Blame It on the Bikini - By Natalie Anderson Page 0,37

gear, just shoving it into his case as he left.

Instantly she felt bereft. But it was for the best. She looked down at the black-and-white text in front of her—the case names and details she had to understand and memorise. She didn’t see any of them. She sighed and blinked to refocus. The sooner the party was over, the better.

He didn’t text the day of the party. He didn’t need to, of course; he had everything planned to the nth degree. But he’d got her thinking. She wanted to get dressed up. Really get dressed up in a way she hadn’t in years. Her kind of dressing where she’d been as loud and unconventional—deliberate, girly. Everything unexpected. She’d been in the black jeans so long she’d almost forgotten her old style. But she didn’t have any money for anything new and had no time to make anything.

Yet there was one dress she could wear. She shied away from the thought—it would be so obvious, wouldn’t it? But she could adapt it, she could wear a wrap or a cardigan or something to dress it down a little … she could get away with it. Maybe.

She went to her parents’ house and picked it up, smiling to herself throughout the long bus-ride. She realised she was more excited about seeing him than she was about seeing Lauren’s reaction to her surprise.

Once dressed, she went to Lauren’s as she’d arranged for their ‘girly night out’—their first in ages.

‘Look at you!’ Lauren squealed when she greeted her at her door.

‘Ditto.’ Mya laughed at how glamorous Lauren looked.

‘Where should we go first?’ Lauren asked, her eyes sparkling.

‘I promised Drew I’d drop something in at the bar. Is it okay if we go there first?’ Mya spun her line.

‘’Course!’

Mya sent the ‘we’re coming’ text as they climbed into the taxi. All the way there she kept up an inane patter about one of her regular café customers—not Brad. Mya’s heart thudded as they swept up the steps. Kirk was on the door and he winked as they walked up and he swung the door open for them.

There was a moment of silence. Then a collective scream.

‘Surprise!’

The cacophony of almost a hundred people screaming momentarily deafened her, but Mya chuckled. The glitter confetti bucketing down on them might have been a touch OTT but that was all the more fun. She gazed at Lauren for her reaction.

Only then she noticed that Lauren was looking right back at her with a huge grin on. And then she heard the crowd chanting.

‘Mya! Mya! Mya!’

‘What?’ Mya gazed round in confusion.

Then—who knew from where—a gong sounded and they all screamed again in unison.

‘Happy Birthday, Mya!’

Mya clapped her hand over her mouth and shook her head.

‘This is for you,’ Mya tried to tell Lauren.

‘Uh-uh.’ Lauren shimmied closer with a wicked smile. ‘Fooled you. We all fooled you.’

Shocked, Mya stood immobile. She didn’t even breathe—only her eyes still functioned, sending images to her brain. And OMG they were all in on it. Jonny was laughing, her varsity mates. Even Drew was grinning. Her fellow baristas from the café were here. They’d all fooled her. They were all here for her.

It seemed Lauren had breathed in giggle-gas as she laughed delightedly, putting her arm along Mya’s shoulders.

‘But it’s not my birthday.’ Mya’s mouth felt as if she’d been at the dentist for a ten-hour procedure and she had all that cotton-gauze stuff still clogging it.

‘You never had a birthday party because you were working.’ Lauren laughed more. ‘So we took matters into our own hands.’

We.

Mya looked into the smiling crowd once more. Her mouth automatically curved into an answering smile even though she was still in shock, still couldn’t believe any of this.

Then she saw him. Brad.

And heaven help her he was all in black—black suit, black tie, black shirt. It emphasised his height, his eyes, his aura of simmering sexuality. The tailored tuxedo a perfect foil for her recycled old prom outfit. If they were a couple, they couldn’t have planned it better. Except they weren’t and they hadn’t.

But he’d planned it—this whole party. Had it been a set-up right from the beginning? What did he mean by all of this? Was this mere seduction? Or a gesture of kindness? Her heart thudded so fast she thought she might faint.

He strode forward from the throng of people and pulled her into a quick hug. ‘I changed my mind about the party once we got to talking,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘I