Intimate Strangers (The Lisa Millar Series Book 1)

by Lasairiona McMaster

  Is he just being nice? Or is this him being ‘boyfriendy’? Why isn’t Chelsea here to psycho-analyze this for me? I can’t ever tell what the signs mean!

  It’s definitely a good thing, right?

  Only one way to find out, I guess…

  Setting her mug on the floor, she rested her head on his shoulder, and he slipped his arm around her.

  Breathe. He didn’t push you away. You didn’t read things wrong.

  Breathe again. Could you calm down a bit? He is who he says he was, he’s gorgeous, his smile could melt butter and he’s definitely interested in you enough to sit close to you and put his arm around you. Chill.

  She must have fallen asleep, because when she woke, she was lying on his chest. She could feel the sunlight trying to peek through the curtains, she could hear the soft thudding of his heart, and could tell that he was awake. She slid her fingers down the inside of his arm and laced her fingers with his.

  “How long have you been watching me sleep?” she asked, tilting her head to find his gaze.

  “Long enough,” he replied, smiling, “Good morning.”

  Returning his smile, she answered, “Good morning. And long enough for what, exactly? Did I snore? Did I DROOL?” she asked, raising her eyebrows in horror.

  Oh my God Lisa, did you DROOL?

  Laughing softly he shook his head. Instinctively, she pecked his lips lightly, and his arms slipped around her waist.

  “You hungry?” he enquired.

  “Nah,” she replied, “not yet. Did the girls come back? I figured they were giving us some space together, but I assumed they’d arrive later and then I guess I fell asleep on you. I’m clearly a very concerned friend.”

  “I could tell that from the snoring. And the drool. Ana texted to say she and Chelsea had ‘made other plans’ for the night. Ana stayed at my house and I think Chelsea crashed with Stephanie? Either way, they were both fine last I checked.” He paused. “Lis, honestly, you didn’t drool. I’m kidding!”

  Check your face anyway, she thought as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  Phew.

  Checking his watch, he sighed heavily, “Babe, I…” he began.

  “Have practice,” she finished for him. “Yeah, I know. Were you asking me if I wanted breakfast out of politeness? You really should go though…” Checking her own watch, it was nine a.m. “you’re already going to be late!”

  “Well, I couldn’t really go anywhere with you stretched out on me now, could I?” he joked. “Not to mention, I’d have happily gone to practice even later if you’d wanted to grab breakfast.”

  “Oh, you noticed I was lying on you, did you?” she pouted playfully. “But I don’t want to move, you’re comfy!” she grumbled, though she was already moving to sit up.

  “Hey,” he said suddenly.

  “Yeah?”

  “You got plans for tonight?”

  Shaking her head, she told him she hadn’t planned on making any until she’d talked to him about his schedule.

  “How does dinner sound?”

  “Great!” she exclaimed, smiling.

  “Great,” he echoed as they walked to the door.

  “AJ?” she began.

  “Yeah?” he paused, reaching for the door handle.

  “Is this a non-date, date?”

  A little needy, perhaps? But let’s hope he found it cute.

  Smiling, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist. He pulled her gently towards him and shook his head. “No, babe,” he answered, kissing her forehead. “It’s a date!” he said simply.

  She felt her cheeks flush and he smiled at her, “I’ll come get you at five-thirty?”

  “Sounds good,” she answered, closing the door behind him. Her heart was racing.

  Don’t fall in love with a hockey boy! She scolded herself again. But she knew it was already too late.

  She was a goner.

  Chapter 4

  The day passed quickly as Lisa and Chelsea went shopping in town. They had lunch and got back to the hotel at four thirty p.m. – in plenty of time to get ready for it. It. She had been thinking about it all day, the first date, the big first date – her head felt light just thinking about it.

