Fast (Not Like the Movies #2) Read online

  “You did?” Sanjeev’s eyes widen.

  “Yep. Five Instagram uploads later ... hashtag ‘trending’.” Macy gives a wicked grin. “Sanjeev! Another round, please, sir.” She shoves our two empty glasses toward her admirer who looks at us with narrowed eyes.

  At least, I think they’re narrowed. Maybe he just needs glasses.

  I should ask him if he needs glasses. “Do you need glasses?”

  Sanjeev’s eyes go back to normal size as his eyebrows meet his hairline. “Do you need me to call you a cab? You two girls have had ...”

  “One drink shy of enough,” Macy proclaims, giving me a kick under the table.

  “Ow!” I shoot daggers at her. Or, one of her. It’s hard to focus in the low lights, with all the fuzzy stuff in my head ... Maybe I need glasses.

  “One more. But it’s coming with water.” Sanjeev turns and walks away, returning a few short seconds later and sliding four glasses across the table to us.

  “Okay, lady, I need you to scull both of these waters.” Macy slides the drinks over to me.

  Obediently, I pick up one glass, knocking back the contents, then the other, as if drinking water is an Olympic sport. I don’t want to be hungover tomorrow.

  Macy pulls out an iPad from her handbag. “Okay, so, this special project thing. We need to get some of these ideas down on paper.”

  I glance around the bar, hoping to find some inspiration from the other industry elite, from Jack McWilliams, from Madison, from Liam—

  Wait.

  Liam?

  My eyes narrow in on my brother’s childhood friend, taking in the easy smile that lights up his face as he stands next to some impossibly beautiful blonde. She leans in close, lingering in those broad arms before pressing a kiss to his cheek, and something inside me twinges again.

  “Earth to Quinn.” Macy waves a hand in front of my face, then tracks her eyes from mine to the object of my visual affection. “Wow. Now that is someone I’d like to see more of.”

  “Hey!” I shake out of my daze, forcing my attention back across the table to her. “Hands off.”

  “Is he your boyfriend?”

  “No.” I twist my hands around the rim of my glass. “He was my brother’s best friend, when they were kids. I haven’t seen him in years, but I ran into him while getting coffee today, and—”

  “And you were totally impressed by how hot he’s gotten?”

  I shrug. “He’s ...” My cheeks heat. “He’s pretty good looking, yeah.”

  “He is hot like a baby zebra in the sun.” Macy runs her tongue along her upper lip.

  “I guess he kinda is.” I giggle at her theatrics. “I used to have the biggest crush on him.”

  “And what happened?”

  I shrug. “I spent years checking him out, thinking he was amazing, but that he’d never be interested in me. Then when he was ending his final year of high school—I guess I was afraid of losing him, so I thought I’d come clean about how I feel.” I twist the silver ring on my finger. Have those feelings ever really gone away? “He was the first guy I liked. The first guy I kissed.”

  “You locked virgin lips with that guy?” Macy shakes her head. “He probably ruined you for other men.”

  “He would have, if he’d kissed me back.”

  “He didn’t kiss you back?” Disbelief is written all over Macy’s face.

  I shake my head. “Nope. Nada.”

  “Not even a peck?”

  “Not even the smallest twitch of the lips that could somehow be mistaken for the hint of a kiss.” I stare dolefully at the clear liquid in my glass.

  “Well that blows. I bet he regrets it now, though. I mean, look at you! You’re one hot lady, and you’re about to land some stellar job at McWilliams & Co.”

  I grimace at Macy. “Hardly. At first it seemed like we were getting along fine, but then he started talking about dreams dying, and ...”

  And we’re headed in different directions. He lives here, I live in Emerald Cove. He reminds me of a time I’ve spent four years trying to forget.

  And he left me when I needed him the most.

  The last truth is hard to swallow around the lump in my throat.

  “Sounds depressing. I think you dodged a bullet there, Quinn. No man in his right mind would not only not kiss you back, but also let you go after seeing you again.” She launches into her speech. “He’s probably afraid of you. Some men don’t like successful women, you know.”

