Page 38 of About Last Night
Emily took a bite of the cinnamon swirl the waitress had just placed in front of her and raised a questioning eyebrow, waiting for Lula to spill the beans.
‘Hold up, let me order some carbs and caffeine first,’ Lula said, giving the waitress a grateful smile as she waited patiently for her to choose what she wanted. ‘I barely slept last night and my brain isn’t functioning yet.’ She placed an order for a bran muffin and a large Americano and slumped back in her chair, only to find her friend glaring at her, impatient for gossip.
Lula sighed. There was no way she was going to get away with keeping Tristan’s continued existence in her life from Emily. Herfriend had a way of sniffing out trouble and strife. ‘It’s a long story, Em.’
‘I have all the time in the world right now,’ Em said, taking a sip of her cafe latte and gesturing for Lula to continue.
So, she started at the point where Emily had left her with Tristan in the pub and filled in the blanks up till the present, her heart racing and her whole body so tightly wound she thought she might break into a million pieces if anyone so much as touched her.
‘Whoa,’ Emily said as Lula ended her monologue by describing the unnervingly intense dream she’d had in the early hours about walking around Tristan’s flat naked while he looked down on her from the mezzanine.
‘No wonder you look so frazzled. That’s some serious sexual frustration you’re dealing with,’ Emily said, flipping her a grin.
Lula put her head in her hands. ‘I’m an idiot, pure and simple. What the hell was I thinking, agreeing to go back to his flat? I’ve just made everything so much worse.’
‘Maybe, subconsciously, you were hoping something would happen?’ Emily said, making it clear in her tone that that was exactly what she believed.
Lula nodded into her hands. ‘I told myself at the time that I wanted to see this amazing place he was staying in – and I did – but that wasn’t really it.’
‘Clearly.’
Raising her head, she gave her friend a sorrowful grimace. ‘I wish I didn’t know all those personal details about him – especially about his evil ex-girlfriend leaving him for his lazy brother. It makes it so much harder to be indifferent when he makes mecareabout him like that.’
‘Understandable.’
‘I came so close to leaning forwards and kissing him, Em.When he touched my arm, it felt like my whole body exploded into this big fiery ball of need. It took everything I had to stand up and walk out of there.’
‘Whydidyou walk? I wouldn’t have done. I’d have got my rocks off and left a satisfied woman.’
Lula snorted. That was just like her friend. ‘I don’t have the ability to keep things unemotional like you.’
‘It’s not about being unemotional,’ Emily said tartly, ‘It’s about putting yourself first for once.’
‘And look what happened when I tried that before. I’ve been pretending to be someone I’m not the whole time I’ve been around him. I think he believes I’m actually likeLouise. If he found out I’m not really like that he’d lose interest pretty damn quickly.’
Emily twisted her mouth into a grim smile. ‘Don’t be daft, Lu.’
‘It always seems to happen though, Em. As soon as I relax and start being myself, they lose interest in me.’
‘That’s because you’re picking the wrong men and expecting too much of them. You’ve got this crazy idea that there’s some perfect individual out there, but there isn’t Lu. Everyone’s messed up in their own sweet way. To be blunt, you’re living in a dream world if you think you’re going to find someone who you can absolutely guarantee will never leave you. Most of the men I’ve met are only out for themselves.’
‘Tristan isn’t like that.’ Her tone came out snappier than she intended and Emily gave her a knowing smile.
‘Then maybe it’s worth giving it a go with him?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think he’d respond too well to me telling him I’ve been pretending to be this confident, outgoing woman the whole time. Look how quickly he shut me down when he thought I’d been using him to keep my job.’
‘Yeah, well, I guess being dumped for his brother has to have had an impact on his self-confidence. It’s not surprising he’s soparanoid. Not that it sounds like he exactly fought you off that night. The dawg.’ Emily wiggled her eyebrows and gave one of her show-stopping smiles.
Lula couldn’t rustle up a return smile this time. ‘He did seem to be genuinely into me. At least, I thought so at the time.’
‘And he’s definitely not interested in a relationship now?’
She shook her head. ‘Nope. He’s made it pretty clear he’s heading back up to Scotland as soon as he’s found a new station manager.’
‘And your reasoning for not having a hot fling in the meantime is…?’
‘If anyone at the station found out I was sleeping with him my credibility would be less than zero. It was awful when everyone found out about Jez.’
