Page 3 of Spiralling Skywards
“How’s that, mate? He’s worked fucking hard over in Australia and brought a lot of new ideas to the business. A lot of which we’ll implement within what we’re gonna set up here. Luke’s not riding on anyone’s shirt tails, don’t you worry about that.”
Who the fuck was this bloke? I already wanted to knock the fucker out. I heard loud laughter from behind us, and we all turned at once to look at the crowd of girls that had just walked in.
“Guests are arriving. I need to go and do my bit for a little while. I’ll see ya later.” Will nodded in our general direction and then walked over to where the girls were showing the bouncer their invites.
“So you been mates with the boys long?” I didn’t really want to engage the bloke in conversation, but it was gonna get awkward if I just stood there and ignored him.
“Yeah, yeah. We go way back. We all went to school together, me and Will right since infant school. Then we met Luke at secondary school. “We all went our separate ways for uni, and then Will and Luke fucked off travelling and forgot to come back. Leaving the rest of us behind.” I could most definitely hear an edge of bitterness in his voice, or maybe itwasjealousy.
“You didn’t fancy giving it a go yourself, the travelling?”
He shrugged his shoulders and gave his head a small shake, “Nah, not for me. I mean, I like Europe, and I was gonna meet up with them in Aus, but because of a bit of a misunderstanding that happened while I was at uni, I had trouble getting a visa.”
Ah, now we were getting to the truth of the matter. The bloke was full of shit. I interviewed applicants for high-end positions all day long, and I could smell bullshit a mile off. If he’d been turned down for a visa, I would assume his offence was a little more serious than a driving conviction.
“Yeah, they’re pretty strict on that kind of thing.”
“Fucking ridiculous if you ask me. The country was built by prisoners, all sent from here. What right have they got to turn me down?”
I was actually stunned into silence for a few seconds.
“Actually, mate, if you’ve got a criminal record, they’ve got every right. The reason Australia has grown to become the country it has, is because we are now so fussy about who we let in.”
I drained my drink and quickly ordered another.
“Yeah, well they don’t know what they’re missing out on. I’m full of idea’s me. I could be running this place, or even doing what Luke’s doing for you.”
“Luke’s not doing anything for me.” I clarified. “Like I said, we’re partners.”
I collected my drink from the barmaid and was about to escape Declan and his poisonous tongue when he asked, “You not married?”
“Me? No, divorced. You?”
Why? Why did I engage him?
Jet lag was obviously affecting my ability to walk away from tanned orange men with over inflated opinions of themselves.
“Nah, no time. Too busy working, you know how it is.”
Yeah, I knew all right, who the fuck would wanna get stuck with him for the rest of their life? My jaw ached where he was making me so tense. Was he jealous of my business relationship with Luke, or our friendship? I wasn’t sure, but I found his comments odd.
“What d’ya do, for work I mean?”
“I’ve got a couple of fitness centres, about to open a third.”
Why was Inotsurprised?
“Not that I’m short of attention from the women of course. I mean . . .” He gestured with his hand, as if to say “Look at me,” and I almost threw up in my own mouth.
“I’m fighting them off at work. Made the mistake of banging a few that used the facilities, but that got a bit awkward when I realised that I’d fucked every girl in the place—including the married ones,” he told me with a nod and a wink.
I zoned out for a while as he talked, mostly about himself, and instead, took a look around the room. It had filled up rapidly in the time that it’d taken Declan Fox to bore me to fucking tears.
I noticed a tall girl, with poker-straight blonde hair staring at me. She was pretty enough to make my dick stir in my jocks, but I hadn’t had sex in almost a week, so anything female, of age, and with a pulse was probably capable of that.
I was about to return her smile, when I was jostled by someone trying to squeeze in to get served. I stepped back to give them room, and that was when I saw her. When I say “her”, I mean her arse. The most perfect arse I’d ever seen in my life. Unlike the tall blonde that had been obviously trying to get my attention a moment ago, this girl was short and curvy.
Her straight black skirt looked as if it had been sprayed on. There was absolutely no way she could’ve possibly been wearing knickers, or even a thong underneath it. I would’ve seen the outline, believe me, I looked fucking hard enough.
