It Started at the Beach - Chapter 2

Gigi went straight to the fridge while Sasha topped up the water fountain for Precious.

Her friend gave a bliss-filled sigh. ‘It’s so good to be in a kitchen with a fully stocked fridge again.’

‘When were you last home?’

‘Home?’ She shrugged as she started taking out a selection of fruits and setting them on the white marble countertop. ‘What is home?’

‘Forever the wanderer, hey?’ Sasha said as she started prepping the fruit.

‘You could say that.’ Gigi reached for the eggs. ‘Scrambled, poached, fried?’

‘Whatever you’re having is good with me.’ Then, ‘I thought you bought that beautiful villa in Santorini with a view to taking more time out from modelling.’

‘I did.’

‘And?’

‘And what?’

‘Have you stayed there much?’

‘I tried, I did. But Antoine disliked the quiet solitude, and to be honest, I kept getting itchy feet.’

‘You always have itchy feet.’

Gigi’s rich brown eyes flicked to her. ‘Maybe I should have done what you did and got myself a Precious.’

At the sound of her name, her poodle stopped lapping at the water and trotted over, her body leaning into Gigi’s side as she petted her.

‘She certainly stopped you from city hopping.’

‘I guess she did. She also makes great company.’

‘The kind that doesn’t answer back or leave dirty socks about the place or generally drive you crazy…’

‘Was Antoine really that bad?’

She gave another one of those nonchalant shrugs. ‘Antoine, Max, Petra. With the men it’s the socks, with the women it’s the stealing of the makeup and the clothes. I think maybe I’m just not relationship material.’

Sasha gave a choked laugh. ‘Says the diva who’s forever in one.’

Gigi laughed with her. ‘What can I say, I like the company…or rather, I like the sex.’

Gigi’s sparkling gaze hit on Sasha’s — a thousand naughty thoughts in one fiery look—and Sasha’s core clenched. Heat exploding through her as an ache kickstarted in her abdomen. Rhythmic. Pulsing.

Sex and Gigi. Not the mental image that she needed. Not when they were this close, Sasha’s heart still racing at her friend’s surprise arrival. Her senses in a heightened state as Gigi’s familiar perfume filled the air, her glossy bronzed body within arm’s reach. The exquisite angles of her face highlighted by the lightest of touch of makeup. Her cheeks warmed by the heat of her words, her eyes too. As for her lips, plump and glossy and still parted on that tantalizing statement…

She looked away sharply. ‘Okay, I’ll give you that.’

‘Oh dear, Sash, that sounds like you’ve gone without for far too long.’

‘I haven’t had a relationship in far too long,’ she muttered at the fruit she was deftly chopping. ‘Toast?’

‘Por favore.’

She moved away to stick some bread in the toaster.

‘You don’t need a relationship to enjoy the bedroom, Sash.’ Her friend helpfully supplied. ‘You place too much emphasis on the emotional connection.’

‘And maybe you place too little.’ She nipped her lip. ‘Sorry, that was judgy, and I’m not judging you. It’s great that you can enjoy it without the ties.’

‘I’d like to enjoy it without the ties, but everyone else has other ideas and assumes I’m looking for more.’

‘And so you break it off?’

‘Not always. Sometimes I think I want more, and then…’

‘Those pesky itchy feet?’

‘Exactamente.’

‘Maybe one day they’ll stop itching and you’ll want to set down roots.’

‘You mean, when I meet “the one” who does not exist?’

Sasha nodded, realising the inevitability of it. Because no matter what Gigi said, Sasha knew in her gut that one day it would happen. Her friend would finally settle down in Santorini or somewhere else—with someone else.

And God, that hurt.

‘Shall we eat out front?’ she asked, keen to get some fresh air and some semblance of sanity with it. Because she knew Gigi’s itchy feet came from self-preservation, a fear of love and the pain it can bring. She’d spent her childhood moving between homes like an item of property rather than a person who felt every single transition…each one chipping away another piece of her heart until what was left could no longer love freely or accept it from others.

Sasha was the only exception, and she was determined to keep it that way.

Even if it meant keeping her true feelings locked inside her.

‘Sounds perfect to me…’

***

Gigi took a bite of toast and hummed her delight over its rich buttery goodness. Her eyes fluttering closed.

Sasha laughed as she took up her own slice. ‘You act like you haven’t eaten in days.’

It might as well have been days. Gigi had lost her appetite along with the arrival of her mother’s letter a fortnight ago. Though sat at the table with Sasha now, it no longer made her stomach twist up in knots and allowed her hunger free rein.

