Page 36 of Where There's A Will
Bree shrank back and released my hand. She started to open her mouth, but Montana shook her head. Whatever message she silently conveyed worked, as Bree slid her chair back, grabbed her bag and quickly rushed away from the table and out of the bar.
“You’re here?” My head tilted as I still struggled to process it. “How are you here? You’re supposed to be like, seven hours away in London.”
Montana sniffed. “I wish I was.”
“I’m glad you’re not.” I treated her to a stupid, toothy grin.
She rolled her eyes. “Let’s get you home. Then I’ll explain everything.”
On the short walk back to our apartment building, Montana supported me, holding me up before I could trip on the sidewalk and crack my head or something. I don’t know what had made me such a lightweight. Three whiskies and I was well gone.
I fumbled with my keys, then dropped them. Montana dipped down to pick them up and let us into the apartment.
Frantically, I wondered what sort of state I’d left it in. Today had been a duvet day until Roman came round, with a couple of takeout pizza boxes lying on the floor next to the sofa and some empty beer cans on the table, next to the discarded video-game controllers. My laundry was hung up between the living room and bedroom—at least it was clean. It wasn’t a patch on Montana’s neatly arranged apartment, but it was relatively tidy.
I slumped on the sofa, while she cleared away the garbage and got me a pint glass full of water.
“I may as well have been in London, the amount of travel I’ve done over the past couple of days.” Montana sank onto the seat next to me.
My brows knotted together. “I don’t understand?”
“Hugo took me to Montana.”
“It would be inappropriate of me to laugh out loud right now, wouldn’t it?”
“Well, he thought it was funny. Montana in Montana.”
There was a small part of me that agreed with him. But when she’d been expecting London, Montana was one hell of a letdown. And I would never let her down.
“Tell me more.”
“We had a stupidly long flight, and when I realised we weren’t going to London it was too late and I had to carry on with the trip. Hugo made me pay for the car rental because he kept saying he’d covered the rest of the trip. We were to stay in one of those chalet lodges, and he took me to a pizza restaurant for our first-night dinner. Cheap but not so cheerful.”
I pushed the empty pizza box under the sofa with my heel. “Sounds horrible.” I forced a sympathetic expression.
“Then he was expecting me to go hiking or rafting or something!” Her voice pitched as she described the activities.
Even though I hadn’t known her all that long, I knew those things weren’t for her. She was more about the theatre or movies or dinner or long walks in the park. All the things I wanted to do with her. If she’d let me.
“So you came back because you didn’t have the right shoes?”
A sob escaped her. “No. I came back because I realised he didn’t know me at all and we had nothing in common.”
I could have told her that. He was a douchebag and she deserved better. “And that was your reason for coming back?”
She choked and took a deep breath before answering. “In the morning, he took a shower and charged his phone. It was then all his other girlfriends’ messages started coming in. Including the waitress from the pizza place the previous evening. I shouldn’t have looked, but I couldn’t help myself.”
What an utter shit.If Hugo had been anywhere near me right then, I would have decked him.
“That’s when I realised I had to leave because I was making the biggest mistake of my life by trying to make it work with him when everything in me wants to be with you. The thought of coming back to you was what kept me going on the ridiculously long journey back today. You, Will Spencer, the Brit in New York.”
The world went into slow motion at her words while my heart raced. I shook my head. Had she really said that or was it a product of my whisky-fuelled imagination?
“Say that again.” I had to be sure.
“Will, I want to be with you.” Montana paused. “I’m so sorry I went away with Hugo. I…thought he might have changed. But I guess a leopard never changes its spots, right?”
I wanted to hug her and kiss her all at the same time. A thought occurred to me. “You still have the week off, right?”
