Broken Ever After (14 page)

“
I know… It’s just… so fucking hard!” I gave him a smirk and bumped my pelvis to his. “You know what I mean.” I laughed and pressed my lips to his as he smiled. “I can’t wait two fucking weeks, Liv! I’d rather quit my job! I’ll write my letter of resignation right now!”

“
Shhh… No you won’t. I need to get home, will you take me?” I smiled up at him sweetly hoping he’d say yes.

“
If I get a goodnight kiss” He flashed me that sexy grin of his before standing to fetch his keys.

On Wednesday morning I was up bright and early waiting for my delivery; presumptuous yes, but I’d gotten another box of rose petals, with a single stemmed rose and a note on Tuesday too, so I fully blamed Jamie for my high expectations of receiving gifts upon waking. They were a beautiful dark shade of pink and smelled just as wonderful as the red ones had.

I sat on the bottom stair waiting for the door to knock for around ten minutes. At exactly seven fifteen I heard the garden gate open and leaped up to answer the door to the Mediterranean looking guy who
’d brought me my packages the two previous mornings. “Good morning.” I beamed at him as he went to lift his fist to knock on the wood panelling of the door.

“
Wow, Olivia, you’re eager this morning! Expecting a delivery or something?” He gave me a small laugh as I took my box from him and inspected the label. He looked over his paper work. “I’ve grabbed the wrong form, I’ll be right back” I nodded and placed my box in the hall while I waited for him. He jogged back to my door. “Got it” He smiled at me. “Can you just sign there and put your phone number at the bottom please?” I looked down at the sheet and signed, confused about why or where I needed to put my phone number.

“
There isn’t a bit that asks for my number.” I looked up at him confused.

“
No, there isn’t. I asked for it though.” He gave me a gorgeous lopsided grin as he looked up at me from beneath a fan of dark lashes and I could see the blush creep over his cheeks. Oh God… He’s asking for my number while delivering presents from my boyfriend?

“
Do you see who sends me these boxes?” He nodded. “He’s my boyfriend.”

“
I kind of figured that when he told me he had a series of parcels to be delivered to his girlfriend.”

“
And you’re asking for my number anyway?” I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“
Can’t blame a guy for trying, right?” He smirked at me.

“
I’m… not sure that’s a good idea, I don’t even know your name.”

“
Alexandros Zaneakis.” He declared proudly. “But you can just call me Alex.” He nodded and smiled at me.

I smiled back at him.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, Alex.” I waved and closed the door, laughing as I grabbed my box from the hall floor and ran to the kitchen with it. Wednesday’s box was filled with a yellow rose and petals.

My routine that week had become that I would accept my parcel
, smile over the beautiful words, call Jamie and finish getting ready, tucking my flower into my hair so he would see me wearing it around school; Thursday and Friday were no different. My roses on Thursday were pale pink, Jamie wrote that they reminded him of my cheeks and how they blush when he catches my eye, or as he made me come for him. I didn’t call him after receiving those as I was far too embarrassed.

My roses on Friday morning were peach coloured; Jamie wrote that they reminded him of my
‘peachy bum’ which made me laugh as I sashayed away from him at the end of the day swaying my hips knowing that he was watching me as I left with Lily, Megan and Violet to stay at Violet’s house for the weekend.

We were having a study weekend mingled with shopping for our prom dresses; I
’d told Jamie that I’d call him or message him as often as I could without attracting too much attention. During the week we’d spent hours on the phone in the evenings so I couldn’t stand not talking to him. I was finally asked in the mid-evening who I was messaging all the time and told the girls about Alex, the super cute, delivery guy who I’d learned was twenty-three from Greece; I’d missed out the part where he was delivering flowers from Jamie and instead told them that my mum had developed an online shopping obsession and he was delivering her shopping.

On Saturday morning we headed over to the West End.
Lisa, Violet’s mum, had insisted on coming with us; she said we’d have the best chance of finding all of our complete outfits in one day if we went there.

First to find her dress was Megan
and I hated her for it as I knew she’d spend the rest of the day sulking as we tried to find ours. She chose a beautiful pale pink, backless satin gown that crossed over her chest leaving her cleavage exposed. I had to repel the ugly sound that wanted to escape from my throat as she boasted about how well it suited her.

Lisa chose a Greek restaurant for us to try for lunch that she said she
’d been in a couple of years ago. We were in the middle of deciding which shop to try next when a voice with accented English startled me from behind.

“
I heard there was a group of pretty girls in today but if I knew you were out here I’d have come out sooner.” All of the girls were looking over my shoulder with their mouths open, including Lisa. I turned to see dark brown eyes assessing me from under a messy mop of raven black hair. He had on a black, short-sleeved t-shirt with the restaurant name ‘Zane’s’ written in white cursive writing over the front; tribal looking tattoos spread down from under his sleeves over his golden skin.

“
Alex… umm… hi, what are you doing here?” I looked at his t-shirt again and realised what a dumb question it was.

“
In a Greek restaurant? I should be asking what you’re doing here. Stalking me?” he laughed. “This is my Uncle’s place; I help out at the weekends sometimes.”

“
So this is the guy that you can’t leave alone for thirty seconds?” Megan sneered. Alex looked between her and me, with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“
What?” he asked.

“
Can I talk to you for a sec?” I stood up looking around for a quiet corner but the restaurant was so busy.

“
Sure, this way.” Alex grabbed my hand, threading his fingers through mine and pulled me through the back into the office. “I never thought I’d see you again so soon.” He smiled down at me as I looked around nervously. “What did your friend mean?”

“
Oh God this is so complicated” I muttered to myself running my hands over my face. “I kind of told them last night that I was messaging you but I was messaging my boyfriend.”

“
Why would you do that?”

“
Because they don’t know about him; they can’t know about him.” My voice started trailing off “He’s our teacher.” I said almost inaudible to even my own ears.

“
He’s your
what
? Olivia,
really
?” He laughed and I tried to shush him by placing my hands over his mouth.

“
You can’t tell them! My exams are next week and then I’m done with school and it won’t be a problem anymore, just
please
don’t say anything!” I begged him.

“
I
promise
, I won’t say a word.” He crossed his fingers over his heart. “If you agree to a date with me.”

“
Are you crazy? I have a boyfriend!” He tilted his head to the side, watching me with a wry smile. “Ok, fine! Look, I should get back to our table before they think I’ve shoved you in a cupboard somewhere to-” I shook that chain of thought from my head “No, never mind. It was erm… It was nice to see you again.”

“
It was nice to see you again too, let me walk you back to your table.” He opened up the door for me and walked me back and even seated me back in my chair earning more open mouthed stares from the girls. “It was nice to meet all of you lovely ladies, enjoy the rest of your lunch.” He left us with a bow of his head and a recommendation to try his grandmother’s lemon cake for dessert then retreated back towards the office.

“
Wow, he’s so hot! All those tattoos” Violet sighed. “How many does he have, Liv?” she giggled as she glanced back in the direction he’d walked off in. “Why did you not mention how gorgeous he is?”
Because I seriously hadn’t thought about it?
No, that wouldn’t make sense.

“
Because I knew you’d want to steal him.” I grinned over at her.

“
Oh he looks like sin” Lisa sighed. “If only I was fifteen years younger” she laughed.

We took Alex up on his recommendation for dessert and all instantly fell in love with it
, vowing that we needed to come back for more; we called our waiter over to pay our bill and pass on how lovely everything was.

“
Alexandros has already taken care of your bill; he hopes that everything was to your liking.”

“
Alexandros? Even his name drips sexiness” Lily muttered to Violet.

“
No, no he can’t do that, please let us pay.” I stood and tried to hand the waiter my card but he pushed it back.

“
He made it very clear that your meal was on him.”

“
Ok, well can I at least thank him?” The waiter went to fetch Alex for us while we gathered up our jackets and bags and left tips on the table.

“
I hear you’re causing trouble out here.” I whipped around to see Alex smiling at us.

“
Me? Never! I was just trying to pay for my meal like any other customer”

“
Nonsense” An older guy announced from behind Alex, they looked so alike, apart from the hair which was shorter, he lacked the tattoos that Alex had and his accent was thicker. “My Alexa said he had a friend here to visit so it’s my pleasure for you to have it.”

“
This is my Uncle, Demetrius Zaneakis, he was your chef today.” Alex told us all proudly.

“
I trust you found everything was ok?” Demetrius asked.

“
Everything was lovely, thank you so much. We’ll definitely have to come again won’t we girls?” Lisa pushed passed to shake the beautiful man’s hand. “We especially loved our dessert; Alex told us it was his grandmother’s recipe, it was so delicious.” Violet tightly pushed up against my shoulder to grip on to my arm as her mother went on and on about how nice the food and the restaurant were and how talented a chef he was.

“
Oh God, it was just salad and cake! Stop her before she embarrasses herself, I can’t watch this.” She cringed.

“
Erm… Lisa, we should be going, I’m sure Alex and his Uncle are very busy men.” Violet and I grabbed her arms to pull her backwards as we knew in roughly ten seconds she be flirting with him and we didn’t know the first thing about the poor guy.

We managed to get her to the door with Alex following us out onto the pavement; I turned to him and gave him a small peck on the cheek.
“Thank you so much for lunch and we really will come back soon.” I said. “But we promise to leave Lisa at home” I added in a whisper with a wink. “I’m so sorry about that.” But he just laughed and waved his hand dismissively.

“
I’m sure Demetri enjoyed it very much. It was really great to see you, Olivia. I hope it won’t be long before I see you again.” He grabbed my hand to place a chaste kiss on the back, leaving a piece of paper in my hand. I examined it as Alex retreated back into the restaurant; it was his phone number.

‘Call me when you’re free to arrange our date – Alex x’

I pushed it down to the bottom of my handbag and ran to catch up with everyone.

Resuming our wander down Bond Street
, Lily found her dress next; she chose a floor length gown that glittered in the light when she moved and contrasted so beautifully with her red hair. Violet and I eventually found our dresses when we were ready for giving up our search; Violet picked a dark blue, strapless gown with matching blue stilettos. As soon as I saw my dress I fell in love with it.

“
OH MY GOD!”
I thought Chanel was being raided as Lisa shrieked behind me. “Wow! It’s absolutely stunning, Liv!” It was a simple black, floor length dress with an empire waist and cap sleeves; I turned it around to see a little puddle train that flowed behind it. I was pushed into the changing room to try it on and fell even more in love with it. The high waist accentuated my curves perfectly; I ran my hands over my hips and sighed imagining Jamie’s hands there as we danced. I crashed back to earth as I realised I wouldn’t be able to be near him at all until the next day at least. Lisa, Violet and Lily gushed over how much older I looked in the dress, just the thing I wanted. “It’s perfect” Lisa sighed.

“
I know” I copied her sigh as she picked up the price tag.

“
Ouch! It’s a bit expensive; will your parents be ok with that?”

I chuckled.
“It’s fine honestly.”

Lisa said she trusted me as the bank card had my name on and it would be declined if not
and continued commenting on the dress and how she knew of some shoes that would go perfectly with my eye colour. Lily, Lisa and I went off to find some shoes while Violet and Megan headed off to a jewellery store close by to start picking out their accessories. Lily picked out some pink, stiletto sandals and Lisa showed me some emerald green platform courts that she even held up to my eyes to prove her point. I loved them so much for making me five inches taller that I bought the matching clutch bag to go with them and headed over to the jewellery store for Lily to find something.