‘What can I say—’ she smiled around her mouthful ‘—it’s good toast.’

Sasha's eyes danced in the morning sun. ‘If you get that excited about a piece of toast, wait until you see what I can rustle up for dinner. I assume you’re staying.’

This is what she loved about Sasha, life around Sasha—there was always room for her to invade. The way they’d effortlessly made breakfast together, talking as though they were together only yesterday, acting as though no time had passed…Life just fell into place. ‘I thought you’d never ask.’

Sasha scooped some egg into a bowl for Precious and put it on the floor beside her. ‘You know you never need an invitation. We love having you here, don’t we, Precious?’

The poodle gave a ‘Ruff!’ before bowing to devour the eggs, and Sasha ruffled her fur with the fondest of smiles. Gigi palmed her chest, the sudden pang beneath taking her by surprise. Was that…jealousy? Of a dog.

It couldn’t be. But she felt something. Something alien at the sight of the poodle beside the stunning blonde with the biggest heart.

‘How long do you think you’ll stay?’

Sasha’s gaze returned to her and she schooled her features. The response, Forever, wanting to out itself.

‘How long’s a piece of string?’ she semi-teased.

‘No new job lined up yet?’

‘No.’ Gigi took another bite of food before saying, ‘I’d planned to take a break with Antoine, enjoy a bit of carefree travel without an end date…’

Sasha sipped her coffee, her eyes narrowing on Gigi. ‘So, what happened?’

Gigi waved a hand, washed her eggs down with some orange juice while a mother-shaped lump threatened to form in her chest.

‘Gigi?’

She swallowed, met Sasha’s concerned gaze and blurted, ‘My mother reached out again.’

Sasha’s chin lifted, the mug she’d been part-way to lifting pausing mid-flight. ‘She did. When?’

‘Two weeks ago.’

‘Gigi! Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I am right now.’

Sasha slapped her mug down and leaned in close, her hand falling to rest beside Gigi’s on the table. ‘But you never mentioned it on our calls, your emails…why wouldn’t you tell me?’

‘I wanted to. I would have. Only Antoine was always around, telling me what to do rather than listening to how I felt, and when I said I was going to talk to you about it…’ Gigi swallowed, her gaze drifting to the sea rather than witness the pain in Sasha’s face as she confessed, ‘Let’s just say the man had serious issues when it came to you and me.’

‘He did? Why?’

‘He said if I treated him half as well as I treated you, we’d have a relationship worth saving.’

Her friend gave a choked huff.

‘He wouldn’t be the first either,’ Gigi admitted, still staring at the sea. ‘Truth is Sash, you’re the only person I feel comfortable talking about my past with. You know it all, and you get it. You understand me. You don’t see the superficial front, the model in the magazines, you see me. And I trust you. It’s your opinion I value most in this world.’

‘And Antoine, your exes…they all said this?’

Sasha’s voice was high, strained, and Gigi couldn’t blame her. She’d kept it to herself all this time for a reason.

‘Those that minded. The rest were either too self-absorbed to notice or didn’t dare challenge it.’

‘Didn’t dare?’

‘No.’ Gigi ran her teeth over her bottom lip, her cheeks colouring as she forced her gaze back to Sasha’s, her breath momentarily stolen by the emotion blazing back at her. Maybe she should have kept her lips sealed. But it felt wrong. Her mother’s letter had been a wake-up call that life was too short for secrets. Even if she didn’t understand this one fully herself.

‘You never told me this either.’

‘Because just like you know me, I know you, Sash. And I know you’d do anything to see me happily settled in a healthy relationship, and if you thought you were getting in the way of that, you’d do anything to make sure you weren’t.’

Sasha’s delicate throat bobbed. ‘You knew I’d back away.’

Gigi nodded. ‘And you and me, we’re more than a fling is worth.’

Because all those exes were just that — flings. Not a lifelong friendship. One that she treasured beyond measure.

‘But Gigi…’

‘Anyone with me has to accept this…’ She covered Sasha’s hand with her own, the heated rush returning tenfold, powered by the emotion fuelling the air. ‘You and me, we come as a pair.’

She believed it in her bones. A tremor ran through Sasha’s hand into her own. Did it worry her friend that much? The connection? The hold she inadvertently had over her?

‘But if you opened your heart to them, Gigi, helped them to understand you like I do…’

‘Perhaps things might be different,’ she agreed softly, ‘but I have yet to meet anyone I would trust like I trust you.’

Sasha turned her hand over, wrapping her fingers around Gigi’s and stealing her breath anew.

‘Ditto.’