Chapter 11

 

Alex got up around seven thirty. He tried to move around quietly so as not to wake me, but he was big and the apartment was small so, considerate as his intention was, he was never going to succeed. I peered over the edge of the blankets, a little fantasy playing in my mind that it was Mason I was watching rather than Alex. They were close enough in build that it was easy to imagine, especially when Alex had his back to me. Mason’s hair was longer, as was befitting an international rock star – and perhaps a shade darker.

Not long after Alex left for work, Stefan climbed onto the far end of the sofa and buried himself beneath my blankets. I shifted over to make room for his legs. His bare feet were like ice against my ribs.

“You’re worse than Rufus,” I complained, wriggling to get away from him. “And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing. If Alex comes back and finds us all tucked up like this, he’ll kill me and save you a job.”

“Alex trusts me,” Stefan said, unconcerned. “He knows I wouldn’t cheat on him.”

“Tell his jealous streak that,” I muttered. Everybody knew how possessive Alex was when it came to Stefan. True enough, he trusted Stefan, but it was any man who tried to get close to his precious fiancé he had a problem with. 

“What do you mean, anyway?” Stefan asked, nudging me with his cold foot. “Save me a job how?”

“You’re Rufus’ friend more than mine. I know you’d rather he was here than me.”

“Ha! Can you imagine?” Stefan let out a peal of laughter. “Rufus wouldn’t last one night under the same roof as Alex.”

“True.” I sighed. “The only reason I’m here in the first place is because Alex wants to wind up Rufus.”

“Did he tell you that?” Stefan didn’t seem surprised. “Yeah, that sounds like Alex.”

We stayed that way, curled up on the sofa beneath a mound of blankets, dozing on and off, until Stefan realised he was going to be late and jumped up in a rush. He dashed around like a mad thing and the door slammed behind him not ten minutes later.

I slept away most of the morning, warm and comfortable in my nest. It had gone lunchtime by the time I woke and dragged myself from my pit. I washed and dressed and then wondered what I was supposed to do with myself for the rest of the day. Sitting and waiting for Stefan and Alex to get home didn’t seem right or fair. They might appreciate an hour to themselves when they got in, without an unwanted houseguest breathing down their necks. And I was unwanted. If it wasn’t for Alex’s childish attempt to piss Rufus off, I wouldn’t be there.

I folded my bedding into a neat pile, left a note to say I’d be back later, and set out to explore. Stefan had left me a spare key so I locked the door behind me and started walking. Judging by how long it had taken us to get to the house by car, I figured it might take me forty or fifty minutes to reach the promenade and the harbour. The weather was good and I thought it would be nice to stroll along the beach and let the sea breeze clear my head.

Heading down the hill toward the seafront, I had only gone a couple of streets when I saw a familiar figure, bent over washing the front grill of a Range Rover on the forecourt of a garage. Alex looked up as I approached. He straightened, dropping the soapy sponge into a bucket of water.

“I thought you were a mechanic,” I said, shoving my hands into my jacket pockets.

“Nope. Not clever enough.” He shrugged, like it didn’t bother him. “I wash cars for a living, Eric. Boss calls it valeting, but that’s just a posh word for cleaning, isn’t it?”

“I wasn’t trying to put you down,” I told him truthfully. “I just didn’t know.”

“Why would you?” Alex stooped to pluck the sponge from the bucket, squeezed the water out, and went back to washing the car. “You lot have only cared about Stef. None of you exactly made any effort to get to know me, did you?”

“I’m sorry,” I said, ashamed because he was right. Me, Rufus, Amanda and Dan, even Killigan, the copper – Stefan was who connected all of us. If truth be told, not one of us had ever really liked Alex. All of us looked at him as if he was nothing more than this great lump-of-stupid. We wouldn’t have gone anywhere near him if he hadn’t been Stefan’s boyfriend. “We never gave you a chance, did we? But, you know what? I’d like to get to know you now, if that’s okay. As a friend, of course, not in the biblical sense.”

Alex stopped soaping the car again and stared at me. “I don’t know what that means. See, told you. Dumb as fuck.”

