Page 58 of Best Served Hot
‘I worked under that man for four whole years,’ Alex began when they were safely tucked away in the cupboard. This time, they’d locked the door from the inside. ‘And I never really learned anything useful from him in that time. All he ever did was delegate everything. He was a font of absolutely nothing.’
‘That doesn’t surprise me, but go on,’ Nicole said eagerly.
She didn’t need to be convinced that whatever Alex had, it was worth listening to. She’d caught that look in Ethan’s office and read it like a listicle. Alex had something.
‘He never seemed to want to learn anything. New technologies? Forget it. Someone else could explain that stuff to him and only what he strictly needed to know. That included his phone. He got it about two years ago and didn’t have a clue.’
‘I remember,’ Nicole nodded. ‘It sat on the kitchen table for a week, unwrapped. But where are you going with this?’ Nicole asked hungrily.
‘Where I’m going with it is that he kept banging on about how confusing his phone was until I offered to set it up for him. That’s how bloody lazy he is.’
‘That’s pure Ethan. But how does it help us?’ Nicole asked.
‘There’s almost no chance he knows the details of how his cloud works, so he wouldn’t know how to back it up from another device and make multiple copies. It will probably back up automatically, but that’s easy to check from the phone itself and delete stuff from the cloud right from the phone. Even if he did it the old-fashioned way and emailed it to himself, again, I could delete that and all backups from that phone.’
Nicole stared at Alex, understanding everything. ‘I could kiss you.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of stopping you,’ Alex replied cheekily. ‘But maybe after we’ve nicked his phone and deleted the physical evidence of our crimes and misdemeanours?’
Doubt made an appearance. ‘What if you’re wrong? What if he’s backing up right now, making a hundred copies?’ Nicole asked.
‘Then we’re no worse off.’ Alex sighed. ‘It’s one last thing. And then we’re out.’
‘There’s a chance we might make everything worse,’ Nicole felt compelled to point out. She’d done a bit of that recently and couldn’t pretend she hadn’t.
Alex’s brow creased. ‘How could it be? I know I’m in that video, but I… I don’t know. I haven’t got that much to lose yet. But you’ve built something. You made your name mean something. People say it, and it conjures a person who can do something, who’sgood. In all the ways that count. He doesn’t get to take that.’
Nicole smiled at Alex, and it all felt easy again. ‘I like you so much.’
Alex looked surprised, then touched. ‘Ditto. That’s why it’s crucial to get rid of that video. I want us to be free of all this. You’re the only thing I want to think about,’ she said, reaching out a hand.
Nicole took it, relieved. She’d sort of thought that this last stunt Ethan had pulled might have been too much for Alex. That she might have decided that being with Nicole wasn’t worth the trouble it brought.
Nicole realised that she was waiting for something to go wrong with Alex. Why was that? Alex had never given her a reason to think she would take back anything they’d said or done. It was probably history getting in the way.
With Ethan, she’d had to ignore what her gut was telling her to try and make something of a bad marriage. With Alex, she had to learn to trust it again. Holding Alex’s hand, it felt possible.
It was funny. Nicole had thought that when she got married, that was the end of her romantic story. But looking at Alex now, her marriage was a blip. Just a terrible starting point that was leading her here. This was what she’d been waiting for without even knowing it.
Nicole nodded. ‘I want that, too. All of this—you.’
They looked at each other for a long time. Nicole felt like she might pass out from the sheer power of it. But she collected herself enough to ask, ‘So how do we get hold of that phone so we can be together without a cloud hovering over our heads?’
‘That’s a good question, which I don’t have the answer for,’ Alex said.
‘Don’t worry, I think I can handle that part,’ Nicole said. She checked her watch. ‘Hmm, Max’s face is probably as smooth as a baby’s arse by now, so we’d better get back to set.’
Alex nodded. ‘Right.’
They left the cupboard and went to find Zeke caressing Max’s newly naked face. ‘Oh, wow,’ he was muttering. ‘That’s amazing. I can’t find a follicle.’
‘You can thank makeup,’ Max smiled. ‘They did the whole hot towel thing. So, you ready to snog me or what?’
Zeke gave a very enthusiastic thumbs-up and then spotted Nicole coming in. ‘Oh, Nicole, brilliant timing. I think we’re ready to rock.’
Nicole slapped her hands together. ‘Great. Let’s get in first positions, shall we?’
Soon enough, Zeke was on top of Max, having a grand old time. Nicole loved it when a plan came together.
