Samantha Young - Fall From India Place

“Watch it,” Marco growled, and Suzanne and I both snapped to attention as if we’d been bitten by the crack of a whip. Marco’s eyes had darkened. I could feel the irritation vibrating from him. “We’re in the middle of a private conversation. You should leave.”

Affronted, Suzanne’s lips parted. Her eyes flew to mine, as if she expected me to stick up for her.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take too kindly to being called a boring bitch in public or in private. In my teacher voice I said, “I’ll speak with you later, Suzanne.”

She made a small harrumph sound, then turned sharply on her five-inch heels and marched toward her date, grabbing his arm and hauling him out of the bar.

“She’s a friend?” Marco asked quietly, incredulously.

“We met at uni. I grew up. She didn’t.”

He pushed his half-empty pint absentmindedly away from him. “Issues?”

I shrugged. “I honestly don’t know what she’s talking about.”

“Anisha told me she didn’t think there was a guy in your life and that you haven’t spoken about any from the past. Maybe that’s what she was talking about?”

My blood was suddenly hot with anger. I took a moment to calm. The last thing I wanted him to believe was that he’d done such a number on me I hadn’t been able to move on. I hadn’t been with anyone else by choice.

Sort of.

I exhaled slowly. “No guy at the moment.”

He appeared to relax at my reply.

I stared at him, letting my eyes connect with his and I felt the power of my attraction to him take hold. He was beautiful in a masculine way, sexy, charismatic. There had to have been many women in his life these last five years. The thought depressed me. “I’m guessing with the way you’ve been with me these last few weeks that there’s no one special in your life at the moment, right?”

Still holding my gaze, Marco’s lips turned up at the corner and I realized I wanted to kiss them right there on that seductive spot. “There’s someone. I just have to convince her of that.”

Yup. Definitely wanted to kiss him.

I narrowed my eyes on him, doing unimpressed convincingly. “I thought I told you we’re just friends.”

His eyes dropped to my mouth in a way that made me squirm. “I heard you.” His heated gaze returned to meet mine. “But I don’t think you heard me.”

That Thursday evening Marco did come over to my flat with takeout and the film Lawless and we did sit and watch the film together and it was brilliant and Marco’s company was fantastic and I was already weakening in my resolve to keep him at arm’s length.

Breathe, Hannah.

“I don’t know.” Ellie shook her head at me. “I can see the resolve still there in your eyes. We need to chase that off.”

That following Saturday I ignored my pile of marking to hang out with my sister, Jo, and Liv at Joss and Braden’s town house on Dublin Street. They used to live in a flat downhill from the house, but when Joss fell pregnant with Luke, Braden bought and renovated a larger home a few doors up from the old place. We had the house to ourselves – Braden had taken the kids out for lunch – and I’d pretty much been ambushed with questions about Marco as soon as I walked in the door.

I grimaced at Ellie. “I’m guessing you’re on Team Marco?”

“I think we all are.” Joss handed me a cup of tea. “We haven’t heard you talking about a guy like this since… well, since Marco. That’s got to mean something.”

“He’s been back in my life three weeks. I can’t just give it to him.”

“No one is saying you have to,” Jo assured me. “But at least admit to us that you’re considering it.”

“Am I?” I argued. “Does my weakening of resolve mean that I’m considering it? No. It means I’m horny.”

“Ew.” Ellie put her hands to her ears. “Big sister still in the room.”

She really should know by now that only made me want to torment her more. “Seriously,” I continued, “I’ve worn out, like, three vibrators.”

“Meanie!” She threw me a horrified look.

“Meanie?” I snorted. “Ellie, that kid growing in your belly is depleting your brain cells.”

“Stop torturing your very pregnant sister,” Liv told me. “And answer this: Putting aside the attraction to him, would you consider really giving him a second chance?”

I gazed around at them all as they waited. Finally, I sighed. “I’ve already admitted to myself I would. But I’d be plagued with doubt every step of the way, so… it would be doomed from the start.”

“You don’t know that,” Joss replied quietly. “You’ll never know that until you take the chance. I was your age when I took the chance on Braden. And sure, there are days I want to kill him, but more often than not, I kind of like having him around. And the kids he gave me aren’t bad either. You should take the chance, Hannah.”

From the expression on Ellie’s, Jo’s, and Liv’s faces I could tell they agreed with Joss. Knowing her dry wisdom, and how she adored Braden and her kids, I didn’t doubt her or her words of experience. But still, I doubted Marco.

Thankfully we moved on to the topic of Beth and school.

We were discussing the fact that Christmas was now less than seven weeks away when the doorbell rang. Joss got up to answer the door, returning with Nate.

Liv’s eyes widened with pleased surprise at the sight of her hot husband, and, honestly, I didn’t blame her. “What are you doing here?”

He slouched against the doorjamb, grinning at her with those sexy dimples of his. “I just dropped the kids off at Mum and Dad’s. I thought you and I could do date night. Starting now.” He smiled at us. “If that’s okay with you, ladies?”

“Uh, they don’t get a say.” Liv shot to her feet. “No offense.” She threw us an apologetic look. “But no kids and a hot husband? You cannot blame me for ditching.”

We snickered. No, we could not.

Liv grabbed her purse after pulling her boots on. “Nate” – she glanced over at him thoughtfully – “remember that time you broke my heart but then proved yourself to me with your perseverance and I gave you a second chance?”

Nate gave her a droll look. “Yes. And thank you for bringing it up. Good times.”

