Love, Lies and Louboutins (Heartbreak Book 2) Read online

  He’s got his back to me, so I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know that I’m here yet, or if he does, he must really hate me. His big broad shoulders are set, his posture tight as he leans over the table messing with something. I’m not sure what, but what can be that consuming? I mean no one plays Candy Crush anymore, do they?

  “Hey,” I say quietly and it feels like the world freezes for a moment. Nothing happens. He doesn’t move and all I can hear is the loud thud of my heart battering the crap out of my eardrums. I so don’t want to be here right now.

  Finally, something happens, and the man sat before me moves ever so slightly, that I almost miss it. Then he turns ever so slowly and says, “Come and sit down.”

  “Ooookay….” I say, surprised at his tone. It’s a lot calmer than I expected and there’s not much emotion in it. Oh God, he’s turned into one of those commitment-phobes. I slowly walk him and sit my sorry arse down into the seat before him. “Sorry I kept you…” I begin, but he cuts me off by reaching out for my hand and clasping his over it and he gives it a bloody good old squeeze too which causes my heart to flutter in my chest. Please, please don’t make this any harder than it already is Matthew, I silently pray, hoping that somehow, he’ll be able to hear me.

  “I’ve missed you, Parker,” he says and a wicked grin, the wicked grin that I love so much spreads across his face.

  “You have?” I splutter out, fairly sure I must have heard him wrong.

  “Of course, I have.” His hand doesn’t leave mine and for that I’m glad because I don’t think I’d be able to get through this if there was no physical contact. At least this way I know that I’m not imagining anything.

  I look deep in to his eyes knowing full well that I’m going to have to swallow my pride and do something I wasn’t planning on doing at all. But as I look at him sat before me I know that I don’t want to lose him, or for us to part on bad terms if breaking up is what he really wants. “Matt, I’m sorry.” There I said it. Yes, I am sorry for the way that I handled things, but even when I look back there wasn’t any other way I could have possibly handled it. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so hasty by blocking him, and yes, I should have tried to listen more, but I am who I am and Matt of all people knows that.

  “You’ve got nothing to apologise for.” He says softly and I can’t help feeling that there’s a dreaded but coming… “I’m the one who should be saying sorry. I shouldn’t have thrown all of that on you.”

  “You’re right there.” I stop suddenly when he raises his brows at me. “Sorry, I’m ready to listen this time.” I promise and he thanks me with another small smile.

  “You drive me crazy at the best of times and I should have known something like that would have set you off, but it’s been weighing me down too. I guess I didn’t know where to begin.”

  “Can I get you two anything?” Rachel appears behind Matt’s head looking all chirpy but I know that she’s trying her best to be discreet and making sure that everything’s going down okay between us. However, to me, she’s being far from discreet. I’m about to decline her ever so kind offer when Matt quickly chimes in.

  “Two coffees please, Rach, and maybe some humble pie?” His eyes never leave mine as he says this and my heart melts like a bloody chocolate fudge sundae on a glorious summer’s day. I don’t know whether to hug him or cry. Seriously, my emotions are all over the place right now and I don’t know whether I’m coming or going.

  “Coming right up.” Rachel croons and her eyes are super wide and she smiles brightly at me. Hopefully that will set her straight and she can stop worrying her pretty little head about us. As far as I can tell, so far there will be no hoe-down show-down happening today. Well, at least not here anyways.

  “So, where’ve you been hiding?” I’ve tried my best to hold that question in, but I need to know the answer. I need him to tell me that my wild and frantic imagination has been wrong, and he hasn’t been off doing only god knows what with Cruella.

  “Maybe I should be asking you the same thing?” He scoffs, clearly avoiding my question. This does absolutely nothing to ease the crazed paranoid devil bitch that’s bubbling away furiously inside me.

  “I’ve been busy working,” I say a little sharply, but bloody hell, fancy asking me a daft question like that. He knows exactly what I’ve been doing and I would have hoped he’d be fully aware of how his absence would have affected me during my most important early days as a new savvy business-woman.