  Dumping all her purchases on the floor, Lisa headed towards the bathroom. She’d accidentally left her mobile on the counter before they went shopping. Lisa knew that Jeremy had Chelsea’s number to give to AJ if he needed to contact her. Quite the game of telephone, really. Chelsea came into the bathroom to join her. Lisa smiled in confusion, “Chelsea, I know you’ve missed me, but I’m just about to pee, so could I have some privacy?” Her smile faded as she saw the look on her best friend’s face. “What’s wrong?”

  “Here,” she held out her phone. “There’s a message for you,” she paused heavily, “from AJ,”

  “Summarize for me,” she said sourly. The look on Chelsea’s face told her it wasn’t exactly good news.

  “I...uh,” she started, “please, just listen to it!” she said, trying to hand her friend the phone.

  “Just tell me!” She snapped.

  “I dunno, really,” she replied, “he says something came up with one of the guys on the team and he can’t make it, he’s sorry and he wants to reschedule,” she finished, holding the phone out again.

  “Nah,” she shook her head, “I don’t want to listen to it.”

  Chelsea put the phone back in her pocket. Lisa closed the toilet and sat down. Sighing deeply, she turned to look at her friend. She didn’t have to say anything, Chelsea knew her, she could read her like a book – there was no lying to her. Chelsea immediately saw the hurt in Lisa’s eyes and her concern was evident.

  Lisa couldn't cope with pity so she stood up and announced that she wanted to get drunk.

  “You sure?” Chelsea asked, eyeing her with suspicion.

  “Yeah, call Stephanie, Ana, and anyone else you think would like to come. We’ll go get dinner and we’ll hit the town,” she grinned. “After all, it is a holiday for me, right? And I did come to see you as well – even if you don’t believe me,” she added, sticking out her tongue.

  Chelsea returned her smile. She could see Lisa wanted a night out on the town, and she also hadn’t had a good night out in a long time. She was easily persuaded. “You have thirty minutes to get ready,” she told her friend, who was already choosing her outfit.

  “Give me ten,” came the reply.

  She slipped on a pair of jeans and one of the approximately twelve thousand graphic tees she owned. Tonight’s choice? Wonder Woman. Bet your ass. She painted some clear lip gloss on, shook her hair loose and glanced at herself in the mirror.

  “It’ll do,” she muttered aloud.

  Slipping on some shoes, she called to her friend, “You ready?”

  “Yessum.”

  “Then let’s go!” grabbing her coat she headed for the door, leaving her phone behind – deliberately this time. Chelsea followed closely behind and they headed to dinner. When they arrived, Ana was already there, and she looked worried.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be having a candle-lit, romantic, first-date dinner with Pim right now?” she asked. “Is he ok? He’s not sick, is he?”

  Shaking her head, Lisa told her what had happened as Stephanie arrived. When Lisa had finished, Ana got up without a word. She returned a few minutes later with a tray of vodka shots, which she passed around, while informing everyone that the night was going to be a wild one. Despite her sadness, Lisa remembered what AJ had told her about Ana's tendency to get others drunk on vodka whilst drinking water herself and so made her trade drinks. True to her word, this time it really was vodka in Ana's glass.

  This is going to be one hell of a night. Though I really could do without the sister-pity.

  Dinner was a hoot. They laughed, and the drink flowed. When dinner was over, they headed for the bar they’d been to the night before. They could have gone anywhere in the city, but they all liked the atmosphere and it already
felt familiar somehow. If she lived locally, she could see this place being her go-to bar on the weekends. There was also a small part of Lisa that hoped they’d ‘bump into’ one of the players on the team so she could quiz him on where AJ was, who he was with, and why he wasn’t wooing her on their first date-date.

  Subtle, Lis.

  They were tipsy and giddy and, as they looked for a table, Lisa offered to go and get the first round of drinks. Approaching the bar, she saw him, standing talking with one of the guys she recognized from the night before.

  Shit.

  She groaned.

  Frickin’ perfect. She almost laughed. What the actual fuck? she thought, striding up to the bar and smiling at the bartender when she caught his eye.

  “What can I get you?” he asked.

  “What cocktails do you have?” she asked, smiling again.

  “Huh?” he looked confused.

