Page 21 of Toy Boy

“Look, I’m incredibly touched by everyone’s concern regarding Scott’s reappearance, and I know it’s all coming from a good place, but I’d prefer it if the lot of you could just butt out of my business. Okay? Please? Let me deal with it in my own way.”

Laney’s expression is one of frustration, but I’m a grown-up. I don’t need hers or anyone else’s misguided help or advice, I know what I’m doing.

“Did he ever tell you he was sorry, Megan? For what he did to you?”

“No. I don’t think he did. Not at the time.”

He didn’t. I never once heard him say he was sorry, and that realisation actually hits me harder than I want it to.

“But he did try to apologise, the other day.”

“Tried to?” Laney frowns.

“I wouldn’t let him. I wouldn’t let him explain, I just walked away.” And now I’m wondering whether I should’ve let him, explain. After all, an apology is the least of what he still owes me.

“Maybe I should give him a chance, to apologise.”

“No, Megan. Don’t do that.”

“Shouldn’t I try to be the bigger person here?” What am I doing? I’m this close to feeling sympathy for the man. “Hearing Scott say he’s sorry…” I glance down at my almost empty plate, nudging my fork closer to my knife. “I think, maybe, I should hear what he has to say.”

I look up, and Laney’s shaking her head. “No. You do that and you’re letting him back in.”

Is that really the case, though? Really?

Laney glances over my shoulder, in the direction of Scott’s table, I’m guessing.

“Is he still there?” And I’m not even sure why I asked that, I don’t care either way.

“You can’t trust him, Meg. This sudden need to apologise, how do we know it isn’t just a way of reeling you back in?”

“First of all, “we” don’t know anything. And secondly, I’m not having this conversation.”

“Just be careful, Megan. Please.”

“Careful of what? What does everybody think I’m going to do, exactly?”

“Scott Warren is an extremely persuasive man.”

“And I’m, what? A weak-willed female who’s in danger of falling for him all over again? Really?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Again, it’s what it sounds like.”

The conversation is, thankfully, interrupted by Laney’s phone ringing out, and she glances at the screen, and sighs. “Shit!”

“What?”

“It’s one of my more, shall we say, difficult clients.” She puts the phone to her ear and pushes back her chair. “I have to get this.”

I mouthokay, and she heads down onto the beach to take the call. I sit back in my seat and finish the last of my chilli and, despite Scott being little more than a few yards away, I’m still feeling relatively relaxed. I’m just hoping he hasn’t seen me yet, I’m not in the mood for him tonight. Any night, actually, but I might not be afforded the luxury of avoiding him for much longer, now he’s home. It’s going to be nigh-on impossible to do that for any great length of time, in reality, and I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about him, was I? And yet, I can’t stop doing it…

“Megan?”

A slightly accented voice startles me, and I look up to see Xander standing there, a pint of what I’m assuming is lager in his hand, a wide smile on his face. His young, handsome face, I mean, come on! Those eyes! You’d have to be a robot to not find this man attractive.

“Hey, Xander.”

---