Stanton Adore (27 page)

“It was total false advertising. When a girl bats her eyelashes at me, I kind of expect them to be real. She must have been really good with the makeup shit because the girl I went to bed with looked nothing like the monster I woke up with,” he scrubs his hand over his face and does a fake cold shiver.

Adrian winces. “I hate to break it to you, but those beer goggles you had on last night didn’t help.” Cameron screws up his face and nods with his eyes closed.

“Oh my god!” Cameron yells way too loud. “How big were that dudes balls last night telling Tash to think of him when she had sex?” Everybody including myself laughs out loud, I do have to admit it was pretty ballsy.

“That fucker is going to die next time I see him,” Josh says deadpan.

Bridget walks over to Adrian and affectionately cuddles him. “Thanks for getting me home safe,” he smiles and kisses her temple, “No worries baby.”

“Abbs, what went on with those two guys last night fighting over you?” Cameron asks as he makes his way over to the fridge. Joshua has now settled in between my legs as I sit on the edge of the bench. He discreetly pulls my hips towards his groin and gives me a sly smile. I do wide eyes at him, “Stop it” I mouth. Abbie rolls her eyes.

“What, tell me what happened?” I ask the shock in my voice evident.

Abbie scrubs her face with her hands. “Number four challenged number one.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Who won?”

“Army guy,” Bridget chimes in.

“So what number is he now?” I ask confused.

“One. Definitely, one.” Abbie snaps.

Cameron frowns as he opens his bottle of water with his back to the girls but facing Josh and I.

“How many do you have?” Cameron asks as he makes eye contact with Josh and takes a drink of his water.

“A few,” Abbie answers. Cameron smiles and raises his eyebrows at Josh. Josh glares at him and mouths the words “No.” Cameron smiles and shrugs as he goes back to his position on the lounge. Hmm that was an interesting exchange, is Cam interested in Abbie? I’ll have to remember to ask Josh later. Everybody goes into the lounge room and flops onto the chairs as they start to reminisce about last night’s shenanigans. Joshua leans in and lifts my chin to give me a gentle kiss, I put my arms around his neck and breathe in his beautiful scent. He always smells so………… frigging hot.

“Oh god!” Cameron yells in that damn Tequila voice. “They’re all kissy and shit,” everyone’s eyes shoot back to us on the bench.

“I went to bed with a ten and woke up with a twelve, why wouldn’t I be kissy” Joshua snaps as he leans in and kisses me again, I smile into his face. This man really is all kinds of wonderful.

We walk into the reception venue and Joshua goes over to look at the seating arrangements. The church service was beautiful and thankfully short. I don’t know many people, Alyssa and I went to University together but have not mixed much since. It’s one of those weddings that you go to because you have to, it would be rude not to attend. However in hindsight, Josh’s offer of a hot date does seem like it would have been a better option. He has done well so far and has managed a few strained conversations with people. I can’t believe I didn’t know he was shy, is he shy or is he just rude and not wanting to talk to people. Who knows? I haven’t quite worked that one out. He points toward a table in the middle of the room and we go and take our seat. Joshua looks edible of course in a navy suite, white shirt and grey tie. I am wearing a black draping dress. I had planned on wearing a pale pink tight dress but my bloated tummy made me feel too uncomfortable in it and I hate being selfconsious when things are too tight. To Josh’s amusement our table guests have all started arriving. All eight single girls of them. Is this a set up? I’m here with the most gorgeous man on the planet and we are seated with eight single girls. I can see their eyes light up as he introduces himself to them. I don’t see any sign of shyness now,
prick.
The chair next to him is still empty and a blonde in a white lace dress comes over to our table. Shit. She is stunning and equipped with the best set of boobs I have seen. They are hanging out the dress is damn near indecent. Didn’t she get the memo about not wearing white to a wedding? The rude bitch. She makes eye contact with Joshua and puts out her hand.

“Hi Tatiana Richards,” she purrs. I roll my eyes, Tittiana more like. Joshua shakes her hand and introduces himself and turns and smiles at me.

“What,” I roll my eyes.

