35. Approximately Three Days

Dom

Miridle was the most expensive restaurant in the whole of the city. Earlier that day, I had asked Jack where Mia had booked to tell my date and only rolled my eyes in response.

DOM: Table is booked for 8 pm at Miridle. See you there.

IVY: Lovely, I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve heard great things! Can’t wait to see you again xx

Sure.

It may have occurred to me that I could pretend my date bailed on me and just go on this double date alone. That way, soon enough, Jack would become the third wheel, leave and I’d get Leonie to myself again.

But my reputation had taken the slightest hit — more of a tap — since Mia went screwing other guys.

So Ivy was my pick. Chris’ quiet cousin, who I had met at last year’s Christmas work party for Belov Security. Apparently, he had hired her in some capacity.

Issy made idle chit-chat with Jack in the car as Leonie and I sat in stony silence. She’d probably noticed my nostrils flaring when I saw her hand threaded through his.

And as soon as Issy pulled up outside of the restaurant and we got out, she left us behind in an awkward quiet.

“Your date not here yet?” Jack asked, looking around more than I did as we waited to be seated.

“Don’t know,” I said with a shrug, checking in on Ghost through my newly installed cameras. He was sleeping, belly up on the sofa.

“Thought you were quite excited by this rebound,” Jack said with a laugh. “Seems you’re not.”

Leonie reached for his hand, her eyes darting around the bar area, scanning for any woman that might be my date.

“He’s just excited to get some,” Leo said, pressing into his side as someone walked past her. “Doesn’t matter who. She’ll last approximately three days.”

I glanced up at her from my phone and she gave me a flinch of a sarcastic smile.

Did we only have three days together? Surely not.

Jack stroked her back and nodded pleasantly to the hostess as she pulled up the reservations for the night on her tablet.

“Table for Mia… Dom, what’s her last name?”

“Mia Vendegift,” I said.

DOM: We’re here. Where are you?

IVY: My bus was a bit late. Will be there in five minutes!

She was getting the bus? Fuck, I could have picked her up or got her a taxi, at least.

DOM: What do you want to drink? I’ll make sure it’s waiting for you.

I wasn’t in the habit of leading girls on, but I also wasn’t a massive prick. Usually.

Depended on who you asked.

For if you were to ask Leonie staring daggers at my phone, she would certainly tell you I was the biggest dipshit she’d ever known.

Someone needed to get that girl a dictionary.

Only when she looked up from glaring did I notice the commotion.

“Yeah, I’m so sorry, but her name is definitely not down here,” the hostess said. “Oh wait, yes. It’s been cancelled. Earlier today, actually, and just with how busy…”

I scooted Leonie out of the way, smiling at the hostess and checking her name tag. “Angela, could she have booked a different table under Dominic?”

She wouldn’t have.

“I, er…” she hesitated to look away and then started typing on her screen, her gaze never off me for too long. “The last name?”

“Belov.”

The man behind her grabbing menus turned abruptly. He shook my hand with a big smile. “Mr Belov, a pleasure. How many?”

Angela stuttered. “There are no—”

He silenced her with a finger and spoke a few words into a small mouthpiece.

“Of course we have room,” he said, straightening and as I raised four fingers, he nodded and put back one of the menus. “Please, follow me.”

We walked up a steel spiral staircase and out onto a private, candle-lit terrace. Perfect, if we didn’t have Jack.

Behind me, he joked to Leonie, “Now, this is the real reason we’re friends with a Belov.”

She laughed and thanked Jack as he pulled a chair for her.

“I’ll keep an eye out for the last member of your party,” the host said as I scanned the location.

I stopped him, holding a hand out. “What’s your security package? You don’t have any surveillance out here.”

“Don’t make this a business deal,” Leonie groaned and poured herself a glass of water.

Because I would always listen to her, I unfolded my wallet and handed him my business card instead of starting the spiel I had ready, the bespoke plan I’d started putting together in my head from our walk up here.

The host, Jerry, smiled pleasantly and said he would take it to the manager and then he asked us for our drink order.

Ivy still hadn’t replied.

“A Montrachet,” I ordered for her. Since I was twenty, it was the drink I ordered for any woman and secretly judged them by.

Leo called out, “Two of those, please!”

Because that was Leo’s drink. Mum and Dad always got a few bottles of it for the summer occasions and Christmas.

“We’ll take a bottle,” I amended and sat beside Leo as a flustered blonde came out onto the terrace.

She beamed at me and placed her bag on the seat beside Jack. She was cute with a little dimple on her cheek and big brown eyes.

