Brianna
Upon arriving home, she plugged in her phone to charge and headed straight for the shower, hearing ping after ping as she walked away. She figured whoever had sent messages or called could wait another ten minutes or so.
As she towel-dried her hair she ordered a pizza then scrolled through her phone. Ten missed calls—most of them from Tam, one from Seb, but to her dismay, none from Josh. She played message bank on speaker as she poured a glass of wine. Why was she so sure he would’ve at least texted?
Tam’s calls were all to check on her safety. Her texts were the same. She called Tam, letting her know all was well and she was back home. Tam tried to convince her to come to the next Sloane-Kelly family dinner.
‘You won’t want to miss this one,’ she said. ‘Gran and her new husband will be there. We’re having it on Saturday rather than the usual Sunday.’
‘Does that mean your mum is coming round to the whole elopement?’
‘Hmm. So-so. I think Mum’s a little jealous that Gran has found someone who seemingly makes her happy. After my parents’ divorce, Mum was a bit bitter on the whole love thing. Anyways, come for the fireworks, but I’m sure Gran would love you.’
She wound up the call, promising to let Tam know about dinner.
‘The only excuse I’ll accept is if you have a better offer, and by better offer I mean a date with Josh.’
Brie felt her cheeks burn. ‘I doubt that will happen, even after we—’ She stopped, but it was too late. Tam hadn’t come down in the last shower.
‘Even after what?’
Brie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘Even after we kissed.’
‘What?’ Tam shrieked. ‘When did this happen and why am I only finding out about it now?’
Brie relayed the story.
‘So he came past to tell you he wants you.’
‘He didn’t say that, Tam.’
‘But he said he asked you as his date and then he came by to kiss you.’
‘He came by to give me the key to Rosie’s apartment.’ A visit that was first on her agenda tomorrow morning.
‘Have you told him you’re back?’
‘No.’ She didn’t add that she’d been disappointed that he hadn’t contacted her. It confused the hell out of her. Why had he kissed her?
‘Well, perhaps you should pay him a visit before you head up to Rosie’s apartment?’
‘Yeah, maybe.’ Brie was already hoping she could slip in and out without being noticed.
‘I was wondering why I hadn’t heard from you and then I saw one of your photos on the cyclone.’
‘Yeah, I just got back,’ she said, stifling a yawn.
‘You sound exhausted.’
‘That’s an understatement. It’s been a long few weeks. First Gran, then the whole thing with the will and then the cyclone, it’s drained me.’
‘Roger was in last night. He asked about you.’
‘Oh yeah? What’s new?’ She chuckled. Despite being married, Roger hadn’t given up hitting on Brie every time he was in town. It drove Seb crazy.
‘I told him you were in Sydney and he said he’d look you up.’
‘Please don’t tell me you gave him my number.’
‘Not a chance.’ Seb laughed. ‘You know how I feel about him when it comes to you.’
They chatted for a while, Seb filling her in with all the shenanigans and news from around the traps.
‘The Cage was at capacity the other night.’
‘Really? I would’ve thought the weather wasn’t warm enough.’ The Cage was an infamous Karaoke bar not far from Seb’s place.
‘Yeah, it was a little strange. A couple of Aussies sang our song.’
Brie wasn’t much of a singer, but Seb always made her sing the Simple Minds song ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’, if they were both at The Cage. ‘Wow. Do I need to come back to defend our title?’ she joked.
‘You really are like the sakura, aren’t you?’
Seb was right. He had picked it even before she’d left. And while she didn’t know where she would end up after Sydney, she knew that it wasn’t going to be Narita.
‘I guess I am, Seb.’
‘Good luck, Brie. I hope you find happiness.’ There was only good will in his tone and it made Brie smile.
‘You too, Seb.’
‘And if you’re ever in Narita, make sure you come and say hi, okay?’
‘You can count on that.’
She was about to refill her glass when her phone rang again. When she saw Harry’s name on display she answered right away. He would only be calling for one reason.
‘Harry?’
‘Brie, I’m a dad! Sylvie had the baby. It’s a boy!’
‘Oh, Harry, congratulations! How’s Sylvie doing?’
‘She’s good but exhausted. She and the baby were asleep when I left. I wanted to stay the night, but she kicked me out.’
Brie chuckled. ‘Sounds like Sylvie.’
‘I’ve got some of the guys coming for a few drinks. Come over if you’ve got nothing on.’
Some of the guys were sure to include Josh, and Brie wasn’t sure she was ready to face him.
‘Oh, I don’t know, Harry. I just got home and I’m—’
‘Come on, Brianna.’ Harry’s voice slurred slightly and she stifled a giggle. Harry wasn’t one to drink, but Brie guessed the birth of his first child would do it. ‘You’re not going to be around for much longer, just come and hang with us.’
