He stood looking between the door and me as it knocked again.

“Should we get it?” he asked.

I shook my head, still recovering from having him between my legs a moment ago. I sat up and pulled on my pants again, holding down my almost soft erection.

“Who do you think it is?” I asked, angling myself by the window and discreetly peering between the curtains. I could make out the fabric of a woman’s striped dress and wild red hair.

“What can you see?” Lewis asked, doing his trousers up and reaching for his jacket.

“Crap, it’s Faye!” I hissed, recognizing her as she turned to face the window, looking down at her watch.

“Shit! Shit!” Lewis swore, pacing the room. “You’re going to have to get it. She can’t know I’m here, and if you answer and reassure her, she’ll go.”

I imagined her disbelieving stare. She wasn’t stupid. In fact, I’d go as far to say she was wildly intelligent.

She knocked again, and Lewis backed away into the wardrobe. I laughed and shook my head.

I knew the situation was urgent, but had things really become so bad that we were hiding now?

I unlocked the door and opened it. Faye turned to look at me and then into the room. Again, my bed sheets were crumpled.

She cast her gaze down my bare torso and then the full length of me, her lips pursed into a thin angry straight line.

“Hi, I’m Faye,” she said, sticking her hand out.

“Oh?” I lied, taking it and receiving her brief shake.

“We met at the funeral, remember?”

“Yeah, of course. Lewis’ fiancée, right?”

“Right!”

We stood awkwardly for a moment, and I took my hand back from her hers, hating that only moments before I’d had my hands all over the man she’d been chosen to marry.

“Is he here?” she asked, looking into the room again. “Only, we’ve got an appointment today. A wedding appointment.”

She spoke as though she knew he was in there and wasn’t at all bothered. So much so that I was almost lulled into a false sense of security to go inside and get him, but I’d met women like her in the city. I knew that under her sweet, high-pitched voice, she was as fiery as hell. Redheads always were. In the office back home, the guys would always say that, and even though I’d never experienced it for myself, I believed them.

“Sorry, Faye, he’s not here. Have you tried his cell?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Why did you take so long to open the door, then?”

“I just got out of bed…”

“It’s almost eleven a.m.!”

“I’m on holiday.”

She sighed and scraped her hair up into a ponytail before letting it fall around her shoulders again.

“Listen, Max. Quit playing now. I need to speak to him. Lewis?” she called through the door behind me. “I know you’re here!”

I hoped and prayed he wouldn’t answer. She didn’t know he was there, and she had absolutely no proof whatsoever. Then I thought about it. Where had he parked? Had she followed him here? I looked for his car in the parking lot but didn’t see it. Hopefully, he’d left it up the road.

I stepped into her view, slightly annoyed at how rude she was being.

“Faye, I know you’re looking for your fiancé, but he’s not here. Maybe he’s someplace else. Sorry I couldn’t help you…”

“Everything was fine until you came back here,” she hissed, looking around her. “You need to keep out, okay? Lewis has moved on. You’re not kids anymore. So you experimented a bit, who doesn’t, but it ended the moment you left.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about!” I snapped at her. “Don’t turn up here and tell me about things you weren’t even around for. You’ve been on the scene for how long? Two minutes? You don’t know a thing about what happened between us!”

“Don’t I?” she smirked, and the look on her face made me stop and take a few deep breaths to calm down. “You only have to ask one or two people, and all the details come out. I know how you were so infatuated with Lewis that your parents made you leave.”

“That’s not true.”

“Of course it is!” she spat. “So your friend died. Funeral’s over, you can go home now. Childhood obsession needs to stay right there… in the past.”

“Thank God you’re a woman.” I sighed, stepping back to close the door. “And for your information, I’ll stay as long as I want to. Not you or anyone in this damned town is going to make me leave before I’m ready!”

I went to close the door, but she stuck her plimsoll in the way, stopping it.

“Wanna bet? Don’t challenge me, Omega. You better go now, or I’ll make sure the town force you out.”

I slammed the door in her face and went to the window to watch her go as I heard the wardrobe open slowly and Lewis stepped out.

“Fuck…” he whispered, looking at me.

“That’s who you’re gonna marry?” I asked, incredulously. “Did you hear the threat? Did you hear how blasé she talked about Lauren?” I paced the room angrily.

He came over to me and rested a hand on my shoulder.

“Max, just ignore her…”

“Ignore her? Is that what everyone thinks? I was shipped away because I was obsessed with you? No one knows the truth? No one knows that night after night we spent the whole summer wrapped up with each other? No one knows how you felt about me?”

“Max…”

“No. You know, you got yourself settled down with that woman instead of coming to find me? I’m here for you, Lewis. You have to tell me what you want, because right now I feel like I’m fighting a losing battle. I feel like in a few days’ time, you’re going to go back to your old life and leave me in the dirt.”

“That’s not true.”

“Prove it.”