“You’re not dumb, Alex.” He raised an eyebrow, not sure if I was serious. It was sad, I thought, that Alex wasn’t accustomed to people – especially Stefan’s friends – being nice to him. “In fact, if you must know, I’m rather jealous of you. You’ve got everything.”

“Me?” Alex laughed. “Look around you, numbnuts. I’ve got jack-shit.”

“You’re big and you’re strong,” I pointed out. “And you’re…not bad looking, I suppose. You’ve got a job and a home…who cares if it’s washing cars and living over a garage? Most of all, you’ve got a boyfriend who worships you. I would give anything to have Rufus…” Or Mason “…love me the way Stefan loves you.”

“You’ll find it one day, Eric, but not with Rufus. You deserve better.”

I smiled. “You called him by his real name.”

“Slip of the tongue.” Alex grinned back and winked. “Won’t happen again. Now get lost before you get me fired.”

Despite my worries, I was smiling as I walked along the beach, the shingle crunching beneath my feet. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would end up actually liking Alex Gill. Sure, he was rough around the edges and scary as Hell, but there was actually a decent guy underneath that hard-as-nails exterior.

Eventually, the shingle turned to golden sand and I realised there seemed to be more people around. Leaving the beach behind me, I made my way up to the promenade and wandered slowly along the seafront. Lost in my own thoughts, I walked around to the quaint, little harbour, stopping to admire a couple of luxury yachts moored there. I’d bet my right arm those beauties cost more money than I’d ever see in a lifetime. Around the corner from the harbour, I found myself in the High Street. The salon where Stefan worked was easy to find, but he looked busy when I peered through the window, so I waved at him and continued my aimless walking. Before long, I was back on the seafront, close to the pub where Stefan and Alex held their engagement party.

On the other side of the street, a small crowd had gathered around a monstrous motorbike. The sun glinted off the expanse of black and chrome which looked horribly familiar. Quickly, I looked up and down the promenade, but there was no sign of Mason, and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was stupid to think he would have tracked me down to Weymouth. Just because Mason had made a joke over the phone about paying Rufus to tell him where I was staying didn’t mean he would actually go through with it. Yes, the bike looked the same as Mason’s, but I doubted he was the only person in the entire country to own a Valkyrie. I shook my head and chuckled at my own foolishness. I was kidding myself if I thought little, old me would ever be that important to anyone, let alone a famous rock star.

“Oh my God, can you believe it?” A group of teenage boys pushed past me, blind to my presence in their obvious excitement. “That was Mace White! And he spoke to us!”

“He’s so cool,” a second lad enthused. “Although, I don’t get why he’d come all the way to Weymouth to get his hair cut.”

“Just because he went in there, it doesn’t mean he was getting his hair cut,” a third said. “He was probably just…”

Whatever the boy thought Mason was probably just going to do was lost as they walked out of earshot. Mason was here. He’d gone into a hairdressing salon. Shit, there was only one that I’d seen on the High Street and that was the one in which Stefan worked. The crazy bastard had done it – he’d got Stefan’s details from Rufus and come to find me just as he’d threatened. Probably, he had already been out to the flat above the garage and – finding nobody home – he’d gone in search of Stefan to see if he knew where I was. Funny thing was, I trusted Stefan not to give me away far more than trusted Rufus. Stefan lived with Alex Gill, for goodness sake. He wouldn’t be so easily intimidated by Mason’s size.

I was torn. Part of me wanted to go back to the salon and make sure Stefan was okay, but I was afraid I’d run smack into Mason. The rest of me wanted to run back to Alex and hide behind his muscled torso until I knew for sure Mason had given up and left town for good.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on air, my body sensing Mason’s presence before I saw him. I turned to find him standing behind me, his expression hopeful.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I said, folding my arms across my scrawny chest and glaring at him.

“Five hundred.”

“What?” I didn’t know what he meant. Five hundred? Five hundred what?

“Pounds,” Mason added for clarity. “That’s how much your ex sold you out for.”

“You wasted your money,” I said, annoyed – but not surprised – that Rufus would provide personal information in exchange for cash. I was also a little bit stunned that Mason would be willing to pay that much to find me. I guess five hundred pounds was neither here nor there to someone like him. “You shouldn’t be here, Mason. You can’t just turn up unannounced like this.”

