“Fine.”
He narrows his eyes on my face. “Fine.”
I repress an eye roll. “I’m going to go. I’ll have Jane reach out to you within the next hour.”
He purses his lips. “Okay.”
I turn and stride down the hall. He calls, “Thanks!”
Without looking back, I wave a dismissive hand, heaving a silent sigh.
17
Kaia
I’m busy tonight.
I glance at my cellphone again, wondering what that text from Calum means. What is he doing?
Shopping for yachts? Visiting his tailor to buy another dozen custom made suits? Eating sushi with models? The last idea tugs the corners of my mouth downward.
“Hey!” Ella says, reaching out and jerking me to the right.
I look up and realize that I almost walked into a huge potted plant placed in the middle of the walkway down to the bowling alley. Screwing my face up, I sigh and put my phone in the back pocket of my jeans. “Thanks.”
Ella shakes her head at me, running a hand over her short baby blue dress. “You have been glued to your phone ever since I picked you up. What’s so important?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Nothing.”
She holds my arm as she tows me inside the bowling alley. Just beyond the doors there is the desk with an irritated person mousing through a computer. Just beyond that is a towering stack of cubbies, each jammed full of shoes. Even if I was blind, I could tell where we are; the pungent smell of disinfectant rises to my nose and the immediate blast of air conditioning on my skin see to that.
The clerk looks up at us, squinting a little. “You wanna bowl or what?”
Ella steps forward, pursing her lips. “Yeah. We are joining someone…”
Looking out across the brightly colored lanes, I spot Eric. I nudge Ella and she clears her throat. “Lane four. We need…” She looks at me, lifting her brows. “What, an hour?”
The guy sighs. “Two people, two pairs of shoes, one hour. That’s fifteen bucks.”
Before Ella can get her wallet out of her purse, I fish a twenty dollar bill out of my pocket. “Here.”
The clerk doesn’t even look at me. He just hands me change and hurries to get us each a pair of shoes. Then we walk over to where Eric is lounging, his feet up on the small screen where you input names.
“Hey,” Ella says.
He salutes both of us lazily. “You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago.”
“Sorry,” I instantly apologize. “Ella was on time. I was running behind as usual.”
He smirks a little at me, his gaze traveling down my body. “It’s nice to see that you have a t-shirt and jeans. I was starting to think that all you owned were leotards and leg warmers.”
I flush at his teasing. Ella plops herself down in a nearby seat, changing her shoes. I do the same, my eyes traveling up to where Eric has already filled in nicknames for each of us.
“I know I’m Kaia Papaya,” I say, putting my other shoes under a seat. “But who are the other two names?”
He stands up, stretching. “I’m E-Male. Get it, cause I’m the only guy?”
“Does that make me Old Yella?” Ella asks. “I do not get your sense of humor, my dude.”
Eric rolls his eyes. “Can we just bowl?”
I take a deep breath and nod. “Let me pick out a ball really quickly.”
His lips twitch. “I already put a couple of twelve pound balls in the ball return thing.”
I arch my eyebrows. “For me?”
He squints at me. “For both of you. The last time we did this, you both used twelve pound balls. Since I had nothing but time while I was waiting on you, I went ahead and grabbed four balls that size. Plus a sixteen pounder for myself.”
I blink. “Oh. Well… thanks. That was really nice of you.”
Ella points up at the scoreboard. “According to that, you’re up first, Eric.”
He stands up, brushing imaginary dust off of his dark t-shirt. “Watch and learn, ladies.”
I smile, rolling my eyes. Ella wrinkles her nose.
“In your dreams, white boy,” she calls after him. “I’m going to whoop you.”
As I watch him select his ball, I reach into my back pocket for my phone. I check the screen but there are no notifications.
Heaving a silent sigh, I return the phone to my jeans. Ella arches a questioning eyebrow at me. “Who is keeping you from being present right now?”
I flush. “No one. I’m just… checking my Insta.”
The lie sounds phony coming out of my mouth. “You are a terrible liar.” Crossing her arms, she turns to watch Eric bowl.
I bite my lip and do the same. Eric knocks some pins down, trotting back towards us.
“Just getting warmed up,” he says, bridging his hands and turning them inside out. “I’m telling you guys, I’m a great bowler.”
I giggle. “We have bowled with you before. There is no reason to lie.”
“Yeah, E-Male,” Ella says, laughing.
Eric’s face flushes. “You can both go to hell.”
“Hmm.” Ella shakes her head and looks at the scoreboard. “Hey, I’m going to grab one of every kind of junk food from the commissary. Any special requests?”
I turn and look at the restaurant, if you can call a popcorn machine and one of those hot dog rollers that. Wrinkling my nose, I pull out some cash. “Get me whatever is the best bang for my buck.”
She eyes me. “Look at you, Miss Got Money To Burn All The Sudden. Keep your dough. This is my treat. Just be prepared to eat your own weight in salty, sticky, sweet goodness.”
She wiggles her eyebrows and dashes off toward the food counter. Her dress barely covers her ass as she goes but I figure she already knows all about that.
“Your turn,” Eric says quietly. He’s close behind me and that gives me a start.
I whirl around, my eyes wide. “What?”
He points up at the scoreboard, where Kaia Papaya is flashing insistently. “It’s your turn to bowl.”
I give him a wobbly smile. “Right. Duh.”
I walk past him. He leans into my path, bumping my shoulder with his. I scrunch my nose up and shoot him a joking glare.
“Watch it!” I protest.
He smirks at me as he sits down. In his blue jeans and snug t-shirt, with his light blue eyes and sandy blond hair, he looks like the all-American boy. The football player who you hope will ask you to homecoming.
I flush as I grab the closest ball from the ball return. In any other scenario, I would be over the moon that someone as handsome as Eric was flirting with me.
In fact, deep down, I have butterflies rumbling around in my stomach.
But as I walk toward the bowling lane, I can’t be truly happy about it. Because there is one tall, dark, and irresistibly smug problem.
Calum. Add the money he pays me and the fact that I’ve fooled around with him more than anybody else…
And yeah. Eric is dreamy. But Calum is…
Well, he’s a man. With dark three piece suits, a tumbler of whiskey, and stunning ocean blue eyes, I might add.
So what if we don’t really have anything more than a transactional relationship? Maybe it’s better that way.