‘Yeah, I’m on vocals,’ the woman said, extending a hand, which Flora shook, trying not to crush it as she felt how limp it was. Flora had never been one to hold back on a handshake, but this woman obviously didn’t set the same store by them.
‘So are you a friend of Alex’s?’ the woman asked with a strange inflection to her voice that made Flora think there was an undercurrent she wasn’t a party to. Had they all been arguing before she got here? Or was there some sort of tension between this woman and Alex? The thought made her stomach sink in a peculiar way. Not that it wouldn’t be great for Alex if he found someone new to fall in love with. Especially if she was musical too.
Her guess was thwarted though when the woman slid her arm around the other bandmate that Alex had spoken to so curtly and pressed herself against his side, smiling up at him in what was clearly a possessive and adoring manner.
Ah, so these two were a couple then.
So why had she been looking at Flora in such a strange way? It had actually felt a little unfriendly, if she was being honest. Was she worried Flora was going to break Alex’s heart like his ex-girlfriend had?
When Flora turned back to glance at Alex she was surprised to see that he was deliberately avoiding looking at the overtly affectionate couple next to him. In fact he looked incredibly uncomfortable, as if he’d rather be anywhere but there.
Then it hit her, so hard it made her suck in a sharp breath, which she rushed to cover with a small coughing fit.
This was the woman who had broken Alex’s heart.
And, to make things a million times worse, she was the lead singer of his band.
CHAPTER FIVE
ALEX HAD REALLY hoped to avoid a situation where Flora and Tia would come face-to-face, hence his reluctance to get Flora a ticket for the gig tonight in the first place. But the fates, it seemed, had had a very different idea.
He realised his mistake now, of course. He should have anticipated that Flora would turn up early and suggest she not come until the gig was just about to start, but in his state of comfortable equanimity after they’d been swimming last week it hadn’t occurred to him.
Looking out over the large crowd while there was a short pause between songs and Tia did her usual cooing and joking around with the audience—something he used to love listening to but now made him want to chew his own hands off—he spotted Flora sitting at one of the tables in the middle of the room. A wine glass in hand, she watched Tia’s performance with a quizzical frown pinching her brow. She had to have guessed who Tia was by now, he realised as the drummer started up the beat for the next song and he readied himself to play, but would she be bold enough to bring it up with him later?
Who was he kidding? Of course she would.
This was Flora we were talking about.
His cue came then and he lost himself in the music again, feeling for the first time in a while that he was getting his groove back. Despite his worry that his musical ability had completely deserted him recently, he was pleased with the way he was playing tonight. Every now and again he’d glance over to where Flora sat and see her smiling in what seemed to be mesmerised awe and it would give him a little boost that would carry him through to the next song.
Ironically, it turned out it was pretty great having her here to support him.
After they’d played their last song and Tia had bowed them off the stage, he rushed to say goodbye to the other members of the band, waving away their suggestion of a drink so he could go find Flora. He was going to suggest that they hightail it out of there and grab something to eat somewhere a bit quieter in the hope she and Tia wouldn’t end up in the same vicinity as each other again. He’d noticed the strange tension coming off his ex-girlfriend in waves earlier and he didn’t want to expose Flora to any more of it.
Except Flora wasn’t in the seat she’d been sitting in throughout the whole performance. Perhaps she was in the bathroom. He lingered there, tapping his fingers against his leg impatiently as he waited for her to reappear.
One of the audience members came up to him as he waited, congratulating him on a great set, and he fell into a conversation with him, his attention still half-focused on the corridor leading to the bathrooms. As soon as the guy moved on to get a drink at the bar, someone else came over, then someone else. He found himself fielding congratulations left, right and centre, which gave him another lift he’d not expected from tonight. He was just finishing up a conversation with a fan who turned up at all the band’s gigs, and who told him she thought he’d played his best ever set tonight, when he spotted Flora walking towards him.
Politely excusing himself, he walked over to meet her. ‘Hey, there you are,’ he said, letting out a grunt of surprise as she walked into his arms and grabbed him round the waist, giving him a tight squeeze. When she pulled away his stomach lurched as he saw there were tears in her eyes.
‘Oh, my goodness, Alex, you totally blew me away! You were amazing! I had no idea.’ She looked a little sheepish now, as if admitting that she’d been anticipating a boring evening only to be utterly confounded by actually enjoying herself.
He grinned, pleasure pooling in his belly and heating his skin. ‘Thanks for “giving jazz a chance”,’ he teased, smiling as he noted a flush rising to her face.
‘We should get out of here,’ he said, gesturing towards the door where a large crowd of people were now exiting the venue.
‘Really?’ she said. ‘Don’t you want to stick around and have a celebratory drink with your bandmates?’
‘What a great idea,’ came a voice from behind him and he turned to see Pete, the band’s trumpeter, with a tray of drinks in his hand. ‘Let’s grab this table while it’s free,’ he said, nodding to the one they were standing next to. He put the tray down on it, making the glasses rattle as they bounced against each other.
