Everything She Needs (The Everything Trilogy) (2 page)

Elle chatted easily through dinner and had brought an overnight bag with her.  She was staying the night to help get me back on track with the time change.

She only had three days off, which was today, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, but was back in her West End role the day after, also known as Boxing Day in the UK.

I sat through all the questions parents usually had, such as am I eating, sleeping,
going to bed early enough? Was I happy? How were my end of term finals? Did I have a boyfriend yet?

My dad was still of the opinion that I was as pure as the driven snow.  If only he knew about the four men I’d slept with in recent months.  He’d have me chained up and
locked in a dark room, and there would be nothing remotely kinky in his mind when he did it.

My dad, Charlie,
was a freelance helicopter pilot. With an intimate knowledge of the skies around London, he had carried some interesting passengers during the past three months.

His passengers
were the business elite, flying into airports near the city on their Cessnas, where he’d then ferry them on to their final meetings, or he’d take the celebrities around the country from one event to another. He brought me up-to-date with the tales of his latest passengers.

I couldn’t stay focused
on the conversation. Jet lag was kicking in again.  My mother suggested that Elle and I take a walk in the night air.

I complained at the thought of traipsing out in the cold, just to stay awake, but Elle looked so keen to have me to herself
that I agreed.  As soon as we were outside I told her we were headed to the pub at the end of the road and no further.

We settled into the faux red velvet, slightly stained seats in the pub
. I had a glass of cider in my hand, which was all I had the stomach for, whilst Elle bought a large gin and tonic, giving me a questioning look.

“What? I’m on holiday!”
she cried, reading my mind at her ordering a large drink.  “Okay, dish what’s really been going on with you?”

My eyes widened
, and my mouth gaped.  “What are you talking about?  I just told you what was happening back there.” I motioned my thumb over my shoulder in the direction of my parent’s house.

“Lily, I know you better than you know yourself. That was the official version.” She made the
quotes with her fingers. “I want the warts-and-all version.” I sighed and smiled. She was right, and anyway, I couldn’t keep anything from her. She was my sounding board.

“
Well, what do you want to know about first, my ‘fuck buddy’ relationship with a gorgeous, charismatic soon to be rock-god? The dirty fling I had with a handsome cowboy who left me to run back to his secret woman in Nashville?  Or betraying Saffy when her boyfriend mistook me for her and performed oral sex on me? Take your pick.”

Elle burst out laughin
g. “Damn you’re too good, Lily. Did you think all of that up on the plane?” She held her sides, laughing noisily and wiping tears from her eyes.

Before long, she had the attention of everyone in the bar.
I cringed that my life was so hysterically funny that it seemed unbelievable, even to someone who knew me better than most.

She leaned over and hugged me. “See, this is what I missed! You are so adorable honey, but any one of those s
cenarios is a storyline too far for you.”

Elle drank three more large gin and tonics by 9:30pm and got really drunk.  The cold air must have made her blood thinner or something, increasing the effects of the alcohol in her.  By the time we reached my
front door, she was staggering.

“How the hell did she manage to get in that state in so little time?” my mom asked, shaking her head in disbelief at Elle’s condition, as she st
umbled into the bathroom.

As I turned to answer, I caught a glimpse of Elle perching herself on the toilet seat with the door wide open.  Her pink lacy panties were around her ankles and she hung on to the sides of the toil
et seat trying to keep upright.

“Lily, be honest with me
,” Elle slurred. “Does this varnish clash with these panties?” My mother had an attack of the giggles.

“Sweetheart, I think it’s time we got you to bed
,” my mom told her.

Once Elle was in my bedroom, she attempted to put on her pyjama
s, buttoning down the top, mismatching the buttons with the button holes.  After the second attempt she left it like that. “Fuck it, this top has been manufactured wrongly,” she reasoned.

I smirked and mentally stored her comment to tease her with another time.  I helped her into bed
, and she started getting all sentimental.

“I’ve missed you so much, Lily. I can’t live without you.” She began to cry.

“Elle, you were supposed to be keeping me awake, not get drunk.”

Elle sighed and sniffled. “Are you asleep?”

I giggled at her. “Nope.”

She muttered
, “So… what are you complaining about? I’ve done my job,” before slipping into a drunken coma.

I leaned over and grabbed my tablet from her side of the bed to check my email messages before going to sleep.  As soon as I saw his name I wished I hadn’t bothered. 
There was an email from Alfie.

Alfie Black:  There seems to be something wrong with your cell. I have tried to call you, where are you? Call me. I need to talk to you.

Damn, I forgot my college email address would be easy for him to find. My heart sank as I switched off my tablet.  Two lines of an email and I was feeling low again.  I stayed strong and fought the urge to answer him back.  It took me an age to fall asleep afterwards because my mind began going over everything that happened with him, again, until I finally fell asleep exhausted.

It was late morning when I heard a loud groan and Elle’s barely there
-voice. “Oh, Christ, I’m dying.”

I woke up thinking,
WTF
, still disorientated, and remembered that the warm legs strewn over mine were Elle’s.  “Morning, Elle.” I tried to shout loudly, but it came out croaky because my throat wasn’t fully awake yet.

She pulled the duvet over her head. “Shush! Not so loud
,” she croaked and curled up into a ball on the bed.  I chuckled loudly at her. “I’m never drinking again,” she groaned, and sounded really remorseful.

