“Do you like it?”
Olivia nodded. “Melinda, it is the most beautiful place on earth. And I’m from Australia, so you know, I grew up spoiled for beautiful places.” She grinned. “I’m sure you’ll see it for yourself one day.”
“Perhaps,” Melinda was noncommittal. Intentionally so. Their future was about as clear as mud.
“How did you two meet?” Olivia prompted, reclining in her chair, her blue eyes wide and obviously full of questions.
Melinda smiled at Ra’if, pleased to be back on safer ground. “He was my knight in shining armour.”
“More like lycra and sweat,” he grimaced. “Hardly Prince Charming material.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. “Yet that’s exactly what you are.” She reached for a small avocado sushi roll and put it on her plate.
“I don’t understand…”
“I was walking home from work,”
“Alone, late at night, through a darkened alley,” he pointed out with a stern look of disapproval.
“Yes, I should have known better,” she rolled her eyes. “I was mugged, which has never happened to me before.”
Olivia gasped.
“And I heard her scream.”
“And he came running and saved me.”
Olivia looked from one to the other, and she felt it; what they’d been feeling since that night. “It was fate.”
“Well, it was also an indictment of London’s safe streets programs,” Melinda said, trying hard to imbue the words with a cynicism she didn’t feel.
“And then what?” Olivia prompted, ignoring the dose of reality. She was captivated by this version of events.
“Then Ra’if saw me home, like the gentleman he is.”
Ra’if reached for Melinda’s hand and lifted it to his lips, placing a kiss on her open palm before closing her fingers over it. “I was entranced,” he murmured, his eyes locked with hers. “All the more so because I realised that she’d lost her way from the north pole at some point.”
Olivia frowned.
Ra’if continued, “Even you, Liv, would think the Christmas decorations in Melinda’s flat are … I do not want to use the term ‘overkill’, but … some people certainly would.”
“Mama loves Christmas.” The little voice from the doorway drew their attention. Melinda instantly pulled her hand from Ra’if’s, guilt making her cheeks flush.
“What is it, darling?”
“I have to go wee.”
“Oh!” Melinda scraped her chair back, her movements jerky. “I’ll show you.”
She put a hand on Jordan’s shoulder, guiding him through the palatial apartment. “Are you having fun?”
“Yeah. This place is cool.”
“It is, I guess.” She stopped outside a powder room. “Here you go, sweetie.”
The second he’d pushed the door shut, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. That had been close.
Too close.