Mr. Nice Guy by Belinda Williams

Chapter Ten

Chelsea was nervous,but she had no reason to be. Tonight they were having a casual beer with Tom’s brother, Luke. It was absolutely nothing to be worried about. It’s not like Tom was introducing her to his family. She’d already met Luke once or twice before, and he just happened to be in town for work. In addition to that, Chelsea and Tom weren’t a real couple. They were housemates and friends. Plus, Tom certainly wouldn’t be announcing that Chelsea was his pretend girlfriend.

Would he?

‘Fuck me,’ Nadia muttered from beside her.

‘What?’

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s Tom’s brother?’

Chelsea followed Nadia’s gaze to where Tom was sitting with Luke. ‘Yes, that’s him.’

‘Goddammit,’ Nadia ground out. ‘In that case, let’s get the introductions over with.’

Nadia stormed off in the direction of the men. Chelsea stared after her in shock for a brief moment, then rushed to keep up with her.

What on earth was this about? It was like Nadia knew Luke, and Chelsea didn’t see how that was possible.

By the time Chelsea made it to where the men were, they were standing, and Nadia was pointing a particularly sharp-looking glossy red nail at Luke.

‘You.’

Luke half-smiled and shoved his hands in his jeans pockets. ‘Me.’

‘Unbelievable,’ Nadia said, shaking her head.

Chelsea met Tom’s eyes and mouthed “What’s going on?”

He shrugged, appearing as confused as she was.

‘Um,’ Chelsea began.

‘If I’d known you would be here, there’s no way I would have come tonight,’ Nadia told Luke.

Chelsea’s mouth dropped open. She tried again. ‘Obviously you two already know—’

Nadia scoffed. ‘Oh, I know Luke, alright. Don’t I, Luke?’

He nodded, appearing unperturbed by Nadia’s seemingly unexplained vicious behaviour. ‘We do.’

Nadia’s eyes narrowed at him. ‘Shouldn’t that be “I do”, you lying son of a bitch?’

‘Nadia!’ Chelsea cried. ‘That’s enough! Why are you being so mean to Tom’s brother?’

Nadia might be one of her closest friends, but throwing nasty words around wasn’t helping the situation.

Nadia huffed. ‘How about I let you explain?’ she said, nodding at Luke.

For the first time, Luke appeared uncomfortable.

‘Nadia and I were in a relationship,’ Luke admitted.

Chelsea immediately looked at Nadia. Her friend shrugged.

‘If he wants to call it a relationship, that’s his business. My memory of it is that we slept together. He wanted to keep sleeping together, but then failed to tell me he was married.’

‘What?’ Chelsea looked to Luke, then to Tom for confirmation of this worrying information.

Tom stayed silent, wisely waiting for his brother to speak.

Luke sighed. ‘Yes, I was married. We were on a break.’

Nadia cackled, doing an eerie impersonation of the Wicked Witch of the West. Chelsea looked at Tom again, disturbed and unsure what to do next.

Nadia closed the distance between her and Luke in red heels that were the same colour as her nails. ‘Now, Luke, darling.’

Oh, God. It was never good when Nadia used the term “darling”. But usually it occurred when she was drunk and had found a man for the night.

‘We. Were. On. A. Break.’ Nadia repeated the words in a chirpy, sing-song voice, and Chelsea resisted a shudder.

This was bad. Really bad.

‘Firstly,’ Nadia continued, ‘you shouldn’t rely on excuses from a sitcom. It’s pathetic. Secondly, Ross and Rachel were not on a break!’

Chelsea flinched at Nadia’s raised voice, and Tom sprung to action.

He stepped between Luke and Nadia, smiling. ‘Can I get you a drink, Nadia? The usual red wine?’

Nadia exhaled unsteadily and met Tom’s eyes, forcing a smile. ‘Sure. That would be nice.’