I couldn’t remember meeting her.

“Ivy,” I said, stood and kissed her on the cheek.

“Sorry I’m so late,” she gushed and sat as I did the same.

“Ivy, this is Jack and this is Leonie,” I said and waved at them. I didn’t look at Leo.

This poor girl did not deserve to be thrown into this lion’s den. At least she would get a free meal and a bottle of wine.

“Call me Leo,” Leonie said and smiled at her. “How did you meet Dom?”

Ivy started to explain and I really should listen — for I didn’t know myself — when a man in jeans and a shirt came out and offered me his hand. “Mr Belov, we’re so pleased to have you here. My employee said you may want to discuss security?”

Leonie leaned over to put her hand on top of mine. “Maybe after dinner.”

“Of course, just let one of my employees know when you’re ready and they’ll escort you out the back,” he said with a nod and left us.

And just like that, I was left back in the most awkward situation that I had quite literally dug myself.

The girls discussed their universities while Jack and I spoke about work, our conversations occasionally merging until all our food was gone and our drinks were downed.

Ivy kept trying to catch my eye and I avoided her.

I was a dick.

I was a dipshit.

And my hand had been on Leonie’s thigh since the starters were brought out. Her smile had become forced the second I touched her but she soon eased into it, once brushing my hand with hers.

As Jack and Ivy discussed a mutual friend, I turned my chair round to face Leo. She grinned, her lips against her wine glass as she took a sip. Tipsy Leonie wasn’t angry at me. “Yes?” she asked, trying to contain a little laugh.

Let it go, Leo. Let me hear it.

“Take off that top,” I said. “Your little love bite’s been seen now and you’re clearly boiling.”

Though it was nearly 10 pm, the sun was setting across the city, lighting her face in a golden hue.

We should be alone up here.

Not for any purpose other than I could tell her how beautiful she was or that I could pull her onto my lap and talk about life, my intentions with her, my regrets, my hopes.

We should be alone.

“I am warm,” she admitted. Her cute cheeks were pink from the wine. “But it will only get colder now.”

“Will it?” I asked, my hand still lazily on her thigh.

We should be together.

“There’s a bar down the road I wouldn’t mind going to,” Ivy said and I tore my eyes away from Leo.

“Yeah, a drink wouldn’t hurt. You lot go ahead, I want to talk to the manager quickly.”

Leonie squared me with a dull look. “You’re on a date. Work later. He has your number, he’ll call.”

She wanted to spend time with me, which was enough to keep me from going.

But on the walk to the bar, Jack draped his arm over Leo’s shoulders as they walked on ahead. She leaned into him. They’d hardly spoken but, clearly, he was getting some sign that she was interested.

And I was missing it.

By the time we got to the bar, Jack was standing alone at a high table. He waved us over and Ivy shimmied herself up to sit on one of the high stools.

Was this the same bar Leo and I had been at last weekend?

Jack told us how she had gone to the toilet. If I went down there… she had said she was ready for me to fuck her in that corridor.

And if we got caught right now, that would be bad. Very, very bad.

I was hard just at the thought.

There wasn’t any time for me to seriously consider going down there because Leo then appeared with a tray of shots and salt.

She’d taken off the top. Her tan skin against that burgundy red, the shimmer of sweat across her skin, and the silk’s shine made me want to bite her.

I should have gone down as soon as I heard she was there.

“Tequila!” she cried.

Ivy eyed them wearily, but Jack clinked his into Leonie’s and they necked them back before she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the dance floor.

Despite my date requesting we came here, she didn’t drink the shot nor did she want to dance. Not that I was big on dancing.

But Leo was. She danced her little heart out, arms in the air, swaying her hips and screaming when one of her favourite songs came on.

And Jack was right there with her, laughing, twirling her.

He’d be good for her.

But it was the fact I wasn’t good for her that wouldn’t let that happen.

I hated myself for it.

She deserved more. She deserved more than me.

“They’ve stopped playing the good music. So I’ve made an executive decision and would like to announce we’re going back to mine!” she shouted over the music when she returned to drink some of her water.

“We?” Ivy asked.

She nodded and gestured to the four of us, Jack beaming beside her. “Yeah,” she said with a hiccup. “We!”

Jack best not push it. She was not sober enough to make any kind of decision. If he touched her, it didn’t matter if he was my friend.

“Oh yes, we normally end a night out with a bit of cardio, don’t we, Leo?”

“Wh—what?” she gasped, eyes wide as she glanced to see Jack’s reaction.

“Just Dance.”