Three Words: A Novella Collection (44 page)

“
It was fairly obvious you were shitting yourself when we got
here,” Joel adds.

And here I was
thinking I was all calm and relaxed. Not.

“
I don’t want to call it off. I want to go through with it.” I
sound like I’m about to have my entire body tattooed in one
sitting.

“
Me too.”

“
I’ve always been in.” Nicholas smiles and wraps his arm round
my shoulder. “Maybe we can get Emily so pissed she passes
out.”

Ha, ha.

“
Fat chance. Emily could drink an alcoholic under the
table.”

“
Don’t sweat it. If it’s meant to happen it’s meant to
happen.”

I’m well aware
of that but now there’s a possibility it mightn’t, I feel extremely
upset.

*****

It only takes
five or so minutes before we see Emily making her way through the
crowd towards us. It never ceases to amaze me how she can jump the
queue when other people have to wait for hours; she has this knack
of being able to talk her way around the gruffest of bouncers. It
doesn’t surprise me either, that she’s wearing black. A gorgeous
black, sheath dress with long sleeves and a high neckline. It fits
her slim body like a glove showing off her curves. Emily’s got a
great body, one that I freely admit to being covetous of.
Frequently.

“
Saaaaadie
,” she squeals, running toward me with her
arms outstretched. She swipes my drink from my hand, finishing it
for me before swallowing me in a huge, tight hug. As she releases
me, her eyes narrow. “My, my, aren’t you the picture of health and
happiness. Positively glowing, which is good to see. It feels like
a decade since I’ve seen you, honeybubble.”

“
I’ve missed you too. Have you got everything organised for
Uni?”

Emily snorts.
We both know she’ll be dashing frantically about the place on the
last day trying to hook herself up with textbooks she should have
ordered two months ago. “Whatever. Hey, is that door bitch a cow or
what? She wanted to check in my shoes for drugs. I mean, come on.
As if I’d hide them there. That’s what padded bras are for. Well,
that and giving the boobs a shelf to sit on.”

She laughs at
the look on Joel’s face and hugs me again before pausing to
appraise the two men standing beside me. Her attention focuses
quickly on Nicholas who is regarding her with the wariness one
regards a man-eating shark when in the water. “Well,
heeeelloooo
there.”

“
This is Nicholas,” I say. “We met on the beach a few days
back when my hat blew away in the wind.”

“
Who said chivalry was dead?” She gives Nicholas her most
perfect smile, the one she reserves for men she’s especially
interested in. “So you’re the one she’s been going on
about—”

And cue
embarrassing redness of cheeks. Geez, I hate it when she drops me
in it like that.

“
And this is his friend, Joel,” I say.

Emily gives me
a nudge in the side. “Hashtag, hottie,” she whispers before turning
back to the boys.

“—
I’m Emily. Sadie’s best friend and general bad influence. She
tries to keep me on the straight and narrow but I’m a lost cause.
I’ve never gotten over the fact that my parents neglected to tell
me they’re not my parents, so I’m rebelling by spending as much of
their money as I can before they realise and give it to the natural
born siblings. They hate me with a passion this week, so it’s all
perfectly fine.”

Behind my
redness, I smile. “Emily’s also quite verbose and a dreadful liar.
Her parents adore her. She’d never do anything to hurt them.”

“
Don’t tell him that,” Emily scoffs, “You’ll ruin my
reputation.”

“
The only reputation you have is in your mind.”

“
But I’d like to have one. Emily Matthews — ‘It’ girl. You
know, like Gigi Hadid with hundreds of thousands of men drooling
over my Instagram account.”

“
Who?” Nicholas asks, clearly confused by this conversation. I
don’t imagine rapid fire talking is something he comes in contact
with a lot.

“
Gigi Hadid’s a model,” I answer. “Absolutely gorgeous and in
a league that’s not even on a planet with the rest of us mortals.”
I turn to Emily. “Why would you want millions of men looking at you
in your underwear, anyway?”

