Page 3 of Ice & Sweet

CHAPTER THREE

André

Another Friday, another drive to yet another friend’s wedding, and another painful reminder of just how single I was.

It wasn’t for lack of trying—I’d just never had much success when it came to relationships. As my friends liked to remind me, I knew how to pick them. Or maybe they knew how to pick me. Whatever it was, I always seemed to end up with emotionally unstable people who wanted me for my former fame, my money, or because they wanted to use me to get something. Usually fame and fortune of their own.

Underground Dreaming, the boy band I’d spent my late teens and most of my twenties in, had been broken up for over two years but my hopes about quickly fading into obscurity had yet to materialize. In hindsight, talking my mum into letting me audition had been the biggest mistake of my life and while I’d formed the deepest and strongest friendships with the other guys involved, I didn’t think eighteen-year-old me had been prepared for what would be involved.

Then again, I didn’t think anything could have prepared me for the heights of stardom we’d reached.

I sighed and tapped my finger on the steering wheel as I turned my hire car down another narrow road, glad I’d splashed out on something with four-wheel drive for the weekend. Especially since the blocked motorways meant I’d had to come the long way round for half the journey.

The snow was coming down more heavily now and the fields and hedges on either side were already blanketed in a thick, sparkling layer. It made me wish I’d set out from London a little earlier in the day, but I’d been too lazy to haul my ass out of bed, especially after seeing all the traffic reports. My legs still burned from a gruelling week of rehearsals and I kept waking up in a cold sweat muttering choreography combinations and snatched lyrics from totally different numbers.

It had always been my dream to star in West End musicals and now I was finally getting a chance to make that happen. And I was determined to do a good job, even if it meant a hundred nightmares where I woke up screaming the lyrics to a solo that wasn’t even mine. The last thing I wanted was for people to say that I’d only gotten this role because of who I was and how many tickets my background would sell. I wanted to prove to people that I wasn’t just the shy one from Underground Dreaming.

I turned down another small road and frowned at the car’s satnav, wondering if this really was the best way or some auto-generated shortcut that was going to end in disaster. It would probably have been fine in better weather, but the encroaching darkness and heavy cloud were muddling my depth perception.

Ahead of me, I could see orange lights flashing in the gloom and immediately slowed to a crawl, trying to see what was going on. It seemed like there was only one set of lights, so it was probably a breakdown rather than an accident, and I felt myself let out a sigh of relief.

A single figure wrapped in a heavy-looking dark coat with the hood pulled up was stood by the open boot of their vehicle. Judging by the suitcase on the ground, they were trying to find a spare tyre. Which made sense when I saw the blown-out rear tyre, the rubber completely shredded and hanging off. It wasn’t something they’d even be able to patch for a quick fix.

I pulled my car in behind them, sticking my hazards on but turning off the lights so I didn’t blind either of us with the obnoxiously bright headlights. “Do you need a hand?” I asked as I climbed out, biting back a hiss at the bitter cold that enveloped me.

“Maybe?” The voice that answered was one I vaguely recognised, but it wasn’t until they turned that I realised who it was.

Luke Yang—my former bandmate’s ex-boyfriend and the guy I’d had a crush on for the past seven years. Since the day I’d first laid eyes on him.

Shit.

“André? Is that you? Oh, thank fuck, this day has been a complete fucking nightmare,” Luke said, relief crossing his face and his body visibly sagging. I was surprised he remembered me but he had spent a lot of time hanging out with all of us when he’d been with Kane. I just didn’t think I was that memorable. “And to top it all off, this car doesn’t have a spare tyre. Just a bloody doughnut and a patch kit.”

“No spare, seriously?”

“Nope.” He popped the p and flipped the car off like it had personally offended him. “Apparently most new cars don’t have them because it saves space and weight, according to Google.”

“Bugger,” I said as a shiver ran through me. I’d forgotten to put my coat on, and now I looked like a right numpty stood here in my jumper in the middle of a snowstorm. “Do you think the doughnut will get you to the venue?”

“Maybe but I’ve got Kane and Austin’s wedding cake in the back and I don’t want to risk the car sliding and destroying it. It’s already been through enough today.” His eyes narrowed in on me and he frowned. “You’re not wearing a coat.”

“I know,” I said with a self-deprecating chuckle. “I forgot to grab it off the back seat when I got out.”

Luke waved his hand at me. “Then please go get it before we add ‘André got frostbite’ to the list of today’s disasters. And don’t tell me it won’t happen, because the universe is determined to fuck with me today.”

I laughed again before walking back to my car to retrieve the heavy shearling coat draped across the back seat, slinging it on and digging my gloves out of the pockets. The only hat I’d been able to find that morning was some sort of baker boy’s flat cap that had been part of a touring production of Newsies I’d been in last year, and I didn’t think I’d been meant to take it home. It would have to do, though, because an umbrella would be next to useless and I’d apparently lost the beanie I’d gotten last Christmas.

