“Rayshe?” Justin looked over at me as if I was a complete idiot, “What is wrong with you today, man?”
I shook my head, “Nothing... sorry.” I mumbled. My face was on fire and I could see that the guys were all looking at each other out of the corner of my eye. Shit. They’d start asking any second... now.
“Who is he?” That was Justin.
“What’s his name?” That was Noah.
“Where did you meet him?” That was Karl.
They all asked at exactly the same time and we all looked at each other in surprise before we all fell about laughing. This was the thing about being mates forever – we knew each other –very well.
I shook my head, “It’s just a crush.” I said with a sigh, “His name’s Danny. I play five-a-side football with him – it can’t go anywhere. He’s married – and very straight.”
Justin frowned, “So why bother?” he asked.
I shrugged, “I don’t know.” I sighed again, “He’s really nice...”
Noah cocked his head to one side, reminding me strongly of my dog, “You’ve spent time together?”
I nodded. We’d had that drink together at the bar the other night and we were seeing each other tomorrow again at football, “Not loads of time but you know how you can just tell when you meet someone you click with?”
He nodded, smiling. “Yeah, I know.”
“I’m gonna invite him to come and watch us play on Friday.”
Karl’s jaw dropped, “At Studs?” he asked incredulously, “You’ve just said the guy was straight. Do you honestly think he’ll come?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know. I hope so. Why wouldn’t he?”
Karl frowned around at the rest of the guys, “Uh, because, and I quote, ‘he’s very straight’ – and married.”
I grimaced. Damn. Why did everyone have to keep focusing on that?
Out Now!
“He’s definitely Tobias Prince.” I said to Rayshe, who had just turned up with his fiancé, Danny. “I knew it the moment I saw him. Can you remember him. He was a right bastard?” But now he seems to be really nice.
He frowned at me, “Not really, mate. No.” he said, “But I wasn’t in your classes until we got to year ten, remember? I was transferred because there were too many students all wanting to do media studies in my half of the year group.”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I agreed, “You’re right.”
Karl came in at that moment, “Good day?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
I nodded, “It’s been an interesting one.” I said, “Guess who I’ve got to mentor this week?”
He frowned, “Uh, dunno,” he said with a shrug, “Duvall’s wayward son. The man-whore who pisses all of his dad’s hard-earned cash away?”
I chuckled. Chance would be a fine thing… “Not quite – can you remember Tobias Prince.” Please say you can. This is killing me!
His frown deepened, “Oh, yeah? I remember the little scrote. The one who picked on you all of the time before he went off to France – that Tobias Prince?”
“Thank you!”I exclaimed, “Yes! I nearly died when I was introduced to him this morning.”
Karl’s jaw dropped, “You’re kidding me?”
I shook my head, “No, I’m not. He’s calling himself Lawrence Prince these days – and now I’m mentoring him. He’s still got his fabulous red hair and everything.” And his big brown eyes are to die for but if you think I’m telling you that…
Karl frowned, immediately tuning into what I wasn’t saying rather than what I was, “You’re not falling for this joker, are you?” he asked sternly, “Because Tobias Prince was a wanker at school and generally speaking, a leopard doesn’t change his spots.”
I nodded, “I know that.” I said airily and trying my best not to look as if I was interested in him in the slightest, “I’m not fooling myself into thinking he’s any better than he should be.”
Karl grunted, “Make sure you don’t.” he said, “Guys like that eat guys like you for breakfast. We all remember Martin.”
Out Now! Release date 30th September 2018
I sat up. Hello. Someone had a good time last night. That was a definite twinge of having been given a good seeing-to...
I frowned. I couldn’t even remember meeting a guy last night, never mind sleeping with one... weird...
I gingerly got out of bed. I was as completely naked as the day I was born and now I came to really think about it. I was absolutely starving.
I picked up my mobile phone off the sideboard and sent a quick group text off to the others, “Breakfast anyone?”
Immediately they all started pinging messages back to me.
“Are you sure you want to be disturbed from the honeymoon?”
“What about the husband?”
“That was some serious snogging you were doing last night. Are you sure you didn’t eat him?”
