Sexy Love (Sexy Series Book 4) (7 page)

“Yes! Excellent! Well done! ” She cries, enthusiastically, waving a puffy hand in the air, and the girl scurries away with the broadest of smiles on her face. I can imagine working for this lady to be both petrifying and rewarding at the same time.

Joyce removes the meringue from Bea’s head as we wait for the assistant, who I can imagine is rummaging around in a hot sweat trying to find this veil for Bea, and more importantly, for Joyce.

Tilly drops the book she’s been reading on the table and steps over to the ice bucket. She lifts the bottle and raises her eyebrows cheekily when she finds it still half-full. “Top up, ladies?”

“Ooh yes please, Til,” Bea says with a broad grin and a little indulgent giggle. “This is such a treat!”

“It really is,” I add, turning to look at Tilly as she fills my glass, “thank you. Tilly.”

“Totally welco, I think we should be thanking Joyce,” she returns to her seat with her filled glass and raises it in Joyce’s direction. “Joyce, thank you so much, on behalf of my best friend, Bea, and my fellow bridesmaid. We’re having a really lovely time here; you’ve made us so welcome. Bea’s only going to do this once, and you’ve made it everything I would have wanted for her.”

That there is why I, and probably all of her friends, love her. Behind the quirky, blunt and often crude Tilly, is still a wonderfully charming lady, and when you see that side to her, you know how truly well-rounded and comfortable she is, in herself. I adore the fun side to Tilly, but she also knows when to show courtesy and gratitude. Luke is a lucky man.

“You’re welcome girls, I’ve got years of experience, I never did marry – it’s not my thing, but I know what I’d want if I did, and I just pass that on.”

I look at her, intrigued. Marriage was never her thing, but she felt passionate enough about it to spend her life with brides-to-be. How interesting.

“Hey,” Tilly whispers, disturbing my thoughts, “enough psycho-analysing, let’s get Bea sorted and go for some celebratory drinks.”

I laugh. “Is it that obvious?”

“To someone else, probably not. But I know you.”

I love that fact. I have friends who
know
me now. I don’t think anyone, other than family, truly ‘got’ me before. Since Bea’s trio came into our lives, they’ve brought with them such incredible values for friendship. They respect one another, and now they respect me in the same manner, and it’s well reciprocated.

I was always good before, I didn’t want for anything, but now that I know true friendship with three spectacular females, I feel like I have been missing out. But the fact is, I have it now, and it’ll stay with me, forever.

CHAPTER EIGHT

MONDAY 17
TH
MARCH, CONT.

Two hours later, we’re in a charming French charcuterie house/wine bar on West Sunset Boulevard enjoying some delicious French wine and winding down from the day’s exciting events.

I have been here before with clients and it’s just as pleasant as I remember, but maybe slightly more enjoyable without the pressures of work on the table. It’s a small bar but it’s swamped with character and sleek French style. The smells are exquisite, probably from the saucisson that brings so many customers back here. I adore true French fare.

We’re sitting at a small wooden table near the bar… most tables are near the bar in here as it’s such an intimate place. We’re on our second shared bottle when my cell chimes again. Sebastian replied to my earlier message to tell me that he’d contact me when he was finishing up with work, so I presume - as the office is closing, that it’s him.

I’m right.

~

LOVE, SEBASTIAN

iMessage

Today 5:29

Lexie! I’m finishing up soon, I need to go home first but can meet with you in about an hour. Where are you now?

~

~

Today 5:30

Hello. We’re at Gorge on Sunset, so I can get anywhere really. Would Beverly Hills suit you?

Delivered

~

~

LOVE, SEBASTIAN

iMessage

Today 5.30

Gorge! Good call – I’ll meet you there. Looking forward to seeing you.

~

Oh.
I look up from my cell to find Bea refilling my glass.

“Sup?” she asks.

“Hmm? Oh, nothing. Sebastian is coming here. I didn’t invite him, he just… told me.”

“He
told
you?” Tilly asks with a huge smile. “I didn’t realise
anybody
‘told’ Alexia Berkeley.”

“Hmm. Me neither,” I respond, confused as to why I’m not manipulating the situation to ensure I’m in the driver’s seat.

“I don’t understand. Is there a problem with him coming here?” Bea asks and Tilly rolls her eyes, turning to Bea.

“Don’t you know this woman? Obviously there wouldn’t be a problem with him coming here if Lex
asked
him to, but she didn’t.”

“Okay. So… there really isn’t a problem with him coming here?” Bea asks, looking wholly confused, and Tilly shakes her head, muttering something about having to put up with an idiot.

“I suppose not…” I say slowly, not really sure.

“Great. So are you going for dinner with him?”

