Page 64 of The Wedding Pact
‘She is,’ Flynn said, his voice clearer now he’d obviously moved back closer.
Wow, her recording booth really wasn’t that soundproofed after all. It cut out an awful lot of background noise to the point that if nobody else was in the apartment it was completely silent, but with someone talking right outside the door, muffled though it was, you could hear exactly what they were saying. If she wanted to start working in here seriously, she’d need to fix that.
‘What time will she be home?’ the woman asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ said Flynn.
If August had to guess, she’d be willing to bet that the woman was waiting for Flynn to invite her to stay a while. But just as likely could be that they were already back to doing whatever it was they’d been doing when she first removed her headphones. Oh God, what if they were naked out there?
‘Come here,’ the woman said, and August was certain they were kissing up against the wall. She felt like a voyeur, and wished she’d come out of the booth immediately. She also felt a little bit lonely. She knew what that kiss felt like.
August was about to put her headphones back on when she heard the woman say, ‘Thanks for showing me where you live. Maybe I could spend a little longer here with you next time.’
She held her breath as the two of them made very definite sounds of leaving the apartment. There was no goodbye, so Flynn must have left too, or at the very least be showing her out.
Quick as she could, August cracked open the door of her booth, checked for signs of Flynn or anybody else, and army-rolled out onto the floor. She grabbed her handbag and keys, hoping to leave the apartment before Flynn came back, so she could stroll in casually a while later like she’d never been there.
August listened against her front door, and peered through the peephole, but the landing was deserted. She slid out through the door, ninja-style, letting it click softly behind her.
Racing down the stairs, she hesitated at the bottom. What if they were right outside? She opened the door a tiny slit and looked out. Nothing, the street was deserted.
Breathing a sigh of relief, August slipped out the door only to pause on the front step. The recording booth – she’d left the door open. If Flynn returned before her, he’d know she’d been in there.
Looking left and right, and left and right again, she made the decision to run back inside, taking the steps two at a time. Bursting back into her flat she hurdled the sofa, slammed the booth door closed, triple-backflipped her way back out the door (well, not quite, but it felt like that) and back down the stairs. She would exit the building, skirting down to the right and heading down the hill in the opposite direction to where Flynn was probably walking, or standing, with his mystery woman.
In her rush, August made a fatal error. She forgot to listen at the front door of the house again.
Had she listened, August would have heard Callie firing questions at Flynn. She would have heard Flynn stammering for excuses. But she heard none of this, whirling out the door and facing both of them together.
‘August!’ Flynn said, surprised.
‘Flynn!’ she replied. ‘Callie!’
‘August!’ exclaimed Callie. ‘So youwereat home.’
‘Um.’
‘I thought you weren’t at home and young Flynny-boy here was up to no good with that redhead,’ Callie continued with a chuckle and a slightly-too-hard punch on Flynn’s upper arm.
‘No, no, I was here the whole time,’ August smiled and caught Flynn’s eye. He blushed.
‘Sorry for the third degree, there, Flynn, I just saw you come out there with that girl, and she’s so pretty, and I thought, oh yeah, when the cat’s away, eh? I don’t bloody think so, no lying to my friend August.’ Callie laughed, and August’s stomach twisted.
‘That was just our mutual friend,’ August tried to laugh it off.
‘Poppy,’ Flynn added. ‘A lifelong friend.’
‘Poppy,’ confirmed August, wondering who Poppy was, and what she meant to Flynn.
Callie waved her hands. ‘Problem solved, crisis averted, as you were, soldiers. I’ll let you go about your day. Are you two coming in or going out?’
‘I’m coming in,’ answered Flynn, his eyes on August.
‘I was just going to pop out for a bit,’ said August, inching past them, not quite wanting to face Flynn at the moment.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to go out later?’ asked Flynn, full of smiles. ‘I have to get back to the office but we could catch up for a few minutes now Poppy’s gone?’
‘Nope, I need some fresh air,’ August said, and ran away down the hill.