  My bloody accent, she realized. I only said five words! Though I guess it is fairly loud in here. She indicated he should give her a pen and his notepad and she wrote,

  “I’d like four, nice, large cocktails – as strong as you can make them please!”

  She flashed her “bartender smile” as he read it, and he nodded with a wicked grin. Taking the pen from her, he wrote,

  “What’s your name and where are you from, honey?”

  Glancing to her left, she saw Jeremy trying to indicate her presence to AJ. She took the pen from the grinning bar man – who, she had a suspicion, was probably gay, and, feeling the eyes of the guys to her left she quickly jotted down her answer,

  “Lisa, Ireland – you?”

  “Cool, Brad, NYC – do you know that you have three guys staring at you, to your nine o’clock?” he called loudly to her.

  “Yeah, the guy in the middle and I know each other, the other two are his friends.”

  “Enough said,” he nodded, giving her a knowing look. “Go sit down, I’ll bring these over,” he said indicating the drinks he’d started to pour in front of him. She tried to pay, but he pushed her hand away. “This round is on me,” he told her. “Welcome to America.”

  Blushing, she thanked him and headed back to the table.

  “What took you so long?” Stephanie had to yell to be heard, the music was so loud.

  “Don’t look,” she began, “but AJ’s up at the bar,”

  As if on cue, they all went “Huh?” or “What?” and turned to look at the three guys who were staring back at them, propped up against the bar.

  “I SAID DON’T LOOK!” she hissed, “Don’t you guys understand English?”

  They were giggling, and the cocktail Brad had handed her as she sat down was disappearing fast. She felt the heat rising in her cheeks. This was bad. This was very bad. She hadn’t expected to see him tonight; she’d assumed his friend’s crisis didn’t involve a bar. She was pretty tipsy, and seeing him made her head spin and her heart lurch. She needed to leave; it was a bad idea to get drunk.

  She needed to leave, now.

  Chapter 5

  Lisa was just about to tell Chelsea she wanted to leave, when Chelsea grabbed her hand under the table. It was now she who was hissing, “He’s coming over.” She didn’t need to tell her not to look, nor specify who ‘He’ was.

  “Give me my hand bac-”

  “Hey,” he began.

  “Hey,” said Stephanie, glaring.

  “Hi,” answered Chelsea.

  “Pim?” Ana queried, as though she expected him to stand and give them all an explanation right there.

  “Hello,” Lisa answered, avoiding his eyes.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked her. Even in the dimmer light, she could tell that he was blushing and looked guilty.

  “Actually,” she stood up, grabbing her bag in one motion, “I was just going to head back to the hotel, I think my jet-lag is getting the better of me,” and with that, she was striding past him. Just how much did I have to drink again? she wondered as she headed towards the door.

  Focus. Straight line, Lisa, she told herself.

  When she got outside, she found a step to sit on and slowed her breathing. He followed her; she could hear his footsteps coming up behind her.

  “Forget the way?” AJ asked her, sounding hurt. Without turning around she replied,

  “No, I’m just getting some air before I go back to the hotel.”

  “Got a minute?” not waiting for a reply, he sat down beside her. “You look good,” he said softly.

  “Thanks.”

  He looked good too, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

  He sat quietly for a moment; he could probably tell that she wasn’t going to make this easy for him.

  Not my job to make things easy for you, boyo.

  Taking a deep breath, he slid closer towards her until they were sitting side by side and their clothes were touching.

  Focus. She steadied herself. It’s like an electric jolt, every damn time!

  “I’m sorry,” he began quietly, “it was important, he-”

  “Important?” she repeated. “Did somebody die?” Her quick breathing was returning. Steady Lis.

  “No.”

  “He obviously hasn’t lost a limb,” she paused and pretended to think. “Internal bleeding?”

  “No,”

  “Terminal disease?”

  “Lis-”

  “AJ, what was so damned important that it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” she asked, her voice laced with sadness and disappointment.

