Chapter Twelve
Alice
As I sit on the bus the following morning, I can’t help fiddling with my hair. I left it loose again, but it’s going to take some getting used to. Mum had an early shift this morning so we haven’t seen each other since last night, as after my driving lesson I hung out with Hannah.
My phone goes. It’s a text from Mum.
Sorry, darling. Please forgive me! I’m just so proud of you and so is Brian, but I shouldn’t have gone on the way I did. XOXO
Typical Mum to still be worrying about that. I’d forgiven her before I even went to bed last night. Although I’ve no idea why Brian would be proud of me. I’m nothing to him. Anyway, that’s not important. I text back.
You’re forgiven XOXO
Then I remember something.
I might be late home tonight, work stuff
I bite my lip. Hanging out with Harry isn’t work stuff, but I don’t know how else to let her know I’ll be home late. If I tell her what’s going on with him, she’ll immediately jump to the conclusion we’re dating, and we’re not. Well, I don’t think we are. I’m not sure what we’re doing, but it doesn’t really matter.
Whichever way I look at it, this is only a temporary thing until I go to university.
By the time I reach Blitz, I can’t wait until I see Harry again. Although I’m guessing he wants to keep the fact we’re seeing each other outside of work quiet. Well, of course he will. Which means there’ll be no sneaking into the office supply cupboard for a quickie, in case we’re discovered.
Not that we have an office supply cupboard, since everything is open plan, but it’s the dirty thought that counts.
I’m still trying to smother my giggle as I enter the building, when I see a group of the guys, including Harry, gathered around Di’s desk.
“What’s going on?” I stroll up to them, already regretting my impulsive decision to wear a pair of heels today instead of my usual Doc Martens. They shuffle around to make room for me.
Harry flashes me a grin that has me rethinking the whole keeping it secret thing, because I’m not sure I’m that great an actor. “Don’t hit me. But you’re famous.”
Okay, I didn’t expect that. Curious, I peer over Di’s shoulder to see what they’ve all been gawking at.
Beauty and the Geek
I grip the back of her chair as the video starts to play, of Harry and me walking toward the stage the other night. Holy shit. My face burns even before we pause before the podium because I know what’s coming. And it does. In glorious, slo-mo, zoom vision, full-screen mode.
Di sighs. “Sooo romantic, you guys.”
“Hope you’re getting a bloody good bonus for having to put up with Harry for a whole night,” Joe says, throwing me a grin. Not that I can respond. I can’t do anything but stare at Harry’s and my locked lips, frozen on the screen, for the entire workforce of Blitz to see.
“You deserve an Oscar for that, Alice,” Caleb says. “And guess what? Oscar Jarrod emailed. He fucking loves it. Wants to know if we’ve any more high-profile stunts lined up.”
“The publicity is awesome,” says Meg, who used to work in the same computer store as Caleb before Blitz took off. “Look how many views it’s got already.”
Seventeen thousand, four hundred and nine. And there are comments. Lots of them. I can’t focus to read them.
I blink the haze from my eyes, but the number doesn’t magically vanish.
“Sorry.” Harry doesn’t sound like he thinks the whole thing is a joke anymore. “I had no idea anything like this’d happen. I thought at worst they might post a photo of us in their next issue.”
I take a deep breath. Now that the first shock is wearing off, it’s obvious nobody’s guessed just how much that kiss means to me. It is, after all, just a kiss. Not a freaking sex tape.
It’s my Cinderella moment, splashed online, for the world to see.
Everyone kisses. It’s no big deal and no one will read any more into it as long as I don’t behave like an idiot. All the guys seem to think I was just doing my bit to help with the PR, and Harry sure hasn’t corrected that assumption.
Like I thought, he wants to keep the fact it’s more than faking it for the good of Blitz strictly between the two of us. Which is fine by me.
Sure it is.
“No problem.” I squeeze the words out and thankfully they don’t sound too constipated. My gaze drifts over the tagline again. How much research did they do on me? I’ve never seen myself as a geek, but maybe since I’m off to university is all the angle they needed for their hook.
They sure got it right with Harry, though. Di hits play again, and I can’t tear my besotted gaze away from him. Although the lighting isn’t great, it somehow makes him look more gorgeous than ever. And just before we kiss, the camera manages to capture his heart-stopping smile.
“Jesus, Di, turn that fucking thing off.” There’s a note of irritation in Harry’s voice, which is so unlike him that we all turn to stare at him. “How many times do you need to watch it?”
“Haven’t decided yet.” Di grins and hits play again. “Have you read some of these comments?”
I take a stealthy step back. While I have every intention of watching this clip at least a hundred times today, I’m doing it in private and won’t be reading the comments. I can just imagine what some of them will say and don’t want anything negative to ruin my memories of that night.
