Around the World in 80 Men Series: Books 11-20 (37 page)

“It's nothing big, I just
thought of you when I saw...”

“Angel! I love it!”
Morgan pulled the tiny white gold charm from the box and held it up
to get a better look. It was a tiny cell phone with pink jewels on
the front, and the meaning behind it meant the world to her. She too
didn't know what she would do without her lifeline to her best
friend. She got up and leaned across the table and kissed his full
lips loudly. “Thank you!” Then just as quickly, she had
the paper torn from gift number two. Inside was a delicate white
gold chain with another charm, a small pair of outstretched angel
wings that donned two small diamonds on the tip of each wing. “Oh,
Angel.” Her eyes welled with tears at the beautiful little
piece, and she once again stood and kissed her best friend in
gratitude. “I love it so much, thank you!”

“You're welcome, baby
girl.” He stood and walked to her side, then helped her with
the clasp of the necklace. He also put the phone charm on her
bracelet, right beside PoPo. “Now, I'll always be with you.”
He touched the wings then hugged her again before sitting back down.

“Did I miss the hug
fest?” Michael took his seat again, placing the bottle of
Moscato in the center of the table. He was happy to hear all about
Morgan's new gifts, and he was also happy to know the secret behind
Morgan's bracelet. “They're great, well done, Angel.”
He smacked Angel's back and shook his thin frame. They all laughed
when Angel dramatically held his shoulder as if it had been
dislocated from the friendly pat.

“Easy, Hercules!”

The three of them laughed in
unison, but came to a silence when Morgan's phone rang out. The two
men stared at her as she dug the noisy thing out of her purse.
“Angela,” she told them, answering their questioning
looks. “Hey beautiful, where are you?”

“I'm about to pull up in
front of your...okay, I'm here!” Angela nearly broke Morgan's
eardrum with her screeching excitement.

“Great! I'm at the hotel
bar, so just have your bags sent up to the room and meet me here!”
Morgan didn't mention that she had other guests, and Angela didn't
mention her own.

Chapter Two

“Guess who?” Angela
sneaked up behind the young blonde and her slender fingers wrapped
gently around Morgan's eyes as she made her presence known. Even if
her voice hadn't given herself away, the fit of giggles afterward
would have.

“Angela!” Morgan
shouted, then jumped up to give her friend a welcoming hug. “The
gang's all here! Angela, Angel. Angel, Angela,” she motioned
between her friends, then introduced Michael in the same fashion.
Angela gave Morgan a curious look of who the guest was, but Morgan
returned an 'I'll tell you later' look. Angela smiled and nodded,
then found her seat right beside Morgan, opposite of Michael after
shaking hands with both of the men.

“Well...” Angela
began. She wasn't sure how to tell her friend that the
whole
gang
wasn't there, and she suddenly felt just as uncomfortable as Angel
with the realization Morgan had invited another man.
Is he Mr.
London? A friend? Did they just meet?
Angela's questions ran
through her mind. She had learned her lesson from blurting things out
and she decided it would be best to just keep her mouth shut. “I
am so happy to see you,” she put her hand on Morgan's shoulder
then looked back to Angel, “and to finally meet the famous
Angel I've heard so much about!” She changed the topic, just as
Angel had, not knowing how to break the news.

“Oh Honeysuckle, I've
heard much about you as well! It's a pleasure,” Angel grabbed
up Angela's hand and planted a soft kiss to the top. Morgan was about
to add her input, but before she could, another set of hands wrapped
around her eyes.

Morgan gasped loudly.
What
the hell? Angel's here. Angela's here. Who now?
She reached her
own hands up to investigate.
It's a man. Shit!
“Who is
this?” Her hands moved further up his, to his wrists and she
felt a watch.
Oh no! No, no, no!
The man didn't answer, but
she knew. “Kole?”
This can't be happening.

He released his hands and
Morgan turned to face him. “Kole...what...?” The girl was
just as confused as she had been when she had seen Michael, only that
time, even more so because she knew for a fact that he hadn't been
invited. At least not by her own doing. She wasn't mad he was there,
but things just went from good to awkward in only a few seconds.

