Page 68 of Crush

Sleep took a while to come but when it did, it came with Amber’s face in my mind.

Having never been a one-woman man, I realised that my rules about that were rapidly changing.

Thirteen

Amber

I called in sick on Friday due to being full of cold. I looked like shit—my nose was red and my eyes wouldn’t stop running. I was supposed to be going to Westfield in London, probably one of the best shopping malls in the city with Mia the following day, but I feltatrocious. My favourite clothing store was in Paris but they had a boutique at the Westfield Mall. It was the type of niche store where you couldn’t buy a thong for less than a hundred; expensive but exclusive andsuperbquality.

Are you OK?

Pushing back against the headboard of my bed, I stared down at the text message from Max. I’d be lying if I said seeing the message didn’t thrill me. We hadn’t spoken in person since Daddy’s party but he had messaged me a few times and emailed me.

I had tried to concentrate on work and not the fact that I was missing him but it had been tough. Even winding each other up was better than nothing. Not seeing him every day made me feel like I had lost something.

I’d grafted hard that week and had caught up on all my emails. I also intercepted Max’s phone a few times and was not too fond of the fact that a woman called Natalie kept calling. Who the hell wasshe?

I thought of the best reply. Whilst Max was away, I’d managed to get control of my emotions again.I’m fine. It’s just a cold.

The buffering icon went to show he was typing.Do you want me to bring you some soup?

OMG, I almost dropped the phone. What kind of reply was that? I felt happy and confused at the same time which was odd, I wasn’t one for the sappy crap. Shit.

LOL. No, thank you. I’ll be fine. I don’t particularly want you to see me snotty.

But I’m so used to you being snotty.Max added a laughing emoji. The man continued to surprise me.

We messaged back and forth and it felt natural and unforced.

Before I could stop myself, I messaged,A girl called Natalie was trying to get hold of you.

I chewed my lip as he started typing.Really?

Yes. Several times. Something about the test being positive.I joked, hoping I came across as breezy instead of a jealous fuck.

Funny.

No, I’m serious, Not, about the positive thing of course. She called you four times yesterday.

That’s odd as she has my mobile number.

A thought occurred to me.Are you ghosting the poor girl?I didn’t feel sorry for her if he was. I wasn’t that nice. Plus, I felt like I had some type of claim on him now if only slightly. The man had been inside me after all.

It seemed to take himagesfor him to reply. What the hell was there to think about, you’re either seeing her or you’re not.No. It’s not like that. We have an ‘arrangement’ or had anyway.Thank God for the last part.

I added my own emoji, an eye-rolling one.I’ll just bet you did, you dirty bastard.

Wow, I bet jealousy looks good on you.This was sent with around five of the laughing and crying emojis.

You wish.I was going to send him a smiling emoji, but I sent him a thumbs-up by mistake. Who knew how he’d read into that one?

Jealous? Of a skank on the phone. Whatever.

Shit, I so was. Max didn’t reply for a while and I toyed with sending him another text to change the subject but he beat me to it.

So, do you have your dress for next weekend?

Not yet, I was going to go shopping with Mia tomorrow but I feel too rotten.

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