Page 11 of Breakaway Heart
“I think whatreallyhappened is you showed your real side, and it’s only now you’re realizing the world isn’t the same as some sweaty adrenaline-filled, juvenile, hockey locker room.”
“Or… Maybe I was trying to soundedgyand like a… Y’know?”
I chuckled at him. “A bad boy?”
“Yeah, fuck you.” He shot back.
I smiled a little at the satisfaction of having bristled his ego while he looked back at me, annoyed.
“Okay. So, on reflection, I may have come across badly. I’m really not used to that kind of situation. I played it up and thought it would be entertaining, and it worked out horribly. But no one taught me how to act in a situation like that.”
“Oh, so it’s everyone else’s fault?”
“Jeez. That’s cold, Lucy. Why are you here, anyway?”
“I’m on holiday.”
“With…?” Randall looked around, expecting someone else to suddenly show up and blow his cover. My face reddened at the question, embarrassed at the answer.
“Just me.”
“Huh. You came here just by yourself?”
“I did. And what are you doing here? You really don’t fit in, you know?”
“I just searched for private retreats within a couple of hours' flight from that fucking villa. This was the first one that came up that had a gym.”
“So, what? You’re going to live out here in Mexico as a recluse now? Just you and your unicorn floaty. Because you aren’t exactly veryincognito,you know?”
As the waiter came over with our drinks, Randall quickly pushed his sunglasses back down across his eyes, completing his ineffective disguise.
“For a few days at least. I have to go back. But they’re going to eat me alive. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He looked genuinely distraught about it. I nearly softened a little seeing him like that, before I quickly remembered that this man had bought it all on himself and didn’t deserve my, or anyone else’s, sympathy at all.
“From what I saw, you need some proper help. Seriously. How do you even think it’s okay to act like that?”
“Great. Just what I need,” he glared back at me. “And look, the kind of girls I meet, that’s just how you talk to them. You wouldn’t understand.”
“Trust me, that’s not how any girl wants to be talked to.”
He stared at me and then waved his hand dismissively. In return, my jaw opened.
“You really don’t know, do you?”
“What don’t I know?”
“How to talk to people, how to show them genuine affection.”
“No one ever really told me any different, okay?”
“Yeah, but you’ve seen movies, right?”
“If it ain’t got explosions in, then it’s very unlikely I’ve seen it. Or spaceships.”
“Harry Met Sally?”
“Did he?”
