Page 33 of Lie For Me

‘Exactly how much have you had to drink?’

‘Why?’ she eyed him suspiciously. ‘Are you hoping I’m incapacitated so you can overwhelm me and do away with me?’

‘It’s an increasingly appealing idea.’

They fell quiet and lay side by side in the shrubbery, feet and calves still balanced on the dwarf wall.

Their arms were almost touching, and Jack could feel the warmth from Lucy’s skin. He could make out the smell of her shampoo from all the other smells, of the damp soil, the crushed leaves, the night air. He shifted slightly, so that their arms were gently pressed together and their hands touched. Lucy lay still, gazing up through the bushes at the coal black sky.

‘You know, I really appreciate you doing this for me,’ she said.

‘What, lying under a bush with you?’

She chuckled and propped herself up on one elbow and looked down at him. ‘No. Coming all this way, doing this mad thing I’ve asked you to do.’ She was leaning into him now, her breasts pressing against the side of his arm, her hair falling onto his shoulder. Jack felt like his awareness had shrunk to just him and Lucy. He could smell the champagne on her breath when she spoke. He fidgeted and concentrated on a branch above his head.

‘Of course’, he cleared his throat and kept his eyes fixed on the branch. ‘What are friends for?’

‘My family are hard to take. Well, Mum and Heather, really. It’s intense.’

Lucy flopped back down and picked leaves from the shrub above their heads. Jack let out a slow breath as a little space was restored between them.

‘It’s nice to have someone to escape with for a minute. Catch my breath.’

Lucy was quiet as she shredded leaves and flicked the bits onto the surrounding earth.

‘I’d do the same for you, you know.’

‘What, come to a wedding as my fake girlfriend?’

‘No. Murder you in a heated panic and then spend the rest of my life mourning you.’

‘That’s sweet.’

‘You’re welcome.’

Lucy looked back up at the sky and let out a long breath.

‘I quite like it here,' she said softly.

New York City flashed into his mind. He suddenly missed her as if he was already gone. He could feel the gap these nonsense-filled conversations would leave in his life, and the quiet where there used to be snorting-laughter. Who would he tell when something funny happened at work? Who would listen to him over brunch when he needed to talk to someone to break the loneliness of running a business? Who would stop him from taking himself too seriously?

Jack turned his head and looked at Lucy, soft shadows playing across her face as the light from the moon and the hotel filtered down through the bushes. He felt the softness of her fingers where her hand brushed against his. He inhaled and pushed the thoughts from his mind.

‘Me too,’ he said. ‘Me too.’

10

Lucy woke up face down on the floor shortly before 6am, the deflated mattress pancaked beneath her and stuck to her cheek. She peeled the mattress off her face and eased herself over onto her back, stifling a moan.

The sheets were tangled in a knot around her feet, and she wriggled her toes out of the bundle of bedding and kicked it across the room. Everything hurt. She felt worse than the day after she had staggered her way through a half-marathon, when she’d had to slide down the stairs on her bottom for three days afterwards. She rolled over carefully, swallowing a groan and assessing the damage. Her hips felt like they had seized up in the night—she lifted her legs in the air and did a cycling motion. Her legs worked, but the pain in her shoulders as she lay on the floor, legs bent, was too much. She forced her reluctant stomach muscles to pull her into a sitting position.

It was early, but a faint light was already straining through the gaps in the curtains, and there were distant sounds of the hotel coming to life. From the room above them, Lucy heard the muffled sounds of a shower running. Somewhere down the hall, a toddler started screaming, and she could make out the muted yelling of parents trying to quiet the child. She lay still, waiting for her body to wake up. A few minutes later, the wailing grew louder as the bedroom door down the hall opened. Lucy could hear the furtive voices of the parents, trying to whisper-shout at each other and at the squalling child. Lucy heard a woman furiously hiss, ‘It’s your turn,’ followed by the latch closing on a door. There was a scuffle, and then the screaming turned into a muffled, sniveling noise travelling down the corridor.

Lucy heard a man murmur in a pleading voice, ‘And then after you eat all your breakfast, we’ll go to the zoo! Won’t that be nice?’

There was a snivel and then a reluctant, ‘Yus.’

Then the lift doors dinged, and they were gone.

---