Page 31 of Elijah
“Get your fucking feet off my furniture.” I knocked them off and flopped down onto the chair opposite to him. “Mia’s here by the way.”
I felt like shit that I needed to tell him, but Sam, like Lucas, thought Mia was not for me and I didn’t want her walking in on him bad mouthing her. My brother knew me better than anyone and thought it was his right to tell me how I hadn’t got over Amy. Not that he was particularly team Amy, he simply didn’t think I was being fair to Mia, or myself.
“And you’re still dressed like that?” Putting his feet back on the sofa, he let out an empty laugh. “Hah, she must fucking love you.”
I chose not to answer, because I knew if I did and admitted that yes, Mia did love me, I’d get the usual lecture from him, even if Mia was in the house.
“So what’ve you been up to?” I asked.
“Not much. Took Hannah Brown out last night.”
“And?” I asked, wiggling my brows, knowing how long he’d been desperate to get her out on a date.
Sam shrugged and reached for the TV remote from the floor. “Not what I expected.”
“What, not as good? Shit Sam, that must be crap. You’ve had a hard on for her for years.”
“That’s the breaks, bro,” he sighed, holding out the remote with one hand and rubbing his breast bone with the other. “She’s a bit boring if I’m honest. Talked about her fucking dog, Baby, all night.”
“Her dog’s called Baby?”
“Yeah, weird right? Anyway, I don’t think I was what she was looking for either.”
“How come?”
I looked at him perplexed, my brother never had a problem getting women to fall in love with him. A lot of people actually took us for twins, we were so alike on first glance, but if you studied us carefully, you’d see Sam’s nose was slightly wider and at two years older than me, he’d always been taller and broader. I’d almost caught him up on the height, but he still had an inch on my six feet two inches. He was naturally broad and muscular, and with his olive skin, which he got from our mum’s Greek heritage, and dark hair and designer stubble, he was a prime target for most women. The fact that he owned a successful employment agency didn’t hurt matters either. This was why I was surprised that Hannah wasn’t already introducing him to her family.
“She wants a man who is ready to settle down, and that’s not me,” Sam replied, flicking onto the sport channel.
I rolled my eyes. Sam was adamant he was not settling down – ever.
“You’ll need to one day,” I said.
“No I won’t. You tell me one relationship that you know of that’s worked out.” His eyes remained on the TV.
“Mum and Dad.”
He turned to look at me and frowned. “Yeah because they have separate bedrooms and Mum’s always out supporting the latest lost cause. You know she’s gone on an anti-fracking demo this weekend?”
“Yeah, I know. Anyway, it doesn’t matter why it works, it works.”
“They may be the exception to the rule then,” he replied, tapping the remote against his thigh. “I mean look at you and Amy. Meant to be together, adored the fuck out of each other, and you shagged like damn rabbits almost every bloody day, and I know because I fucking heard you and you still split up.” Sam glanced at me and winced. “Sorry bro, but you know it’s true.”
“We split up because Lauren fucking Proctor was obsessed with me and Amy didn’t care enough.”
“She fucking cared,” he scoffed. “But you and I know Lauren Proctor had been getting into Amy’s head since you first met. I mean, you took her on a date before you took Amy.”
“I didn’t, it was a group thing.”
Sam waved the remote in the air. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Amy had issues with Lauren and finding her naked, on top of you didn’t help matters.”
I let out a sigh. “If you, my own brother, doesn’t fucking believe me, I never had any chance of getting Amy to, did I?”
“I believe you,” Sam cried, his eyes narrowing on me. “I just think you were a fucking dick to get yourself into such a position when you knew how she felt about you.”
“It was a party, we were all pissed.”
“Maybe, but you were obviously more pissed than most and that my dear bro was a big fucking mistake. As soon as that demon woman walked through the door, you should have been on your guard and playing beer pong with Alex and Lucas, like you’re three fucking dickwad, American frat boys was not being on your guard. I also blame Amy, because she should have taken you home instead of putting you in Alex’s spare room. Plus,” he said with a resigned nod of his head, “she should have believed you.”
