Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97466 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 487(@200wpm)___ 390(@250wpm)___ 325(@300wpm)
I cleared my throat. “…I don’t really want to add yet another wedding to my calendar,” I said instead. “So, maybe your annoyed family member in the Patrick wedding party was simply overwhelmed by too many command performances by his family.”
The joking tone I attempted fell flat.
“How could I have known you for a year and not heard about your giant family?” Hugh said softly, almost like he was talking to himself. “You’ve never once even mentioned—”
“We’re not close,” I said, stretching my neck along with the truth. “I don’t see them often.”
“Where do they live?”
Thankfully, I was saved by the opening of the conference room door. One of my assistants, a man named Deming, popped his head out and met my eyes. I covered the phone with my hand. “I need to take this. Can you tell Olivia to take over for me? Thanks.”
He knew better than to ask anything further, but the surprise on his face didn’t go unnoticed. I removed my hand from the phone and murmured an apology before trying to change the subject.
“So what are you doing this weekend? I’m assuming you have another wedding job?”
The sound of bedsheets whooshing across one another came through the phone. I tried not to imagine Hugh’s nearly naked body sliding between the cool cotton. “’Course. It’s summertime. Where else would I be on the weekends?” he asked with a laugh. “You?”
“Same. I’m considering tattooing my best man speech on my forearm to keep it handy for how frequently I need it.”
His laugh loosened something in my chest. “Nah. You should have it memorized by now. No need for the tattoo. All you have to remember is the riveting bit about ‘better them than me.’ Gets ’em every time.”
I chuckled. “Nothing hits you right in the feels more than good, hard truth. I have a rare talent for it… Much the same way I have a natural aptitude for delivering pickup lines, really.”
“You do not. In fact—”
“Hey, Hugh? How about I call you Google, because you’ve got everything I’m searching for?” I laced my voice with over-the-top flirtation.
Hugh was silent for a single, horrified moment before he let out an epic retching noise. I buried my face in my elbow to hide my laughter, lest the people in the conference room think I’d completely lost my mind.
“If you were a vegetable, I’d call you a cute-cumber,” I told him.
“No. No. Stop right now. I’m not drunk enough for this.”
“How about I call you Wi-Fi, because I’m definitely feeling a connection…” I continued relentlessly.
“Oh dear god,” he cried. “Negative twelve out of ten. Negative two hundred out of ten! I think… I think my ears are bleeding. Frank is ashamed of you right now, Oscar Overton.”
“You said you wanted a nickname, so I thought…”
“You’re the worst. The actual, absolute worst.” But the smile in his voice told a different story and made me grin like a fool. “Stop being outrageous and tell me about Macau. What’s it like there?”
I began to tell him about the skyline. About the casinos and the nightlife. About the Portuguese and Malaysian influences on the culture and especially the food.
“They have several fusion restaurants that I wish you could experience, but the local dish the tourists usually want to try is called minchi. Regardless of where you get it, it’s like this savory comfort food. Fried potatoes, minced pork or beef… mm. Super good but definitely filling. Too much for the hot weather right now. But I’ve enjoyed some good curry and dim sum. And there’s a Chinese veggie dish I can’t get enough of.”
Hugh asked about the sightseeing, which made me realize I rarely took time for pleasure on trips for work. “I’ve heard the cathedral ruins are a good place to visit here, but I haven’t been yet. What’s on your travel bucket list?”
He hummed while he thought. “There are several places I wish I could go for my HEA stuff. Santorini… Bali… the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. Hell, for that matter, any place where there’s a bridge with love locks on it. It would be like catnip for the kind of people I enjoy interviewing.”
I thought of a bridge like that I’d seen in Tampere. “They’re taking those locks off of a lot of bridges now, but in Finland, they melted them down and made an art installation out of them. It’s called something like ‘One Love’ or… I can’t remember exactly. You’d really like it.”
We continued to share travel stories, places we’d seen and places we hadn’t. I closed my eyes and let his voice wash over me. Because our relationship was text only, this opportunity to actually hear him being adorable and funny was unexpected and precious.
“Tell me how your sister’s doing,” I said after he told a story about a trip they’d gone on with their parents when they were kids.