“I presume we’ll meet here and then go on somewhere for food… I’m not really sure.” I’m still slightly perturbed about not knowing the plan.

“Interesting.” Tilly says with a smirk.

Conversation takes a welcome detour and soon we’re back on the subject of Bea and Daniel’s wedding in July. She has ticked one more thing off her list now and she’s evidently thrilled about it.

“Honestly, I’m so fucking excited about this wedding, Bea, the past couple of years have been so amazing and your wedding seems like the grand finale of it all,” Tilly says, exuberantly.

“I know,” Bea responds, “it’s actually only a year and a half, and in that time, I met Daniel, you met Luke, I got engaged, you got engaged, you moved to LA, got married and had a baby! Bear’s Cakery took off in a massive way, Clare and Ol got married in secret, they moved in together and got prego with twins and now I’m preparing for my own big day! It’s amazing how our lives have changed so much in such a short space of time.”

“Wow,” I add in amazement, “your lives really have changed! Not that I don’t love every minute of your company, but don’t you think it seems like so much longer than that? I remember Daniel first telling me about you – that seems like much more than a year and a half ago!”

“Ooh, what did he say about me?”

I laugh; loving that that’s the part she focused on. “Now that would be telling.”

“Ooh yeah, go on, tell us the goss!” Til says excitedly, wiggling forwards in her seat and resting her elbows on the table, ready for a story.

“Hmm, well he told me he’d met an English cake maker on a flight and that she was incredible. So of course I pressed the matter and that’s when he told me that he’d fallen quickly and deeply in love with you. I could tell by the look in his eyes, the smile on his face – he adored you. He said you were the most beautiful woman he’d ever met and that he was going to find a way for the two of you to be together. He had only known you a few days at this point so of course I thought he had gone a little insane, but I know my brother, and I know to trust his judgement. He never spoke about any of the other girls he’d dated that way. I knew that - provided your feelings matched his, he’d make you his.” I reach across the table and take her hand in mine. “Bea, he loves you so much.”

The smile on her face is the one that I see so frequently on these girls’ faces, not to mention their men’s faces. They’re all so deeply and passionately in love.

It’s a rare thing to find these days, so many people throw themselves into relationships and take them further purely because it’s the ‘next step’ or the right thing to do, and you can see on each and every one of those couples’ faces that they’re unhappy or just living a mundane existence, a routine that they feel they have to stick to for the sake of their partner or their children. It’s sad.

I sure as hell
never
want to be in one of those relationships and unless I am one hundred per cent certain that I will want that man like a cool glass of water on a hot day, every day - for the rest of my life, I will most definitely cut that relationship short.

I may never get that feeling, I know I haven’t had it yet - and I’m no spring chicken, but I’d prefer to be alone my entire life, than settle as being one half of a passionless, lackadaisical, unhappy couple. Who in the hell wants that?

Tilly sniffs and I turn to look at her pretty face, tears streaming down her cheeks. She nods and rolls her eyes as a sob escapes, wiping her cheek with her fingertips. “Yes, I know – fucking tears again. I really need to warn Clare about this bollocks, the way she cries already, she’s going to be a fucking wreck for the rest of her life after she has those babies. Ugh. Honestly, Lex, had you met me before I got pregnant, you’d know how completely unlike me all this crying bullshit is.” She wipes her cheeks again as the fresh tears drip from her long lashes. “Fuck,” she whispers, shaking her head.

Bea laughs and holds her hand, too. “I love this side of you, Til. It’s what takes you from the hilarious fun-lover we’ve grown up with, to Emily’s mum. That’s who you are now, and we love you all the more for it.”

“Oh God,” Til says, “do shut up – don’t bring Emily into this, I’d like to stop crying at some stage in the next three hours, you know. Besides, all this is getting a bit revolting for my liking. Yeah, yeah – we’re lucky sons of bitches, let’s get over it.”

“…And there’s our old Til,” Bea says with a chuckle, “love you.”

“Love you, too.”

If I wasn’t who I am, I’m sure I’d be joining in with the tears, too. All this love and support and friendship – it’s new and fairly overwhelming for me, but, like the old Tilly, I’m just not a crier. I’ll just observe.

“Thank you for telling me that, Lex. I do know how Daniel feels for me, but it’s just so lovely to hear those things from way back when we first met. I remember first hearing about you, too.”

“Oh really?” I ask, thoroughly surprised. Hearing about the sister of a guy you just met isn’t normally that memorable.

“Oh yeah, the first I knew of you was when we were on the aeroplane, we were by the bar having a couple of drinks together and he was telling me what he did for a living… I remember having absolutely no idea what a CBDO was, and then he told me about you and what you did at the company. He spoke so fondly of you, he always does. It was another of the things that really attracted me to him, the respect he has for his family. Coming from a close-knit family myself, I found it refreshing to meet a man who had the same values as I did.”