  “And so, have I,” his jaw tics and I can tell that there’s still something bothering him. Am I even handling this the right way? “I did try to call…”

  “I know, Rachel said.” My cheeks heat up from embarrassment at my childish tactic of blocking him. But, I blame the alcohol through and through. It does nothing but evil things to me and I’m a glutton for bloody punishment because what do I do? I keep going back every flaming time. One day I’ll learn. I’m sure of it, but I can’t see it happening in the near future. “Um, I thought you might have stopped by after work.”

  “I would have, I mean I wanted to but I’ve been that busy I’ve hardly had chance to eat or sleep.”

  “Oh.” Again my wayward thoughts swing back to Cruella. “What, so now you’re working overtime?” I ask and I can hear my inner bitch coming out in my voice. She’s that strong that I wouldn’t have been able to hide it even if I wanted to.

  “Something like that.” Rachel appears again and places our coffees on the table. She looks overjoyed that the two of us are sat here talking. If all of this ends well — which right at this moment I wouldn’t be comfortable placing any bets either way — no doubt she’ll likely want to take credit for it all.

  “It would seem we’re all out of humble pie, Matthew, but I’ve got a couple of cupcakes left that you can have.” Oh, she’s such a wind up.

  “I think you’ve got someone waiting for you,” I nod my head vigorously to the front of the shop and hope she’ll take the hint. She does, thank God and quickly makes her excuses to Matt.

  I wait until Rachel is firmly out of earshot and decide it’s time to pull up my big girl panties. Things cannot go on like this. I pull my hand out of Matt’s grip rather quickly, and he looks up at me in surprise. Good, that got his attention at least.

  “Okay, what’s going on? I’m fed up of going around the houses. Something’s bothering you and I want to know what it is.” I demand.

  “Emily, I thought we were going to talk like adults?”

  “Exactly, so spill. You can go first. I want to know what the hell’s been stuck up your backside and I want to know now.” I say, and I feel super proud of myself for keeping my shit together. “Matthew, I know you, and I sure as hell know when something’s up.”

  “Are you going to storm out on me again?”

  I think about this for a split second. Am I? I don’t think so, at least not until I’m happy that he’s being completely open and honest with me. But, before I can do that I need to make him talk. “No, not this time. I promise that I’ll sit down and listen to everything you have to say.”

  I see his shoulders sag with relief, but he still looks forlorn and totally unsure of himself and I cannot remember seeing him like this in all the years that I’ve known him. “What do you want to know?”

  “Quite a few things actually, but I guess I’ll start with the most important one.” I take a deep breath before I utter the words that I’ve been dreading coming out of my mouth. “Have you been seeing Amanda?” I really don’t know what kind of response I was expecting, but it wasn’t the one that I’m getting.

  I look at my boyfriend, or maybe no longer my boyfriend sat before me and all he can do is stare at me open-mouthed with a look of utter shock written all over his face. Is this his guilty expression? A ‘shit — how the hell did she know’ reaction?

  I’m really struggling to make it out, and then he laughs. The little shit actually laughs right in my bloody face. “Are you being serious?” He asks after he’s
managed to calm himself. Well, I guess I should be okay that he seems to find this all too amusing.

  “Matthew. I just asked you a serious question and I want you to give me a straight answer. It’s not too bloody much to ask for, is it?” I whisper harshly, not wanting to cause any drama or attention from the people surrounding us. Yet, Matt still looks at me like I’ve grown three heads. I think I’d rather have grown three heads instead of having to sit through this. It’s starting to get a little awks.

  “Are you being for real, right now?” He moves his hand forward again to grab mine, but I hold back. Every fibre of my being craves for his touch, but I need answers goddamnit. “You know I would never do anything like that.” He whispers softly.

  He looks so genuine too, but so did Tyler, and even though my gut was telling me something different I chose to believe him. Okay, so I might be experiencing some overdramatic paranoia here because of what that little twat waffle did to me, but I have every right. Is this what it’s always going to be like? “I’m not sure,” I confess truthfully to him and this time I don’t hold back when he reaches out for me.

