as embarrassing. ’
Her brows disappear into the cloud of hair that frames her face.
‘Another time, I thought I’d surprise the girl I was seeing and let myself into her place. Long story short, picture me on her bed, in my birthday suit and suddenly she bursts into the room.’
‘That doesn’t sound embarrassing.’
‘Followed by about five of her friends.’
Her lips start to lilt into a smile.
‘And then there was the time—’
‘I get it,’ Eliott interrupts. ‘Just get to the point.’
‘My point is, “ that time I had to fake an orgasm because the guy I was with was so bad I would’ve had a better chance at coming watching paint dry and he caught me ” doesn’t have to be the humiliating experience you’re making it out to be in your mind,’ I say with a shrug.
‘It can just be a funny story. Life goes on, you know?’
She hums then bites her bottom lip between her teeth and chews thoughtfully for a few seconds. ‘You weren’t bad , you know? In bed, I mean.’
‘Your moaning definitely was,’ I say with a grin, choosing to ignore the unexpected compliment for now.
She gives me a smile, though it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. ‘Believe it or not, no one’s ever called me out on it before.’
I raise a brow. ‘Do you often fake it?’