Although… I had a sneaking suspicion my ex had pocketed it because he’d always said how nice it was. Robbing bastard! I’d loved that hat.

Luke was watching me with interest and for a second I wondered if the coat had a noticeable stain or something, but when I glanced down to check and then back at him, he turned away quickly. And in the dim light coming from the hazards and the boot of his car, it almost looked like his cheeks were flushed.

That was probably from the cold, though, because it was raw.

“Okay, so,” I said, wanting to put things in order because it would help me make a plan, and I always worked better with a plan or instructions. It was why I’d always absorbed choreography like a sponge. “You have the wedding cake, which needs to get to the venue as soon as possible, but you don’t have a spare tyre you trust and your current one is in no way patchable. We’re about twenty minutes away from the hotel and ten minutes from the motorway. Do you have breakdown coverage?”

“Yeah, I should give them a call.”

“Good, that’s one thing. Do you think you’d feel comfortable giving me the cake? I can take it to the venue and then come back and wait with you. Or you could put the cake in my car and we can put the doughnut tyre on to get you to the venue. Then we’ll both drive carefully there and ask the staff if they can recommend a local tyre company to come out over the weekend.”

“My only follow-up question,” Luke said, “is do you know how to change a tyre? Because I don’t and I’m not sure now is the time to learn.”

I snorted. “Yeah, I can change a tyre. It’s been a while, but I can manage.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” I said with a soft chuckle at his surprised expression. “I’m not just a pretty face.” I walked over to his boot to see what was actually available because if he just had the doughnut and no jack, we’d have to go for Plan A by default. “My dad insisted I learn when I was seventeen and wanted driving lessons. That was about six months before I auditioned for Underground Dreaming—I didn’t end up learning to drive for another, like, four years and the day I passed, my dad turned up at my house and made me change a tyre in front of him.”

“Then I’m not even going to offer to help because I have no fucking clue what I’m doing,” Luke said. “I was just going to watch a YouTube tutorial and hope for the best.”

“Seriously?” My shock must have been sharper than I’d imagined because he winced.

“I know, not my best plan. I think I’m just delusional.”

“Let’s go with optimistic,” I said as I retrieved the jack, a wrench, a reflective jacket, and the doughnut tyre. The snow was forming a layer across the car roof and the gravel under our feet, and I felt an anxious knot forming in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want us to be out here for much longer.

Like most British people, neither of us was used to driving in this sort of weather and I didn’t want Luke’s day to get any worse. I also didn’t want to be responsible for the destruction of Kane and Austin’s wedding cake, even by association.

“Do you want to put the cake into my car before I start?” I asked as I walked back to my car to flick the dipped headlights on so I could see properly, wiping my glasses quickly to get rid of the few flakes that had landed on the lenses. “You can always shove my suitcase onto the back seat, just watch my suit bag.”

“Are you a groomsman too?”

“Yeah, I tried to say no because I was worried I’d end up so caught up in rehearsals that I wouldn’t be any help. And I’ve been on tour too. It’s why I had to miss the stag do.”

“I wondered why you weren’t there,” Luke said. He was rummaging around behind the passenger seat of his car and emerged a few seconds later with an enormous cake box. Inside, I could just see hints of the most incredible cake, and I wished I had time for a better look. But that would have to wait until we arrived safely.

“Yeah, I was doing shows in Newcastle for Legally Blonde .” I watched as Luke carried the cake around to the boot of my car and gently slid it inside. “I probably could have asked for the time off, but Kane didn’t really give us much notice.”

All I’d gotten was a text at the start of September from Kane saying he and Austin were getting married eleven days before Christmas, asking if I wanted to be a groomsman and giving me a rough date for a stag do in October. At that point, I’d already been on tour and I’d forgotten to reply for nearly two weeks.

Kane had digitally chased me down and prodded me until I agreed to be a groomsman, but by that point it had been too late to ask for time off for the stag.

“Was it good? Did you have fun?” I asked as I bent down next to the blown-out tyre, giving it a final look over before I made a start.

“Yeah, it was actually,” Luke said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we went and played laser tag, had Italian food, and then went to this amazing arcade bar which was full of vintage video games and had all these weird and wild cocktails. It was a joint one too, so both Kane and Austin had friends there.”

“I’m sad I missed it.”

“I’m sad you did too.”

There was a note in his voice that I couldn’t quite place and when I looked up at him, he shot me a half smile and then glanced away. A moment of silence stretched out between us and I shivered as snow landed on the back of my neck.

“I should…” I gestured vaguely at the car.

“Yeah, shit. Can I help at all?”

“You’re fine,” I said as I turned back to the task in front of me, pushing my glasses up my nose. Now wasn’t the time to get distracted. I could obsess over whether the way Luke looked at me meant anything when we were back on the road.