“Em read it and told me it was really good,” Tommy explained. We all looked at each other wondering what it was about chick lit Tommy thought he’d enjoy.
“Jesus, Tom, I think you’re actually becoming a bird by osmosis. You’ve shagged so many women that estrogen is actually being absorbed into your skin,” Liam told him.
“At least it’s got words instead of pictures. Be thankful it isn’t a coloring book,” Kieran added with a smirk as we settled into our seats.
“Oh, I have one of those,” a pretty girl in the seat behind Tommy said, holding up an adult coloring book. Her friend leaned over the seat in front of her and pointed to the book Liam was holding.
“I love that book. Have you seen the film?” she purred sexily at Liam as she spoke and leaned farther forward, giving him an eyeful of her rack. I chuckled as I sat back on my seat and closed my eyes. She was in for a long flight if she was hoping to seduce Liam. Tommy grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at us all. Apparently the female attention he was getting totally vindicated his choice of reading material. If he flashed about that chocolate later, he’d be attracting women like magnets.
As it happened, he was barely in his seat for most of the journey. Like some kid with ADHD, Tommy could never sit still for long. Kieran kept me company for a few hours, watching movies on the screen in front of us, until a kid started kicking the back of his seat. He gave me a look that said he was about to murder him before addressing the mother. “Excuse me,” he said in his politest, most charming voice. “Your son is kicking the back of my seat, and it’s getting really annoying. Do you mind stopping him?”
The bitch looked completely pissed off at been interrupted in the middle of whatever she was reading on her Kindle. “This is a family flight, and if you wanted more distance between the seating, you should have paid for a first-class seat.” Even I turned around to look then.
“You’re seriously going to let that little shit keep doing it?” Kier asked. She didn’t get a chance to respond before he started talking directly to the kid. If this had been any of the gym kids, I knew what I’d do. Then again, I like to think they were too respectful for that. This little shit, who must have been about nine or ten, wore the smirk of a brat who always got what he wanted.
“Next time you kick my seat, kid, I’m gonna take my bottle of water and splash it all over your crotch. Then when you go to the bathroom to clean up, I’m gonna ask everyone to clear a path because my kid brother’s had a little ‘accident.’ For the rest of the flight, you’ll be the kid who pissed himself. You want that?”
“Really,” said the mother, outraged.
“Yeah! Really,” promised Kieran. The kid shook his head no and I closed my eyes again, smiling. Kieran really was something else.
A few hours later, the sun set and most of the passengers were quiet. The boys, having all gotten bored, had disappeared to the back of the plane. I sat listening to Kier’s iPod as I ran through all Temple’s previous fights in my mind, working out what my strategy was. It was the strong cloud of perfume filling my nose that made me open my eyes as a good-looking girl with long dark hair, perfectly manicured nails, and lots of makeup sat down next to me.
“Hi, I hope you don’t think I’m being too forward. Your friends back there didn’t think you’d want to join us but I didn’t want you to feel left out.”
I pulled off my headphones, not wanting to seem rude. “That’s kind of you. But I’ve got a big week coming up, and I’m happy just sitting in my seat and relaxing until the plane lands,” I told her politely.
“Maybe I could relax with you?” she suggested with a tilt of her head. She bit her shiny lip. Why girls did that I had no idea; it had zero effect on me. Actually that was a lie. Em always bit her lip—when she was working out math problems. She had absolutely no idea she was doing it, and it was sexy as fuck.
“Look, I don’t want to seem rude, and you’re welcome to sit here if you’re after a bit of peace and quiet, but I’m probably going to listen to music and try and get some sleep.” I told her. Maybe I was being rude, not wanting to make idle chitchat with a stranger but being rude was pretty much what I was famous for. At least it used to be.
As soon as I went to put my headphones back on, she started talking again. “The guys told me all about your fight. They said that when you win you’re going to be really famous. You must be totally pumped.” Her perfect manicure was waving around excitedly as she talked about the fight.
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied, trying to replace my headphones again.