‘And, ah, I’m going to the bathroom,’ Luke said before anyone else could say anything. He took off at the sort of pace that suggested he might not make it. If he genuinely needed to go, that was, which Chelsea seriously doubted.

Chelsea grabbed Nadia’s shoulders and shoved her down on the sofa. ‘What the hell, you crazy woman? What was all of that about? You never let a man get under your skin like this.’

Nadia sniffed. ‘I know. This is different. I’m aware I’m not usually so sensitive. Far from it. I know I can be blunt. I sleep with who I like when I like, and often get criticised for it.’ Her dark eyes glowered at Chelsea. ‘But I do not, I repeat, I do not ever sleep with married men. I won’t be the other woman.’

‘Oh,’ Chelsea said, because really, that all sounded fair enough. ‘At the risk of you biting my head off, can I ask what happened?’

Tom returned with Nadia’s wine and she accepted it gratefully. She took a sip and gestured for Tom to sit down. ‘You might as well hear this, too.’ She waited for Tom to take a seat, then continued. ‘Luke is—was—fantastic in the bedroom.’

Tom coughed into his hand.

‘Get over it, nice boy,’ Nadia told him, then smoothed her skirt with her free hand. ‘We met at a pub one night in town. There was a spark. We explored that spark, if you get the gist. So we started making it a semi-regular thing. At no point did he make me aware that he had a partner.’

Tom cleared his throat. ‘They did actually have a break, for what it’s worth.’

‘I don’t want to hear it,’ Nadia snapped. ‘It’s ancient history. I’m just giving you the history lesson. So, anyway, we slept together on and off for maybe six months. A few months in, he suggests we make it exclusive. I wasn’t sure. I don’t usually do exclusive, as you know. Not that I was sleeping around while we were together necessarily. Exclusivity makes things more complicated, that’s all. I finally relented, which is when I found a message on his phone one night from his wife.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Chelsea said, meaning it, and shot Tom a desperate look.

Nadia waved a hand at them. ‘It doesn’t matter. He tried to explain, but it’s difficult to explain away a person’s existence, and I wasn’t buying any of it. So we ended it.’

By “we”, Chelsea was pretty sure she meant “she”, but Chelsea didn’t say that.

‘Do you want me to ask him to leave?’ Tom asked Nadia.

‘That won’t be necessary,’ a deep voice said from behind them, and they all looked up to see Luke. ‘I’ll go. It’s not appropriate for me to be here. I’m sorry I ruined your night.’

Chelsea jumped up. ‘I’m sorry—’

‘Don’t apologise to that bastard!’ Nadia cried.

Chelsea snapped her mouth shut, and Tom rose with a sigh.

‘See you. Have a safe drive home. We’ll do a beer another time,’ Tom told Luke.

‘Sounds good,’ Luke agreed. He offered Chelsea a smile. ‘Nice to see you again.’

Chelsea nodded, too scared to say anything else for fear Nadia might lose it more than she already had.

Luke returned the nod, then his gaze fell on the back of Nadia’s head, who was refusing to look at him.

‘For what it’s worth, Nadia, I’m divorced now. I also have a nine-year-old daughter.’

Nadia stiffened, and Chelsea stepped forward and shoved Luke towards the door without thinking. ‘Go. Go! If you know what’s good for you, leave now.’

Luke threw Chelsea an amused smile. ‘I’m not afraid of her. But that’s probably good advice.’

Luke left without looking back, and Chelsea rushed over to her friend. ‘How about we head home to your place and grab some takeout instead?’

Nadia glared at her, and Chelsea tried not to take it personally.

‘A nine-year-old daughter?’ she hissed. ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’

Chelsea tugged her friend up from the seat and pushed her towards the door.

“Sorry,” she mouthed to Tom.

He held up a hand and waved at them with a sad smile.

So much for their third date, she thought as she ushered Nadia out of the building. Group activities were definitely off the list from now on.

Oh well. At least it had been memorable.