  “Do you not know me by now? Don’t forget that I’ve known you a hell of a long time, Parker. I was with you when that son of a bitch broke your heart. I witnessed what you went through every day and I watched how you pretended to be some sort of super-woman, but I know you and I knew you were hurting more than words could even describe.”

  “Matt…”

  “I would never, ever do anything like that to you. When I said I wanted to be with you, I meant it, even if I have to put up with your alter-ego from time to time. If it makes you feel any better, Amanda isn’t even in the country anymore.”

  “What?” I say, completely bypassing his soppy speech, which I will replay later on in my head as I happily fall asleep, but right now I need to know why Amanda’s just upped and left. “Why? How?”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. Obviously, it’s quite a hard topic to discuss, so I’ve been dodging it like a dick.”

  “Well, I guess you’re forgiven for now. So, I’m guessing this has something to do with Graham?” I ask, already sure of the answer.

  “Yep, got it in one. He’s been after you coming back for months. He’s been pretty adamant that you’d return once things had calmed down a little.” Bloody hell, the cheeky sod. After what he did, I’d never dream of going back there in a million years. And this chick isn’t cooling down about it that’s for sure. “That’s why I eventually told him about your new business. I was getting pissed off with him whistling like a fucking know it all every time he walked passed my desk. But then as soon as I’d opened my mouth I felt like the world’s worst boyfriend and I didn’t know how to tell you.”

  “You could have just said. Yeah, I might have bitten your head off, but then it would have been over and done with you fool.” I say. Does he even know me? He knows what I’m like and if people are open and honest with me I’m more likely to go easy on them. Matt on the other hand clearly does things differently. He seems to keep everything on the inside until he can’t take it anymore and then explodes. That’s not a good thing for me, it’s not something that I can handle.

  “Well, I know that now so I’ll be sure to remember it should there be a next time. Anyway, he’s been after you coming back because he’s had some pretty shitty news.” Matt pauses rather dramatically and I nod for him to continue. “He’s not going to be around for some time and he wanted you to come back and hold the fort, so to speak.”

  “Why, what’s happened?” This doesn’t sound too good. “Is he okay?” I ask. Yes, he treated me badly when he should have had my back and I’ll never forgive him for that, but I’m still human with a heart and I’d hate for anything bad to happen to him.

  “He’s not great, but his mum’s in a pretty bad way so he’s heading up to Scotland next week for the foreseeable. Amanda went a few weeks back.”

  “I feel for him, I do, but I can’t go back there. I won’t.”

  “Yeah, I know, You see, that’s the thing. As soon as Graham saw how dedicated you were to your new business, he kind of asked me to take the reins.”

  I take in what he’s just told me and finally the penny drops. “Is this what all this has been about?” I ask, staring at him in disbelief. “You’ve been acting weird just because you’ve had a temporary promotion?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Bloody hell, Matt. What’s gotten into you? Yes, I have a massive issue with that company, but my issue is with them, not you. Do you really think I would have made a massive deal about it?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I just didn’t want to risk upsetting you.”

  “You keeping something like that from me will upset me. Matthew, you’re shit hot at your job and for you to move forward, regardless of the circumstances, I’d do nothing but stand beside you all the way. Well, so long as you don’t make me meet you there. I care about you, but that’s not something I can do.” As I laugh his whole face lightens, and he looks like my carefree, sexy as hell Matt again.

  “I’m glad that’s all cleared up then.”

  “Yeah, me too, but it doesn’t mean I’m forgiving you that easily, Mister. You’ve got a lot of making up to do.”

  “What are we still sat here for then?”

  I like his thinking and without so much as a second thought, I stand up and take him by the hand, before calling over to Rachel, “We’re heading home, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Darling, over here.”

  I really shouldn’t be all that surprised to see Nathaniel in all his beautiful, giddy glory vacating a table right at the back of Rachel’s, clearly enjoying some food as he awaits my arrival.

  I wouldn’t mind but I’m 45 minutes early as it is, and I’ve got no idea how long he’s been sat there already. On further inspection though I do notice that he’s not alone. Sat next to him and looking equally as chipper is another man who I can only imagine is Lawrence.

