Page 78 of Love or Your Money Back

‘Hey, Kat?’ He knocks hard on her bedroom door. ‘Are you okay?’

More scuffling. Then the door opens, and Ahmet appears.

‘Ahmet!’ Freddy leaps back in shock. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

‘I might ask you the same question.’ Ahmet looks stern and serious. ‘I hear you’re sharing a suite with my fiancée.’

‘Um …’

‘Ha!’ Ahmet slaps Freddy’s shoulder. A weak slap, in Freddy’s opinion, that does not convey the dominance it’s supposed to. ‘Only joking Freddy. I know the two of you ended up in the same suite by mistake. Still, you couldn’t blame me for feeling worried. A man like you, alone in a suite with his fiancé. Lucky, I flew out here to surprise Kat, isn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’ Freddy lets out a long breath he didn’t know he was holding. ‘Really lucky.’

Kat appears behind Ahmet, mercifully still fully dressed. ‘What are you doing here, Freddy? I thought you were staying out late.’

‘Yeah. That was the plan.’ Freddy swallows, throat tight. ‘But I got thinking about that room service dinner. So I came back.’

‘Kat and I were rather hoping for some alone time, mate.’ Ahmet says the word ‘mate’ like the awkward nerd he is. ‘Why don’t you go out and find a love bird of your own?’

Freddy would rather swallow razors than leave Kat alone with Ahmet right now. He’d even swallow the Gary-boy razor with a ten-bladed head, which is Salt Marketing’s latest runaway campaign. But instead, he digs deep and says, ‘Yeah. Sure. I’ll give you some privacy.’

‘Wait!’ Kat takes an urgent step forward. ‘We can’t leave you wandering around a strange city after all that alcohol you had on the plane. Stay with us. We’ll have dinner together.’

‘Frankfurt isn’t a strange city for Freddy, Kat,’ says Ahmet. ‘He once dated the German supermodel, Heidi Klum –’

‘Freddy is staying.’ Kat still has a firm grip on Freddy’s arm. ‘He’s part of the Little Voice family. We’re all on the Yellow Brick Road together.’

‘Great!’ Freddy grabs the room service menu. ‘So, what are we all having?’

CHAPTER55

‘Well, here’s to the … ah three of us.’ Ahmet raises an empty wine glass. ‘Do they say ‘three’s a crowd in Germany’, I wonder? Ha!’

Me, Freddy and Ahmet sit at the hotel-suite dining table, beside a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Frankfurt. A room-service trolley takes the fourth seat at the table, loaded with plates of warm food under silver cloches.

‘They say ‘the fifth wheel on the wagon.’ Freddy cheerfully fills Ahmet’s wine glass with sparkling water. ‘It’s not awkward me being here, is it?’

‘Of course not –’ I begin.

‘Well, I was rather hoping Kat and I would be alone,’ Ahmet interrupts. Then, noticing my expression, he adds: ‘But of course you’re welcome, Freddy.’ Ahmet begins lifting trays on the room service trolley. ‘Ah! Kat, this is yours, I’m guessing? I see chickpeas.’

‘Actually, that’s my dish.’ Freddy pours sparkling water into my glass. ‘I’m taking a leaf out of Kat’s book and reducing my meat intake.’

I give an outraged laugh. ‘You are not!’

‘I am, actually.’ Freddy shifts in his seat. ‘I’m not a total vegan or anything, but I can cut down. Mother Earth needs me. What’s that you have there, Ahmet? Non-organically reared pork wrapped in a sausage crumb? Biggest carbon footprint on the menu.’

‘Well, I just thought … we’re in Germany.’ Ahmet looks flustered. ‘I should eat like a local.’

‘So. Ahmet.’ Freddy lifts metal lids from plates. ‘Where will you be staying while you’re in Germany?’

Ahmet gives an awkward laugh. ‘Well, I rather thought I’d be staying here. There’s plenty of room in the suite, isn’t there?’

‘Oh, sure.’ Freddy waves a metal lid in Ahmet’s direction. ‘I see what you mean. Yes, we have three rooms. I suppose you could have the spare.’

Ahmet shuffles on his seat. ‘Katerina and I would … I mean, we are engaged. I think it’s okay, in this day and age, to share a bedroom, don’t you?’

‘Have you two shared a bedroom before?’ Freddy eyes Ahmet with scary intensity.

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