Page 15 of Strip for Me

“But, Andre, baby, we could have so much fun,” she says in a throaty voice as she runs her hand up my arm.

I clear my throat as I jump up off the sofa, my beer spilling over my hand.

“Fuck’s sake,” I say, and I hear a slight sniffling from Cleo. Fucking hell, I’ve made her cry.

“Cleo, you’re a pretty girl, and you need to find someone decent. That’s not me,” I tell her, standing awkwardly as she cries. What man has any fucking idea what to do with a crying woman?

“Am I not pretty enough for you?” she asks through her sniffles, and I can just about understand her words.

“You’re gorgeous, Cleo, but there is someone else in my life, and you’re my best friend’s little sister. Also, you are ten years younger than me,” I tell her. I’m thirty, and she is just twenty.There’s something not right about the fact I’ve seen her when she was a ten-year-old with a chocolate-covered face.

“But, there was always this thing between us,” she sobs out. Fucking hell, there was no ‘thing’between us, but I want there to be. I want the ‘thing’to be a whole lot of fucking distance between her and me.

“I have to get back to work,” I say, lying through my teeth and walking around the sofa.

“But, but,” she says trying to grab my arm as I walk past her, and I shake my head as I walk out. I really need to have a long, fucking conversation with Todd about his sister.

No woman is getting between me and my friends again.

Fourteen

ELLIE

The ringingof my phone is the first thing I hear when I open my eyes after a long sleep. I reach around my bed until I find my phone and manage to press the green button as my eyes get used to the bright light in the dark room.

“Hello,” I say in a croaky voice and clear my throat.

“Hello, Ellie,” the cold voice of my ex-husband comes through the phone. I nearly drop it in shock but manage to save it. I pull the phone away to see it’s an unknown number.

“Why the hell are you calling me, Drew?” I ask straight away. I haven’t spoken to him since I last saw him at my solicitor’s. The last words he said to me were that I was going to pay for walking out on him. I guess I did with my home, that he burnt down.

“Can’t I call my wife?” he asks, a hint of sarcasm in his words.

“Ex-wife, and no, you can’t,” I say through gritted teeth.

“I want to see you, I miss you,” he says, but it sounds cold and toneless, like he’s telling me about a show on the telly that he misses.

“Leave me alone, Drew,” I say and disconnect the call. What an idiot, why on earth would he think I would want to see him?

I play on my phone, checking Facebook and Twitter before sending a text to Liz.

Hey you, I have a new job and some things to tell you. Can we go for lunch next week after my scan? Love ya x

I leave my phone on my bed as I go for a shower and change into my black jeans and a slim-fitting purple top. I leave my hair down and straighten it, so it falls nicely to just over my shoulders.

There’s no message on my phone when I come out of the bathroom, so I go downstairs in search of some food. When I walk into the kitchen, Todd is cooking something that doesn’t smell good. In fact, when he turns to see me walk in, I run over to the empty sink just in time as I puke my guts out. I feel Todd rubbing my back and holding my hair out of the way with his other hand as I seem to throw up everything I can.

“Wait there, El,” Todd says when I stand up, holding my hand over my mouth. I use my other hand to run the water in the sink to get rid of the sick. I smile a little when Todd hands me a tea towel. I wipe my face as he fills a glass of water and hands it to me.

“Sit down,” he says strictly, as he holds a stool out for me. I watch as he chucks the ham omelette he was making in the bin and opens the window before he comes back over to me.

“How are you feeling?” he asks me gently, standing right in front of me and making me look up to meet his eyes.

“Good, sorry, it’s just the ham,” I say, and he nods.

“I will chuck it all out and warn the guys not to buy it,” he says, and I shake my head.

“No, its fine, I just–” I say, and he comes closer, so his firm stomach is pressed into my knees. I freeze as he moves a little bit of hair off my face and forehead. I resist the urge to lean into him as his soft lips press carefully to my forehead.

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