Page 68 of House of Bass

A scoff comes from behind me that I have no doubt came from Arden but I am refusing to entertain his bullshit at the moment. I’m still stuck on what Nic had said.

“You're staying?”

“I live here again,” he proclaims, although he doesn’t sound too happy about that. He starts to fiddle with his hair. A nervous habit of his.

“See you later.” And I nod with promises to see each other again.

Nic gives me a peck on the cheek and Stassie another wink on the way out and she sighs, “He is so pretty.” Which earns a simultaneous eye roll from the boys.

25

ST. ANNABEL

I love Spain. It is my favourite holiday country and I have spent a couple birthdays here that I remember quite fondly. There are seven of us in the air on our way there to celebrate Anastasia’s birthday for the weekend. I made a deal with Joe to steal her away before my mother could realise she was gone so that by then it was too late for her to object and it’s not like she’ll fire him, he is practically family.

Harley isn’t with us, she is still cross with me. I can’t fault her for it but I wish she were here.

The Lancaster Jet is our mode of transport. After the day we saw Nic at the club, I told him about Stassie’s birthday and he offered at once. The more troubling part was getting Arden to put aside his unnecessary hate for him to get onto the jet, it was truly one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Don’t let the suit fool you, he can be petulant when he wants to be. I couldn’t even tempt him with sex, we are still waiting for the right time.

Instead he is now determined to find petty things to beat him in, they already promised each other a game of tennis which of course already had its winner in Arden. However, the impending football game will definitely be won by Nic. As of now, since we are on air, they are stuck to chess. They’re doing first to three; Arden has won two and Nic has won one, so if Arden wins this one he will be crowned.

“How long will this go on for?” MJ huffs in my ear, distracting me from my book ( Mansfield Park ).

“Hopefully not any longer than required,” I whisper back. Arden wins soon after and you can tell he is feeling particularly smug by the twitch on his lips fighting a grin.

“That’s the difference between an amateur and a seasoned player, Nicholas. You can learn a thing or two from me,” he says, giving Nic a non-committal shrug.

Who then counters and says, “Let’s do first to five.”

“I’d tell you to bow out gracefully but there’s no world in which I’m passing up the opportunity to show you what a real loss is.”

“Perhaps not,” I tell MJ who goes back to her phone with a grumble.

“Are we there yet?” My sister asks to the left of me.

“We are still the air, so clearly not, Anastasia,” Dan responds in place of me.

“I’m obviously aware of that, Daniel. I wanted to know how soon we’d be getting there.”

“Forty minutes.”

“You’re not the pilot, how could you possibly know that?”

The air hostess walks by at the right moment and Daniel uses that moment to dial up the charm, “Darling, can I ask you a question?”

The very gorgeous brunette with her hair in a bun with her loose curls hanging off, stops and smiles. She instantly cocks her hips, puts one foot in front of the other and flirtatiously smiles. “Happy to help, Mr Akinson.”

“Perfect. Do we have an estimated landing time?”

“Yes. It should be forty to forty five minutes.”

Stassie is raging, you can practically see the steam coming out of her ears meanwhile Dan is grinning at being proven right. He says to the air hostess, “Thank you so much.”

The girl who evidently can’t take a hint that Dan isn’t going to have sex with her (a common misconception) is still standing there despite the polite dismissal. Stassie notices and snarls, “You may go now.”

At this rate, I am never going to finish my book. A ridiculously rowdy bunch these lot were. I miss Harley.

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