Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92668 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
“Yeah, I’ve got your drunk daughter here who won’t let me take her home because I’m not her dad, so can you tell her to stop arguing with me?” Noah continued, paused, then handed me the phone with a shit-eating grin. “It’s for you.”
Glaring, I took his phone and put it to my ear. “Hi, Daddy.”
“Lottie, what did you do?” Dad chuckled down the line.
“I might… might… have had some alcohol,” I replied.
“Right, well, can you just let Noah bring you home, please? He’s there, and I really can’t be arsed to get out of bed to come and get you if you have another way to get home.”
“Okay.” I sighed. “But I’m going to complain about it all day tomorrow.”
“A fair compromise,” Dad said. “Do you have your keys?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Please don’t forget to lock the door when you come in.”
“Mmkay,” I said, then handed Noah the phone. “Fine. You win.”
Noah smirked. “Yeah, I’ve got it, thanks, Paul. She’ll be there as soon as I’ve dropped Ash off. Bye, bye.” He put his phone in his pocket and looked at us. “Let’s go.”
“Why can’t you drop me off first?” I asked, grabbing my bag as both me and Ash got up.
“She’s on the way. I don’t live far from your grandpa’s house.” He moved a chair out of the way and helped a snickering Ash to her feet.
Okay.
I wasn’t as drunk as her.
That was good.
We left the pub through the back—and I only tripped once, thank you very much—and walked through the beer garden and down the street to the car park. Noah had a very nice black car, and that was all I knew.
I couldn’t have picked it up out of a lineup, but it didn’t have any bird poop on it, and I was very jealous.
He bundled Ash into the backseat and opened the front for me. “In.”
“I’m not sitting next to you.” I pouted. “Make her move up.”
Noah peered through the window. “I think she’s passed out.”
I sighed. “I’m going to whinge about this forever.”
“You can do what you want as long as you get into the car.”
“Even punch you again?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”
“I’ll hold you to that.” I bent down to get in, and Noah put his hand on top of my head, scooting me in. “Hey!”
“You were going to bang your head. One semi-unconscious drunk woman is enough to have in my car, thank you.” He closed the door after checking my extremities were all inside, then walked around and got into the driver’s side. “Tell me if you’re going to throw up. I don’t care if you do it in my work car, but if you vomit in here, you’re paying for it to be cleaned.”
I side-eyed him. “I’m not as drunk as she is.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring, Charlotte.” He started the car and pulled out of the parking spot. “I’ve had women much less drunk than the two of you throw up in the backseat before.”
“Do you often cart drunk women about?”
“I’m a police officer. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds like the women of Fox Point have a drinking problem.”
Noah didn’t bother to hide his laugh. “Given your current state, you’re hardly one to talk.”
I stuck my tongue out at him and looked out the window. How had I ended up in this situation? The last thing I wanted was to be in a car with Noah, much less when I’d had more than my fair share of alcohol tonight.
I was going to regret this tomorrow.
All of it.
The alcohol.
The car.
Just… all of it.
This was why drinking was bad, kids.
I just wasn’t going to talk. At all. I wasn’t going to say a word to him, because I wasn’t sure what words would come out if I did.
“Are you sure your girlfriend won’t jump out of the boot and yell at you for having me in your car?”
Well, there went the not talking thing.
See?
Drunk Charlotte was dumb as fuck.
Sober Charlotte wasn’t that much smarter, honestly, but not that dumb.
Maybe.
Noah chuckled. “No. After you threw the cottage pie thing in her face at the pub, she tore me a new one for letting my grandmother and sister be close to you instead of her. She barely spoke to me for three days.”
“She sounds lovely,” I said airily. “No wonder Gwen can’t stop singing her praises.”
Noah caught his tongue between his teeth, fighting a smile. “Charlotte.”
“What? I’ve barely said a word to her, and she has a problem with me.”
“Of course, she has a problem with you. You’re my ex.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed. “We were kids. Normal people don’t count kid relationships as anything that serious.”
“We were together for almost the entirety of our teen years. How does that not count?”
“Because we were stupid teenagers.”
“It still counts.”
“Sounds like someone wants to pad his numbers,” I said, rolling my eyes. “It doesn’t matter. We’re different people now.”