Somebody to Like

15 - Wild Card

"Don't have one," I mumbled blowing unruly strands of hair from my lips.

"Noooooo," Lucy said with all the slow emphasis of the truly drunk. "Everyone has a horrible ex story. You're single now so there has to be a horrid ex in your past."

"Not mine," I lolled my head on to Gray's knee. He really was pretty. And built. I reached up and gave his thigh an assessing squeeze. Mmmmm. And most definitely firm.

"Ah ha!" Josh crowed. "No horrible ex in Amelie's life. See, not all men are bastards!" he pointed an accusing, and slightly wavering, finger at Lucy and Kim.

"Errrrr, yeah . . ." I groaned wiling to latch on to that explanation for my lack of shady ex-boyfriends but not really sober enough to sell the lie.

Ace was watching me, his elbow propped in a sticky puddle on the coffee table and half his face cradled in his palm. "As much as I want to agree with Josh because he's right – NOT ALL MEN ARE BASTARDS -" he roared at Lucy and Kim, "I don't think Amelie's history is entirely bastard free. Right?" He fixed me with his one visible eye.

I brightened up as a thought hit me, "Oooh, I know! I can tell you some stories about some of the utter wankers I've fancied!" I bobbled excitedly on the spot. When I almost tipped sideways and tattooed hand clamped down on my shoulder to steady me.

"Noooo!" Kim cried out in a way that sounded very much like boo and started flicking UNO cards at me. "We want the exes! We want the exes! We want the exes!" Van's hand clamping down over her mouth silenced her.

"Amelie, you don't have to tell us anything you don't want to," Van said kindly.

"Yes you do!" Lucy shouted before Bas wrestled her into silence.

"Amelie," Josh focused hard on me. "Have you ever had a boyfriend?" His grey-green eyes were alight with curiosity.

Well this was crap. I wanted to firmly and confidently deny the accusation. How embarrassing to admit to these sublimely cool people that at twenty-one years old I'd never had a boyfriend. No way was I ever going to admit that I was still a virgin. Just the thought of it had a flush rising over my chest and up my neck. Unfortunately my strappy sundress, whilst modest by the rock-n-roll standards my companions were used to, did very little to disguise the redness on my skin that had nothing to do with sunburn. I tried to speak but could only manage a strangled gargle.

Clearly my silence was taken as a confirmation because one minute I was studiously avoiding eye contact with Bas on the other side of the coffee table - oh the joy that an A-list celebrity was present to witness my moment of shame – and then the next I was pressed back against the couch as Gray's upside down face hovered in front of me. "You've never had a boyfriend?" he asked incredulous.

Was I about to admit to the man my eyes had been molesting all afternoon as he flaunted –yes Daily Mail men can 'flaunt' their body parts too – his muscles and tattoos by the water? I opened my mouth to deny everything and all that fell out was, "No." If I could have melted through the terrazzo floor into my room below I would have done so. The upside down face in front of me blinked furiously. In my slightly – okay very – inebriated state those ice blue orbs were eerily penetrating. They kind of reminded me of the drawings I'd done during a regrettable pre-teen phase where I was obsessed with drawing the supernatural. My notebooks had been filled with countless images of vampires, elves and werewolves. Gray sat somewhere between the vampires and the elves. It was playing havoc with my resolve to not develop a honking great crush on him.

Lucy had pushed her sunglasses down to perch on the end of her nose and observed me inscrutably over the top of them. Kim, unwilling to be silenced fought her way free of Van's muzzling hand and burst out, "Come on! Not even a hook up that everyone knew was really your boyfriend but who LIKE A BASTARD MAN refused to be 'defined by labels'." She shouted bastard man in Ace's direction and wiggled her fingers on either side of her face to visually emphasise inverted comas around 'defined by labels'.