‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘Yes, you do. I’m willing to let it go for now, ’cause I’m not sure guys like you know what to dootherthan flirt with women, but I suggest you use our time together as a learning experience. No sex is happening between us, so don’t waste your energy. I am not a challenge to you because I stood you up before. I am not a convenient set of lady-bits for you to make the most of while you’re in the vicinity. There will be no shenanigans. Understood?’ I paused and waited for a response.
‘Understood…’ he said slowly, his jaw set as though he wanted to say something, but he was restraining himself.
I sighed. ‘But?’
‘But…if I wanted to have sex with you, Noelle, it wouldn’t be because you’re the closest available female. I have a little more discernment than that.’
‘Do you?’ I made no effort to hide the scepticism in my tone.
‘Yes. What makes you think otherwise?’
I didn’t want to drop Beth in it by relaying the stories she’d told me about the alternating women at his apartment whenshe stayed over with Nick at the beginning of the year. Or the one who showed up drunk and crying because he’d dropped her without so much as a phone call. I knew the three of them had made peace now and I didn’t want to wreck that, so I could only back up my statement with personal evidence which, luckily, I had too. ‘Err…Christmas.’
‘What about it?’
‘You weren’t interested in me until you’d already tried your luck with Beth. It was like I didn’t exist in that lobby when you arrived at the hotel. You only gave me your number when you realised you weren’t going to get anywhere with her. Since there were no other single women my age at the hotel, you gave it a shot with me.’ I shrugged, as though it didn’t bother me even slightly. It was an indisputable fact. He was just one of those men who needed to have the prospect of a female to get physical with, all the time.
He laughed. ‘You’re wrong. You are so wrong. There is no way that I wasn’t aware of you when I arrived at the hotel. I recall speaking to you, directly, but maybe you were too busy laughing at me from behind a leaflet to notice? I wasn’t getting any signals that you were interested, so my first impression of you was not as favourable as my second, when you actually bothered to talk to me – that’s all. It wasn’t because you were a last resort for my insatiable sexual appetite.’
The fine hairs on the back of my neck lifted but I wasn’t going to let him start working on my ego. ‘First impressions are based on instinct and usually correct. Seems like you shoulda stuck to yours ’cause I wasn’t interested in the end, was I?’ When he didn’t respond, I carried on: ‘So, now we understand that, we can move on to my second rule. If you genuinely want my help, I expect you to hear me out, not dismiss every suggestion I make – no matter how unpalatable they might sound.’
His lips pressed together in a little pucker that told me he was suspicious of what I was saying. Either that or he was flirting again, because it was an undeniably attractive pout.
‘That stands to reason,’ he said.
‘You would think, wouldn’t ya?’ I took another couple of swigs of my coffee. ‘I’m guessing you’ve done an internet search?’
‘Yes. He’s not on Facebook.’
‘Not the only social media out there.’
‘True, but for his generation the most likely.’
‘OK. So, how d’you know he lives here?’
‘There was an envelope with his name and address on in my mum’s wardrobe.’
‘An old flame maybe?’ I moved away from the counter and grabbed the nearest pad and pen from the sofa, perching on the cushions near him, but not next to him. I flipped to a new page, scribbling down a few notes. I looked up when Stephen hadn’t answered and raised my eyebrows at him in question.
‘You know, if you want me to stop flirting, perhaps you should put some clothes on,’ he said.
‘Are you breaking my ground rules already?’
‘I’m asking you to help me with my learning experience.’ He was all innocence. ‘How is it possible not to flirt with you when you’re sitting there, looking like that?’
Crumpled and scruffy, hair unbrushed? Yeah, I was sure he was having a hard time keeping his hands off me. Not.
‘Even if I were sitting here naked, you should be able to control yourself,’ I pointed out.
‘I can’t argue with that.’ He held his hands up and leaned back.
‘So, you think this man could be an old boyfriend of your mom’s? Did you speak to the rest of your family to see if they knew him?’
‘Nick and my nan are all the family we’ve got.’
I swallowed over the jolt his matter-of-fact statement provoked. ‘What about family friends?’