  “Mace, trust me. I’m telling you, he’s just not interested.” I shake my head. “And I wouldn’t want him even if he was.”

  “Really?” Macy grins. “Because I’m telling you, he’s been staring at you for the last two minutes like you’re the last pair of Alexander McQueen shoes in a spring sale, and he’s been on the waitlist for a long, long time.”

  Chapter Six

  “He has?” I glance over my shoulder—

  “Don’t look!” Macy hisses.

  But it’s too late.

  And holy shit. Liam Smith is looking at me, something akin to shoe-porn-worthy desire in those dark eyes of his.

  I bite down on my lower lip, trying to look coyly at him out from under my eyelashes. I shouldn’t be doing this. I know that Liam and I can’t go anywhere, that this will never work ... but I can’t help but remember how good it felt to see him again. How kind he was. How it might feel to press my lips against his once more ...

  “You okay there, Bugs? Looks like you’re doing your best rabbit impersonation.”

  I turn to scowl at my new friend. “See? This is why I can’t have nice things.”

  “Because you impersonate small animals when total hotties check you out?” Macy asks.

  “No.” I shake my head. “Because every time I start to think of someone as being more than just a friend, I turn into a total idiot.”

  “But you’ve had boyfriends before ... right?” Doubt flashes in Macy’s eyes.

  My cheeks heat. “One. Once we’re in a relationship and it’s all boring and safe, I’m totally fine. But when it starts, I just can’t seem to get my sentences to work right. I spew out all this random stuff, like I’m having a brain explosion.”

  “It can’t be that bad,” Macy chides.

  “Oh trust me. It is that bad. The only way I managed to somehow avoid it with my ex is that he kissed me before I kind of realised he liked me.” I heave a sigh and study my drink once more. When I met Chris, I’d had Braden on my mind. I hadn’t cared enough to be nervous. I hadn’t cared enough at all.

  “So you’ve only really had one boyfriend before?” Macy asks.

  “Yep. That’s it. One guy. God! He’s the only person I’ve had sex with. Does that make me practically a virgin?”

  The noise of the bar seems louder as I wait for Macy’s reply, but when I look up, she’s not looking at me. She winces as she stares over my shoulder.

  Dear God.

  Kill me now.

  “Liam’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?”

  Macy gives a slow nod.

  I turn slowly to find him up close and personal, his crotch right in line with my face. I run my eyes up over his broad chest to meet his intense brown and green gaze. “H ... hi,” I manage to stutter.

  “Hi.” Liam leans down, resting the tumbler in his hand on the table. “You told your friend about me?”

  I huff out a breath. “Yeah.”

  “I’m just going to grab some refills. Same again, Quinn?” Macy asks.

  I nod miserably and hold up my empty glass in thanks.

  As she slides out of the booth, Liam slides in, studying me from across the table. “So did I come up before or after you started the subject of people you’ve had sex with?”

  “Before. No, after,” I correct myself, worried he’ll think I plan to sleep with him. Although after doesn’t sound much better. Help! “In the middle?”

  “Well, either way, I’m glad to be included in a conversation with such esteemed company.” />
  He ... he what?

  Liam looks at me, as if waiting for a response, and I manage a polite smile. What am I thinking? I need to put an end to this discussion, pronto, before I get my heart broken any more than it already is. “Anyway, I should let you get back to that ... woman.” I make a gesture in the direction of the door where him and the Hottest Woman Alive had been standing. “Your girlfriend?”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.” Liam shakes his head. “That’s my cousin’s friend, Grace. She’d been staying with me for a while, and now she’s headed home.”

  Warmth rushes through me, and if I ever doubted my feelings for Liam were still there, now I know. Seeing him with her brings out a level of jealousy I wasn’t aware I possessed. “Staying with you in your bed?”

  “Yes,” Liam says, and my heart sinks. “And I slept on the couch.”

  That same heart does cartwheels, flipping about in my chest like a damn cheerleader. I meet his hazel eyes and smile, saying the first thing that comes to my mind. “I’m glad she had someone to stay with. In a totally platonic kind of way.”