“Maybe this wedding won’t be as boring as I thought,” he smiles at me with a twinkle in his eyes. I fake smirk at him. The thing is, I know he’s trying to make me jealous and guess what? It’s working. She introduces herself to everyone on the table and they all start their usual crap talk. Josh runs his hand up my thigh. “Do you want another drink baby,” he leans in and kisses me underneath my ear.

I smile. “No thanks.” I have to remember to not show him any sign of my unease. There is nothing worse than an insecure girlfriend. I know, I counsel their boyfriends all day long.

“So Joshua, I’m a Social Network analyst. What do you do?” Tatiana purrs.

His eyes light up. “I design software,” he smiles.

“Really,” she smiles and she puts her hand on his forearm. “What a coincidence that we should be seated together” Oh get off it you stupid bitch, Social Network Analyst my ass. Anybody can count how many likes they get on their selfies. Joshua moves his arm away from her grip and he grabs my hand under the table. I try to calm my jealousy, she is so making a play at him. “Are you American?” she asks.

He shakes his head. “No, Australian living in America.”

“I see,” she smiles. I look over and see a girl I used to go to school with and we wave at each other over the crowd. I’m not sitting here and listening to desperate and dateless make a play for my man, I might as well mingle. I pull my chair out and Josh grabs my hand.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

I fake a smile. “Over here to see my friend. I’m sure Tittiana here won’t mind amusing you,” he narrows his eyes. On route to my friend I glance out to the balcony and stop dead in my tracks. Oh my god. It’s Christopher. I haven’t seen him since he asked me to marry him and I consequently broke up with him. My heart rate immediately picks up. Holy fuck this is a disaster. I pull out my phone and text the girls

Wedding is going great, Dolly Parton cracking on to Mr Stanton And Christopher just turned up.

I continue walking to my friend and I glance back to see Joshua’s eyes firmly on me. He’s not happy I left him there but seriously I’m just not in the mood for Tatiana tonight. Don’t mess with a hormonal woman has always been my mantra. And if she had any sense she would take the tip. My phone texts a message from Bridget

Shit, what did Christopher say?

Is he still gorgeous?

I get to my friend Tracey and give her a kiss on the cheek. She continues to babble about the flowers in the church or something. My eyes flick back to Joshua and he is still deep in conversation with the Bimbo central table. I look towards Christopher, his beauty is arresting. His black wavy hair and dark features stand out above the crowd. He’s tall maybe about 6ft1 and built in a lean sort of way. I met him at university, he’s an Orthopaedic Surgeon. I did love him, just not in the way I love Joshua. It’s sad because of we had met in any other lifetime I have no doubt he could have made me very happy. In the end I had to let him go. It was selfish of me to let it carry on as long as I did. I had no idea he was going to ask me to marry him. He was desperately in love with me and I was desperately in love with Joshua. Shit, I don’t know what to even say to him. Why in the hell didn’t I stay home and watch that porno………hell I would have bought popcorn. Tracey babbles on a bit more and I feel an arm go around my waist and I turn expecting to see Joshua. My heart sinks, its Christopher and I’m hit with the pain of guilt. He was too good for me, he deserved better.

He bends and kisses me on the cheek. “Hello Natasha,” he smiles. My eyes flick to Josh who is now watching me like a hawk. I swallow again.

“Hi, how have you been?”

Christopher raises his eyebrows. “You mean since I asked you to marry me and you broke my heart instead.”

I drop my eyes “Christopher I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you. You have to believe me, I’m not the girl for you.”

He bites his bottom lip, “Not really what I wanted you to say Tash. You haven’t missed me at all?” I drop my head.

“Christopher, we wanted different things.” I’m getting uncomfortable with this conversation. Josh will go ape shit if he hears this and after last night I can’t risk his temper, he’s displaying psycho tendencies. I couldn’t bear it if he hurt Christopher. He goes to grab my hand and I pull it away and go to turn and slam straight into Josh who is standing behind me. I feel faint. This is the worse timing ever, I haven’t run into Chris since we broke up. Why tonight? Joshua looks at me and raises his eyebrows in silent question.

“Umm Joshua, this is Christopher. Christopher meet Joshua………… my, my boyfriend.” Joshua narrows his eyes at my awkward introduction and Christopher glares at Josh “Boyfriend………… I see it hasn’t taken you long to move on,” he glares at Joshua. Oh for the love of god, please shut up.

