she didn’t seem that keen. Said it was best to keep it professional. That’s all.” I didn’t get it. We’d had a completely great week. Amazing. Why wouldn’t she want to celebrate? But whatever. I was over it. Not that there was anything to get over.
“You like her, Beck,” Dexter said. “I’m not sure what they’re putting in the air up there in Scotland, but whatever it is has you brooding over a woman.”
“I am not brooding.” I was just irritated.
“You wouldn’t normally care what anyone thought of you, but Stella’s opinion obviously matters,” Dexter said. “If it makes you feel any better, I thought she was great. Gave as good as she got. And she was hot, wasn’t she, Tristan?”
“I’d bang her,” Tristan replied.
“Hey,” I warned. I didn’t like the idea of Tristan thinking of Stella like that.
“That’s not saying a lot coming from Tristan—it would mean more if he wouldn’t bang her,” Dexter said.
“Well, the point is moot,” I replied. “Even if I did like her, which I’m not saying I do, we haven’t spoken since we got back.”
Tristan rolled his eyes. “Persistence pays off. Look at me and Christy. I’ve been trying to get her number for three months. You just gotta work at it.”
“I don’t work at getting women,” I replied. I didn’t work at having people like me. Not for anyone. And especially not Stella. She was too used to just going along with what other people wanted. She needed to figure out what made her happy.
“Sometimes it’s worth it,” Dexter said. “You don’t want to regret anything. And from your mood, it seems like Stella is important.”
“I liked her. That’s all.” I thought she’d liked me too. But, I guess that’s how it went. It just needled. I’d thought we were on the same page.
“That’s all?” Tristan asked. “I’ve never heard you say you like a woman. I rarely hear you mention a woman.”
Tristan was exaggerating. As usual.
“I just don’t get it. We were having a great time. I read the situation all wrong.”
“From what you told me on the phone from Scotland, her very serious boyfriend married her best friend. The girl’s going to assume that everyone’s trying to screw her over for a while. That kind of stuff messes you up.”
I took in a deep breath and tried to process what Dexter had said. I wouldn’t describe Stella as messed up, but he had a point. It can’t have been easy for her to watch Matt and Karen play the happy couple, even if Matt seemed like a bit of a cock. “Yeah well, I get that.” She must have been concerned that I couldn’t be trusted. “But I’m not wasting my energy on a woman who was happy to walk away.”
“She’ll come around. Stella’s a sensible girl,” Dexter said.
“Funny, too,” Tristan said. “If you’re going to fuck things up with her, then can you let me have her number?”
Christ, Tristan was annoying me tonight. “What’s the matter with you? You can’t find your own woman, so you have to try for mine?”
He fixed me with a stare. “Your woman? Sounds serious. Sort it out. Because if it’s not me, some other guy will swoop in and this mood of yours will be permanent.”
A cold shiver ran through my body. Tristan was right—some other guy would swoop in. Stella was a fucking prize. The same swirl of dread that I had when I thought I was going to have to give up the Mayfair project gathered in my stomach, except this time it was sharper, more pressing and urgent.
“Yeah, well there’s nothing to be done. She doesn’t want me. So, that’s the end of it.”
The corner turned up on Dexter’s mouth. “She’s probably afraid. It won’t be that she doesn’t want you. You get that, right?”
It was Dexter who didn’t get it. She didn’t want me. There might be a reason, but it all boiled down to the same thing.
Dexter drained his whiskey. “Tristan, will you go and get me another drink?”
“It’s waitress service. And for your information, I’m not the waitress,” he replied, all the while his gaze fixed on his phone.
Dexter sighed. “Okay, will you fuck off for a few minutes so I can talk to Beck privately?”
Tristan looked up and grinned. “You just had to say.” He slid out of the booth and inevitably headed toward Christy.
I sat back, ready for whatever it was that Dexter was about to tell me. He’d been through a lot in the last