His phone rang as he walked into his flat. At this hour, five before midnight, it could only be one person.
‘Hang on a sec, Phil. Just let me feed the monster.’ Clattering the phone onto the worktop, he made a fuss of Pickles, who’d scampered over to greet him.
‘At least someone loves me, huh?’ he crooned, then laughed as she ducked out of the way of his hands and sat expectantly next to her feed bowl. ‘Cupboard love, really, that’s all there is between us?’
He grabbed a handful of food and dumped it into her bowl, giving her ears another stroke because hell, at least she wanted him, even if it was only for dried pellets. Then he picked up the phone again. ‘Okay, I’m all yours.’
‘Just thought I’d touch base. Find out how my brother and his budding non-romance was going.’
Luke kicked off his shoes and slumped down on the sofa. ‘Not a good time to ask that. Pick another topic.’
‘Seriously? You expect me to ignore that massively open goal?’
‘Expect, no. Hope, yes.’
‘Come on, I’m just showing concern for my kid brother. I thought you looked good together. She’s far too smart for you, obviously, but aside from that, I totally approve. I like that she’s got this edgy vibe, with the blue hair and the sharp humour, but inside she’s clearly a softie. I mean, why else would she make you a website for free? And don’t think I didn’t notice the definitely-not-just-friends chemistry between the pair of you.’
‘Yeah, well, things took a nosedive when Freya decided to surprise us by walking bold as brass into the flat on Sunday morning. Being a dumb twat, I chose not to tell Mia who Freya was, instead I gave her some crap about it being complicated—’
‘Whoa,’ Phil interrupted. ‘Can we rewind that last bit. Mia stayed the night?’
Luke sighed, slumping further down the sofa. Why hadn’t he just said the budding non-romance is fine and moved the sodding conversation along? ‘She crashed at mine because it was late. Sex was not involved. End of story.’ Though alarmingly, sleeping with his arms around her in the same bed had felt better than most of the sex he’d had. As for having her touch him the next morning, fingers teasing his piercing, feathering across his chest? Hands down better than any sex he’d had. ‘Now what did you really phone for?’
‘I did actually phone to ask about Mia, because I liked her.’
The sincerity in Phil’s voice touched Luke. ‘Thanks. I guess it’s kind of obvious I like her, too.’
‘Janet would call you out for that statement. She told me she’d never seen you more animated, more besotted over a woman. She reckons you’re falling for Mia, big time.’
She’s not wrong. Luke felt his throat constrict around the words. He couldn’t say them out loud because it would make it too real, and he was shit scared he was falling for someone who didn’t feel the same way.
‘Okay, so you’re not going to take the juicy bait I wriggled in front of you.’ Phil sighed. ‘Bloody shame that, because it’s so long since I’ve seen you twisted in knots over a girl, I’d forgotten how entertaining it is. Still, I’ll cover the embarrassing silence with the second reason for my call. Have you had any more thoughts about holding a designer cocktail evening? Mia’s idea was spot on. You can design cocktails for people, or help them design one for that special person. It would really give you a USP.’ Luke could almost see the cogs of his brother’s mind working. ‘You know what, if we found somewhere that could package them up, we could extend it nationwide. Cocktails posted 2 U. It’s a bloody brilliant idea.’ Luke could hear the excitement in Phil’s voice. ‘People tell you what the person is like, you know their personality, you design a cocktail for them and we package it off.’
‘I hate to deflate you, but there are already companies who send cocktails through the post.’ Companies who knew what they were doing. Luke wasn’t even sure he could run a bar.
‘Yeah, but their cocktails aren’t specifically designed for the customer.’
‘What if they hate what I’ve put together? What if I can’t mix new cocktails that taste halfway decent?’
‘Come on, where’s your self-belief? Your ambition?’
Luke hung his head. He could almost hear the demons from the past laughing at him. Such a disappointment, he’ll never amount to much. He’s not gone to university, he’s working in a bar…
Clearly aware he’d overstepped, Phil let out a long, drawn-out breath. ‘Sorry, I got a bit carried away there.’
Luke grunted. ‘You think?’
A pause, and Luke knew his brother was choosing his next words carefully. ‘What I think is, you’re far more capable than you believe.’
Once again Luke felt emotion claw at his throat. ‘Thanks for the show of faith, but on current evidence, learning to walk before I try to run seems like a good bet.’
‘Does that mean the design-a-cocktail evening is a goer, but Cocktails posted 2 U is on the back burner?’
God, his brother. Where would he be without him? ‘It means I’ve already talked to Sandy, and next Wednesday we’re holding our first Cocktails 4 U evening.’
‘You’re kidding? You already thought of 4 U? I mean, it’s not as cool as posted 2 U, but it’s not bad.’
‘Thanks,’ Luke replied dryly. ‘Can we call this conversation over now, so I can get out of the clothes I’ve spent the last twelve hours in and take a shower?’
‘Okay, cocktail master. I’ll catch you another time.’
Luke smirked. ‘Sorry, did you say cocktail master or…?’
‘Definitely time to call the conversation over. ’Night, brother.’
After his shower, Luke padded to the kitchen to grab a drink of water, then made his way to the spare room. As expected, there was no answering Miss U 2 message in her window. It was time to push for a response. See if she was still talking to him.
Finding the pen, he scrawled out his message and stuck it in the window. Then sent up a silent prayer that when he woke up, he’d have a positive reply.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Every day this week Mia had woken to a message from Luke. The first few had made her smile, the I miss U had actually brought tears to her eyes. Each time she’d thought about sending a reply though, she’d remembered how cross she was with him.
Even if she ignored the kissing, and she was trying really hard to do that, she and Luke were supposed to be friends. She’d admitted all her dodgy relationship history to him. Yet it seemed the sharing only went one way and he was hiding a huge chunk of his life from her.
A chunk that included attractive women who had free access to his flat. Women he’d not told her about. It’s complicated. The fob-off had really hurt. Her relationship with Pete had turned complicated, but she’d told Luke anyway.
Despite her annoyance though, her pulse picked up pace when she walked into the spare room and noticed a new message:
Come to mine this a.m.
* * *
Plz.
On a second sheet he’d written: