Love Simmers (10 page)

I thought about the job
seriously, about what Ollie had said. I thought about Nate and how
he made me feel.

“
Nate makes me
happier than $1 million,” I put the problem in its simplest form.
“Nate actually makes me happier than having $1 million
dollars.”

“
How many
people can say that about their boyfriend?” Ollie said as he
U-turned.

I ran up the steps to the front
porch, barging through the door and up the stairs. My heart pounded
in excitement as I imagined Nate’s face when I told him how I felt.
I opened his bedroom door, yelling out in surprise as I came face
to face with Lia standing there in a bath towel and nothing else.
She looked like she had just stepped out of the shower. She
recoiled from the look on my face. It must have been pretty
scary.

“
Don’t bother
telling him I came back,” I whispered, turning around to leave
without waiting to even see Nate’s face.

“
It’s not
-.”

I left before she could even
finish her sentence, not wanting to hear the excuses or whatever
she’d been about to say.

I ran back to the car as Ollie
was getting out.

“
Let’s go,” I
got in.

“
What
happened?” Ollie asked cautiously, obviously worried about what I
was about to say.

“
Lia was there
already,” I stared out the window, trying to take my mind to a
happy place where there was no Nate or Lia or unhappiness. It
failed miserably as moments later, tears filled my eyes.

“
I find that
hard to believe,” Ollie doubted but I chose not to say anything
more.

I gave him a big hug goodbye at
the airport, promising to come back home within the next month to
see him and Maddie. Saying goodbye to them all was always the
hardest part. For weeks after leaving I always felt lonely and
missed them terribly.

I walked into my loft hours
later, dropping my duffle bag at the door and falling into a heap
on my leather couch. I still had to make a decision on the job
offer. Even when you were heartbroken and at your lowest, life went
on. I no longer wanted the job though. I struggled living a couple
hours away from home. The other side of the world didn’t seem like
a recipe for happiness. Then again, being a half a world away from
Nate sounded nice right now.

A knock on the door forced me
up out of the foetal position. I was happy to see my friend Paul on
the other side.

“
I thought it
was you I heard stomping down the hallway,” he teased, holding a
couple of wineglasses with one hand and a bottle in the
other.

I gave my neighbour a hug,
opening the door to let him in. Paul was one of my closest friends
in the city. He lived across the hall from me. Our friendship had
begun two years ago when I’d cut my hand while dicing an onion. I’d
wrapped it in a tea towel and ran to the elevator, figuring it
would need a stitch or two. Paul had gotten into the lift with me
and seen my hand. I’d felt a huge surge of relief when he told me
was a surgeon and taken a look at the cut. He’d given me two
stitches in his apartment and then made an appointment for me at
the hospital the next day. We’d been friends ever since. The fact
that Paul was dating a guy called Mason kept our relationship
strictly platonic.

We took a seat on the couch.
Pouring the wine, he started bombarding me with questions.

“
How’s the arm?
I read about the attack online. Why didn’t you call me? Should I
take a look at the x-rays?” Paul was an incredible doctor, but
unfortunately he could never turn that part of himself off. Even
when he wasn’t at the hospital he was thinking about his
patients.

“
My arm is
fine. It’s my heart that’s a little damaged,” I told him about Nate
and the job offer and Lia.

“
Did you see or
hear Nate with Lia?” He asked, enjoying my dramatic love life. His
life was so calm and organised he’d taken to living vicariously
through me. I didn’t blame him. I was a walking soap opera
sometimes.

“
No,” I
mumbled, not liking where this was going. I was starting to wonder
if I shouldn’t have at least confronted Nate before
leaving.

“
But you leapt
to an assumption because your powers of deduction have proven
themselves to be spot on,” his voice was gentle but mocking.
“Remember when you thought the guy upstairs was a Spy?”

“
In my defence,
his hand-eye co-ordination was off the charts and he spoke
Russian,” I laughed, suddenly wondering why I hadn’t spoken to
Nate. I should have confronted him and asked him to tell me the
truth, to look him in the eye before I’d jumped to conclusions. I
was angry, he should have seen my anger instead of me running
away.

