Page 68 of Chasing Storm
Looking back up at me are Three Amigos. Well, I think it’s them. It’s hard to tell around the shiny heart-shaped balloons and bouquets of aromatic flowers that I can smell from here there are so many.
“Him?” JP growls, whacking a balloon to the side when he claps eyes on Franco. “You are mad with me, so you go to him?”
“Piss off,” I growl, deciding on the spur of the moment to dump the rest of my wine on him, to Josh’s not-so silent delight. “This isn’t what it looks like, nor is it any of your business. What are you doing here?”
“Last ditch effort,” Josh calls up, trying his hardest not to laugh, but not succeeding, and gripping JP’s t-shirt roughly. “If you still want us to fuck off after this, we will go, and you will never see us again, I swear.”
I grit my teeth.”I’m listening.”
A crowd is forming, elbowing each other and capturing this cringe-fest on social media. Franco is snickering behind his hand like it’s the most entertaining thing in the world.
JP runs his hand through his damp hair and pulls himself together with a clenched jaw. “Storm Rivers,” he says formally. “I know this is a shitshow, and I’m sorry. It’s not what you think, at all. My father is a douche canoe, yeah, you heard me,” he says over his shoulder to the growing crowd with their phones held up. “He royally screwed up what is undoubtedly the best thing that has ever happened to me and to us. I don’t give a shit about the trust. I just want you. If you are worried in any way that this is about the money, you don’t need to be. So we have something to say. All in, cards on the table.” He takes a deep breath, and with a smirk that makes my heart skip a beat, he says. “We’re just three clueless guys, standing in front of a girl, asking her to be with us.”
I press my lips together to stop from laughing. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s so corny, I can’t fathom why they thought that would work.
And yet…
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that,” Franco calls down. “I’m not seeing any tears of joy up here.”
“You, shut the fuck up,” JP snarls.
“Okay,” Thatcher says. “If that didn’t get you. Gentlemen, we have to move to our contingency plan.”
I peer down, curiosity getting the better of me because now I need to know. Gazing down at JP Montgomery, the smoothest, most confident guy I’ve ever come across, looking all nervous and like he’s about to see his lunch in reverse has put some of my fears to rest.“What’s the contingency?”
Josh bends down to press the play button on an old Boombox that he got from who the fuck knows where, and my heart stops when the old song,In the Still of the Night,byBoyz II Men,blasts out.
JP and Thatcher step back to allow Josh centre stage as they start to sing. With his hand over his heart, he belts out the lyrics.
“Wow,” Franco says. “That’s smooth.”
I giggle, tears springing into my eyes. “You’re a bunch of arseholes.”
Josh stops singing. “Does that mean yes or no?”
“It means, I’ll see.”
“We know how hurt you are over the trust, but we are ready to prove ourselves, Storm. We wanted you to know how much we need you and want you in our future,” Josh says.
“We'll always be here for you,” JP adds.
“You’re our everything,” Thatcher says.
He holds up the bouquet of flowers and then launches them at the balcony, hitting a surprised Franco in the face with them. As I snort with laughter, I’m convinced that was on purpose. I pick them up from the floor, my head screaming at me to accept this, but my heart is still bruised from being put through the wringer. Not just with them, but with everything.
The men are smiling up at me, and I can see the love and respect in their eyes. I feel my heart swell with emotion as I watch them start singing again. They are trying to put a smile on my face and let me know that they are sorry for this mess, which has caused me distress.
They sing the song until the last note fades away. As they finish, I know this is one of the sweetest gestures anyone has ever done for me, and it will stay with me forever. It has taken a lot of courage for them to come here and do this, knowing the whole of Notting Hill will have heard about it by nightfall, not to mention witnessed it on social media. The experience of being serenaded by them while standing on the balcony of my first-floor flat is one of the most beautiful, profound,romanticmoments of my life and it will be hard to top it.
“Ask me again!” I call down.
JP steps forward. “We’re just three clueless guys, standing in front of a girl, asking her to be with us.”
“Come up,” I say with a big smile and disappear into the flat to buzz them up. “You’d better go,” I say to Franco.
He nods, his face earnest. “Please speak to your father as soon as you can.”
“I will,” I promise him and watch him leave, as the Three Amigos turned Muskateers run up the stairs, the anticipation in the air palpable.