“
Why not? Honestly, Sadie you’re such dag for someone so
young. You need to live a little. Put yourself out
there.”

“
Sadie’s been doing a fair bit of that already —” Joel
sniggers.

“
I went sailing!” I interrupt him, not wanting him to regale
the story of my naked bum and his surfboard.

Emily’s look
is incredulous. “What, on a yacht? Like an actual boat with
sails?”

“
I know. Amazing, right?”

Emily stares
at the boys. “Wow. Which one of you was responsible for this?
Sadie’s never left land in her life. She doesn’t even go swimming
unless she can touch the bottom.”

A little fact
I’d rather she not have shared. Besides, I did go swimming. And I
was really far out.

“
I took Sadie on my yacht,” Nicholas says. “She was pretty
good for a newbie. Fast learner.”

“
It was fun,” I say.

Emily nods her
head approvingly at me. “Go Sadie. I told you you’d enjoy these
things if you’d only give them a chance. You can’t spend your
entire life doing the same thing every day.
Sooo
boring.”

“
But I like boring. It makes me feel safe.”

Emily rolls
her eyes and turns to Joel. “See what I have to deal with?
Hopeless.”

“
Hey! I’m not hopeless,” I laugh.

“
Topless maybe,” Joel murmurs.

“
You’ve been sunbaking topless, too?”

“
Well, not sunbaking exactly.” I didn’t have bottoms on at the
time. “I tried skinny-dipping. That’s how I met Joel.”

“
Sadie was doing her impersonation of a drowning naked person.
I saved her.”

Emily’s
eyebrows rise slowly into her hairline. She swallows in disbelief.
“I leave you alone for a week and you turn into freaking Bear
Grylls. Next you’ll be eating fried cockroaches and hiking up the
Himalayas. What the hell’s come over you? I love it! And I
definitely love you boys. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever
imagine Sadie Cooper would suddenly develop such an interest in
water sports. Well, any sports really. She’s mostly a little
homebody. This deserves drinks all round.” She shoulders Joel from
his perch and orders a bottle of the best champagne in the
club.

Imagine how
she’d react if she knew I was considering a threesome.

*****

The night
wears on, and I begin to despair that we will ever lose my friend.
Not that I want to ‘lose’ her, I just want her to get super tired
so she has to go home and fall asleep, not realising I’m not there
with her. We’ve had fun though. We’ve laughed and gotten to know
each other more. Emily has flirted with Joel — much to my thinly
veiled disgust — and we’ve swapped dance partners and even danced
as a foursome. We’ve drunk loads and yet there’s still no sign of
Emily wanting to go home.

At sometime
after midnight, Emily asks me to go to the loos with her. I know
this is code for girltalk time and it takes a grand total of about
twenty seconds before she brings up the subject I’m trying to
avoid.

“
So what’s the deal with Nicholas and Joel?”

“
There is no deal. I met them both separately. I didn’t know
they were friends until the other night.”

“
But you’re into Nicholas?”

I can see why
she’d assume this; he is the quieter one of the two. Joel would
never have been my type in the ‘real’ world.

“
I like him a lot. He’s sweet. I can talk to him.”

“
So Joel’s single too?”

Oh no, I think
I know where this is heading.

“
Well, um, yeah.”

“
And you wouldn’t find it creepy or breaking the girl code if
I hooked up with him. I mean, I know you met him first and you have
this friend thing going on but you’re into Nicholas right? I
wouldn’t be hurting you, would I?”

What do I say
to that? Yes, you would be hurting me? Yes, I like Joel the same as
I like Nicholas? You need to back off because I’m going to have it
off with both of them and I have no intention of sharing?

“
Um, it might not be a good idea. It could be
awkward.”

“
Why? If we were going out it would be great. We’d be friends
and couples.”

“
Joel’s gay.” I’ve blurted it without even considering the
ramifications of what I just said but honestly, it’s the only thing
I can think of that will throw her off. God. I’m such a bitch. I
should let my best friend have the boy I want. I mean, there are
two of them. It’s very selfish of me to want them both.