  “Totally platonic. Grace Storey isn’t my type.” Liam laughs, then pauses a moment, his eyes locked on mine. “You know, I had the biggest crush on you when I was a kid,” he says, totally nonchalant. As if he isn’t rocking my world with each word dropping from his lips.

  My brain works overtime to process this new information. Liam. Smith. Liked. Me. Holy crap! All that time I’d spent sneaking glances out the window while he and Braden swam in the pool. Countless hours when I’d begged Braden to let me hang out and watch movies with them, just be around them—Liam had liked me? “But I kissed you ...”

  He shrugs. “It came as a shock, that’s all. Didn’t think you thought of me that way. And besides, your brother would have had my balls if I’d tried anything.”

  “I ... I had no idea.” Come on, Quinn. Say something smart. My alcohol-fogged brain searches for a point of reference. “Braden would definitely have had your balls. And then you’d have none, and that wouldn’t be good because guys need them, right?” My eyes widen. No, no! What am I saying? “I mean, not that I’m thinking about your balls. And what to do with them sexually, or anything like that. I mean it in a reproductive sense.”

  “It might be a bit too soon for us to start talking kids.” Liam smiles, not unkindly.

  “Of course! I don’t want to have babies with you. Or maybe I do. One day. You know. If we dated, then got engaged and married, and—” I clap my hand over my mouth. Dear God, please just make the verbal vomit stop.

  I glance over to Liam and know that deep down, I have no choice. Somehow, I kept it together when we ran into each other this morning but now, my true colours are shining through. I have to walk away before I make an even bigger idiot of myself.

  And then I have to make sure I never get coffee from his shop again.

  “Look, I’m just going to head home. It was nice seeing you again, Li—” His name sticks in my throat as his hand wraps around my wrist. The look in his eyes is intense. Somehow I feel he can see right through me, right to my soul.

  “Stay.”

  “I don’t know. I really should ...”

  “It’s late. You’re not heading back to Emerald Cove tonight, are you?”

  “I was planning on it,” I admit. He still hasn’t let go of my wrist. I’m acutely aware of each of his fingers, how small they make me feel, how protected. How safe.

  “Is it smart to catch the train at this hour?”

  “It’s only seven ...” I glance at my phone, pressing the screen to illuminate the time. “Nine? How the hell did it get to nine?”

  “Time flies when you’re having fun.” He smiles at my phone screen.

  “You’re right. I’m screwed.” I drag my hand away from his to pick up my mobile. “Ugh! At this hour, the train will be full of creepers. And by the time I get home, I’ll have five hours sleep before it’s time to jump on a train and head back to the city, ready to do it all again, and—”

  “Stay with me.”

  “—then I’ll be a tired idiot who barely completes her tasks tomorrow, and Shantel will somehow get me fired from this internship, I know it! What have I done? Alcohol, you are not my friend! Why am I such a—”

  “Stay. With. Me.”

  I blink. “Excuse me?”

  He shrugs. Is the answer to my problem really that simple? “Stay the night at mine. I have a place not far from here, and I can drop you back in to the city on my way to work, as long as you don’t mind an early start.”

  My neck heats, my palms clammy. “Stay with you? But I ... I don’t have any clothes.”

  “I’m sure your friend there would lend you some. And besides, I can sling you a spare T-shirt to sleep in.”

  To sleep in—God, what if he thinks I’ll sleep with him? No matter how deep my feelings run, no matter how many vodka sodas I’ve had, it doesn’t feel right. “When you say stay with you, do you mean stay with you, or stay stay with you? Because I’m not that sort of girl. I’m not—”

  “Relax, Q.” He reaches across the table to grab my hand. His calloused thumb strokes over my knuckles, and while I’m sure he intends the gesture to soothe, it has the opposite effect. Pinpricks tingle where he touches, and I shiver. “You will leave my place with your virtue intact. I won’t try and become number two on your list of sexual conquests. You have my word.”

