Page 49 of Fighting for the Forbidden
“Friends,” Lauren answers quickly.
“Friends?” Liv’s eyes flick between the two of us before landing on me. “How’s that working for you?”
“Fantastic, I love being Lauren’s friend,” I say through gritted teeth, which earns me a slap to the shoulder.
“Behave,” Lauren chastises. “He’s trying.”
“You have some weird power over our BJ, that’s for sure.” Lauren stifles a laugh while Liv just looks amused. “I never thought I’d see him whipped.”
“Enough. Don’t make me regret bringing her here.”
“No, please continue. I really want to learn more about the elusive BJ,” Lauren encourages, and I groan.
“You really don’t.”
“Okay, no, I don’t want to know aboutthatside to BJ.”
Liv and Lauren chat away like they’re old friends. Neither seems to be even slightly concerned that I’m in the same room as they talk about me and compare notes.
“Babe, whose car is parked in the…BJ!” Liam exclaims as he rounds the corner. “Dude, it’s good to see you. Lauren, hey, this is a surprise. Are you two…?”
Liv pierces him with a look while running her hand in front of her throat to get him to stop, and it works…eventually. “They’re just friends. I’m going to make up the guest room for her.”
“Wow, BJ has a woman here, and she’s not going to share his bed. What a novelty.”
“Shut up, dickhead.”
“Ow,” Liam complains, rubbing the sting my hand left behind on his head. “I had years of stick off you; it’s time for payback.”
“I was afraid of that,” I mutter.
“So what’s the plan? The shack to meet Dec and Nic?”
“Yes. Let me show Lauren to her room so she can get ready.”
The girls disappear up the stairs. Liam and I watch them leave before I head up to my old room to shower and dress. The painkillers Mum got from the hospital mean I can move a little easier, and getting dressed isn’t quite as agonising as it was in Rome.
I’m hit with a huge wave of nostalgia when I open my bedroom door and find it exactly as I left it the day I headed for London. I think back to the uncertainty I felt that day. I had no clue what I was about to walk into. In reality, I think it’s worse than I was expecting—business-wise at least. But Lauren’s single and mostly open to us again, even if she is trying to fight it.
As soon as I’m ready, I head back downstairs and find Liam at the table nursing a beer where I left him. The second he sees me heading his way, he grabs me a can so I can join him.
“So…friends? How’s that working out for you?”
I groan in pain and a smug smile spreads across Liam’s face. “Oh, just fuck off.”
He laughs but his face soon turns serious. “She just needs time. You two are it, and you know it.”
“Yeah.” A sad laugh falls from my lips. “I know it. I’m just not sure she does.”
“She does. I can see it in her eyes every time she looks at you.” I narrow my eyes at my best friend, wondering when he turned into a love doctor. “What?”
“Nothing, nothing. So, how’re things down here?”
“Quiet. This house just isn’t the same without you. What are your plans now? Have you moved to London officially?”
I look around the house that I called home for years and realise that I can no longer call it that. “Yeah, I guess I have.”
“This place was too small for you anyway.”