I laughed and shook my head at Liv. “You’re subtle.”

Nate sighed from the doorway. “Was there a point to revisiting a painful time from my past?”

Liv strode over to him, cupping his face in her hands. “Aw, babe,” she said as she tenderly pressed her lips to his, “I was making a point to Hannah. Marco wants to be more than friends and she’s on the fence about giving him a second chance.”

I found myself pinned beneath Nate’s soulful dark gaze. “Liv filled me in about this guy and trust me, Hannah, a man doesn’t stick around, continuously trying to win you over, just for the chance to sleep with you. I’m guessing from the way my wife talks about him, this guy could get laid easily?”

I made a face at that but nodded.

“Then he likes you.” Nate shrugged, as if it were just that simple. “If you still don’t trust that, keep him hanging for longer. If he genuinely cares about you and knows there’s something between you, he’s not going anywhere.”

I processed this.

It seemed like sound advice. And it came from Nate Sawyer, once a player, now a devoted husband and father. It was a good source to hear it from. I nodded slowly. “Okay. Thanks, Nate.”

“No problem.” He grinned at me, saluted two fingers to Ellie, Jo, and Joss, and then grabbed Liv’s hand. “Now if you don’t mind, I’m stealing my wife.”

Unmarked essays were piled on my coffee table while I sat on the floor beside my stack of marked ones. Every now and then I’d reach for my cooling mug of coffee and glance over at Marco, who was stretched out on my couch, dozing.

Dark and cold outside, it was warm inside my flat as the fire crackled in my grate. I couldn’t believe it was almost December. It had been a crazy few weeks. A crazy few weeks of hanging around Marco. A lot.

After thinking over Nate’s advice I decided that holding out on Marco longer was the only way I’d know for certain if he was genuinely interested in me and not just in sleeping with me again. My gut told me that wasn’t the type of person he was. Not with me anyway, but that nagging doubt, that memory of him leaving me alone on India Place that fateful night, held me back from believing in him all the way.

Only time would tell.

The weekend after our movie night together, Marco had had plans. However, the following Monday he turned up at my door after work, carrying a bag of groceries and film rentals. He quickly set himself up in my kitchen and I watched in bemusement as he threw together homemade meatballs and spaghetti. I don’t know why I was surprised that he could cook. His uncle owned and ran a restaurant.

We had fun that night, keeping it friendly, although Marco couldn’t help himself – he tried to flirt a little despite my lack of any outward response. He called me on his lunch break that week, he texted me a lot, and tried to tempt me to meet him for drinks on the Friday. It was a busy week, so I told him I had too much work to do. Not to be rebuffed, he asked me what I was doing that weekend and I explained I was going Christmas shopping in Glasgow. I liked to be organized about the whole Christmas presents thing.

To my utter surprise, Marco invited himself along.

That Saturday we met at Edinburgh’s Waverley Station and boarded the train to Glasgow together. For fifty minutes we sat across from each other and barely said a word. Although Marco was definitely more loquacious than he used to be and he wasn’t exactly broody anymore, he was still that guy who was comfortable and happy to sit in silence with me.

He caught me studying him as we passed through Falkirk and he smiled at my scrutiny. “What?”

“You’ve changed, but you haven’t.”

There was recognition, an understanding, in his eyes that told me he knew what I meant. “You too.”

Although I wasn’t willing to admit to my attraction to him, I wanted him to know I still remembered how good our friendship had been and that so far it had been good again. “We always had this, though. Being able to just be quiet and not have it feel awkward. Not needing to feel like we had to fill the silence. I have that with Cole, but… I mean, he’s like a brother, so… but other guys, we’ve never had…” I trailed off, realizing I was perhaps giving him more than I’d meant to.

I looked over at him when he didn’t reply, and tensed at the sudden stillness around him.

He leaned toward me. “I know I asked if there had been anyone special in your life but, honestly, Hannah, I don’t want to hear about other guys.” His jaw hardened and he looked out of the window.

That pissed me off. I was definitely not impressed with his display of alpha man possessiveness. But not wanting to have a fight in public, I stayed quiet, slowly allowing the burn of anger to dissipate. After ten minutes of now awkward silence, I replied quietly, “You and I are just friends.” And if he continued to be a possessive idiot, that’s the way we’d remain.

Marco looked at me sharply. “But you know I want more,” he answered. “So you also must understand why I don’t want to hear shit about other guys you’ve been with. Guys that got all that I’ve wanted since I fucked it all up.”

The weight of our history, of our feelings and confusion, wrapped around me with a sense of longing then, and I felt fearful. Of us. Of our future. Or lack thereof. Without thinking, I whispered, “Maybe we shouldn’t hang out anymore.”

“You can handle it,” he said stonily, his tone brooking no argument.

I forced myself to meet his hard gaze. “But can you?”

“As long as you don’t talk about the guys you’ve fucked, or Cole too much, then, yeah, I can handle it.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Cole’s my best friend.”

He ducked his head, bringing us closer. “I’m your best friend,” he answered roughly. “You’ve just forgotten. My fault, I know. I can help you remember.”

Honestly, I didn’t know how to reply to that. It made me ache so much for what we had been and for what I was terrified to have again with him.

So I remained quiet. It wasn’t until we were pulling into Glasgow Queen Street that Marco broke the silence, saying casually, “Gabby wants something called a Jo Malone for Christmas. Please tell me you know what that is?”