Page 25 of One More Shot
‘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’sbeen 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?’
‘Youknow. 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.’
