Never Giving Up

Chapter 18

I settle on one of the stools at the island in the kitchen of the hotel suite with my cereal in front of me, a glass of orange juice sitting close by within arms reach. I take a sip of juice and about to start eating my cereal when Allison's voice roars through the quiet suite, making me tense up at its sharpness.

"Kaylee Fletcher, how dare you tell me by text that you met Luca's daughter last night!"

I roll my shoulders back as a way trying to rid myself of the tenseness that came over me, and begin to eat until she makes her appearance.

"That is not something you send to your best friend by text to tell them in the early hours of the morning. You tell your best friend that kind of news to her face."

I draw my lips in and bite down on them.

After spending the night with Luca, I knew that texting Allison on the car ride back here earlier on this morning about what happened was probably not my best move. Not when it was a simple text to inform her that I had met Louisa by accident last night.

Between dealing with that and seeing everything laying around the suite when I came back that has to either be packed or binned today for us going home later had me cringing deeply. Allison and I are genuinely tidy people when it comes to where we stay – hotel or home – but after the shopping trip we went on for my birthday, everything has gone untouched since that day. The bags are still piled up in the living room and in my bedroom, filling me with worry about how it's all going to fit into the suitcases Allison and I have. I really don't want to spend today going out to buy a new suitcase so I can take everything home despite the fact that I may never use any of it anytime soon. It's an added stress I could really be doing without.

"Why did you text me that?" Allison shouts at me.

I stare at Allison as she finishes her rant with a hand on one hip, the other on the kitchen worktop, and her lips pressed firmly together with her brows raised and head tilted to the side.

"Got anything to properly say to me? Hmm? Anything at all?"

I blink.

"I don't understand what blinking means. I need words."

I blink again.

"Kaylee, this is major news." She slips onto the stool next to me. "I need to know what she's like. Does she look like Luca? Does she look like his ex? Did you speak to her? Did she shout at you? Did Luca shout at you for seeing her? How did you even meet her? Why were you even at Luca's when she was there?"

I blink again for the third time.

She grips me by the shoulders and shakes me while saying, "I need answers, Kaylee!"

"If you stop shaking me, I'll tell you." I finally voice through her persistent shaking of my shoulders.

She stops and I fix my slouched shoulder jumper so it sits how it was before Allison began shaking me. I pick my spoon back up that slipped from my grasp and continue to eat my breakfast.

"So . . ." Allison draws out when I take too long to swallow the cereal I put in my mouth.

I swallow the chewed food and shrug. "Not much to tell."

"You're literally killing me here, Kaylee."

"It wasn't a planned meeting," I start explaining. "It wasn't supposed to happen but you'll think it was a setup and I can't have you having a go at Nick on the way home on the plane."

She raises a brow. "So Nick has something to do with this?"

"I don't know." I put a spoonful of cereal into my mouth. "Don't think so."