  So, it looks like today will be the day I finally get to meet the beat to Nathaniel’s heart. However, Nathaniel didn’t mention it and now I feel totally unprepared. I hate being unprepared too, and it drives me crazy, but I guess there’s not much that I can do in this little situation.

  I don’t even have too much time to worry about it as Nathaniel catches my eye and signals me over with a dramatic wave of his hand and the man who I assume to be Lawrence smiles a huge megawatt smile in my direction and it’s just as perfect as Nathaniel’s. Shit, these two really belong in Hollywood or something.

  I can’t help but beam back enthusiastically — these two, my heart swells as I take them both in. They’re just like the most perfect pair ever and my soul aches deeply and wants nothing more than to be best friends with them forever. There’s no doubt that we’d have endless amounts of fun and the piss-ups and antics would be second to none, that I am one hundred percent sure of.

  “Hey,” I say as I reach the table. I’m a little hesitant to go any further as I don’t want to interrupt their lunch. “It’s great to see you. I’m super early so I’m just gonna go grab a coffee…” I say, hoping to create a diversion without sounding rude. “I’ll come back over soon.”

  “Don’t talk silly, girl.” Nathaniel laughs.

  “Don’t mind us,“ Lawrence chimes in. “That’s his third meal of the day, plus I have been dying to meet you. Nate’s told me all about you.” He winks, his dark eyelashes framing his glorious brown eyes perfectly.

  “He has?” I say a little too high-pitched, the apprehension evident in my tone at what may have been said. Good, bad, somewhere in between?

  “Oh yes, and I’ve been so looking forward to meeting you ever since.” His beams back at me and I struggle to find any words to say to him as he blinds me with his sheer, utter beauty. I hear Nathaniel chuckling into his Ploughman’s next to him, but I don’t get it. What’s so bloody funny?

  “Did I miss something?” I ask him, somewh
at uncomfortable, yet I try my best to remain unphased on the outside.

  “Nothing darling,” Nathaniel replies, still highly amused.

  “I know your type,” Lawrence says out of the blue and he knocks me completely off guard. My type? What the hell is he talking about?

  “Oh, ignore Lawrence here,” he chuckles again. “He’s just trying to see what kind of reaction he can get out of you. He does it all the time.”

  “Oh, why’d you always have to go and ruin my fun, Nate?” He pouts dramatically, like his most prized possession has just been taken away, but his eyes soften instantly as he takes him in. Now that’s a look of pure love there, if ever I saw one. He’s looking at him as if everything he’ll ever need is right there in his eyes. It’s possibly the most sweetest thing I have ever seen.

  “Because, my darling boy, we don’t want to scare this precious flower off before we’ve even begun, do we? The last thing that Emily wants to hear is you accuse her of having a dirty, sordid little affair with me.”

  “Excuse me?” I ask, shocked yet hopefully making them aware that I am still stood in front of them.

  “You’re such a killjoy at times. I was happily building up to it and you had to go and burst my bubble. Where’s the fun in that? You’re bloody lucky that I’m still prepared to marry you.” This only causes Nathaniel to chuckle some more.

  “Oh, ignore him, darling, it’s just a little game he likes to play whenever he meets someone new. He swears he can tell exactly what a person is like within five seconds flat of asking that dreaded question.”

  “I take it that happens a lot then?” I ask, quite taken aback.

  “Oh, you’ve got absolutely no idea. Fortunately for him,” he tilts his head softly to where Lawrence is sat, “I’m quite a happy-go-lucky guy.”

  “Well, I’m sorry to say that you wouldn’t have liked my answer then,” I smile back at Nathaniel who chuckles again at me, and then I slowly look towards Lawrence as his eyes lock onto mine.

  “Oh, I like this one,” he laughs and his smile grows large and he looks younger and so carefree. I turn, ready to leave them in peace until our allotted appointment time, but Lawrence halts me in my tracks. “Why don’t we start now?” he says while frantically waving his hands around in the air.