“
I’m going to
go back there and demand the truth!” I felt empowered, standing up
and pacing the length of the couch while Paul watched and sipped
his wine.

“
You go back
there and ask him what’s going on!” He egged me on.

There was a knock at the door.
I bolted towards the door and flung it open. My mouth dropped open
when I saw an exhausted, pissed off looking Nate on my doorstep. I
guess that saved me a trip.

His eyes hardened instantly
when he saw Paul sitting on my couch.

Paul stood up, sizing Nate up
like Nate was sizing him up. It was a rather primitive dance for
two such sophisticated men. Poor Nate didn’t even realise Paul was
the last guy he had to worry about hitting on me.

“
Nate, I
presume,” Paul stated, “You owe my friend an explanation. Logan,
don’t run or back down,” Paul smiled, picked up the glasses of wine
and crossed the hall into his own place.

“
My friend
Paul. You would like his partner, Mason, he’s a business advisor,”
I watched as Nate visibly relaxed. I hadn’t invited him in
yet.

“
I’m really
pissed Logan,” he stared at me intensely. I scoffed.

“
I’m really
pissed Nate,” I wondered how this impasse would end.

“
Ollie told me
you saw Lia,” he said curtly, “you thought that after one fight I’d
sleep with my ex? Is that how you would behave?”

I couldn’t believe his
audacity. He was turning this around to accuse me of cheating.

“
I saw her
naked in your bedroom!” I didn’t mention the towel. I thought naked
had more dramatic impact.

He pushed his way past me into
my apartment, dropping his bag down he looked around at my place.
He’d never been here before. He took in my furniture, artwork and
belongings in seconds. I could tell from his expression he liked
the place. I refused to let that fact soften my anger towards him.
I wanted the truth from him.

“
Her hot water
tank blew. She asked if she could shower at mine. To make sure she
didn’t get the wrong impression I made sure I wasn’t around while
she was there.”

I felt like an idiot, like one
of those girls in a horror movie who goes outside into the creepy
night because she hears a noise. I was one of those girls. My face
heated as I looked away in embarrassment. I was both relieved and
devastated from his words. Devastated because of my own
stupidity.

“
That’s
reasonable,” I whispered, sitting down on the couch and putting my
head in my hands.

“
I love you.
You infuriate me, you make me miserable, but I love you because you
make me happier than anyone else,” he knelt down beside me. I
raised my eyes to his.

“
I’m turning
down Japan because you make me happier than any job or salary,” my
heartbeat sped up as I looked at him, my hands moving at their own
accord to cup his face.

“
Good, because
I really didn’t want to leave Ollie in charge for a year,” his
laughter was choked as he pulled me into a kiss that left me
wanting for more.

“
No one makes
me more irrational and vulnerable than you,” I whispered, running
my fingers through his hair.

“
Next time,
don’t run,” he picked me up, carrying me into my bedroom. “Then
again, I’m not going to let you out of my sight
anymore.”

Sometime later as we lay
exhausted and sweaty, my body sprawled across his chest. I asked
him a question that had been bugging me for days.

“
Confess now,
how much do you love my book?” I teased, loving the way he
groaned.

“
I love it,” he
mumbled, as if I had tortured the words out of him.

“
How much do
you watch my show?”

“
I’ve seen
every episode four or five times. The one where you’re scuba diving
in that gold and green bikini, lets just say I’ve seen that one
more than five times,” I burst into laughter as his arms tightened
around me.

“
I knew you
were my biggest fan,” I joked, “you should be chair of my fan
club.”

“
Go to sleep,”
he sighed, knowing he was never going to hear the end of this. It
was too endearing that he liked my work so much. Nate, a guy who
found only three shows worth watching, who saw maybe two movies a
year, loved my show.

“
What’s your
favourite part of my show?” I asked, my fingers tracing circles on
his flat stomach.

“
Any scene
you’re in,” he said softly, and my heart almost burst with
love.

“
Such a good
answer,” I kissed him, happier in this moment with him than I could
ever remembering being.

This time though I wasn’t going
to walk away. This time, I wasn’t letting him go.

Keep an eye out for the next
book in the Sail Away Series:

Love Ignites

More
Information:

http://julesdeplume.blogspot.co.nz