Once I reach my office, I boot up the laptop before slumping in my chair. I need to book the golf thing for when Oscar Jarrod is here, but I can’t concentrate. Why didn’t we know we were being filmed? Then again, once Harry took my hand that night I was oblivious to everything else.
I groan and close my eyes. All right, so it wasn’t my very first kiss, but it was my first real kiss, and it’s horrible knowing that the whole world can tune in and leave their opinion on it. Or, rather, on me, since the kiss itself is visually stunning and Harry is the stuff of dreams.
“Alice, are you okay?”
My eyes spring open and I jerk upright. Harry, his hands planted on my desk, looms over me with a worried expression on his face.
“Yes, sure.” Get your shit together, Alice. “Like Meg said, it’s brilliant publicity.”
“Screw the publicity. I saw your face downstairs. I know how much you hate this kind of thing.”
He does? How does he know that?
“You don’t like it, either,” I counter, since, to be fair, it was only because Caleb and I insisted he go to the event that he decided to attend in the first place.
He shrugs. “No, but I’m more used to it than you are. Like I said, they’re fucking vultures.”
A morbid shiver inches along my spine. Is he warning me against reading those comments? Like I need one. I’ve seen how bloodthirsty keyboard warriors are once they dig their claws into something juicy.
“It’s fine. I mean, it’s not like they gave out my full name and address, is it?” Oh my fuck. They didn’t, did they? The horror of that unlikely possibility paralyzes me.
“No.” He stares at me as though I’ve lost my mind. “I’d sue their fucking arse off if they’d done that.”
Of course, they didn’t. Why would they? It’s Harry everyone’s interested in, whether for his brain or his body. I’m just the placeholder.
Which, actually, really sucks.
…
Harry
Alice’s lovely mouth droops for a second, and I have the mad urge to hit something. Why did I think she’d like that clip of us kissing?
Sure, it pissed me off when I first saw it, but it grew on me. And there was never any way we could keep it secret from the guys at work. It had nothing to do with Caleb. They were already all over it before I ever got to see it.
But I should’ve guessed how horrified she’d be. She’s never been in the spotlight. At least I’ve had a taste of it, with my parents’ lifestyle in the past and the times I’ve been out with Lucas over the last few years.
No way am I letting this come between us.
“Just ignore it. This time next week it’ll be yesterday’s news.” Nothing dies on the Net. Shut the fuck up.
“I know. It’s just, geek.” She gives a weird little shrug, and I don’t know what she means, since the entire reason we went in the first place was because of the cringe-worthy geek award. But at least it’s a way to move on from the fact it’s my fault her privacy’s been invaded.
“That reminds me. That award now sits on my desk. I hate to say it, but I think you’re dead wrong. It still looks like a glorified glass dick.”
Her smile lights up her face. “Has it occurred to you that maybe we just have very dirty minds?”
“Nah. It was the first thing Caleb said when he saw it. Correction. He called it a big knob, with the clear inference that I deserved it, and not in a good way.”
“Ooh.” She gives a fake shiver. “That’s mean.”
“Still want to hang out after work?” Okay, that was hardly a subtle segue, but I need to know she hasn’t changed her mind.
“Sure.” A faint blush heats her cheeks, and for the first time ever I’m tempted to forget work for the day and take Alice out some place where it’s just the two of us. “The Slurping Toad?”
I have a better idea, one that kept me awake half the night, but it’s hard to spit out the words. It’s easy for Lucas. He meets girls and takes them back home without a second thought, and frequently without even knowing their second name, but I’ve never been into that. Plus, Alice is a friend.
Jesus, just ask her, you fucking dope.
“I could cook for us tonight.”
She stares at me in clear shock, and I resist the urge to back track. No delete button here, mate. She obviously needs some kind of reassurance. “Promise I won’t give you salmonella.”
“You mean,” she clears her throat and winds the end of her hair around her finger, “like, go back to your flat?”
“Unless you want me to roast something over a camp fire.” I grin to hide the awkward fact that this conversation isn’t going to plan at all. “Or we could get a Chinese takeaway instead.”
It’d be less painful to bash my head against the glass wall. We should’ve just gone to the pub. I’m moving too fast for her, but since we’ve known each other for nearly nine months it didn’t occur to me she’d think that. Although I’m hardly an expert when it comes to dating. I should’ve asked Mac for some pointers.
“I’d love that.” She finally smiles, and the relief is great. “And forget about a takeaway. I didn’t know you could cook. That’s awesome.”
“One of the extracurriculars the three of us were forced into was cooking. Although to be fair, it’s come in handier than the rock climbing.”
“I’ve never progressed beyond the basics. I just know enough so I won’t starve when I’m at university.”