‘I was going to take Flora out for some food,’ he began to protest, but Pete waved away his excuse, picking up a pint of beer and thrusting it towards him. ‘Don’t be an idiot. You have to stay and have at least one drink with the band. We were stupendous tonight!’ Alex caught the meaningful look in his friend’s gaze and gave him a tight smile. Pete was well versed in the whole Tia debacle and clearly thought that running off now would be akin to letting her win.
‘And here’s one for your gorgeous lady,’ Pete said with emphasis, giving Flora a wink and passing her a large glass of wine, which she accepted with a smile of startled surprise.
‘Oh, thank you! Well, I guess we should stay just for this one,’ she said, looking at Alex for confirmation.
Obviously they couldn’t leave now, not without it seeming really rude—or cowardly—so he raised his eyebrows and said, ‘Yeah, sure. We can move on after this one.’
They all sat around the table and just as Pete started to ask Flora whether she lived in Bath, Zane and Tia came over to join them, taking the two seats next to her.
Alex tensed as he forced himself to look over at Tia, only to find her staring at Flora with a strange speculative look on her face. There was something a little hostile about it, not that she was being overt in any way, but he knew her too well not to pick up on things like that.
Perhaps she wasn’t too happy with Flora crashing the band’s celebratory drinks. Not that she had any right to complain about him bringing someone else. She’d been the one to call a halt to their relationship, after all.
‘So, Flora, how did you and Alex meet?’ Tia asked suddenly, leaning towards Flora a little and giving her that concentrated smile that he knew meant she was on the warpath about something.
Flora, to her credit, didn’t even blink. Instead she sat perfectly still in her chair and fixed Tia with a cool, formidable sort of stare. ‘Alex’s twin sister was my best friend.’
So she’d definitely figured out who Tia was then.
Ther
e was an uncomfortable beat of silence during which the two women looked intently at each other, as if willing the other to look away first.
‘Hey, Alex, what are your plans for Christmas?’ Pete asked loudly, breaking into the strained atmosphere. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Flora turn away from glaring at Tia to look directly at him.
Heat began to creep up his neck as he remembered he’d told her he was spending Christmas Day with the band, which in retrospect had been a little foolish, especially now he was about to be caught out in his lie. He hated to think how Flora would react when she realised he’d deliberately misled her. Especially when she was being such a loyal friend to him right now.
‘Er...’ he began, racking his brain for an answer vague enough to get him out of trouble.
Luckily the drummer, Des, shouted over him, ‘Hey, Zane, I meant to ask, are you and Tia off to London on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? ’Cos I’ll hitch a lift with you if it’s Christmas Day. I’ve promised my dad I’ll go over there for lunch now.’
‘Sorry, man, we’re going on Christmas Eve,’ Zane answered, glancing at Tia for her agreement.
‘What are you doing for Christmas, Alex?’ Tia asked, completely ignoring her boyfriend. ‘I hope you’re not spending it all on your own.’ She was eyeing him now in a way that made him think she suspected he’d dug himself into a hole and was intent on exposing him for it. He wasn’t sure why she thought she had the right to be so prickly with him, but he sure as hell could do without it right now.
He felt Flora shift in her seat next to him and he glanced round at her in panic, praying she wasn’t going to have a go at him for fibbing to her and expose his pathetically lonely Christmas to the rest of the band.
‘Actually, he’s coming up to Derbyshire with me,’ she said loudly, looking him right in the eye and giving him a slow wink that no one else could see. She turned back to Tia. ‘I’m introducing him to my parents.’ Looking back at Alex, she purred, ‘They haven’t had a chance to meet you yet, have they, honey?’ The term of endearment was clearly proprietorial.
Tia’s mouth fell open for a second before she caught herself and snapped it shut, forcing it into an artificial-looking smile.
‘Wow, that’s quick,’ she said with a slight wobble in her voice. ‘We had no idea he was even seeing anyone.’ She ostentatiously slung her arm around Zane’s shoulders. ‘Did we?’ She gave him a swift kiss before looking back their way again.
Flora gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘Yes, well, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind romance, to be honest. But we both knew it was right between us straight away, didn’t we, gorgeous?’ She turned to look at him now, giving him a wry but warm smile.
Before he could answer her, she looped her arm around his neck and pulled him towards her, pressing her mouth against his. He knew she was only doing it to show solidarity in the face of his awkward situation with Tia, but as she moved her mouth gently against his he had an intense sensory flashback to the last time she’d kissed him, remembering how she’d tasted the same way, sweet and sensual. For one fleeting second he wished this affection was actually real. His stomach did a weird swoop as he felt her lips part a little and the tip of her tongue sweep across his. And then, just as suddenly, she drew away from him and he was left staring into her sparkling green eyes in bewildered surprise.
‘You’re such a good kisser,’ she cooed and his heart lurched with exhilaration until she gave him another covert wink and he knew for sure she was just laying it on thick for Tia’s benefit.
There was a loud scraping noise as a chair was pushed back from the table. He tore his gaze away from Flora to see that Tia had stood up and was staring at him with such hurt in her eyes it took his breath away.
‘I’m hungry,’ she croaked, glancing away as soon as she noticed him looking at her. ‘Let’s go and get some food, Zane.’
