The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky by Mackenzi Lee

Author:Mackenzi Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

Six

When I wake the next morning, the first thing I think of is how badly I want a finger of whiskey.

The second is whether I can go this whole day in this tiny house on this tiny island without having to see Percy.

The third thing I think of is whiskey again, but more than a finger. And then scotch. And claret and rum and literally any goddamn thing I could pour down my throat that will make it possible to think about something other than how badly I’ve mucked everything up between us. I consider waking Felicity to ask for her advice, then I realize there’s no advice she can give me because I’ve already done the stupid thing. I want a drink so bad I’m trembling, and since I’ve ruined things with Percy, what’s the point of sobriety and being a changed man? I get up, yank on my trousers, and go downstairs to find spirits.

The house is hot and quiet—and after a night of wild revelry among some parties and intense self-loathing among others, I’m not certain who ended up kipping up here or, more important, who might be awake and prowling. The kitchen is blessedly empty when I arrive and start rooting around for some sort of libations—any and all varieties welcome, large quantities preferred. I would have cut off my left testicle, which I can’t help but think I’ll no longer be needing, for even a swallow of the toxic gin served in Covent Garden theaters. My head is pounding.

A door opens upstairs, and my desperation for a drink is trumped by my fear of that door belonging to Percy’s room. I’m not sure which I want to do less—make awkward breakfast talk with him like nothing happened or have an actual discussion—so I choose neither and instead flee the kitchen empty-handed. I let myself out the back door, then take the path behind the flat that leads to the cliffs where the crew likes to dive. The rocky outcropping overlooks the ocean, rippling green and silver in turn as the sunlight catches the seaweed below the surface, then the break of the waves. I sit down on a shaggy rock near the edge and press the toes of my slippers into the soft sand. The morning is already stupidly hot and the water aggravatingly pretty, and I don’t have any idea how long I can hide here before I face the fact that Percy wants things to start, and I am just not stable enough for that, and may never be. Though perhaps that whole point of starting something together is moot because I was such an embarrassing mess last night that he’ll never want to be near me again.

My hiding works for approximately five minutes. Maybe less. Primarily because, I realize as I hear the path behind me crunching underfoot, this cliffside perch is incredibly visible from most windows of the flat.

“Oh no.” I pull my knees up to my chest and bury my face in my arms when Percy sits down next to me, his breath coming out in a huff.

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