Page 94 of Lie For Me

‘Uh, yes,’ she replied, then tried, with a laugh, ‘All four hours of it.’

Jack’s expression didn’t change.

‘Okay, good, well––’

Jack jumped up as if he were on springs and went to the bathroom door.

‘I’ll jump in the shower then.’

And he closed the door before the words were even fully out of his mouth.

Lucy lay in bed, sheet tucked under her armpits, coffee in hand, and stared at the closed door. She heard the shower come on, but Jack didn’t start his usual singing.

Just a few hours ago, she had felt as close to Jack as she’d felt to anyone in her life, as they lay in each other’s arms. Now, there was a stranger in her bathroom.

Her eyes welled up, and she clenched the coffee cup tightly. She suddenly slammed the cup down on the table like she’d discovered it was laced with arsenic and flung back the sheets. The shower was still running as she yanked on her jeans and trainers and threw on a T-shirt. She didn’t want to be there when he came back into the room. Making more awkward conversation, as they tried to ignore all the evidence of what they’d done only hours before—crumpled sheets, condom wrapper, clothes strewn about the room.

Grabbing her phone, she banged her way out of the room. She got halfway down the corridor before tears started to bubble up. Sniveling, snotty tears choked their way out as she tried to smother the sounds. She rounded the corner, panting and wiping at her nose, and barreled straight into the young waiter with train track braces.

Unable to see properly, she went first one way and then the other.

‘Sorry, miss,’ he mumbled.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ Lucy said, shuffling from side to side.

As she danced left, he mirrored her, and they hopped from foot to foot for several moments, locked into their mutual awkwardness. As both were still trying to move forward and get by, despite the sideways hopping, after a moment, they collided. A soft, staggering collision, the waiter holding his hands up, keen not to touch anything he shouldn’t. Lucy, unable to see straight through the streaks of tears, arms flailing, managed to elbow her way free of him and down the corridor.

Ducking her head to hide her face as she passed a demure-looking couple dressed in shades of beige, her phone buzzed in her hand.

‘Where did you go?’ the message read. ‘I think we need to talk.’

Lucy’s hands trembled and her mouth went dry.

‘Breakfast,’ she fired back.

If they were going to have an awkward conversation, they could do it with food.

Lucy followed the smell of fresh coffee to the restaurant, where wedding guests were trickling in for breakfast. Jeans and trainers, and shorts and sandals replaced the fineries of the day before as people sloped their way to tables. Looking slightly delicate, people asked in hushed voices to be seated near the rear of the room, in the cooler darker spots, or in the shade on the terrace. Aunt Paula was there in deep conversation with Nanna, and Lucy spun on her heel and gave them a wide berth. Mark was outside with the kids, who were playing noisily in the garden. Wearing dark glasses and a baseball hat, he sipped slowly from a glass of water.

Lucy secured a table as far away from the other guests as possible and studied the menu to avoid making eye contact with any new arrivals. The breakfast list swam in front of her eyes.

She heard Jack’s voice float across the room and looked up. He had strolled in with Suzy, who looked fresh as a daisy in a soft yellow sundress, her dark hair in a loose plait over one shoulder, a bright smile on her face. She didn’t look the slightest bit hungover or tired. Lucy tried to pat out the creases in her T-shirt and sat up straighter. Jack saw her, and the expression on his face changed. He raised his hand in greeting but didn’t immediately come over. Lucy gave a faint smile in reply, then tried to give the impression of being deeply interested in the list of the ways the hotel could prepare eggs. Peering up from under her eyelashes, she could see Jack and Suzy still chatting. She tried to concentrate on the menu—oh, eggs benedict, how nice. Jack was hugging Suzy now. Lucy bit her lip. Ah, scrambled eggs, yum. Then Suzy was off, wafting out onto the terrace. Lucy watched as the sunlight bounced off her glossy hair as she stepped outside. She could tell without looking that her own hair was more bird’s nest than salon chic.

Lucy couldn’t see Jack. For a moment, she thought he had left the dining room, and she dropped the menu on the table.

‘Hi,’ he said from behind her, as he squeezed her shoulder before sliding into a seat opposite.

Lucy felt a shiver go through her at his touch. He looked less confident than usual, holding onto the menu, his gaze scattered around the room.

‘Have you ordered?’

‘No.’ She thought of him strolling in with Suzy. ‘I was waiting for you,’ she said more tartly than she had meant to.

His eyebrows shot up for a split second, but he didn’t say anything.

‘So…’ he said, and let it hang there.

A question and a statement and a beginning and an end.

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