It wasn’t how he’d pictured his life evolving when he’d been cramming for his exams, university only a few months’ hard study away.
‘No point looking back though, is there girl?’ Pickles angled her head, whiskers bobbing up and down as she chewed on the treat he’d given her. ‘Life’s what we make it, and I’m not about to complain. Not when I’ve got the day off.’
Rising to his feet, he ducked into the bedroom, shrugged on his shorts and headed for the spare room where he’d set up his weights.
His note was still stuck on the window. With a sigh he tugged it off, his shoulder dropping, just a little, when he saw the blinds opposite were still down. Before he could think twice about it, he picked up the pad of paper and scrawled a new one:
Hi Mia
Not eloquent, not clever. But at least now there was no doubt who the greeting was directed towards.
Yet as he sweated through his work out, the blinds to her room remained down.
Feeling out of sorts, he headed for the shower where he gave himself a strict talking to. He had a damn bar to run now. Complications, and women definitely came in that category, were not what he needed right now.
He’d been at his makeshift desk in the spare room – a plank of MDF laid across two dumb-bell racks – for ten minutes, poring over invoices and orders, when his phone rang. Seeing Sandy’s ID, he picked up.
‘Hey, what’s up?’
‘Me and Mateo have been waiting here for ten minutes, that’s what’s up.’
‘So, why are you telling me? Isn’t Bill there?’
‘Why would Bill be here? He’s down for Wednesday. Today’s Tuesday.’
Luke glanced at the rota he’d stuck on the wall – Blu Tack was mighty handy – saw she was right, and swore. ‘On my way. Don’t kill me when I get there.’
There was a long suffering sigh. ‘I guess I can promise that, though there might be some serious dismembering.’
Unconsciously, he placed a protective hand over his groin. Then he grabbed his keys, wallet, jacket and legged it out of the flat.
Notes to a woman he barely knew. What the shit was he playing at? He couldn’t even cope with the stuff he already had going on in his life. He didn’t need adding to it.
Chapter Five
By Thursday afternoon, Mia was proud of herself. For three days she’d not opened her blinds.
She didn’t miss the sight of Immaculate Woman. She didn’t miss … okay, there was no other positive she could think of. She missed the daylight, the sight of something other than a blank brown canvas (if she was going to keep doing this, she’d have to invest in some non-cow pat coloured blinds). And damn yes, she missed the ten o’clock Luke show. She hadn’t realised how much it had motivated her to be at her desk.
She’d updated Heather and Gill on the situation yesterday. Heather had told her she admired her discipline, even though she’d have messaged back because, ‘duh, hot guy’.
Gill had told her she was bonkers. ‘Fine, don’t reply, but shutting the blinds, are you crazy? How many times in your life are you going to get a free show like that?’
Her sister thought she was being a coward. This morning, after Mia had admitted yes, the blinds were still shut, Elle had messaged her:
What are you going to do, keep the ruddy things closed forever?
She had a point, Mia supposed.
And Luke must surely have got the hint by now. Or, quite probably, he hadn’t even noticed she’d had her blinds down because he didn’t care.
God, she was being crazy. This had to stop. With a ruthless snap of her wrist, she flicked the blind up.
A moment later, her heart cartwheeled in her chest.
There was no denying now that the original message had been intended for her. The way he’d added her name after the Hi, kind of gave it away.
Doesn’t mean you have to reply.
Mia forced her eyes back on her monitor and her focus back on work.
She managed to keep it up for ten whole minutes before her gaze bounced back to Luke’s window and that damn piece of paper with its cheesy smile next to her name.
With a huff of impatience, she phoned Elle.
‘So I opened the blinds, only to find he’s put my name next to the Hi. What am I supposed to do now, smarty pants?’
Elle whooped. ‘Yay, you have no idea how much I needed this. Your love life is about the only thing stopping me from going stir crazy.’
‘I don’t have a love life. I have a … a dumb note stuck in a window with my name on it.’
‘Aw, come on, don’t be mean. He’s wooing you. It’s romantic.’
Mia stared again at Luke’s window. If she hadn’t bumped into Chloe and the girls last Saturday, hadn’t heard them talk about Luke’s casual approach to sex, hadn’t seen him with his arms around Chloe, and a moment later seen another woman act all proprietorial in front of her. If she didn’t know he was having sex with Tanya… If none of that had happened, maybe she would think this was romantic.
And maybe she would send him a message back.
‘Is it romantic, or is he just acting true to type?’
‘So cynical, baby sis. You barely know the guy, you can’t possibly have him down as a type already.’
It was true. She usually she only found out a guy was a tosser once she’d started dating him. With Luke though, she had a feeling she’d had a lucky escape. ‘He asked for my number when I know for a fact he’s sleeping with at least one of the women I met last week. I rest my case.’
‘Umm, that is a bit yucky.’ Elle sighed. ‘What are you going to do about the message?’
‘Ignore it.’
‘Okay. Boring, but okay, I can see why Pete the Prick could have put you off men for a while.’
‘It isn’t just Pete the Prick, though he was by far the worst. It’s also Danny the Dick, Andy the Arsehole, Chris the—’
‘Yep, I can see where you’re coming from. The thing is though, Mia.’ A pause. ‘The thing is.’ Another pause, this time with a huff.
‘Jeeze, get to what the bloody thing is. Please. Unlike you, I do actually have some work to do.’
‘I am working, I’m incubating your nephew.’ Elle blew out a breath. ‘So anyway, the thing is, if you just ignore the message … where the hell am I going to get my entertainment from?’
Mia spluttered with laughter. ‘God, you’re so cranky at this stage of your pregnancy. I’d forgotten.’
‘I’m sitting here feeling like a beached whale, my ankles are like tree trunks, my back aches, my husband thinks it’s hilarious I look so huge and keeps taking photos of me naked. You’ll be bloody cranky when you’re thirty-odd weeks pregnant.’
Elle said it so emphatically, as if there was absolutely no doubt that Mia would, one day, not only be pregnant, but also have a husband who wanted to take naked photos of her. Yet as she said goodbye to Elle, Mia realised she couldn’t picture any of that. All she could see was her inhabiting the same four walls she was living in now. Immaculate Woman would probably have left to live in some four-bed house in a leafy lane, Luke to live with some rich woman who wanted him for his body. And she’d still be here. All alone.