  “Well, if you’d let me get half a sentence out, I’d tell you,” he retorted hotly. “His girlfriend, well, his fiancée, broke up with him earlier. He was with her for six years. She’s been seeing someone on the football team behind his back. He was in a bad way, Lis, and I’ve known him since high school. I couldn’t say no to him.”

  She was still fuming.

  “He broke up with his fiancée?” she repeated slowly, struggling to control her temper. Bloody alcohol! That’s what you get for telling your new Barman BFF to make them strong! She cursed silently. “And you had to babysit him?”

  “Lisa, it’s not like that. He’s a good friend and he needed me!”

  “And what about me, hmm? I flew halfway across the planet to see you, AJ. You could have made time for me.”

  “I-”

  Cutting him off, she continued, “It’s not like he doesn’t have a whole hockey team that can take him out and get him drunk. He’s so plastered he doesn’t even know who he’s talking to. Jeremy could have handled it, or anyone that wasn’t you. You could have gone to see him tomorrow, or worked around him and slotted me in somewhere. But you flat-out cancelled our first date, AJ, and not even to me. To Chelsea’s answering machine, which you knew she’d pick up first!” Somewhere during this rant, she felt tears well up in her eyes, but she didn’t fight them. She continued,

  “I’m not here forever, AJ,” her voice cracked. She turned to look at him, her eyes glistening. She could see fear beneath the calm surface as he tentatively slipped his arm around her shoulders. He didn’t interrupt, there was really nothing he could say. He’d made the wrong choice and hurt her; he didn’t want to say something stupid and make the situation any worse.

  “I have to go home at some point, it’s taken us seven months to meet for the first time, and God knows how many more it’ll be before we find a second time.” She tried to stop herself crying, and, between heaving, choked sobs, she continued, “I’m overwhelmed, AJ. I’ve met your sister, your best friend, I’ve met your teammates… I want to find a place in your life while I’m here! I want to spend time with you. I could have come out with you. I’m not expecting you to share every minute of every day with me…but...I…”

  Her voice trailed off and she turned her head away from him. Day two and she was already feeling like a controlling, crying maniac. This was not how things were supposed to go. She was drunk and crying. She was embarrassed and hurting. He pulled her closer, wrapped his arms ar
ound her and said quietly,

  “I’m sorry.”

  She nodded slightly, and they sat still for a few minutes, in silence. She felt safe there. She calmed herself and her tears stopped, but his arms stayed around her.

  “Our first fight,” he began, breaking the silence, “does that mean we get to make up now?”

  She smiled despite herself, damnit. She mentally kicked herself. He could always make her smile, through emails, and now in reality too. She lifted her head slightly to look at him, he tilted her chin and she closed her eyes. She felt him move towards her. Our first proper kiss!

  “There you are!”

  Stephanie. Lisa groaned. Audibly. AJ smiled.

  And Chelsea. And Ana. Friggin’ wonderful.

  Her pink cheeks returned. Ana had a small grin on her face, Chelsea looked guilty, and Stephanie was laughing. Clearly now wasn’t the time for their first kiss, especially now they had an audience.

  ***

  “Let me take you out tomorrow,” he pleaded as she turned the key in her hotel room door. He had taken her back, shortly after they were interrupted by the three friends. She turned to give him her best, “yeah right,” look.

  “Really!” he continued, not deterred in the slightest by the look of disbelief on her face, “please?”

  She looked at him intently. She should have put up more of a fight, or at least have pretended to be deciding, hesitating, something! Instead, she just said, “Fine.”

  Opening the door, she turned to say goodbye. He kissed her softly on the cheek, “Does six suit?” She nodded.

  “See you then,” he smiled.

  “Don’t be late!” she called after him as he headed for the stairs. “And please don’t kill yourself on those stairs!” she hollered louder as the door closed. He always took the stairs over the elevator wherever he could. Athletes. She sighed loudly, he’s going to try to make me exercise on this trip, isn’t he? She was already dreading it.

  Chapter 6

  Someone knocked on Lisa’s door at 5.45pm.