Bad Boy Prince (Royals #2)

Fifteen

I take a moment to write him a sweet thank you , but I don't feel like playing his silly game, so I'm just polite and somewhat curt.

After two weeks of not hearing from Mark, I know there's nothing going on. At least not with me.

The worst part is that I miss him. I cringe and take a deep breath. The only blame is my stupid job. I really hate writing advices. With all my heart. 

Taking a sip of my now cold coffee, I scroll through the emails trying to choose an unusual question. Thirty emails later, and I still have found nothing interesting. I pick the one about a friend's feud because I'm tired of the cheating couples. I write them a nice message about talking with each other and how there are always two sides to every story... bla, bla, bla.

Stifling a yawn, I lean back on my seat. I'm bored. Utterly so.

Call him.

No. He's definitely not into me, so there's no point.

Call him.

I lick my lips.

Friends call friends, am I right?

Screw it. I grab my phone and call him. The phone rings three times and I'm about to hang up, when I hear his voice. "Hi!" he sounds surprised.

"Hi Mark!"

I hear a lot of noise from his side, but it fades as he says, "how are you?"

"I'm bored."

He chuckles. "That's why you call me, then? Because you're bored?"

My lips tug up. "It doesn't sound nice when you say it like that."

"I'm glad you called. I'm bored, too."

My pulse speeds up as I grimace. "Do you want to get dinner or something?" I scratch the back of my neck. "There's a Thai place I'm dying to try," I add as I straighten my pencil skirt.

He's silent for a moment. "I can't." His voice sounds deep and heavy as is he really regrets not being able to. My stomach  feels suddenly tight. "I'm actually covering for Scott and Emily. They were supposed to come to Australia for this stupid charity thing, but Scott asked me to take his place." I picture him rolling his eyes and I grin again.

"That's okay. I can hang out with... Tom." Why on earth am I saying this? Tom is my coworker and we rarely speak to each other. I shake my head as I blush. I'm glad he can't see me.

"Why don't you come?"

I blink. "To Australia?" my tone is skeptical.

"Why not? I'm bored to death here. People talk funny, and there are kangaroos all over the place."

Laughing, I turn off my computer. "All over the place?"

"They're like a plague, I've heard." He sounds amused too and my grin widens.

"Yeah, okay. I'll just jump in the next plane and head over there, then."

"I like the sound of that! We can dive in the ocean and admire the reefs. And I promise to keep you safe from the kangaroos. Nasty little things."

Chuckling, I grab a pen and doodle on the pile of post-its I always keep at hand. "Little? I don't think they're little or nasty. I think they're cute."

"We can go to the zoo and I'm sure we can use my bloody title to get to hug koalas!"

I laugh hard at that. "Have you tried vegemite? I've heard it's interesting..."