Once again, his dark features were lit up by the building’s outdoor light.
“You didn’t interrupt anything. Honestly.”
I felt myself wince and he raised his eyebrows at my reaction.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Well, it certainly didn’t look like nothing.” I climbed out of the car, not really knowing what to think.
“Ivy?” His voice called me back to bend down and look at him through the open door. “Whatever it looked like, it was nothing.”
“Oh dear, then you better be careful,” I felt my lips turning up in a knowing smirk. I knew Ellie well, if she hadn’t got what she wanted, she wasn’t going to give up that easily.
“Why?”
“Ellie will come after you with all guns blazing now.”
He looked terrified at the thought.
“Night,” I quickly shut the door, feeling both thrilled that I had seen him again and terrified of what Ellie would do next.
“I just don’t understand,” Ellie moaned as I passed her a frappuccino. She tapped her beautifully manicured fingers on the plastic lid.
“So there’s one guy out there immune to both yours and Leonora’s charms. It’s only one.” Inside I was doing a little happy dance and the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter that grey drizzly day. “So he didn’t want to kiss you –”
“He didn’t even want my number. At one point, I was pulling my cute trick of telling him I wouldn’t let him leave until he wrote a number on his arm. He scribbled something down said ‘see, I’ve done it, now I can leave, right?’ As I said yes, he dropped the act and said the only number he would right on his arm was his own, then he ran for it.”
I tried to hide my laughter as I made up another customer’s coffee. I wasn’t sure sniggering over coffee beans was an entirely subtle thing to do, but she didn’t notice.
“Why not leave the guy alone?” Even as the words came out, I knew they were hopeless and yet in the strangest way, I didn’t want her to stop. Her design on him had given me a new plan overnight, something that had helped the new hop and spring in my step that morning.
“Not a chance. Now the real game begins. These are the ones I like, where you have to chase,” she smiled mischievously. “See you later!”
As she hurried out of the coffee shop, Leonora and Cara appeared leaning on the counter.
“Whoa!” I jumped when they appeared. “Are you two in spy mode or something?”
“I know,” Leonora giggled, pulling down her sunglasses. “How sly are we?”
“I don’t think James Bond will be getting either of us as assistants just yet,” Cara said as she tried to swipe a brownie I was pulling out for a customer. I tapped her hand away.
“So, Cara told me all,” Leonora smiled, gesturing for her usual coffee.
“Cara!” I snapped in annoyance, realising she had a crumb of the brownie in her hand and was munching away. I quickly collected another brownie for the other customer.
“Was I not supposed to?” Cara had the look of innocence down to perfection, even with brownie crumbs around her lips.
“So, after Tye turned her down, did you tell Ellie you like him?” Leonora asked with expectation.
“No, I did not. She’s now really going on the hunt,” I shrugged as if it meant nothing. “Stop eating all the brownies, Cara.” To make up for it she offered me a piece.
“And yet you’re still smiling? I’m missing something,” Cara ate the brownie anyway, her eyes lighting up as I presented Leonora with the frappuccino.
“Clever girl,” Leonora nodded as though she were impressed, not realising as Cara took the coffee from her hand. “You have set him a test.”
“No I haven’t.” My look of innocence never would match Cara’s.
“You’re going to see if he goes for her or if he’ll resist, aren’t you?”
I leaned over the counter and prised the coffee from Cara’s grasp, passing it back to Leonora.
“Maybe,” I conceded quietly.
“This should be fun. Let the games begin!” Cara jumped up and down enthusiastically, quickly snatching the coffee back.
Chapter 4
Ellie took her game very seriously. She kept architecting situations for her to ‘accidentally’ bump into Tye. Including meeting Leonora and me after our Mechanics’ lectures. When even Leonora warned Ellie that she would never be a successful spy as subtlety wasn’t her strong suit, she shrugged and smiled mischievously.