“Well that is something I can definitely vouch for. I may be older than him, but from the minute he could walk and talk, he tried his hardest to protect me. At first, when he was a toddler, he would just pat me when I hurt myself but as we got older, he made it his duty to keep me away from any kind of danger or trouble. He was the same with Mom when he was a teenager.”

“Yeah, he’s still like that with her now, too.”

“He is. He’s a good man.”

“Oh I know that, I’m so lucky to have him.”

We order another bottle of wine and change the subject to help Tilly overcome her erratic emotions. Today was never meant to turn sentimental or weepy, but I suppose picking out a wedding dress for your sister-in-law with one of her best friends always has the potential to turn maudlin. Especially if you throw wine into the mix! But if I’m honest, I love it. I’ve missed out on this for too long.

I feel thoroughly unprepared and rather startled when, about an hour or so after my last text, Sebastian rocks up to our table looking devastatingly handsome in his rugged, bearded way.

“Ladies, it’s so good to see you!”

We all stand to greet him and I smooth my skirt nervously as I wait my turn to kiss his cheek. I haven’t mentally prepared myself; we were so deep in discussion after his last text message that I totally forgot he was on his way here. Now I feel uneasy and awkward, God damn it. I’m told I’m the master of disguise; so let’s just hope it’s not obvious.
“Lexie, looking absolutely stunning as always.”

“Thank you, you look good, yourself.”

Bea and Tilly return to their seats. “Seb, will you be rushing off with Alexia or will you stay for a drink?” Bea asks.

“Well, as you all have full glasses, I think it would be rude not to join you, providing you don’t mind, of course.”

“Oh no! Of course not, it would be our pleasure.”

Tilly moves across to the seat by the wall, leaving the seat opposite me free for Sebastian. A waiter brings an extra glass to the table and asks if we’d like to see some menus.

“Oh yeah!” Tilly cries, addressing the rest of us, “I’m starving! Whatever that amazing smell is, it’s really messing with my appetite. I feel like I could eat an entire cow.”

“Yeah, I could definitely eat,” Bea adds, looking at me and Sebastian in question.

“Oh, er… we’re going out, right?” I ask, feeling quite strange about the use of the word ‘we’. It’s almost like ‘us’.

“Well, I’m more than happy to eat something here, the food is incredible. Unless you’d like to head out somewhere else?”

“No, no… here is fine. I love the food here, too.”

“Excellent, so yes, please – we’d like to see the menu. Could we also have another bottle of…” he picks up the bottle of wine and check out the label, “yes, another bottle of this please?”

He reminds me that I must watch how much I’m drinking. I’m already feeling the effects of the wine, along with the champagne from earlier, so I need to keep my wits about me.

“So ladies,” Sebastian says, resting his arms on the table, “what have you been up to today?”

“We’ve been wedding dress shopping for Bea,” Tilly answers, “such an amazing day.”

“It really was,” I concur.

“Oh of course, the big day! It’s what; four months?”

“Yep,” Bea answers, excitedly, “to the day. I’m so glad you can make it, thank you for your R.S.V.P.”

“Of course! I’m really looking forward to it. So did you find ‘the one’?”

“We did!” Bea responds, animatedly.

“Fantastic. Congratulations.”

“Thank you. So, what have you been doing today? Flying anywhere beautiful?”

“I landed back in LA from London, actually. Then I had some work to do in the office.”

“Ooh! Were you in London long?” Tilly asks, taking a sip from her glass.

“I was only there for a day, I didn’t get to see anything, sadly.”

“That’s a shame. Let me know if you’re ever flying an empty leg to London, won’t you? I’ll hop in for a joy ride to see the old pals. If you’re flying that posh jet we went in that time when Ol was in hospital, I’ll be more than okay about it. Talk about plush.”

Sebastian laughs, “Sure, Tilly. I’ll let you know. I’m adding a new jet to the fleet, actually, I think you’ll like that one. I’ll call you when I take it for a spin.”

“Ooh fun, is it posh?”

“It’s extremely ‘posh’.”

“What? Posher than that other one?”

He chuckles. “Oh yeah, this one is a little special.”

“Oh my God, I don’t care if we stay on the bloody tarmac, darling, I wanna see!”

We all laugh at Tilly’s excitement. I’ve flown in private jets a few times – a couple of trips with the family, and sometimes with work. If I’m travelling alone or it’s a standard journey, most of the time I’ll fly with a commercial airline, but occasionally our clients send jets for us if we’re meeting with them overseas.