Mason snorted. “Hardly unannounced. Check your phone. I must have called you half a dozen times and sent twice as many text messages. I told you I’d come looking for you if you didn’t answer me.”

I cursed my horrible memory as soon as he said it, knowing I’d forgotten to turn my phone back on that morning. Even if I had seen his messages though, would I have answered? Probably, I would have ignored him until he mentioned coming to Weymouth in person, and then I’d have told him not to bother. It was my own stupid fault he was standing in front of me now.

“Mason, I can’t…I shouldn’t…not with the injunction.”

“I sorted it,” Mason said. “I swear, Eric, I didn’t know anything about it. It was Liam.”

“How?” I wanted to believe him, but it seemed too far-fetched to be true. How could a man – who Mason swore was not his boyfriend – make up lies and go as far as getting an injunction without Mason’s knowledge?

“My lawyer, he’s Liam’s cousin. That’s how I met Liam in the first place, through him. Anyway, Jerry thought Liam and I were together, mainly because Liam told him we were. Liam went to him and told him about this little problem I was having with a stalker and Jerry believed every word. He knows he shouldn’t have done it without talking to me first, but he thought Liam was acting on my behalf. I’ve told him to get the injunction withdrawn or whatever it is he has to do. Oh, and I also told him, if he ever does anything like this again, I’ll fire his sorry arse and get my new lawyer to take an injunction out on Liam. He’ll be a good little boy from now on to protect his cousin.”

“What about my job?”

“Your job?” Mason frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“I was suspended, Mason. You…or Liam or your lawyer, I don’t know…made a complaint about me sexually harassing you while you were a patient.”

“Jesus!” Mason exhaled sharply. “It wasn’t me, Eric. You have to believe that. I didn’t know. Fuck, Jerry is so fired for this. Just tell me who I need to talk to and I’ll make this right, I promise.”

I took a few deep breaths and studied his face, searching for the lie. We had drawn quite a crowd by that point, although Mason didn’t seem to notice. Either that or he simply didn’t care that he was airing his dirty laundry in a public place. Maybe he’d forgotten he was famous and our little spat would probably be all over the news by the next day. I saw a couple of mobile phones pointing our way and knew for sure we’d make Facebook even if we didn’t make the papers.

“What do you want from me, Mason?”

“A chance, that’s all.”

“Why me? You can have anyone you want.”

“I don’t want anyone else though. You’re the one I like, Eric. Please, just say you’ll have a drink with me.”

“I don’t know…”

“That’s Mace White, moron,” someone shouted out from the crowd of onlookers. “He’s a fucking rock god. Say yes.”

“Thanks,” Mason said, looking around with a boyish smile. “But right now it’s Mason White, bar owner, doing the asking.”

“So what?” another voice answered. “He should still say yes.”

A murmur of assent rippled through the crowd and I ducked my head, blushing. Was this really happening? Mason was asking me out in front of an audience and it seemed all of them were on his side. It made it hard to say no and put myself at risk of mob disapproval.

“Where?” I sighed, defeated.

Mason grinned as the crowd cheered and a smattering of applause broke out. “Anyone know of a good place around here to take a guy on a first date?” he asked loudly, laughing as a barrage of suggestions were instantly thrown at him. He looked back at me, before jabbing a thumb over his shoulder. “How about here? Eight o’clock tonight. If it makes you feel better, you can bring your friends along.”

“Okay,” I said, resigned to my fate. “But, honest to God, Mason, if you’re lying to me…”

“I’m not,” Mason replied quickly. He held up his hands defensively. “But, I swear, if I do the slightest thing wrong, you can set the infamous Alex Gill on me.”

“Okay,” I said again, unable to hide my smile.

“Eight o’clock.” Mason wagged a finger in my face. “Don’t be late.”

I watched him amble across the street to his bike as though he didn’t have a care in the word. I began the long walk home, already wondering what the Hell I was supposed to wear to what I suspected was going to be a very public date. What the fuck had I got myself into?