Page 43 of The Grand Duel
I frown.
She laughs.
I try to listen harder, my ear touching the wood, catching my skin.
I rear back, realising how stupid I must look. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
What is wrong with me?
She’s fine.
TEN
Charlie
“Oh, Charlie, what the hell? You’re not an asshole, and now she thinks you’re an asshole.”
I look down the hallway at my two best friends and hold out my arms wide whilst mouthing, “What the fuck.” As much as I love my best friends’ partners, I don’t want, nor need, my shit shared with them.
Apparently, they didn’t get that memo, and now I’m stood around the kitchen island with three women and a bottle of red wine.
“I literally told the mums on nursery pickup this week that you’re one of the most respectful men I know,” Nina adds. “We’re not going to find Mrs A if you start acting like a little bitch.”
“I’m not looking for Mrs A.”
“No, I know that.” She waves me off. “We are.” She leans forward, topping up everyone’s glasses but her own. “I think the fact you even want to talk to us about this Lissie girl is a hugedevelopment. You’ve never shared your club conquests with us before.”
“I never shared this with you either,” I point out.
She waves me off again, rubbing her other hand over her swollen stomach. “Your friends have the emotional intelligence of a sponge. You need us, and you know it.”
I shake my head, taking a drink from my glass.
We met the girls on a night out around four years ago. Nina, a dance teacher, ended up going home with Mason for the night, and it’s his child and wedding band she’s now bearing. Lucy, a fashion designer who’s not long returned from an internship in New York, is engaged to Elliot, the two of them being a much slower burn compared to the others. Scarlet, a junior doctor and one of the best people I know, is Mason’s sister. The love of her life is currently in a prison cell and refusing visitation.
There’s also Megs, but like Lance, she’s absent for now, too busy chasing her dreams on the sidelines of a rugby field.
I look up from my glass and find the girls waiting, all watching me. I clear my throat. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Lucy smiles around her glass at me, tilting her head to the side. “You seem stressed out, that’s all. Riled up. Affected.”
“Not like you to get your knickers in a twist over a girl,” Nina agrees.
“Exactly,” Lucy continues. “Tell us how we can make it better. Let us help you. You met her at the club, yes? And she turned up at your office for a job days later. I can imagine you both need to adjust to that. Like, you’ve seen each other naked.”
I scrub at my face. I should be doing this with my actual therapist, not these clowns. “Not quite,” I correct.
“What does that mean?” Scarlet asks, her interest piqued.
“Well, she was blindfolded.” I look around at them, their frowns all one and the same. “She doesn’t…she doesn’t actually know we had sex.”
Why am I sharing this with them?
I’m going to kill Elliot and Mase.
“Wait,” Scarlet stutters out. “You didn’t tell her when you saw her again?”
“Oh my god, she doesn’t know it was you?” Nina’s eyes are wide.