“It’s Christmas Eve, Elle. You’re not coming partying tonight then?”  I smiled when there was no response to my question.  Elle knew how to party on Christmas Eve.

I rolled over and pulled the duvet back, pushed myself off the bed, and stood on the floor. “Do you want a drink of something?” Elle didn’t reply. “Okay, well I’m going to get in the shower, it’s nearly midday.” I left her and headed into my bathroom.

I started the shower and went back to the r
oom to find something to wear.  My cell phone buzzed on the nightstand telling me I had a text message.

Will: I hope you arrived safely, send me an email when you’re settled. Miss you already.

My jaw dropped.  I had forgotten to ring him. There were lots of other texts too.  There was one from Saffy and lots from Alfie, who had labeled himself as SEXPERT in my cell caller ID.

Saffy: We need to talk.  Give my love to Roslyn and Charlie.  Call me. X

Will: Are you okay? You haven’t answered me.  Let me know you are okay. We need to talk. X

SEXPERT: I stopped by your apartment, but everyone was out. Call me when you get this message.

SEXPERT: We need to talk. I wanted to share something with you.

SEXPERT: Okay! I get it… just friends. I’m cool with that, please call me.

SEXPERT: Why are you ignoring me?

SEXPERT:  Okay, we crossed the line again, but you started it. I didn’t make a play for you. I did only come to you with the intention of a dance. Talk to me.

I sighed, feeling both guilty and relieved at not having to face any of them.  Apparently everyone needed to talk to me.  I definitely had a mess to face when I got back to Miami.

Alfie was the main reason I had come home for Christmas.  Ever since he propositioned me that first day on campus, and somehow managed to talk me into a no strings relationship with him, I’ve been nothing but miserable.

I have no idea how I made this okay in my world, apart from pure lust and the fact that he looked like a fantasy bad boy.  He was insanely good-looking with a breathtaking smile. He was almost the whole package.

He ha
d the perfect bad boy look, plus mussed-up dark blond hair and the most amazing come to bed eyes.  He even had that cute one dimple thing going on in his left cheek when he smiled. Alfie was hypnotizing and mesmerizing.

Apart from eye candy, he
was funny, clever, a shit-hot musician, and the lead singer in an up-and-coming rock band.  Alfie was definitely a rock-god in the making, as well as a heartbreaker.

The only thing that stop
ped him short of being the whole package was that he didn’t have ‘hearts and flowers’ relationships. To be fair, he did warn me before we got together that he couldn’t commit to me.

I have no idea why I thought I could handle that.  Or fool myself into believing I wouldn’t become involved or affected by him.

Although I couldn’t fault him in the bedroom, our ‘friends with benefits’ relationship didn’t last long.  Saffy summed him up perfectly as, “sex on a stick.”

Alfie was an amazing lover
too, and the effect of his touch on me was sensational. He was very creative and considerate when we were intimate together. However, very soon after entering into our arrangement, I got cold feet after a visit from Saffy’s brother, Max.

Max
kind of demonstrated to me the emotional aspects of a relationship that I was missing out on with Alfie.  Max made me realize that I couldn’t have sex without my feelings getting in the way, and it was afterwards that I backed away from Alfie. I understood now that I had developed strong feelings for him.

It didn’t
prevent me lusting after him though.  Just one glance at him had me mesmerized. The way God had put him together was just perfection.  Every time I saw him I had trouble tearing my eyes away.

I opened my laptop and saw Will’s Skype account was live, so I tried
to ring him.  It rang twice before he picked up.  His room was in semi-darkness on the live video link, even though it was daylight over there now.

“Hey Lily, so good to hear from you, I miss your sweet face here.
You look beautiful as always.”

I
smiled, still searching the screen waiting to see him. “Can you put a light on Will? I can’t see you there.” Will shuffled around a little and there were some scuffing noises as his comforter was pushed to the side.

He had put his
nightstand light on. I glanced at my cell. It was two pm here so I calculated the time change. “It’s nine am Will, why don’t you open the shutters so that I can see you properly.” Will cleared his throat and seemed reluctant to do that for some reason. “What’s wrong with you, are you hung over?”

Will tried to make light of me wanting to see him, but I knew him well enough now to know that he was hiding something. “
Okay, Will, come on, what’s up? What’s going on?”

I suddenly thought I might have been interrupting something. “Oh, God, do you have someone with you?” I knew it couldn’t have been
Saffy.  She would be back in Oklahoma City by now, because she left to go home the same day I did.

I saw some movement and heard Will
sigh. Then the screen suddenly lit up, and I realized that he must have switched his ceiling light on.

Will crawled back up
on his bed and placed his laptop back on his knee.  “Shit, Will. What happened to you?” His left eye was very purple and swollen.

             
Ouch, it looked painful.  My hand automatically touched the screen around his eye. This wasn’t like Will at all. He never got involved in violence. He was too much of a peacemaker.

Will stared at the screen for a moment, and I thought the call had frozen. “Can you still hear me Will?” I said almost ready to cancel the call and ring back.  There was nothing from Skype to indicate there was anything wrong with the connection.

He blinked. “Yeah, I can still hear you, honey. I didn’t want you to see this.” The look of anguish in Will’s eyes was painful.  I just wanted to run over and hug him, but I couldn’t. “Saffy.” He sighed and struggled to form his thoughts into a sentence.

“Lily…
Saffy punched me.” A sense of panic ran through me.
She knows!

“Will…”I started to say, but he half smiled and l
ooked awkward, shaking his head.