But I do. I
do.

“
Gay?” Emily’s face is a picture. I don’t know what of.
“You’re kidding, right?”

“
Nope. Nicholas told me. Camp as a row of tents.”

“
Maybe he told you that because he wants you for himself and
sees Joel as a threat?”

This lie has
suddenly grown legs and is sprinting down the track.

“
I doubt it. They’re best friends and Nicholas isn’t the type
to sabotage a possible relationship. If he thought I liked Joel
more than I liked him he’d bow out. I’m sure of it. It has to be
true.”

“
That’s annoying.”

I feign
sadness for my friend. “Yeah. Bummer.”

“
And so typical. The best men are always gay or married.
That’s why I get stuck with the dregs. Thank God I got the heads up
before I put the legwork in. It’d be such a waste to spend the
entire night flirting like mad with a guy who has no interest.” She
shakes her head in resignation. “I could have sworn he was straight
though. I was getting the vibe.”

“
Your radar must be off. You have to remember the last two
guys you went out with weren’t exactly nice in the end. Maybe you
need a bit of time without a boyfriend. You know, to get your head
together and see things in perspective again. I know how hurt you
were last time. I couldn’t bear for that to happen. You deserve to
be happy.”

I sound so
shallow and two-faced. I genuinely care about Emily and want her to
be happy. Just not with Joel. Or Nicholas.

“
You know, you’re right.”

“
I’m always right when I’m giving
you
advice.” It’s a
pity I never take my own.

The door to
the toilet stall opens and a girl appears. She’s adjusting her
teeny tiny dress and swaying slightly on her heels as she moves to
the basin to wash her hands and refresh her lipstick.

“
I’ll meet you back in the bar,” I say as Emily locks the
toilet door.

“
Okay,” I hear her call.

Hopefully,
she’ll be putting on her makeup for at least five minutes so I’ll
have time to let Joel know he’s a very happy gay man who has no
interest in girls at all. I have no idea what he’s going to
say.

*****

Nicholas is
cracking up. His head is bent back, his mouth is open and he’s
laughing so hard he’s almost shaking.

“
It’s not funny,” I say. “I couldn’t think of anything
else.”

“
I’ve never met anyone
less
gay than Joel. You could
have told her he had a girlfriend.”

“
I doubt that would stop her, the mood she’s in. I wouldn’t
put it past her to come out here and try to crack on to Joel to
turn him straight.”

I realise it
sounds like I’m being mean but Emily does latch onto men. Even
she
knows she does. It’s like she’s always searching for
approval. I don’t know why. She’s smart, funny and a great friend.
She doesn’t need to prove anything. Yet for some reason, she needs
the security of a man to make her feel loved and whole.

“
Do you think I should ham it up?” Joel asks. “I’m sure I
could perv convincingly on a few blokes if I try. It can’t be that
hard, can it?”

Nicholas
laughs again. “What? Like ‘nice arse’ or ‘check out the legs on
that’?”

“
I don’t think we need to take it that far,” I admonish. “I
feel bad enough as it is without your contribution to the
scam.”

“
You do realise you’re gonna owe me for this?” Joel steps very
close. I feel his hip touching my side. His body heat mingles with
mine as he puts his lips to my ear. “Big time.”

I lower my
voice to meet his. “And how do you propose I pay you back?”

“
I’m sure I can think of something. Later.”

A delicious
shiver runs down my spine.

Around about
then, Emily reappears. It’s been a good ten minutes and she’s
grinning cheekily; despite the fact that I’ve just informed her
that the man she wants is off limits. Then I see the reason why.
Between the loos and the bar, my best friend seems to have acquired
a male friend of her own. He’s very sophisticated looking and like
her, entirely in black — sooty hair, black shirt and shoes. He’s
even got the tight black pants Emily finds so adorable on a guy,
not jeans but actual expensively cut trousers.

“
This is Alex,” Emily says. “He’s a graphic
designer.”

Figures.

“
Alex, this is my best friend Sadie, and this is Nicholas and
Joel.”