Sidequest for Love by L.H. Cosway

“I’m sorry, but I’m not actually single,” Cal replied firmly.

“Oh,” the blonde breathed before a seductive grin shaped her lips. “Well, your girlfriend back home doesn’t ever have to find out.”

“His girlfriend isn’t back home,” I cut in, my tone surprisingly confident. I felt bad that Callum was stuck trying to fend off some stranger’s advances just because he was trying to help get me some action. “She’s here in New York, and if she knew you were flirting with her man right now, she wouldn’t be pleased.”

The blonde frowned at me in annoyance while Callum shot her an apologetic smile. “He’s right. My Leanne is incredibly possessive.” He said it like he was proud of the fact, and I briefly wondered how it would feel to have a woman love you that much, so much that she couldn’t even stand the thought of you talking to someone else. Must be nice. I wasn’t sure any of my previous girlfriends had ever felt so passionately about me. Sure, they liked me well enough, but I was fairly sure they wouldn’t be overcome with jealousy if a random woman in a bar tried to chat me up.

The blonde cleared her throat. “Well, it was nice to meet you all the same.” With that, she returned to her friends. I actually felt a little sorry for her. She’d been brave to come over and introduce herself to Callum, much braver than I was since I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to any of the women in this bar tonight.

“That wasn’t awkward at all,” Callum said as he returned his attention to his pint.

“I hate to break it to you, Cal, but you aren’t wingman material. Not for the likes of me, anyway.”

“What are you talking about? I can be a good wingman,” he protested.

“I think it only works if the person you’re a wingman for is better looking than you,” I said.

Callum scoffed. “Bollocks. Anybody can do it.”

I shook my head. “If you introduce me to any of the women in this bar, they’re not going to want to talk to me, I promise.”

“But you’re a good-looking chap,” he argued.

“Maybe, but I’m not you. There’s a reason why you’re the TV star and I’m the assistant is all I’m saying.”

He leaned his elbow on the bar, studying me now. “Are you depressed, Neil? You sound a little depressed.”

“I’m not depressed. I’m just not deluded, and I …” I trailed off. Had I actually been about to tell him about Annabelle? A part of me just wanted to get the truth out, lay my misdoings on the table, and let Callum decide how to punish me for them. The other part was way too scared to take the chance. If I lost my job, what would I do? No one at Running on Air would give me a reference once they discovered the truth.

For years I’d toyed with the idea of setting up my own event planning business. Helping to organise events was my favourite part of my current job as an assistant, and I was good at it, too. Perhaps coming clean to Callum was the push I needed to step out of my comfort zone and finally take a chance at that little dream.

“And you what?” Callum prodded, still studying me closely.

I blew out a long breath, my courage mostly fleeing when I replied, “And there is actually a girl back home, but it’s complicated.”

“How so?”

I swallowed tightly, impulsively choosing to tell him the truth while leaving out the incriminating details. “We met online, but she has no idea what I look like.”

“So what? You’re hardly ugly. It’s not like she’s going to be horrified when she meets you.”

I stared at my beer. “When I described myself to her, I wasn’t exactly honest.”

“What kind of person did you describe?”

Christ, why was I even telling him this? It was like taking a step dangerously close to the edge of a cliff. “Someone a little like you.”

“Ah,” Callum said, sitting back on his stool. “I see.”

“Do you?”

He nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face as he fiddled with a cardboard coaster. “When Leanne and I got together, I mean, when we got together properly, that must’ve fucked your head up a little, right?”

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that, but—”

“But it obviously did a number on your confidence. You probably thought to yourself, if only I were more like him, maybe she would’ve picked me instead.”

“I don’t think I want to be having this conversation,” I said, a tension headache forming at my temples.

Callum pointed the coaster at me. “Well, it’s a conversation we need to have. Leanne and me ending up together has nothing to do with you, Neil. It doesn’t reflect on your worth or what a great bloke you are. We just always had that spark, that connection where we couldn’t leave each other alone. The rest of the world might as well not exist.”

“Sounds really nice.”

“It is nice. It’s more than nice, but what I’m saying is, you could’ve been the most perfect man in the world, and she still would’ve had her eyes fixed on me. As I said, we had the spark. And one day, you’re going to meet someone. Maybe it won’t be completely clear to you at first, but there’ll be something about her, something that will refuse to let you leave her alone. Like, when I first met Leanne, she rubbed me up the wrong way entirely. We didn’t get along at all. But then, over time, I realised why she annoyed me so much. It was because she’d burrowed her way under my skin.”