Page 21 of My Kind of Trouble
‘No,’ Noa responded. ‘We both made that clear after our one mistake of a night together eight years ago. It was a one-time, never-to-be-repeated-again event, and we have barely even acknowledged it happened since.’
She rocked herself, considering her next words. She’d only ever spoken to Tes about this, but there was something really freeing about these girls being holiday friends, and it made her want to talk through all her secrets.
‘Maybe that night was meant to happen, to get it out of my system, but he’s a moody, arrogant, playboy these days, and I just don’t see him that way. So, no steamy flings here girls. Sorry to disappoint,’ she shrugged.
‘So, what’s the plan then? No steamy love affairs, but do you plan on at least speaking to him?’ Hattie, who wasthe quietest of the bunch asked this, and Noa took a second to consider her response.
‘You said you were friends once. Travelling can be hard on your own sometimes. It might be nice to have someone to fall back on,’ Hattie continued, clearly sensing Noa’s uncertainty.
‘But I’m just so angry at the underhandedness of it all. I know I’m projecting it all on him when my brother is more likely to be to blame. But Alex still agreed to it. He’s still here. Why do the two of them think they can control my life like that, you know?’
‘All I’m saying is that I can think of a good way to work through that anger in a way that sounds a lot more fun than the silent treatment,’ Lola winked, just to punctuate her point.
Thea added, ‘Sometimes a man in control isn’t all that bad, if you know what I mean.’
She wagged her brow before Noa brushed off their jokes.
‘Guys, this is serious! I don’t know what to do. I’m meant to be taking back control of my own life here.’
They all looked at her, nodding and looking deep in thought, before Lola banged on the table with a force not strictly necessary, almost spilling their fourth round of cocktails onto the floor.
‘I’ve got it,’ she slurred, looking so proud like she had just solved the Rubik’s cube. Noa just stared at her before she continued. ‘Well… revenge is best served by a pissed off woman. If they want to try and put you in a box and treat you like a child, then I say you let them. And by them, I mean Alex.’
She was sporting the grin of some supervillain cooking up their next diabolical plan, but Noa didn’t get it yet.
‘That doesn’t quite sound like the trip I had in mind,’ she frowned. ‘This trip is supposed to be about reclaiming my own happiness and finding out what I want next from my life.’
‘I didn’t say that means you have to make it easy on him,’ Lola winked. ‘This could be so much fun for you! Make his job to “babysit” you, as you put it, as hard as possible and show him just how much you are a woman and not a child after all.’
‘Lola, has anyone ever told you are an evil genius?’ Thea laughed.
‘Not lately.’
Noa just smiled brightly and downed her drink. Alex Fletcher wasn’t going to know what hit him.
Chapter 13
Alex
Today was a long-ass day. Landing in Bangkok, after two very painful flights and eighteen hours later, all Alex had wanted was to sleep. The tension between him and Noa felt like a rope pulled too tight, starting to fray in the middle under the strain. It was thick and suffocating, and it had made for an uncomfortable journey, to say the least. He had huffed a sigh of relief when they arrived at the hostel and they’d finally gone their separate ways. However, as he got to his hostel room—a single because, if he was going to do this for Ryan, he was not going to sleep in a fucking dorm—he soon realised sleep was not on the cards. It seemed that their hostel came alive at night,with travellers looking to let loose. So, with the noises seeping into his room, he may as well have been sharing after all. Realising this, he took himself straight out for a stroll through some market streets. Well, ‘market streets’ was a big understatement for what he experienced, because these were nothing like the Sunday markets at home.
They were utter chaos as swarms of people weaved through vendors selling all manner of foods that he had never heard of in his life. His head whipped between each multicoloured stall, threatening whiplash, but he just couldn’t look away. It was all so intriguing. Scorpions on sticks caught his attention, and he shivered at the prospect of their freaky-looking pincers touching his tongue. He stifled a gag, trying not to judge something before he’d tried it. After all, he’d wanted to immerse himself in a new culture, but somehow that seemed like a step too far.
Instead, despite the overwhelming choice, Alex played it safe and enjoyed the best Pad Thai of his life before heading back to the hostel. When he first arrived back, he noticed that Noa seemed to have made a group of friends. He wasn’t surprised. Noa drew people in by simply just being herself. She had always had a magnetising presence, and watching her throw her head back, laughing with people she’d just met, he realised that was something that hadn’t changed.
Alex settled down at a bar stool, with Noa perfectly within his line of sight, deciding to enjoy a few Chang beers before bed. Maybe that would help him sleep, at least.
The bar was basic, but lively, packed with sweaty bodies who were all mingling after their days being tourists. He didn’t feel like mingling, though, and he was glad to have found one of the only corners in the bar that wasn’t occupied. He would guess from the wooden furnishings scattered throughout thatthey’d used mainly repurposed materials and that, paired with the beanbags and pool tables, created a laid-back atmosphere. He took a pull from his beer, enjoying the mix of the bitter and sweet notes that danced on his tongue before he gulped it down.
Keeping his eyes on Noa, knowing that, for the first time in years, their proximity was inevitable, he had a feeling he was going to need more where that came from.
Another mouthful of his beer took him back to The Brew, before The Brew was even his. To Ryan venting about a guy from college who had been trying his luck with Noa. To a conversation that had put yet another brick in the wall that he and Noa had both built between each other. He’d wanted to rip it down, and the night they’d slept together he’d been close to doing so, but it turned out Noa was a better sister than he was a friend. She’d been able to do what he couldn’t. She’d re-enforced the foundations with the pact and made sure that neither of them could dismantle it.
‘You know he’s not good enough for her. He keeps turning up at the house at all hours, taking her out in his not-so-impressive wheels that I’m sure makes him think his dick’s grown two sizes, and he flashes her with that stupid fucking grin that might have Noa fooled, but it doesn’t me,’ Ryan moaned as he sipped his pint.
‘Jeeeez, man, tell us how you really feel! I know you never love the guys interested in your sister, and I kind of get it, it’s in the older brother “how-to guide” and all that, but your knickers really are in a twist about this one.’
Noa had always been stubborn, and Alex didn’t know whether Ryan had noticed, but over the years, when they’d given the guys chasing her a hard time or tried to get in their way, Noahad only been more inclined to give them the time of day. As if in protest to her brother’s interfering. So, Alex had recently learnt to step back, and he would not be getting involved in anything Ryan had cooking up this time.