Harry’s words took her back a decade. It was virtually the same thing he’d said to her when she’d announced she was moving overseas. Of course it had made for some tense ‘hanging out’ with Josh. Now Harry and Sylvie were parents, Max was married to Avery, and she and Josh … well she and Josh …
‘So you’ll come?’ Harry asked.
‘I’ve already had a glass of wine. I can’t drive.’
‘I’ll order an Uber for you. Here, I’m doing it now.’
‘Harry, I don’t think—’
‘Done. It’ll be at yours in … five minutes. See you soon.’ The line clicked and Harry was gone.
Shit.
Her hair was still wet, she had no makeup on and she was dressed in the only clean clothes she had. A frantic dash upstairs saw her twist her still-wet mop of hair into a French knot, whack on some tinted moisturiser and a coat of lip gloss. She found an old pair of jeans that luckily fit and a peasant top that was decades old but somehow seemed not too shabby. It was a bit tight around the bust. It wasn’t perfect, but it was just her old friends so it would do.
A moment later the Uber was in front and she was jumping in, heading to Harry and Sylvie’s. On the way, she called the pizza place and cancelled her order.
‘Brie!’ Harry greeted her with arms wide open and a cigar hanging precariously off his bottom lip. ‘Come in.’ He rescued it before it fell and then hugged her.
‘Congratulations, Dad!’ Brie said, pecking him on the cheek.
‘Dad.’ Harry grinned goofily. ‘I like the sound of that.’
‘Brie!’ Avery appeared, holding a bottle of Moët and a champagne flute. ‘Have a drink!’ She poured her a glass of bubbly and thrust it in her hands before she had a chance to step inside.
‘Thanks,’ she said.
‘Now that we’re all here, the celebration can really begin.’
She followed Harry and Avery to the balcony outside, where Max and Josh were sitting on two opposite lounges smoking cigars. Avery promptly nestled herself next to her husband, leaving Brie no choice but to sit next to Josh.
Harry pulled a seat from the nearby outdoor setting. ‘Just like old times,’ he mused nostalgically as he handed a cigar to Brie. ‘Just like old times.’
‘Yeah, except you guys can’t call me baby anymore and chase me away.’ Avery giggled, swiping Max’s cigar and taking a deep drag.
‘No one puts baby in the corner,’ Max said dramatically as he pulled Avery in for a kiss that made Brie squirm. Next to her Josh’s expression said he too could’ve done without his best mate kissing his little sister, even if he was now her husband.
‘Sickening, isn’t it?’ he mumbled quietly enough for only her to hear while keeping his gaze firmly forward.
‘Yeah, but they’re newlyweds,’ Brie said. ‘They’re in love. It’s all fun and exciting early on.’ Not that she would know; Brie had only been in love once in her life—and it was with the man sitting next to her.
Josh snorted. ‘If I know my sister, hell would freeze over before she allows anything not to be fun.’
Brie chuckled in agreement as she sipped her champagne, the bubbles tickling her nose.
‘You going to light that thing?’ Josh asked, nodding to the cigar she was absently twirling in her hands.
‘I, ah, don’t know how to smoke it,’ she admitted. She waited for Josh to make some sort of smart comment, but instead he reached over for a torch-flame lighter on the table.
‘Hold it up like this,’ he directed, demonstrating with his own cigar. ‘Now, I’m going to light it, but you’re not going to put it in your mouth just yet. We’re going to start by placing the tip above the flame. Aficionados will tell you that sticking it directly in the flame ruins the flavour, but as a beginner, you probably won’t notice the difference.’
‘Okay.’ Brie watched as Josh lit the flame.
‘Before you put it in your mouth, you want to burn the end to sort of “prime” the tobacco. Now spin it around, yes, just like that.’ He nodded as she followed his instructions. ‘You want to make sure you get an even burn.’
Brie was about to ask how long she needed to twirl when an orange glow appeared on the tip.
‘Ah, there she is. Once you can see a bit of an orange glow, you’re ready to puff. Now here’s one last tip—don’t inhale the smoke, don’t draw in air with your diaphragm, pretend you’re sucking something through a straw. Just fill your mouth up with smoke and then blow it out. Like this.’ He demonstrated with his own cigar and Brie wondered how he could make something so wrong look so sexy.
‘Right,’ she said, slowly lifting the stogie to her mouth, trying to remember all that he had said. Nervously, she puffed a number of times before thick white smoke appeared in the velvet night air. It tasted woody and earthy and surprisingly not as unpleasant as she’d imagined.
‘Here,’ Josh said as he lifted his drink towards her. ‘Champagne won’t do anything to enhance the flavour; try this. Trust me.’