“I like the game,” she winked at Tye, looped arms with me and walked off. My eyes drew back to Tye, but he wasn’t looking my way. His dark cocoa eyes were trained elsewhere.
So far, he had demonstrated no signs of giving in to Ellie, but neither had he shown any interest in me. I didn’t know whether to do a happy dance or go shopping for retail therapy. As it was, my bank account wouldn’t let me do the latter.
Leonora and Cara started dragging me into their own spy missions where we watched Ellie make her attempts. At one point we hid behind the bookshelves of the library as she asked Tye to help her with her books. I was amazed she never saw us, especially when Cara tripped over a huge stack of books and sent more flying. Leonora conveniently hid me before Tye saw, pushing me behind another stack of shelves.
Another time Ellie managed to ‘bump into him’ at the salsa bar. Cara had disguised us in a booth on the other side of the room to watch, drinks menus hiding our faces. When it was discovered I was holding the drinks menu upside down, Leonora would not stop laughing.
“Not James Bond yet then?” I asked as I turned it the right way up.
“Not even Jonny English need be concerned!”
The next afternoon, I finally received a call back from my dad. It was the first time we had spoken since they had decided to get divorced. Our small talk was clipped and awkward. Eventually he began to noticeably steer the conversation to where it had to go.
“Have you spoken much to your mum?”
“Most days,” I sat on my desk and picked up my pen to start doodling.
“She’s being difficult about the divorce,” his words stung deep.
“I don’t think divorces can ever be easy. She had her heart broken,” my words started to sound as bitter as my own mum’s. “Did you think she’d be out singing ‘Oh what a beautiful morning’ everyday? You’re not exactly acting out the happy tale of a musical.” The other end of the phone went quiet. “Dad?”
“Ivy, there’s something I need to tell you.” His breathing was heavy and nervous. I waited, not wanting to prompt him as my doodle paused. “There’s a woman. Someone else I’ve met.”
“Already?” I jabbed the pen harder into my hand, continuing quickly, determined to etch the ladybugs there forever.
“No. We met last year.”
I turned my head in disbelief and caught my reflection in the mirror, lips pursed and grey eyes wide as the pieces of the puzzle came together to form one horrid picture.
“You’ve been cheating on mum for a year?”
“No exactly. It’s just-”
I hung up. How was life falling apart like this? I was home last year. That meant while mum and I were in the house, he was out sleeping with another woman. I dropped my head into my lap and erupted a scream, but it wasn’t enough. I had to dispel this anger somehow. I picked up the phone and called Leonora.
“Hey, what’s up?”
“You free tonight?”
“Sure, why?”
“I want to go out and get drunk.”
“I would be more than happy to be your boozing partner.”
“Leonora, I want to get ridiculously drunk. So drunk that the world looks sideways. What do you say?”
“Project blackout will begin at eight in Mandy’s.”
Nine o’clock in Mandy’s and Leonora still hadn’t shown. I had got a taxi there on the deal that Leonora would pay for our ride home, but an hour had passed, and she was nowhere to be seen.
I was also
two gin and tonics down, drinking by myself like a loner. I slumped off to the corridor to the bathroom and rang Leonora for the third time. Voicemail. It meant she was either on the phone or the phone was off.
What would I do now? What happened to Project blackout! I could walk home, but I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted to get drunk and think about something else for a change. I covered my hand where the ladybug doodles sat, not wanting to look at them. I needed something else other than my parents’ divorce to think about and why I kept drawing the ladybugs.
I hit my head against the wall and scrolled through my contact list until I found Tye’s number.
HEY. YOU OUT TONIGHT? IVY
I waited, tapping the phone against my cheek as I wandered the corridor, muttering to myself.
“Do not analyse why you texted him,” I whispered, closing my eyes, knowing exactly why I had texted him. My stupid brain thought it would be wiser to think about him instead of the ladybugs and my parents.
Ping! He had replied.