Christopher smiles at Joshua. “Commiserations my man. I’m the ex-boyfriend and she’s a hard act to follow,” he smiles a devious smile. “Although I have no doubt you will find that out for yourself soon enough.” He storms off. All of the blood drains from my face, I look up to Joshua and grab his hand.

“Can we go?” I plead.

“No,” he snaps and storms back to the table practically ripping my arm out of the socket. He sits at the table and immediately drains his champagne glass.

Tatianna titties puts her hand on Joshua’s shoulder. “Where did you go?”

I glare at her dead pan. “He came to find me, seeing I’m his girlfriend.” I snap.

She smiles. “Of course,” she replies. Seriously, this night is turning very ugly indeed.

“How long were you with him?” I have butterflies in my stomach I don’t want to have this conversation.

“Josh it doesn’t matter it’s over, I didn’t know he was going to be here.”

He glares at me. “How long?”

I swallow. “Two and a half years.” He runs his tongue over the front of his top teeth as he glares at me.

“Is he the guy who asked you to marry him?”

“Yes.”

“And you broke up with him?”

“Yes,” I answer. The entrée is served and I am now desperately wishing these stupid women would make some kind of interesting conversation to keep Joshua’s mind occupied and off Christopher. I wonder if paying someone to take their top off in this situation would be acceptable. Joshua pushes his entrée to my side.

I frown. “Don’t you want it?”

He shakes his head. “I just lost my appetite.” Hmm that’s funny because I just found mine, bloody stress eating is back with a vengeance.

“What does he do?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Answer the question,” his eyes bore into me.

“He’s an Orthopaedic Surgeon.”

He fakes a smile. “Of course he is.”

“Would you rather he be a prostitute that slept with me for money?” I snap.

He scowls at me. “Yes I would. At least then I would know that you were never in love with him.”

I smile a sad smile to him and grab his hand under the table. “Josh I love you. Please let’s not fight about this, you already knew about him. It’s in the past.” I whisper. He nods and cast his eyes down onto the table. My heart breaks a little, it would hurt me to know if he had been in love with someone else. It’s bad enough knowing he had sex with everyone in America. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if he actually cared for any of them. The main meal is served and once again Joshua just picks at his food. I wish I didn’t eat when I was stressed, if no one was watching I could happily devour both his and my meals at this moment. The speeches have finished and Tittiana is beginning to really piss me off. I’m finding myself imagining pouring my drink happily over her head. Her open flirting with Josh is grating on my nerves. I pull my chair out and Josh grabs my leg.

“Where are you going?” Gently he kisses the back of my hand. He’s loving watching me get jealous.

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

“Can I come?” he smiles.

I narrow my eyes. “No,” I whisper.

He leans forward and whispers into my ear. “Let me rephrase that, I need to come.” He raises an eyebrow.

“Josh I’m out of action for a week” I whisper, he frowns not understanding my meaning. I raise my eyebrows waiting for him to catch on. He doesn’t. I shake my head and smile as I stand from the table and walk past the dance floor and head toward the bathroom. Ten minutes later as I am walking back to the table I am accosted by Christopher.

“Natasha do you ever think of me?” God, this night is going from bad to worse.

“Christopher we are over and I have a new boyfriend, this is inappropriate.” I go to walk off and another of Christopher’s friends comes over and puts his arm around me.

“The beautiful Natasha, we have missed you.” I smile as I try to hurry the conversation along but I can’t be rude. It’s another ten minutes before I return to our table to find Josh missing. I take a seat and eat his untouched chocolate cake. After what seems like eternity Josh is still not back, I start to feel a little unsettled and start to look around for him. To my horror he is slow dancing with Tatiana.
What the hell
. Is this a joke? He looks totally smitten and she is grinding herself up against him, not that he looks to mind. He wants a reaction from me and I am definitely not giving him one. I probably deserve him to be pissy, but this is going too far. What will I do without causing a scene? I must admit seeing Christopher tonight has rattled me. It’s made me realize how many people my relationship with Joshua has caused hurt to…………myself being the main victim. I have to get out of here before the dam bursts, I’m going to leave. I pack my bag up and am just about to stand when Christopher comes over to the table, my heart drops again, he looks determined.