‘What is it?’
‘Cognac. Top shelf,’ he said as the toffee-coloured liquid swirled in the crystal tumbler.
She took a sip and then a puff. God—he was right, the drink really magnified the flavour. Along with the woodiness she could taste fruity and earthy hints.
‘When did you become such an aficionado?’ Brie asked as she sank back into the chair, her body abuzz from the combination of cognac, cigar and Josh.
‘My dad walked in on Max and me smoking a bong once. I think we must’ve been about nineteen? Anyway, he said if we were going to smoke anything, it would be a cigar. So he took us into his study and showed us how. Told us both that if he caught us smoking anything but, he would give us a good kick up the arse.’
Brie’s mind went back ten years to that summer night when they were in Max’s parents’ pool house all sharing a joint. It was also the night she and Josh had first slept together.
‘Hey, you remember that night at Max’s?’ Josh said quietly as they both stared out onto the twinkling city lights. In the distance, a plane’s beacon flashed as it climbed into the black heavens and the sound of fruit bats filled the air. Brie tried to casually puff on her cigar, very much conscious that his gaze was on her. Was it coincidence they both were thinking of the same memory?
‘The night we shared a joint?’ She turned to meet his gaze and saw his grey eyes twinkling against the faint glow of the ambient light.
‘That’s not what I was thinking about, Brie.’ He gave her a lopsided smile and it made her pulse flip.
The doorbell chimed. ‘That’ll be the pizza.’ Harry leapt up and the mention of food had Brie’s tummy rumbling. She needed food. The champagne and cognac had totally gone to her head. Except when Harry returned, not only did he not have pizza, he robbed Brie of her appetite.
‘Look who’s here!’ Harry announced, full of fake enthusiasm.
‘Hi, guys!’ Lauren appeared, looking a thousand times more glamorous than Brie. Her long hair flowed like waves of delectable chocolate down her shoulders, skimming her perfectly shaped breasts, which were spilling over her skin-tight body suit. Her eyes immediately flashed towards Josh then to Brie, her lips curling as if to indicate she was about to swoop in and win.
‘Harry, be a love and get me a glass of champers,’ she said with an expert flick of her hair.
She took Harry’s seat, somehow seamlessly sliding it right next to Josh.
‘Aren’t you going to say hello, Joshie?’ she asked, leaning over and literally thrusting her assets in Josh’s face.
To his credit, Josh barely batted an eyelid. ‘Hey, Lauren,’ he said drily, hardly glancing in her direction, but his obvious lack of interest didn’t seem to perturb her in the slightest.
‘Oh hello, I didn’t see you there,’ Lauren addressed Brie. ‘Bridie, isn’t it?’
‘Brie.’ She smiled politely as she deliberately took a sip of Josh’s cognac and handed it over to him. Lauren’s shrewd eyes didn’t miss a thing.
‘Oh yes, Brie, Josh’s friend from high school.’ She pursed her lips as if to say I know all about you. No doubt she did, but if Lauren thought she could intimidate her, she had another think coming. Brie had just dealt with Debbie, and Lauren was no match.
‘Yep, that’s me,’ she said with a grin as she took a puff of her cigar.
Lauren screwed up her nose and fake-coughed, waving her hand about offensively. She was a piece of work. What the hell had Josh seen in her? She was drop-dead gorgeous, that was for sure, but was Josh that shallow?
‘Lauren, what are you doing here?’ Josh sighed.
‘What do you mean?’ Lauren’s toffee-coloured eyes became as wide as saucers as she played Little Miss Innocent. ‘Sylvie and Harry are my friends, too. I was there when Sylvie announced she was pregnant, don’t you remember? And I distinctly remember predicting it would be a boy, and I was right!’ she said with an air of triumph. ‘So, when I saw Harry’s post on Facebook, I called to congratulate him and he told me about the party.’
Brie followed Josh’s line of sight as he glared at Harry, who gave an apologetic shrug.
Lauren sipped her champagne smugly. This was obviously a woman who got what she wanted, and right now it seemed her sights were on Josh.
Josh leaned back, draining the rest of his drink. ‘Hey, Harold, hit me with another!’ he yelled, holding up his empty tumbler.
Harry sent Josh a dirty look; they all knew he hated being called that. It was in Year Eight that Max discovered Harry was short for Harold and not Harrison, as he had led them to believe.
‘Make that two, Harold,’ Brie added and both Max and Avery burst out in hysterics. As Harry stormed off in a huff, grumbling about them all being sons of bitches, Brie snuck a glance at Lauren, who was staring at them all, mouth agape, fuming that she was not aware of their in joke, and it was Brie’s turn to be smug.
