Her Song

35 - Champagne Moments

**Van**

"You had no fucking right! I'll get you for this you little cunt, you're nothing without me!"

The call wasn't on speakerphone but Rich's words echoed clearly around the hotel room anyway. He was furious. And clearly suffering delusions of grandeur. I could have tried arguing with him but honestly? I was done. I couldn't even remember anymore why I'd tolerated or better yet, endured, his shit for so long. Overwhelmingly exhausted by this latest example of my brother's utter self-interest I stabbed my finger at the end call icon and cut him off mid rant.

The moment when I blocked his number felt like a new beginning. Years of background anxiety slid away. I'd always imagined that I was this low-key, chilled kind of guy when in reality there was the constant hum of tension running through me and most of it was caused by the waiting for Rich's latest fuck up. In the end cutting the connection with Rich had been easier than I'd ever imagined. When Rich had taken up with Minty and installed himself in her Belgravia flat Mike had simultaneously found himself a sugar momma of the past her prime moderately successful model kind and had moved his ass in with her. I'd taken the opportunity to have the locks changed and any of Rich and Mike's possessions remaining in my house had been packed up and moved to my dad's garden shed. All it had taken was one call to Dad. He'd spent years trying to convince me that I'd gone above and beyond the bonds of brotherly love when it came to Rich. I'd felt bad at the time but now that Minty had tossed him out on his ear I wouldn't have put it past Rich to trash my house. Even if it was his house too, or at least the place where he had to live. Now, he was on his own.

Man. It felt so goooood.

Still I was glad that Kim had been off somewhere with Lucy for this conversation. It was okay to wonder in the abstract how Rich would take things when Minty realised that she could do so much better than him but it was another to have to listen to his irrational ravings when it happened.

I flipped my way idly through the room service menu on the desk in front of me. Not that I planned on ordering anything. There were only so many generic hotel burgers a body could stand. Although the beverage options looked interesting. A decent bottle of champagne wouldn't go astray. It had been three days since Kim and I had sorted out our shit and faced the fact that this was it. This was the last relationship either of us was ever going to have. We were on a fast track to till death us do part and if I hadn't thought that it might freak her out coming so soon after our whole emotional showdown on our first night back together I'd have gotten down on one knee already. It couldn't hurt to celebrate that, not to mention we should be celebrating the way Kim's sister had taken her warning to heart and removed herself from a situation that was only going to end badly.

I'd just finished ordering a bottle of champagne when the door opened. Kim and Lucy crossed the threshold and Lucy flung herself onto the bed as Kim crossed the room to twine her arms around my neck and offer me a deep kiss. Lucy cleared her throat loudly as my hands drifted down Kim's back and gave her ass a squeeze in a definitely not fit for company move. We ignored her as Kim responded with an enthusiasm that told me that once her doctor cleared her for bedroom business again she'd be attacking me with the focus of a hungry lion when faced with a side of beef. Tearing my lips from hers before we got too caught up in the moment, there lay the road to frustration, I sat back in the desk chair and arranged her on my knee. I adored the way she fit so comfortably with me and curled herself into my chest.

"Perfect timing ladies. I just ordered a bottle of Pommery. It's your favourite Luce." I tilted Kim's chin up and kissed the corner of her mouth. "And I know everything's your favourite Duchess."

Kim and Lucy shared a glance loaded with meaning.

"Uh, what are we celebrating?" Lucy asked cautiously.