I followed them into the living room and stopped following them when Poppy put her hand on my arm. We watched as Gunner escorted Asher out of the suite. I could hear him talking to Gunner on the way out. He said something about ‘red’. Shortly after, Gunner came back to escort me to the same suite he had just delivered Asher to.
“Hey Red,” Asher said, still looking at his cellphone messages. “Come on over so we can eat. I just got a text from my good friend. My friend found out I’m here in Sydney and wants to get together with me tonight.”
This isn’t starting off good. We’ve barely spoken and now he’s going out with an old friend. I’ll bet it’s a woman.
“I’ve kinda lost my appetite. If you need to go walkabout, it’s okay with me,” I said, approaching the table of food the housekeeper had delivered. “Maybe you should eat something first, though.”
“Not a bad idea, but my friend wants to meet for dinner. You should still enjoy it though, it looks good.” Asher picked up two wine glasses, poured white wine in each glass then handed me one. “Cheers to our soon to be marriage.”
I’d watched Brice drink and then get violent for over a year. I prayed silently that Asher wasn’t going to be like Brice. I’d gotten all schmick for nothing. He was leaving before we had a chance to discuss anything important. This was definitely a bad start to this unusual marriage.
“Before you go, can you at least let me know what our plans are?” I asked, pacing back and forth. “The only thing I was told was that I would be leaving Sydney tomorrow and that we would be staying away from New York for a few weeks.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t even told that much. I probably would have heard those details had I not been out enjoying my last twenty-four hours of freedom.” Asher went back to texting someone. “I need to go, but we’ll get together around one tomorrow and get a plan.”
I stopped pacing long enough to stare him right in the eyes. “Is this going out, meeting with women thing something that’s going to keep happening?”
“I never said I was meeting a woman, but to be clear, I’m doing this under protest. No offense to you,” Asher said, fixing up his tie and hair. “I think we’re going to have a great time. I’ll message you for a time to get together tomorrow and figure out our plan.”
“Alright,” I said. “We are leaving town though, right?”
“Sure, sure, we’ll go somewhere.” Asher walked to the suite door then turned. “I meant to tell you. You look really hot in those red stilettos. Wear them tomorrow too.”
Chapter 18
AUGUST
Ifinally had a decent night’s sleep, knowing Asher did what the family needed of him. The hotel design issue had been solved, and now I was off to Paris to go over similar issues in the hotels there.
Maybe I should be taking Asher and his fiancée with me to keep an eye on him.
My cell went off at least five times while I was in the bathroom shaving. I got a sinking feeling along with a twin vibe. I’d never admit it in public, but there was some weird kind of feeling I got when something was up with Asher. I didn’t want to look at the messages, but I had to. I rinsed the shaving cream off and went to read the text messages.
“Hey man, I was hanging with my buddy Sawyer all night and you won’t believe who we ran into.”
“Was your fiancée with you?”
“No, why would I bring her out with my friends?”
“Because you’re supposed to be showing the paparazzi a new you.”
“I don’t want to go over that again. I need a favor.”
“No.”
“Come on August. It’s important, I swear.”
“No.”
“Just hear me out first.”
“No.”
“I’m at your door. Open up.”
I threw the towel onto the bed then looked around for my pants.
Whatever, it’s just Asher.