Maybe I overstated my case. “Don’t expect cordon bleu. But I don’t burn water.”
“What do you want me to bring? Wine? Dessert? I have to warn you, though, it’ll be shop bought.”
“No need. I need to stop off at the shops on the way home. We can get something then.” Yeah, not very suave. Shame I never took a course in how to sweet-talk girls. Not that I want to sweet-talk Alice, since it sounds kind of creepy and fake. “Is there anything you don’t eat?”
...
An hour later, after having done my usual morning run to the coffee shop for Alice and me—although this time I disrupted the space-time continuum by asking for a takeaway tea for her, which, incidentally, she loved—I’m back in my office.
There are forty-three urgent items on my to-do list for the current scene I’m working on, but instead I scroll through online articles on “Amazing First-Date Recipes.”
Apparently, there’s a lot more to it than simply the food.
“Candles,” I mutter. Hadn’t thought of that. I make a note on my phone to buy some. And not just any ones. Beeswax. Fuck, where the hell do I buy beeswax candles if the local grocery store doesn’t stock them?
My phone rings, and I nearly ignore it, but since I haven’t spoken to my brother all weekend, I guess I need to take the call.
“Hey, congrats on winning your award. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Because Mac tells everyone everything and there’s no need?
I grunt, which appears to satisfy him.
“Have you told Dad yet? It’ll get him off my back, knowing you won a sexiest geek award.” Lucas snorts with laughter and I sigh heavily. It’s true our dad doesn’t understand all the accolades bestowed on my brother, especially since many of them have nothing to do with his unerring ability to kick a ball into a net. But since Dad’s idea of awards is something you earn by your contribution to science or the betterment of humanity, there’s no way I’m telling him about my Steele win.
Even Mackenzie knows better than to share that news with Dad.
“Anyway, the reason I called was about next Friday. Will’s birthday. You in?”
Lucas and Will have been friends forever, same as Caleb and me. Will’s a good bloke and the four of us get along great, but I can guess what Lucas has planned for Friday night and it’s not my thing.
Duck breast with pomegranate citrus glaze. I frown at the accompanying photo. It looks fantastic and sounds complicated. I scroll down the screen, looking for something I won’t potentially stuff up.
Since Lucas is still waiting for my response, I give another grunt, since my twin has no problem interpreting this mode of conversation from me.
“Nah, come on, man,” he says. “It won’t be the same if you’re not there. I’ve scored tickets to the opening of Hydra. Everyone’s gonna be there. It’ll be epic.”
I’ve never heard of Hydra, but it’s obviously a hot nightclub, as Lucas and hot nightclubs have a long-standing relationship. When he first hit it big, he’d drag me along to every party, and I went because he’s my twin and, despite what the paparazzi said about him, he wasn’t nearly as confident as he pretended.
But that was years ago, and eventually he accepted that I’d rather be coding than socializing. Now, he only asks me when it means a lot to him for me to be there, and mutual friends’ birthdays are one of those times.
“Yeah, okay.” I couldn’t sound less enthusiastic if I tried, but it’s Friday night for fuck’s sake. I could’ve taken Alice out somewhere. It’s not like we have many weekends left before she goes to Durham.
“Don’t forget to drag Caleb along.”
I’m sure Caleb’ll be stoked. Not. “Can’t promise that.” I frown at the pic of mussels steamed in white wine. Although I’m game to eat almost anything, I’ll give that one a pass.
Who would think figuring out what to cook would be such a headache? I should stick to something I can’t cock up, like pasta.
“Hey, you still seeing that chick you took to the Steele thing?”
That gets my attention. I should’ve known this question was coming, after Lucas witnessed that kiss. But even if Alice hadn’t made it clear she wants to keep things under wraps, I’m not ready to share this info with him. “What?”
“Alice,” he says, and the fact he’s remembered her name makes my shoulders tense. Christ, he can barely recall the names of the girls he went out with last month, never mind someone he’s never met before. “The girl you work with, right? You should bring her on Friday. I’ve got plenty of tickets.”
No fucking way am I taking Alice to Hydra when Lucas and his mates will be there. “She’s busy,” I growl before realizing that was the wrong response. “And we’re just friends.”
“Whatever,” my brother says, oblivious. “Let me know. We’ll pick you up at nine, yeah?”
He ends the call and I lean back in my chair. For as long as I can remember he’s been like a whirlwind, a blaze of energy and natural magnetism. When we were kids, strangers would stop and admire us—being identical has that effect—but it was always Lucas who charmed everyone, whereas I always hated the attention.
Nothing much has changed in twenty years. He’s still a force of nature, and I’m still the unmoving rock.
The longer I can keep my brother from meeting Alice, the better.