  I glance over at those dreamy eyes again. God, he makes me want to ... It’s not so much his word I’m worried about but my own.

  One blink is all it takes. My eyes shut for a second longer than they should and memories flash through my mind at rapid speed, like film flying through a reel. Liam sitting beside me while Braden took the field at a soccer game. Liam’s thigh brushing against my own.

  My lips against Liam’s frozen ones.

  Braden driving me home.

  My stomach lurches, and I clutch at it. Vomit claws my throat, desperate for release. I’m not here to rekindle some great love affair. Liam and I can never be together.

  My guilty conscience won’t give me reprieve for that.

  Chapter Seven

  My heart hammers. My palms are clammy, and I wipe them on the sides of my skirt.

  “I have to go.” My chair falls back as I push out of it, shoving past groups of people on my way to the bathroom. The heavy door swings open after a hefty shove, and I brace myself over the sink, my chest rising and falling in rapid succession.

  “You want to explain what this is all about?” Macy stands in the doorway, arms folded over her chest.

  I swallow down the acid taste. I want to tell her. I want to tell her so bad.

  But she’s someone I’ve just met. She can’t know all my truths.

  No one but Liam knows them.

  Instead, I blurt out a more understandable dilemma. “Liam-asked-me-to-come-home-with-him-not-for-sex-but-my-own-safety-and-I-told-him-I-don’t-want-to-think-about-his-balls-but-I-do-want-to-have-kids-with-him-someday.”

  Macy blinks. “Wow. You weren’t kidding when you said you get a little nervous around guys, huh?”

  I shake my head. “I may have also mentioned the M word.”

  “Masturbation?” Macy widens her eyes.

  “No. Worse.” I press my lips together. “Marriage.”

  “Marriage?” Macy’s perfectly arched eyebrows nearly reach her hairline. “Good Lord, you’re worse than I’d thought. Okay, so how did you leave things? Does he still want to take you home?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anyway. I can’t spend time with him. Not after ...”

  “Not after what?”

  “Not after our past. What happened,” I breathe out. “And besides, I’ll be leaving town at the end of this internship. We won’t eventuate into anything.”

  Macy steps behind me and places her hands on my shoulders, squaring me up to the mirror. “Look. Do you see what I see?”

  I stare at the tired blue e
yes, the flushed pink cheeks, the hastily pulled back hair and the make-up covered scar, just visible in the stark light. “Macy ...”

  “Don’t Macy me. I don’t want to hear you say that this internship is the end of your career again. I saw how hard you worked today—there’s no reason you don’t stand a chance of getting the job at the end of all this.”

  “It’s not just that ...” I bite down on my lip, my eyes trained on the flecks of coloured marble surrounding the sink. “It’s that I don’t want it.”

  “You don’t want to work at Lola magazine?”

  I suck in a deep breath. I do—oh God, do I ever. But I can't. Working in the city means being away from home, from Mum, from Braden, and I won’t ever do that. “It’s complicated.”

  Macy spins me around to face her this time, a tough, no-nonsense expression on her heart-shaped face. “I don’t believe that for a second. You’re great at this stuff, and you know it.” She pulls me in for a hug. I startle at the full body contact. “Now let’s go home.”

  “But Liam—”

  “Can wait. You can spend the night at my house.”

  Relief floods my system. She’s made the decision for me. She’s stopped me from doing something I will probably end up regretting.

  So why does it feel as if I’m missing out?

  We walk back over to our table, and Macy says goodbye to Sanjeev. Liam’s eyes meet mine, and the rest of the bar doesn’t exist. In that moment, it’s just him and me, and a whole heap of history between us.

  “I’m going to stay at Macy’s.”

  Gold-flecked eyes meet mine. “Probably a good idea.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, and I move it back to hang partly over my face, obscuring his view of the left side of my lips. “Would you ... would you like to have dinner with me tomorrow night?”

  “Dinner? With you?”

  “Yes.” He nods, and this time there’s no laughter in his eyes. They’re all serious as they gaze down at me.

  “I ...” I want to so badly.

  I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.