She rolled her grey eyes. “Monogamy is overrated.” It had only been overrated since her ex boyfriend cheated on her. She was thirteen at the time and he kissed the new kid. Since then Sophie had a love/hate relationship with guys. One that saw her screwing whoever she wanted and telling them to do one after. Now she had a bit of a name for herself but she wasn’t the whore people thought she was, people rarely were as bad as others judged them to be.
Kai called at seven to say he was just down the road. Understandably, he didn’t want to come knock on the door through fear of my mother going psycho again. I took one last shot of vodka, winced as it burned its way down, and headed out to Kai’s car.
“Evening,” Kai said with a cheeky grin on his face.
“Good evening, gorgeous,” Sophie purred. Well, she waited three seconds. New record, ladies and gentlemen.
Kai grinned at her but I could feel his resistance. He’d mentioned in passing that he wasn’t into easy women anymore. Fuck knows why he went for me then, I didn’t exactly make it difficult when we met. Whatever his reasons, slow couple of months maybe, I was glad. I liked having his friendship.
I sat back against the passenger seat and felt relaxed, properly relaxed, for the first time in days. There were no expectations with Kai and he didn’t try to dig deep to find out what was wrong and fix me. I appreciated that more than I could ever express.
Kai pulled into his drive and we went inside. “What do you need us to do?” I asked.
Sophie frowned. “Us?”
“Yes, you’re helping, too!”
“Sophie, you can move the end table into the corner to make room for the speaker. Freddie’ll be here in a minute so watch out for him.”
“Is Freddie hot?”
Kai blinked, his dark lashes fanned out over his eyes. “Well, I don’t think so…”
“Yes, he is,” I said, even though I had no idea who he was. We’d be here forever if I didn’t just tell her what she wanted to hear.
“Perfect.” She clapped her hands and put her bag down, ready to get to work.
“You can help me with drinks,” Kai said, leading us through to the kitchen.
“Can I talk to you about something?” I asked once Sophie was distracted, watching out of the window for her ‘hot’ man.
He looked over his shoulder as he pulled bottles and bottles of alcohol out of the cupboard. “Sure.”
“It’s about what you said to Lucas at the pub.”
He stilled and then stood up. “Yeah, look, I’m sorry.”
“Why did you say it?”
He ran his hand through his jet-black hair. “I don’t know. He was being cocky and then I was a dick. Men do that shit, right?”
Being cocky meant he’d told Kai that we were together and possibly told him to back off. I wanted to ask what Lucas had done but I didn’t want to drag it out and make it into a big thing, as long as it was done and I was okay with both of them I was happy.
“That’s all it was? Nothing else to it?”
“I know the score between us if that’s what you’re asking. He mouthed off and so did I. Don’t worry, it’s done.”
“Good, because I really want you in my life.”
“Back atcha, princess. Now, want a shot before the party wankers drink my house dry?”
Laughing, I threw my bag to the side and nodded.
About an hour later, the party was in full swing and I’d just received a text from Lucas. ‘I’m bored as hell! What you doing? I miss you.’
He didn’t know I was here. I’d chickened out earlier and didn’t mention anything. But I couldn’t lie to him now so I replied, ‘I’m at Kai’s party with Sophie. Miss you too.’
The with Sophie part was incredibly important. Not that it should be, he hung out with friends of the opposite sex. I mean, as far as I knew he’d never slept with any of them but that didn’t matter, the physical part of my relationship with Kai was over.
‘Okay, I’ll leave you to it. Have fun & I’ll call you later.’
I wasn’t entirely sure how to take that so I decided to take it at face value and believe that he was okay and genuinely wanted me to have fun. He said he trusted me, I’d not given him a reason not to and I wasn’t going to either.
“You okay?” Kai asked as he sat down and handed me a beer.
“Thanks. Yeah, I’m good.”
“Sophie’s looking for you.”
I groaned. “Any idea what she wants?”
His big, schoolboy grin told me he did but he shook his head anyway. Groaning again, I went to find her. It didn’t take long, she was on the sofa, pouting.
“What’s up?” I asked, flopping down next to her.
“What do you think of him?” she asked, pointing to a guy talking to a girl by the window.
“He’s nice.” But he’s already talking to a girl.
She scrunched her nose up and proceeded to quiz me on the hotness of every other male in the room. “Yeah, he’s nice but nowhere near as hot as Lucas or Kai.”
“Hey, hands off.” I warned, laughing. She just said it to wind me up anyway, I shouldn’t have taken the bait.
She raised her eyebrows. “Which one?”
“Lucas,” I replied, rolling my eyes.
“Seriously! Kai is unbelievably gorgeous. If I were you I so would.”
“You’re not me and I already have. I’m happy with Lucas, thank you.”