My jaw dropped. “What guy?” I sent back, trepidation starting to make my butt twinge for a completely different reason. I was beginning to get a vague feeling of panic.
“The one you married in the Elvis chapel last night at midnight.”
I gaped at the messages, “Oh, Christ...” I whispered. Why the hell did they let me do that? How the hell could they have let me do that…? I looked around my room and realised that there was a smart suit hanging up on the front of my wardrobe. I stared at it for a moment, desperately trying to remember wearing it. Nothing was coming back to me. I must have been completely wasted.
I grabbed my boxer shorts and a tee shirt and then I dived for the door. I grabbed my door key and ran down the corridor as fast I could manage. I banged on Karl’s door.
He opened it and I saw all the guys sat around in his room, “What did I do?” I gasped, leaning against the door frame for support. “Who was he? And why didn’t any of you stop me?” Seriously out of all of it – that was surely the worst of it? None of them thought to stop me from marrying a total stranger.
Karl frowned, “Why don’t you ask him?” he asked, quite clearly puzzled at my reaction.
I shook my head, “Because he’s gone. Whoever he was,” I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation. “but we most definitely consummated the marriage...” I shifted from foot to foot, still very aware of what had gone on last night between my mystery guy and I.
Karl stared at me, “Gone?” he asked stupidly, “Gone where?”
Well if I knew the answer to that one… Sometimes Karl was incredibly dense for a smart guy.
Noah shook his head, “I tried to talk you guys out of it,” he said earnestly, “but you were totally into each other and he swore blind he wasn’t all that drunk.”
“Well, I was.” I snapped, “I can’t even remember what he looked like.” I really couldn’t believe that Noah had given up so easily. How drunk had he been last night to put up such a feeble argument? And yes, I was aware that I was blaming everyone else for my own stupidity…
Karl smiled, “Well, I can tell you that he was well fit…” He started, “And Noah got photos.”
Noah shot to his feet. “Oh, my God! I did! I totally did!” he shouted, “I got photos! I’ve just remembered.”
Well, thank Christ for that... At least I had some evidence.
“Oh.” His face fell as he scrolled through his phone, “They’re, um, they’re not very good...” he trailed off, going red.
I snatched the phone out of his hand and started to scroll. “No...” I murmured as I could see that we had most definitely gotten married by Elvis... There was a perfectly clear and decent photo of ‘the King’... but not one of the photos of my mystery husband and I were in focus. The one good photo of us with a glass of champers each was absolutely fabulous – apart from the fact that Noah had managed to perfectly cut both of our heads off... well, that was just champion...
Expected release date 31st October 2018
Prom night came far too quickly for my frazzled nerves but I got showered and dressed, wearing my favourite aftershave with Devon in mind, since I knew he really loved it.
My heart rate about doubled when Dad shouted up the stairs that someone was at the door for me.... Oh, my God! That would be the mysterious Delilah!
Mum came bustling up the stairs almost the minute Dad had shouted, “You never told me you had a girlfriend, Karl,” she admonished, “And she’s so beautiful – so tall and graceful.”
I nodded, feeling completely bewildered. I had no clue who this Delilah girl was. No clue... “Uh, yeah – we’re uh, we’re not really serious. We’ve not long met.” Try never met...Who the hell had he sent to pick me up? I sure as hell hoped he hadn’t set me up with someone that thought I’d fancy them. The only person I wanted to be with was Devon and I thought he knew that.
I checked my appearance one last time in the mirror and headed for the stairs on slightly shaky legs.
My jaw hit the floor when I got down the stairs and found ‘Delilah’ waiting for me in the hall.
I stared at Devon, not quite sure that I could believe my eyes. He was dressed in the most figure-hugging dress I’d ever seen on anyone. It fit him like a glove and showed off his beautiful slim frame absolutely perfectly.
I didn’t care that he didn’t have breasts. I didn’t care that his waist wasn’t as cinched in as a girls’ would be. To me he looked just as utterly perfect as he did in a plain white tee shirt and jeans and I just wanted to kiss his ruby red lips until they were back to the colour I was more used to seeing. Not that I didn’t like them red. He looked perfect just the way he was – and he looked perfect when he didn’t have the make up on. Hell. He was just perfect no matter what.
Coming Soon...
