Page 12 of Rivers of Ink
She looked up and smiled, her green eyes sparkling. “Thank you. Milk and sugar for me please.”
Callan busied himself sorting out the drinks before sitting down again. “I should have told you about Xander sooner.”
“If you had answered any of my questions the other night, then I wouldn’t have put my foot in it.” She took a sip of the coffee.
“If I’d have told you those things, would you have even applied for the job?”
“Good question.” There was a pause. “I don’t know if I would. Why didn’t you tell me?”
It took him a moment before he was able to answer. It had to be the truth. “For one night, I wanted to escape. I didn’t want to think about what was really going on in my life. The night we were together, that was the night before Xander’s funeral.”
He watched as Alicia’s eyelids fluttered and her jaw dropped.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories for you.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “I have some great memories of that night.”
Their eyes met, and Callan instinctively knew she was thinking the same thing as he was: that hot, sweet, sexy-as-hell night of passion. He wondered if there was any chance for them to repeat it.
7
It was a warm, balmy evening, and plenty of people had also descended on Oakridge’s Riverside bar and restaurant area to enjoy the sunshine and grab something to eat. As Alicia walked over from the Fosse Arcade, she mulled over her first day at The Unbound Soul. After their heart-to-heart in the morning, Alicia had worked downstairs at the reception podium all afternoon, taking bookings and welcoming clients. While it wasn’t something she was used it, she had enjoyed it, particularly seeing happy customers with a new look, design, or piercing. When there had been quiet moments, she had begun penning a marketing strategy, based on what had been created in the past, as well as putting her own stamp on things. She planned to show something to Callan by the end of the week.
Nell was waiting for her outside La Mesa Tapas, four cocktails on the table.
“Are we expecting company?” asked Alicia. She pulled out a chair and sat down.
“It’s two-for-one, what did you expect?” replied Nell, taking a piece of fruit out of one of the glasses and chewing on it.
“Where are Rory’s then? I thought we were celebrating my first day of paid employment.”
Her friend rolled her eyes. “He’s working late again. Apparently, there’s a potential new client that they’re seeing tomorrow, and he needs to do a presentation for them. Only found out at four this afternoon.”
Rory’s work had been springing more and more last-minute things on him. While Alicia thought that must be a good thing for his career, she knew that Nell was starting to tire of him letting her down at the last minute.
“Anyway, enough of my whinging. How was your first day?”
Alicia reached for the Citrus Samba and took a long pull. The sharpness of the pineapple juice and cachaça tasted amazing, and she drank some more, almost finishing the glass in two goes.
“Careful. You don’t want to be steaming before the food arrives,” Nell warned. “I ordered some olives, taquitos, and empanadas. Oh, and chicken wings. I thought you might be hungry after your first day. Unless your new boss took you out for a slap-up lunch?”
Callan had offered to take her out for lunch, but she’d declined, choosing instead to head to Books ’n’ Beans for a little time out. It had taken pretty much all of her willpower to say no although it had been the right thing to do. After everything he’d told her, she needed a little time to digest and work out what, if anything, she wanted to happen.
“He asked, I said no.”
“What happened? Did you mess up some appointments? Give someone the wrong change? Overcharge someone’s credit card?”
It was going to be difficult to keep anything from Nell. “I found out his brother was killed in an accident.”
Nell’s hand flew to her mouth, her eyes like saucers. “Oh my god, when?”
“Not that long ago. And when we slept together last week, it was the night before the funeral.”
“Wait, what?”
“You know I said he’d been pretty evasive when I’d asked him questions about his life? Turns out he was trying to be normal for a night, not have to think about all of that.”
“Understandable.”