Zane looked less than impressed with this sudden change in pace and tried to protest about being dragged away before he’d even finished his pint.
‘I’ll get you another one at the next place,’ she snapped, spinning on her heel and walking stiffly away from the table, leaving Zane no option but to abandon his half-drunk pint and chase after her, calling a hurried goodbye to the rest of them.
When Alex glanced back at Flora she flashed him a pseudo-innocent What’s her problem? look, before breaking into a gleeful smile.
‘I guess it’s just us now then,’ she quipped.
In that moment he felt something knit together inside him and he gave her a wide smile back, experiencing a sudden, forceful urge to take her away from here so they could be on their own. While he cared about his other bandmates and wanted to celebrate their success, he’d spent more than enough time with them recently.
‘We should go and find somewhere to grab a bite to eat too,’ he said to Flora, feeling a rush of relief when she nodded in agreement. He wouldn’t put it past Tia to come storming back with a plan to disrupt the evening even further and he wanted to do everything in his power to avoid that.
As soon as they’d knocked back the dregs of their drinks and said a fond farewell to the rest of the group, they pulled on their coats and made for the venue’s exit. Once outside, he turned to look at her with one incredulous eyebrow arched.
‘What?’ she asked, her eyes all wide and innocent.
‘You kissed me again.’ He shot her a look of mock consternation, mentally pushing away the small voice of hope that it hadn’t all just been for show. She was being a friend, he reminded himself, carrying out Amy’s last request of her. He felt pretty sure there hadn’t been any more to it than that. ‘You seem to be making a habit out of it,’ he added with a smile.
Her cheeks looked a little flushed now. ‘Er...yeah, sorry about that, but I wanted it to look authentic.’
‘Well, thanks for stepping in and doing your duty as a friend.’
She gave him a slightly odd look, somewhere between a grin and a grimace. ‘You’re welcome.’
He gestured for them to start walking in the direction of the river, where there was an eatery with a roof terrace that had amazing views over the city.
‘Tia seemed pretty annoyed by it,’ Flora piped up as they strolled side by side along the pavement, turning to flash him a mischievous grin.
He couldn’t help but snort with mirth, his insides warming at the thought that they had a private joke between them now. It felt good. Now that he thought about it, he was surprised to find himself less concerned about what Tia was doing without him tonight than about how much fun Flora was having in his company. He’d been really made up with her effusive praise about his playing earlier and the euphoria seemed to have stayed with him.
‘Where are we going anyway?’ Flora asked as he motioned for her to take the next road on the right.
‘There’s a nice restaurant near the river. I thought we could try there. It’s not the fanciest of joints, but I think it might fit even your exacting standards,’ he joked.
He felt his stomach sink as he saw her frown, her eyes losing their smile.
‘You must think I’m really stuck-up,’ she said, letting out a loud sigh.
‘Not at all.’ He checked himself. ‘Well, perhaps when I first met you. It was pretty obvious you weren’t very comfortable in the pub I took you to, especially as I dragged you away from the Pump Room.’
‘I just wanted to try it out. I’d heard loads of good things about it.’
He nodded, holding up his hands. ‘I get that. And I’m sorry for pulling you out of there. As I’m sure you noticed, I wasn’t in the best of moods that day.’
Her mouth twisted as if she was trying not to say something rude back about that.
‘Hey, I tell you what. I’ll take you there after Christmas to make up for it,’ he offered. ‘And I’ll pay. You can’t say fairer than that.’
‘Good, because now that I’ve started thinking about food I’m suddenly starving,’ she said with an emphasis that made him suspect that those glasses of wine on an empty stomach were beginning to have an effect.
He’d really rather avoid another incident like the last time they’d been drunk. Except for the kissing, perhaps.
Forcing that last rogue thought out of his head, he flipped her a grin. ‘I’m sure they’ll have something on the menu to suit even the most finicky of diners.’
He stepped to one side, laughing, as she slapped him playfully on the arm for his impudence.
‘I’m not too proud to make you pay for that, you know,’ she warned him. And he almost wished she would.
Three minutes later they reached their destination and hurried inside the boxy old brewery building, the rush of heat a welcome change from the biting cold.
‘Let’s go up to the terrace—they have great views up there,’ he suggested, pointing to the wood and glass stairs that led up to the rooftop. ‘Don’t worry, they have heaters,’ he assured her when she shot him an unsure look.
As luck would have it, there was a couple leaving a table right underneath one of the paraffin heaters as they walked onto the terrace. As they sat down, he caught Flora’s look of pleasant surprise at the view laid out before them. The colourful lights of the city twinkled merrily against the heavy dark of the night sky and the river glided along gracefully in the distance.
‘See, I don’t just hang out in depressing pubs all the time,’ he teased, catching her sheepish expression as the memory of their first meeting obviously came flooding back to her.
‘Yes, it’s really lovely up here,’ she said, regaining her composure quickly and flinging him an apologetic grin.
How far they’d come since then, he mused.
They’d barely finished ordering their food when Flora crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair, fixing him with a stare that clearly meant business. ‘So you’re fine, are you? Playing in the same band as your ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend.’
His Mistletoe Proposal Page 7
