An Endless Summer(67)

I glared at the door with my hands on my hips, searching for a solution and, more importantly, to avoid Sean’s gaze. Adam’s words still circled around in my mind.

He assured me you’re not his type.

What type – easy and stupid? I then thought about one of the big-breasted, petite blondes he usually walked home. I seriously doubted they would have wooed him with their Rubik’s Cube skills.

I just wanted to die.

“Are you mad because I knew?” His voice cut through the dark; snapping me from my thoughts with the unexpectedness of it.

I wasn’t mad about that, I’d known what I was doing; I was angry at myself for getting involved in the first place. I should have kicked him out of the bar as soon as I saw him sitting on the pool table. The Amy of old would have done exactly that. Instead, I had led him up the stairs, played cat and mouse, a half-arsed seductress knowing that everything he was doing was only to stir me up, to get back at me for trying to play games in the beginning.

The only difference was the joke really was on me. I knew Sean was joking, that he was deliberately trying to make me uncomfortable by overdoing the charm and flirting. I had known the whole time and yet I had still bought into it. As if a part of me had believed there might have perhaps been some underlying meaning behind those heated looks.

For a moment I had actually allowed myself to believe that maybe it hadn’t been a game, the way he’d looked at me was so … Wow! I really was no better than those stupid girls of his that bowed before him, that were willingly led on by his charms and that smile, a flex of a muscle.

That was Sean.

I had been playing in the big league trying to outplay a player, and I had been well and truly defeated through my own stupidity.

I shook my head. “I’m not mad.”

“You’re a terrible liar.”

“Oh, so I’m a liar now, am I?”

“Well, based on this little game tonight, yeah, you kinda are.”

Oh no, he d’int!

“Excuse me? Games? That’s rich, coming from you. You’re the master of game playing.”

His lips twitched. “Actually I like to think of myself more as the Messiah of Games.”

I crossed my arms. “Wow, you must be really bored, resorting to playing games with little Amy, the publican’s daughter. Stuck here with me when you could be out parking at the Falls or walking some bimbo home for a quickie. Instead, here you are, trapped in my room for God knows how long. This really must be rock bottom for you.”

My voice wasn’t a whisper anymore I was so angry. It got to the point where I couldn’t care less if Adam heard me, or came barging into my room with an entire brigade to see what was going on.

I hated Sean Murphy. I hated his smug, shitty games that treated people like nothing more than objects to admire and use to stroke his ego. I was all but ready to storm over to the door to rip it open and tell him to get the fuck out!

That’s right! The real swear word, I was that pissed.

“What makes you think I don’t want to be here?”

Wait.

What?

Sean stalked towards me, backing me into the door. I thudded against it, my mouth gaping in surprise.

“Let’s get one thing straight, Amy Henderson. I don’t put myself anywhere I don’t want to be. And yeah, I knew what you were doing; I didn’t need Adam to give me some bullshit spiel about staying away from his precious cousin. Unlike you, when I walked up those stairs, I wasn’t playing any game. But I guess that’s the big difference between you and me.”

Before I realised what he was doing, he reached for the handle. He flung the door open and walked out into the hall, pushing his way out of my room without so much as a backwards glance. I stood in the hall, stunned at what had just happened.

What did he mean he wasn’t playing? He had to have been.

I hadn’t even given a second thought to Adam until I heard the loud snore over the animated play of music. Adam was passed out cold with the game console still in his hand. I watched the words flash across his screen.

Game over. Game over.

I sighed, walking over to click the power off.

It was game over, all right.





Chapter Thirty-Two



My heart stopped.

My watch read eleven a.m. After a double-take through one squinted eye, I sat bolt upright, leapt out of bed, and ripped the bedroom door open, a feeling of dread spiking through me. There was no way Chris would have let me sleep in this late, not in a million years.

I instinctively looked into Adam’s room, half expecting him to still be passed out in his bean bag, but all I found was an empty room. I rushed to check Chris’s room but I was greeted with the same empty reception. My last checkpoint was Dad’s apartment, but again, nothing. I stood in the middle of the lounge gathering my thoughts when I heard distant shouts and banging. I headed towards the balcony to see what all the noise was, but stopped and thought better of it.