Page 25 of My Kind of Trouble
‘You’ll get used to it soon enough,’ Lola assured her.
‘What happened to right of way?’ Noa grunted, but she could see the humour in the situation.
She was such a tourist. Even having lived in a city as constantly on the go as London, she was clearly out of her depth and needed to readjust. She, suddenly, felt very grateful having these girls by her side to help her do so.
‘Ha. Non-existent. It’s dog-eat-dog out here,’ Hattie responded.
As if understanding the comedic value, a small shaggy-looking dog with pointy ears and big, sad eyes circled around her legs. Noa bent down to stroke it when a firm hand circled her bicep.
‘Don’t,’ a harsh, clipped voice bit out.
A familiar male voice.
She looked up slowly into eyes that reminded her of honey, but they didn’t ooze sweetness right now. They held a warning.
Alex looked the opposite of impressed, and Noa moved her gaze to where he held her in place, before tugging her arm out of his grip.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she shot at him.
‘Stopping you from catching a not-so-nice bout of rabies it seems.’
His tone sounded bored now, and it only angered her more.
‘I don’t know if you need to get your ears checked or something, but I am pretty sure I told you I do not need you looking after me.’
‘Apparently, you do.’
Noa ignored the sniggers in the background from the girls, who were doing a dreadful job at hiding their smiles behind their hands.
She ignored that comment too, suddenly realising he had just materialised out of nowhere. Was he following her?
‘Where the hell did you even come from anyway?’ Irritation dripped from her words, and she rolled her eyes for good measure.
Alex just pointed his finger in the direction of the hostels bifold doors. She tried to ignore how his navy T-shirt clung to his biceps as they flexed with the motion, black ink weaving itself along his skin and disappearing under his sleeve. It hadn’t been there eight years ago, and she liked how manly they madehim look. However, she was mad, and if he caught her ogling him, she could kiss him taking her seriously goodbye.
They were on the street around the back of the hostel now, where the bar was located and, following where he pointed, Noa could see an empty chair and coffee cup on the bar.
Rolling her eyes, again, she said, ‘Well, looks like you saved me. You can tell Ryan your job is done, and you can go back over there now.’
Instead of dignifying her with a response, Alex just looked past her this time to the girls now just openly laughing and said, ‘Make sure she doesn’t pet any more strays, will you? A visit to a hospital is something I could do without.’
Then, he left.
She baulked, wide-eyed, at the spot on the floor where he’d just stood, realising this was how it was going to be.
And she didn’t like it one bit.
Chapter 15
Noa
After their run-in with Alex, it took Noa what felt like forever to steer the conversation away from their encounter and back to discussing what they were going to do with their day. The girls had turned into giddy schoolgirls over him, deciding it was ‘totally hot’ how he had grabbed her like that.
She just found it annoying, but whatever.
They decided to explore Bangkok by foot and just seewhere it took them.
‘Is here okay?’ Hattie asked, pointing at a kerb-side Thai café.