I AM. YOU NEED A RIDE? T
SORT OF. I
? T
I’VE BEEN STOOD UP BY LEONORA AT MANDY’S AND AM TWO GIN AND TONICS DOWN. I
I did not know what else to say other than the truth.
DOES THIS MEAN YOU DON’T WANT TO GO BACK TO HALLS? T
Did I? Right then I’d rather do anything in the world. Even wading through waist high mud escaping crocodiles sounded better than being along. Yet passing out from alcohol was also pretty tempting.
THAT’S RIGHT. I
BE THERE IN FIVE. T
Five minutes later, Tye’s car pulled up outside the bar and this time I didn’t hesitate to climb in. He looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“What?” I tried to look innocent as I fastened the seatbelt, wishing I could master Cara’s skill. Tye’s eyes wandered down my clothes – tight, off-the-shoulder green jumper, grey skinny jeans and killer black ankle boots that I loved. I wasn’t sure whether to be angry or to purr at this look. “What is it?”
“Judging from your texts and what you’re wearing, you were going out tonight either to get laid or to get drunk. Which was it?” He was clearly relishing my surprise at his words.
“Drunk. Why?”
“Because if affects where I take you,” he winked and set off.
“Then where are we going?” I couldn’t help but wonder where he would have taken me if I had said the other option. My mind wandered to a very happy place indeed.
“To a pub. Chequers. I’m playing pool with a few friends there.”
“Pub equals drinks, I’m up for that,” I smiled, settling back into the seat.
“You still on two gin and tonics?”
“Yep.”
“Well, at least it’s more of a drink than toffee apple cider.” He laughed at the evil eye I gave him.
Chequers was quite an unreal place, with dark panelled wood and old-fashioned lighting of red and green lamps. Tye led the way down a set of spiral wooden stairs to a basement area where there were three pool tables. On the far side next to a line of pub stools and a wall of Hollywood stars in black and white pictures stood a group of people we seemed to be heading for.
“Tye!” One of them called as we reached the bottom of the steps. “You found your lost lamb then?”
“Lamb?!” My reaction was sharp and instinctive – I blame the gin and tonic.
“Careful, Sam, she has a bite,” Tye earned another angry glare from me that he chose to ignore. “This is Ivy, everyone. Ivy, this is Sam,” he gestured to the blonde hulk who had just spoken, “his girl Savannah, and Luke.” Savannah was a curvy mixed-race girl of beautiful mocha skin and dark brown hair. The piercings up her ear and in her nose made me like her instantly. The girl had some serious style. Luke looked slightly younger than the others, perhaps my year, with brown hair grown long around his ears.
“Hi,” my voice sounded pathetic, a bit too much like a lamb to my annoyance.
“You play, girl?” Savannah came forward, smiling and offering a cue.
“A little.” Well, more than a little, but nobody is fond of a show-off.
“Great, we’ll play while the guys get our drinks.” She pulled me towards the pool table as she prepared the rack.
“Excuse me, since when did we become your waiters?” Sam, the blonde hulk, mockingly held up his hands in offence. I suddenly recognised him as the guy who had been in the gym with Tye when I had nearly fallen over.
“Since you started dating me,” she kissed him lightly on the lips and steered him back towards the stairs with a slap on the butt.
We watched them go, waiting for them to disappear up the steps.
“He’s wrapped around your little finger,” I said appreciatively as I bent over the table to break.
“Just a little. His ego is too big for me to handle though.”
I sent the balls flying, potting two balls instantly. Savannah whistled in appreciation.
“I think you’re better at this game then you claim to be,” she leaned on her cue with a twinkle in her eye.
I lined up another shot and potted the ball easily. Well, it was certainly my game. That and darts, I was the queen of!
“My dad used to own a pub,” I explained with a pleased smile. “I had a very misspent childhood.”
“Oh, you have given me an idea.”
“Do tell,” I stood up and perched on the corner of the table to talk nearer to her.