“I...uhm, I kind of
invited them,” Angela spoke before Kole.

“Them?”
Morgan looked to her friend and whispered. She only saw Kole, but her
question was answered when Kala appeared from behind the wall,
leading into the bar. “Oh my god! Uhm...wow! This is...crazy!
You're...all....here...” Mogan didn't know what to say.
So
much for client-free.
In a way, she blamed herself for not being
more clear with Angela, but on the other side, she didn't feel as if
she should have had to.
They're here now, might as well make the
best of it. Nothing is going to bring me down today!

“Happy Birthday,
Morgan,” Kole told her, then brought her in for a tight hug.
Morgan's eyes burned with tears as she held onto him. It felt like
all of the guilt was washed away and a weight had been lifted from
her shoulders. She knew they still had some talking to do, but it
wasn't the time nor the place to have that discussion. At least for
the moment, everything felt a bit better. They ended their embrace
and looked at each other for a few moments before Kole walked around
to the other side of the table.

“Angel?” Kole put
his hand on Angel's shoulder and Morgan caught the wicked smile that
crossed her friends lips. She gave him a head tilt, wide-eyed look,
pleading that he didn't say anything too awful.

“
Galo Mamute
?”
Angel asked in return. Morgan couldn't yell at him for calling him
Mammoth Cock in Portuguese, right?

“Huh?”

“Nothing Boo,” he
responded, then under his breath, he mumbled, “
eu vou
segurar o cabelo longo e permitem que você leve-me para um
passeio através do outback qualquer dia.
”

Nobody had any idea what he
said, but Morgan caught the word 'outback', so she could only guess.
The look on Kole's face made her laugh even harder than the thought
of what Angel had said. What surprised her even more was the fact
that Michael burst out into laughter into his drink. Morgan assumed
it was also because of the face Kole had made, not because of the
fact Michael was fluent in Portuguese and understood what Angel had
said perfectly.

While Kole stood there in
confusion and the rest of the table, even Kala and Angela, laughed,
Michael leaned over to Morgan and whispered in her ear, “I'll
hold your hair and let you take me for a ride through the outback any
day.” Morgan covered her mouth to stop the further giggles, she
couldn't even ask the obvious question, how did he know? Instead,
Michael put a finger up to his lips in a
shh
fashion, and
Morgan nodded.

“I said to get
your sweet ass in a chair and sit down with us,” Angel waved
his hand around as he
translated
his words. Kole laughed and
nodded.

“Alright,” he said,
unconvinced. On the way to the other side of the table, Kole made
brief eye contact with Michael, then quickly looked away. He didn't
like him, that was for sure, but he assumed he was just a client and
he'd be gone soon. “How about we move to another table?”
he asked after he realized there wasn't much room at the small table.
More importantly, there wasn't room to squeeze in next to Morgan.

Kala was already pulled up
between Angel and Angela, sitting on the chair backwards, but he was
the first to get up and look around. There weren't many options
available for the six of them, but there was another small table
nearby. “How about we pull these together?” Morgan asked,
then stood so their table could be moved. “I'll be right back,”
she told them and excused herself to the restroom.

Okay. This should be just
fine. The six of us, it's not so bad. They're all just friends.
Breathe, Morgan. I can do this. I won't talk about work, clients,
Christmas....or the Christmas party. We'll have drinks, a nice
dinner. This will be fun.
She took a cleansing breath and checked
her appearance in the mirror. “I can do this,” she said
again, then fluffed her air, added a fresh coat of lipstick that had
faded onto her wine glass, then walked back into the bar. What she
saw in front of her was the first sign of trouble.

The head of the table, where
she had been sitting, still held her empty chair, but on either side
sat Michael and Kole.
So it starts.
She couldn't just walk
over there and sit between them. Having two men compete for her
attention all night wasn't what she had intended. The only other
empty chair was between Michael and Angel. If she sat there, then
Kole would feel as if she didn't sit next to him on purpose.
Shit.

