Page 40 of Reckless Intentions
Instinct took her to The Indigo Lounge. If Nic was there, she didn’t know what she would say to him. It was Caro she needed to speak to most.
“My God, Olivia, what’s happened?”
She collapsed in her best friend’s arms, sobbing into Caro’s shoulder. “It’s Brody.”
“Is he okay? Has there been an accident?”
If only it had been that simple. “I, we…”
“I know the two of you have been seeing each other,” said Caro, softly. “Although I had to hear it from Nic rather than you. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Come on, let’s get a drink.” She released Olivia and went to fridge, and uncorked the bottle of rose in there, sloshing the wine into two mugs. “Classy, huh? Like the old days in The Roca Bar.”
The mention of the club brought fresh tears to Olivia’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’ve really messed up.”
“Tell me the whole story, and I’ll tell you if you’ve screwed up.”
Olivia sank down on the sofa and took a huge gulp of wine, then another. It gave her time to compose her thoughts. “The first time I saw Brody, he was shagging someone else,” she began. “In the bar, over the office desk.”
“What?” Caro’s face creased in confusion. “Why would he do that?”
“Because he’s obviously a male tart. I should have trusted my first instincts about him. If I had, then I wouldn’t be sitting here now, like this.”
Caro listened intently as Olivia regaled her with the whole tale of what had gone on in Mallorca, occasionally nodding and sipping from her mug. The words came tumbling out, and as Olivia said them she realised she had truly fallen hard for Brody. What she had initially considered a holiday fling had, somewhere along the line, deepened into something much more. She hadn’t had the chance to tell Brody how she felt. That had been wrong. When she finished, she drained the remains of her wine.
Caro watched her, an amused smiled on her face. “You didn’t mess up. It sounds like you fell in love,” she said simply. “If that’s true, what are you going to do about it?”
More tears fell down Olivia’s cheeks as she replied, “I honestly don’t know, Caro. You didn’t see the look on his face as he left. It was as if he hated me for lying to him about Nic.”
“You should have told him. As soon as you knew you had serious feelings for him. Particularly knowing that both of you were going to be around here with Nic.”
“He was the one who told Brody that we used to be together.”
“Ouch.” Caro screwed up her face. “I can imagine how that went down.”
“I imagine he loved it.”
The door to the office banged open and Nic entered the room. He was whistling to himself and came to a halt as soon as he saw Olivia there.
Seeing him looking so pleased with himself brought Olivia’s anger bubbling to the fore. She jumped across the sofa and stalked across to him. She jabbed her finger into his chest. “What the hell gave you the right to talk to Brody about our history?”
Nic held up his hands. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“What did you say to him?”
“Nothing.”
“You didn’t tell him you’d bought a ring and were going to propose to me?”
His cheeks flushed, which immediately told her everything.
“Why would do you that?”
“What? You’d rather I told him our relationship had gone stale and we weren’t going anywhere.”
Olivia winced at the word ‘stale’. If anyone had asked her a few weeks ago the state of her relationship, that was exactly the word she would have used to describe it. “He’s gone, Nic, and it’s all your fault.” Her shoulders sagged. Her initial fight disappeared as she thought about how cold Brody had been towards her.
“Right.” Nic paused. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s a bit late for that.”