“Fancy helping me bring Sam’s ego down to size?” She held out her hand for a shake. “You’ll also impress the boxers off Tye.”
“Wow, am I really that obvious?” I hit my head against the cue and scrunched up my eyes. Savannah had already noticed my ogling then. She pushed my head back up with a friendly smile.
“Only to me. Probably a girl thing. They see nothing.” She gestured with her head towards the stairs.
“What’s the plan then?” I took her hand to shake, agreeing to the deal.
“A hustle,” she whispered in my ear, just as the others comes down the steps. “Just, play along.”
“Sounds fun to me,” I laughed, standing as the guys reached us. Well, I could certainly do with a little more money if that was the idea.
“Here’s your drink,” Tye spoke with a smirk, passing me half a pint of something yellow. I took a big gulp regardless then felt myself gag.
“Yuck – that’s disgusting! What is it?” I pushed the glass back towards him as though he had handed me a beaten-up puppy.
“Lager,” he laughed. “Luke, you owe me five quid.”
“Damn it. Ivy, couldn’t you pretend to like lager for the sake of my bank account?”
“Not that good an actress, sorry,” I made sure Tye took the glass and heard my comment about being a bad actor, suddenly enjoying the prospect of Savannah’s hustle all the more.
“Here, it’s your favourite,” Tye produced a second glass. One taste proved it, toffee apple cider.
“Hmm, thanks.”
He drank from the lager I had refused. There was just something so intimate about sharing a glass that I found myself watching him again, distracted.
“So, we playing pool?” Sam asked suddenly, snapping me out of my daze.
“Ivy can be on your team,” Savannah spoke with panic, pushing me by my shoulder towards Sam.
“I’m not that bad,” I whined, pretending to look annoyed as she shrugged, yet Sam had taken the bait.
“Ah, that’s because we play for money, Ivy. Savannah doesn’t want to play with you as she’s afraid to lose. Again.” He flirted with her outrageously, encircling his arm round her shoulder.
“Girls against guys?” Tye offered, cottoning onto the idea that they could beat Savannah and me easily.
“It’s the oldest match there is,” Luke chinked glasses with Tye.
“Fine,” Savannah huffed, looking ridiculously infuriated.
“How much do we play for?” I asked, enjoying the fizzle of the cider as it added
to my buzz.
“A hundred,” Tye watched my eyes widen. Imagine a deer in headlights, but also a deer that had been told it had no chance of running away. I did not have that money to lose.
“Come on, let’s play!” Sam set up the rack and took the cue from my hand.
Tye leaned towards me and whispered in my ear –
“I’ll pay your half. Don’t worry.” It took me a minute to realise just what he had said. I had been enjoying how close he was stood. The sharp poke in my back by Savannah with the other cue alerted me to stop staring.
“I’ll break,” Luke called, already bending over the table.
I put some distance between me and Tye, perching up on a stool, and watching Luke, Savannah, then Sam take their turns. Luke potted nothing, neither did Savannah, but Sam got one.
“You’re up,” Savannah passed me her cue with a wicked smile only I could see. “We’re stripes.”
I circled the table, looking for the best series of shots I could set up.
“How bad at this is she?” Tye asked Savannah loudly as he took my seat.
“I can hear you, Tye,” I said pointlessly. “How about a little faith?”
“She knocked two balls onto the floor whilst you were upstairs,” Savannah proved herself a good actress as she shook her head.
“I think our money’s safe,” Tye smiled as the two other guys laughed. I lifted my hands helplessly, as though I couldn’t help being such a mess. “I tell you what. A tenner says she doesn’t make this shot, Sam.”
“I’m not taking that bet,” Sam shook his head, just in case.
“I will. It’s a bet,” but Savannah had spoken very quickly with a firm nod, earning a sharp look from Tye.
“Savannah… what are you up to?” Tye turned his cocoa eyes back to me with a question.
Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series Page 4