‘Oh my God,’ Avery said, wiping tears from her eyes. ‘I’d forgotten about the whole Harold thing.’
Harry returned carrying a tray of drinks in one hand and the pizzas in the other. ‘You’re lucky I love you all,’ he warned as he handed over their drinks. ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t be getting these.’ He held the boxes high before placing them on the table. ‘Amore’s Special, one without pineapple for our overseas guest here.’
‘Aww, thanks,’ Brie said as she flipped the lid and grabbed a piping-hot slice. ‘I almost feel bad for calling you Harold.’ She gave Harry a cheeky grin before sliding the pizza into her mouth. She couldn’t help but moan at the cheesy goodness. ‘God, I miss this.’
‘You had it a couple of weeks ago,’ Josh reminded her, reaching over for a slice. ‘And as I recall, you still have one of my bottles of wine.’
Brie could see Lauren was now livid. She was also the only one not demolishing a piece of pizza. ‘You’re not hungry, Lauren?’
‘Lauren doesn’t do carbs,’ Josh answered flippantly.
Brie suspected as much, although right now she was salivating more than one of Pavlov’s dogs.
‘Josh knows me so well.’ She gave a fake smile. ‘But they don’t seem to be doing you any harm. What’s your secret?’ There was more than a hint of envy in her voice.
Brie paused, chewing the last of her slice before grabbing another without hesitation. ‘It’s called the Debbie Diet,’ she said with the straightest face possible. She could see Lauren’s brain working overtime, wondering why she hadn’t heard of it. For a brief moment, Brie felt like a mean girl, until she saw Josh grinning like a fool.
‘I’ve just spent the past week up in Queensland covering Cyclone Debbie. Days without electricity and not a lot of food or clean water.’
‘How awful,’ Lauren gushed as if it was the first she’d heard of the cyclone.
‘Yes, it was pretty harrowing.’
‘I couldn’t bear to go a day without electricity. Remember the black-out that time in Rome, Joshie?’
‘Lauren, it was during the day and it barely lasted a few hours.’
‘Still,’ she pouted, ‘so many places were closed, we couldn’t even go to the Colosseum and we had to resort to … entertaining ourselves.’ She laughed like a minx.
Next to her, Josh shifted uncomfortably and Brie felt like she needed to stretch her legs and get away from Lauren and Josh’s obvious past. Maybe Brie was wrong. Maybe Lauren was more of a force than Debbie.
‘Hey, Harry, where do you want these?’ she asked, gathering the empty pizza boxes.
‘Here, let me.’ Harry took them out of her hands so she busied herself with empty plates.
‘I’ll help.’ Josh leapt up.
‘I’m fine, there’s not much to do.’
‘No, I insist.’
‘Seriously, Josh, I’m fine.’ The words came out more harshly than she’d intended and Brie immediately felt bad. It wasn’t his fault Lauren was getting on her nerves.
‘You heard the girl, Josh, she’s got it. I’m sure if she could live in the jungle for a week she can handle a few plates.’
‘She wasn’t in the jungle, Lauren, it was North Queensland,’ she heard Josh say as she walked into the kitchen, slid open the dishwasher and slotted in the dishes.
‘There’s a difference?’
‘Lauren, what the hell are you doing?’
‘What do you mean?’ Even without seeing her face, Brie could tell Lauren was doing the Little Miss Innocent act.
She didn’t hear what Josh replied, and with good reason.
‘I’m sorry.’ Josh’s voice came from behind her.
‘Jesus Christ!’ She dropped the plate in her hand and clutched at her chest. ‘You scared the bejesus out of me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he repeated, this time with a lopsided smile. ‘And I’m sorry about Lauren.’
Brie shrugged. ‘You don’t need to apologise for sharing memories with other people.’ But for the first time since she’d left, it really hit her that Josh had moved on, and even though he and Lauren were no longer together, there would be other Laurens. Brie was replaceable. It hurt.
‘We share memories, too, Brie,’ he said quietly.
But their memories didn’t compare, did they? Brie dropped her gaze.
‘Have dinner with me.’
‘What?’
‘Dinner, Saturday night.’
‘I can’t.’ She shook her head. ‘I have plans.’
‘Hot date?’
She had to chuckle. He seriously looked a little jealous. ‘No—I’m having dinner with Tam and her family.’
‘You could ask me to come along.’
‘Or you could ask me out on Friday night.’ Why was she encouraging him? It must’ve been all that cognac.
He smiled and it sent her pulse racing. ‘Will you have dinner with me on Friday night, Brie?’
Brie couldn’t help matching his grin. She also couldn’t remember the last time she had been asked out on a date. Was it dangerous that she really wanted to go out with Josh? Probably. Would she regret it? Perhaps. Was she going to do it anyway? Absolutely.