“Angel? Grab some
drinks with me?” Morgan said as she approached the table and
the handsome man stood without batting an eye. When they were out of
earshot, Morgan explained the situation.

“Sticky Buns, is that it?
That's easy! I'll sit next to Mikey Boy, then you can sit your sexy
ass in my chair,” Angel winked at her and Morgan nodded.

“That's perfect. I'll be
between you and Angela! Whew!” She rubbed her brow
theatrically, then kissed Angel on his cheek. “You're
brilliant!”

“Mhmm, now lets get these
drinks!”

*****

Nearly two hours later, a very
drunk Kala had convinced Angela to dance with him, for the fifth time
that night. The entire table laughed at the staggering duo on the
softly lit dance floor, and Morgan made faces at Angela each time
Kala spun her around. Angela was actually enjoying every second of
their time together, but she had to act bothered at how drunk her
fiance had gotten over dinner. The interaction between the two was a
nice distraction from seeing Kole sit quietly at the end of the
table, and the guilt at not giving him more attention. Then again,
Morgan was doing her very best to give everyone attention.

Angel leaned in and spoke
quietly in Morgan's ear, “they're good together. Oh, like you
and Finny are.” Morgan shook her head and nudged her friend's
chin from her bare shoulder.

“I'm not
good
with
anyone, they're just clients...with benefits.” She barely got
the last part out, knowing how ridiculous her statement was, and
Angel laughed with her. He knew the truth, she cared for most of the
men that she had met, but if he had his way, she would run off into
the outback with Fin-lay-me-down and leave the rest of the men
behind. He was just about to tell her exactly that when something,
rather someone, caught his eye across the room.

“Mother-fuck-me-now!
Look at the sweet vanilla cupcake with blonde fuckin' icing that
just.... oh no....oh...!” Angel put his long fingers over his
lips while gasping for air at the sight coming toward them. Morgan
tried to follow his eyes, but ended up shaking her friend for more
information. “It's the...the...the down-under lollipop with
the...oh sweet mercy...the Tan-man.”

“The Tan...ma...?”
Morgan realized what Angel meant and stood quickly to scan the room
for proof that Tanner had also somehow been invited to her party. It
took three seconds to find him, his blonde hair shining like a beacon
in the dark room. “Tanner.” The word escaped her lips
right as the man made his way to the table.

“'Ello, love.” He
picked her up off the ground and spun her around before she found her
voice again.

“Tanner.” The word
wasn't a question, or even a statement, it was more of her mind's own
way of convincing her that the Aussie was in fact, there. He laughed
at her confusion, and hugged her again, telling her that he was
invited over the phone.

“At your..”

“Christmas party.”
She finished his statement, and nodded at her own drunken doing.
“Well, it seems as if I did quite a bit at my party that I
didn't realize. But..I'm glad you're here.”
Jesus! Who
else did I invite? What the hell is wrong with me?
Tanner
caught her reluctance, and a quick look at the table of men told him
that she had probably put herself in quite an uncomfortable
situation. For Tanner, however, it was pretty amusing. He for one
didn't care if there were a hundred men at her table, he was just
happy to have the chance to spend some time with her. However, he
knew that she probably wouldn't show any of them
extra
attention, so his jealousy had nothing to grab onto that night.

Tanner walked a few feet away
and grabbed a chair from against the wall, and came back to the
table. Of course, his chair ended up being squeezed in beside
Morgan's, and she sat down slowly while scanning her seated friends.
“Uh, everyone, this is Tanner. Tanner...meet Angel, Michael,
Kole, and on the dance floor are Kala and Angela.” She took a
deep breath when she was finished, and sat quietly while everyone
said their 'hello's to one another. She didn't even laugh when Angel
took Tanner's hand in front of her, and kissed his knuckles
theatrically. Tanner thought it was hilarious, and nodded in
gratitude at his new Brazilian friend. Kole was the only one that
didn't greet the handsome newcomer.