Chapter 13 #2
‘I just came to return this,’ Luca said, by some small miracle sidestepping the opportunity to regale my brother and best friend with embarrassing details of how I’d rugby-tackled my way into his flat at 1 a.m. stinking like a brewery and then passed out in his bed.
I heard him place something on the bar, sliding it across the countertop, just as my right leg went into spasm.
I clamped one hand over my mouth to stop the scream of pain vibrating at the back of my throat, the other desperately massaging the twitching muscles in my right calf.
But my leg seemed to take on a life of its own, kicking out in protest at being stuck underneath my full weight for so long, and striking Matt in the back of the knee in the process.
‘ Oww! ’ His legs buckled, his elbows leaning atop the bar the only thing stopping him crumpling to the floor as they caught his fall. ‘ What the hell, Jenny? ’
I closed my eyes, willing the ground to swallow me whole. Peering up, I saw an angry-looking Matt, an amused-looking Jacob and a frowning Luca all staring down at me.
‘Yes. I was just, err – yes.’ I jumped to my feet, gesturing vaguely to the floor as though that were sufficient explanation for my hiding. Luca’s teeth teased at his bottom lip.
‘Have you been down there this whole time?’ he asked, eyes twinkling with amusement.
‘Of course not,’ I scoffed, with a level of conviction I hoped would ward off any requirement for further explanation.
Luca cocked one eyebrow dubiously, his lips pressed tightly together in a way that told me he was not convinced.
‘Besides, who’s stalking who now?’ I went on.
‘Let me guess, you just happened to be passing?’
‘He came to return your wallet,’ Matt explained, still rubbing the back of his leg as he waved my battered leather card holder in front of me.
Huh, I must have dropped it leaving the community centre the other day.
The fact that several days had passed and I hadn’t even noticed it was missing said a lot about the current contents of my bank account.
Or lack thereof. Warmth flooded my cheeks as I shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans.
‘Thanks,’ I muttered. ‘But you really didn’t have to come all this way just to return it.’
Luca shrugged. ‘I did try and call .?.?.’
My cheeks burned some more. So, that’s why he’d phoned.
Another cheer rumbled from one side of the bar to the other like a Mexican wave, all the red-football-shirt-wearing men leaping to their feet while everyone dressed in blue sat with their head in their hands.
Luca took a step forward, one forearm propped against the bar as he leaned in closer.
‘Plus, I didn’t know when you’d next come by the community centre after the other day .?.?.’ Something uncomfortable knotted in my stomach.
‘We really don’t have to talk about it.’
Luca shook his head, but it was more at himself than at me. ‘I made an assumption about your life when I had no place to. I mean, we hardly know each other. So – I apologise.’ Across the bar, his eyes held mine. Wide and imploring and laden with something I’d not seen before. Sincerity, perhaps?
‘It’s fine. Consider it forgotten,’ I said with an awkward smile, keen to steer us back to safer ground. This whole him-being- sincere business was creeping me out. ‘Besides, if we’re being honest, I made a few assumptions about you when we first met.’
Luca’s mouth twitched with interest. ‘Oh really? Like what?’
‘Like .?.?.’ I made a show of mentally running my finger down a very long list, ‘you being a conceited asshole, for one. Obviously, I don’t think that anymore.’ I blinked innocently. ‘Now I just think you’re an asshole.’
Luca’s laugh made his eyes flash a colour I’d never seen before, a shot of warm amber rippling through his ink-dark irises that was so beautiful I wanted to hear him laugh again just so I could see it a second time.
‘You know what, I think I will get that drink,’ Luca announced, slapping one hand on the counter as he claimed the stool next to Jacob. ‘Something tells me I’m going to need it if you keep doling out compliments like that.’
‘You asked.’ I shrugged, pouring him a pint of whatever was on draught without even asking what he wanted and sloshing most of the contents over the sides of the glass as I placed it on the beer mat in front of him.
‘How did you guess that I prefer to lick my beer straight off the bar?’ But he raised the glass to his lips all the same, closing his eyes as he took a long sip.
‘Speaking of excellent customer service—’ he paused, staring pointedly at me, but I ignored his dig of a segue ‘—I’m playing at Brighton Music Hall next Saturday night.
You should come.’ The way Luca was staring at me made it seem as though the invitation was for me and me alone.
My mouth fell open before I could stop it.
Wait, was this .?.?. was he .?.?. was he asking me on a date?
‘You should all come,’ Luca added, and my shoulders relaxed a fraction when his eyes swung to Jacob and Matt, my bottom jaw finally remembering how to close.
Jacob’s hand came down flat on the bar. ‘Count me in!’
I glared at him, my eyeballs screaming traitor across the counter. What? his eyebrow said back.
‘I’m on the late shift next Saturday but Jenny’s free,’ Matt volunteered for me.
‘Um, excuse me? Since when did you become my social secretary?’ I huffed, taking offence at the automatic assumption that I didn’t have any plans. Which I didn’t. But still, he didn’t know that.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. When was the last time you weren’t in your pyjamas by 5 p.m. on a Saturday?’ Matt asked, folding his arms across his chest. My cheeks flushed.
‘2002,’ Jacob teased, all three of them cackling with laughter.
‘Just say yes, Thompson.’ The way Luca’s smirk stretched from ear to ear made my teeth grind with annoyance. Like he knew what was best for me.
‘Why? Because every woman must accept any invitation that a man deigns to offer us?’
‘No,’ he said slowly, a lost look in his eyes, as though unsure how he’d navigated himself into a conversation around gender stereotypes. ‘Because it’ll be fun. That is, if you even know how to have fun.’ He shrugged, feigning disinterest.
‘I’m fun,’ I said pointedly, lifting my chin at Jacob for backup, but he just dropped his head lamely from side to side before taking a giant gulp of wine.
Matt was no better. He looked away when I turned to him, suddenly very interested in the game on the big screen.
‘I am fun,’ I insisted, resisting the urge to stamp my foot.
Luca grinned. ‘Sounds more believable the more you say it! Come on, you know you want to really.’
‘She does.’ Matt nodded, answering for me.
My hand found my hip. ‘I really don’t.’
‘You do,’ Luca said simply, bumping one shoulder conspiratorially against Jacob’s. ‘She does.’
‘She really does,’ Jacob agreed.
‘I do not!’ I insisted. ‘What is it with men and thinking they know better than all women?’
Luca held one hand to his chest in mock offence. ‘I would never dare to suggest I know better than all women, Jenny.’ His eyes flicked to mine. ‘Just you.’
I threw the tea towel I was wiping the bar with in his direction but sadly he caught it before it could make contact with his face. Shame.