No Control | Holding Me Ransom (Book 2)

17 - Wanna Take It Slow

July 2015

Nicki had no news for me for the rest of that week. The only news I received was that Harry had flown to LA; Sarah saw pictures of him on Twitter arriving at LAX, and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

I wasn't sure why, but I wasn't as broken as I had expected to be. Considering I had found out Harry had cold-heartedly set me up for his own gain I was surprisingly accepting of it all, and had gone into survival mode. I still thought about him a large proportion of the time, and these thoughts still caused me pain, but it wasn't an all-consuming, gut-wrenching pain like it had been in previous times.

(I realise the fact that there were previous times to compare this to in itself spoke volumes, and maybe this was the reason I was able to approach it with a steely resolve, rather than with a trembling lip.)

My subconscious had decided for me that I was not going to let this overwhelm me, and instead was going to show the world I could pick myself up and carry on regardless. And I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

By the time Saturday came around I was almost looking forward to my date with Adam, if only to take my mind off everything and forget my chaotic life for a bit. I had arranged to meet him at Mango Room in Camden which was only a five minute tube ride away from me, so I took my time getting ready, and arrived at bang on eight o'clock. He was standing just outside, and smiled as I approached him.

"Hi," he said, and leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "You look stunning."

"Thanks," I replied, smiling too. "You don't look so bad yourself."

He grinned at this, and gestured towards the door of the restaurant. "Shall we?"

"Sure."

He opened the door for me (ten points for being the gentleman) and I walked inside. We were seated straight away, and ordered a bottle of wine between us. The waitress poured us a glass each and handed us our menus before walking away and leaving us to it.

"Have you been here before?" he asked as I scanned the starters.

"No, I hadn't even heard of it," I said. "I don't think I've ever had Caribbean food before. Not in a restaurant like this, anyway." Harry and I had never ventured over this way, that I could recall.

"Me neither," he said. "But my brother recommended it so I thought we could give it a try."

"You have a brother?" I asked. "Me too. And a sister."

"Really? I also have a sister," he said. "She's younger than me though. My brother's older, so I'm the middle child. Apparently there's a whole syndrome attached to that."

"Me too!" I laughed. "I mean, I'm the middle child too. Older brother, younger sister."

"Is he a protective older brother?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yes. He's terrible. He doesn't know where to draw the line."

"Really?" Adam grinned. "I can sort of identify with that, though. I'm the same over my sister."

"I bet you don't intercept her phonecalls and ask what a guy's intentions are towards her though," I remarked, before I realised what I was saying. My stomach twisted painfully at the memory of Harry but I managed to keep my face straight.

"No," he laughed. "I've never done that. That's bad. What else has he done?"

I shook my head. Why was I even going into this? "He threatened to break my ex's legs if he ever hurt me. Threatened to break his face... He didn't though," I added quickly after a look of alarm passed over Adam's face.