The Way Back | ✓

1.6

note: update two of the day! The next update will be on Thursday/Friday and I'll keep to my promise this time because these *bleep* exams won't be in the way. 

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The arsehole refused to leave her mind and when she spotted him, clearly drunk, at the restaurant she worked at, she almost thought that she'd conjured him to life.

London sighed. If she hadn't agreed to cover her friend's shift perhaps she'd be safe from the humiliation of having to face him again but there was no way she was going to walk out of here without him noticing. But he did look to be highly invested in his wine so there was a possibility he wouldn't catch her exiting the restaurant. However, London thought that unlikely.

She hung up her apron, bidding the head chef goodnight before waving to Poppy and Amelia, two waitresses that she was good friends with. She went straight to Andrew Cai after she bid everyone adieu, the last of the customers stirring out of the restaurant as closing hours dawned upon them.

"Are you stalking me, Andrew Cai?" was the only greeting that she could think of.

His response was a low, gravelly laugh. "Fuck, I'm so drunk, I'm seeing things."

Rolling her eyes, she removed the hand that was poised at her hip and ended up taking the seat opposite to his. "You should go home, Andrew," she advised, "I'm not really in the mood to see your face and we're about to close so please make our jobs easier and just leave."

"How rude," he commented, his lips pulling up into a smile and damn her for letting her eyes be momentarily enraptured by those damn lips, pulled up into a toothy grin, his teeth shining through.

"I'll get you a cab, I'll even pay for it," she offered. She was not in the mood. She was exhausted and tired, and dealing with Andrew Cai — again — was not in her plans.

"I'm offended, just London." His grin said otherwise. "Aren't you supposed to be hospitable to your customers?"

"You stop being a customer in exactly—" she glanced at her watch, her sharp tongue working with her anger "—four minutes. So let me call you a cab. I doubt we need to see each other again."

"But what if it's meant to be, London," he said, his hand finally setting down the glass, his wedding ring glinting under the lighting, and leaning his forearms against the table. Fuck. His blazer was draped on the back of his chair, the sleeves of his now white crinkled shirt were rolled up and to say he looked hot was an understatement. Hot men never flustered London, not until they started being nice to her only to break the news to her that they were freaking married.

Married.

The word echoed in her mind and just like that she collected herself, pushing the attraction to the back of her mind as she told herself that it was easy to switch it off.

She leaned against the table, their faces now close and her lips pulled up into a lazy smile of its own. "Normally I wouldn't mind cute, harmless flirtations. God knows I don't get it much. But this isn't harmless, is it? You're married."

He laughed, so loud and so boisterously that her cheeks flushed and she looked around to see if his laughter gained any attention. "I wish," he scoffed, reaching for the bottle to pour the last of the wine into the glass. "My marriage is non existent right now."

London grabbed the glass and leaned back on her chair. "I get that you're going through something difficult—"

"You don't get shit," he said, and this time the smile that touched his lips actually made her heart break. He looked so lost, so heartbroken and so devastated. There was so much sadness in his smile, in those dark eyes that twinkled with sorrow. "My marriage is falling apart and I've been stupid to be avoiding the main problems for years. It's my fault really. It's why she cheated. It's why I've been having second thoughts for quite some time now. But now my life is in shambles. My wife is gone and I possibly may lose my daughter, so yes, I understand your need to stay away from me and why you don't want to get caught up in the drama. But don't you dare tell me that you get what I'm going through."