It Happened at Cafe Nix

Hunk of the Month

Hunk of the Month

Jane O'Reilly

The holiday couldn't last forever...

Hunk of the Month is an Epilogue, featuring Erica and Nathan from The Holiday Survival Guide, published in January 2014 by Escape Publishing.

"Coffee," Erica said, flopping back on the low leather sofa. "Lots and lots and lots of coffee."

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "Sure about that?"

"Yes," she said. "And make it the real deal. None of this decaf low fat sugar free rubbish. I want all the calories and all the sin."

"You usually do," he pointed out, but he was smiling as he shook his head at her. "You do know that it's hot enough outside to melt rock."

"All the more reason to caffeine up while we're still alive."

Erica lifted the hair from the back of her neck as Nathan turned to the waitress, a pretty brunette, and put in their order. Lots and lots of coffee for her, and lots and lots of food for him. The flight had been murder, twenty-one hours of sharing air in a confined space with too many other people. But from the minute they'd landed, Erica had been in another world. The heat was unlike anything she'd experienced in a long time, a total contrast to the sharp cold of home. And everything was so different. The noise and the smell and the accents of the people walking past. She felt almost drunk on it.

They'd planned their round the world adventure together. Six months of exploring extreme habits, with a book to follow. She hadn't been able to refuse. The man was built for adventure, and she knew how much he'd missed it. He was also built for the camera, though he'd deny it, which was why she'd agreed to let a TV crew follow them. Erica sat back in her seat, closed her eyes, and pictured Nathan shirtless and sweating under the beating Australian sun. Then she pictured sleeping outside and eating bugs. Ugh. But no pain, no gain. She knew that better than most.

"You've got that look," Nathan said.

Erica opened her eyes. "What look?"

"That look," he said, leaning forward and picking up the magazine that sat on the table in front of him. "Were you thinking about eating crickets again?" He opened the magazine and studied it closely.

"Nathan," she said. "You're reading that upside down."

"We're in the land Down Under," he said. "We are upside down." He flicked through a few more pages. There was a pause, and she thought she heard him swear, but that could have been her imagination. Jet lag did funny things to her brain.

Erica leaned forward and plucked the magazine from his grip. "I did not have a look on my face," she said. "And I was not thinking about eating crickets." Or any of the other things. "I was thinking about you striding across the outback, shirtless and sweating."

"You are aware that we're making a serious documentary," he said. "With the aim of promoting environmental awareness."

"I was being completely serious," she said. But Nathan did have a history for this sort of thing, so in her view it wasn't unreasonable to consider it. When he'd made his first TV series, the gossip mags had dubbed him the stripping survivalist. Erica grinned, spun the magazine round.

Her fingers tightened on the shiny paper when she saw which magazine it was. Guilty Pleasures. Her amusement faded. The gossip mags had also done a lot of things that weren't funny. She used to think that they were doing the world a favour, that the public deserved to know the truth about their heroes. She'd built her career on uncovering the private lives of the rich and famous. She'd been damned good at it, too. Then she'd met Nathan, and for the first time, she'd been forced to confront the damage that she'd caused.