“You ‘right?” Jake asks.
I nod because I can’t talk, and he seems to understand. “I love you, Renaldo.”
And I love him. Even more than I love watching Jenny getting arrested, which is really saying something.
The chorus of arrests continues. Officers giving citations, clicking on cuffs, arguing with stragglers as Pukekohe’s untouchables are all lined up like cattle for auction. I think of Rhys. I don’t know where he is, but I raise my vape to my lips and imagine him beside me, watching this beautiful shitshow unfold.
“Wow,” I say again.“Wow.”
The racket starts to die down, waitstaff hurrying out from wherever they’ve been hiding to clear glasses and plates, erasing any evidence that this ever happened. Our remaining classmates melt away, the ones who stay clustering into little groups to discuss what just happened.
I clench my teeth to keep myself from uttering another ‘wow’ and glance at Jake. Gavin looks at Betty. Cece looks at Davis. Then all of us stare at each other, waiting for someone to break the silence.
Cece exhales, puts her hands on her hips and surveys the wreckage of rose petals and trampled bushes. “Well… there goes the neighbourhood.”
Something in me snaps. The tension, the joy, the sheer unreality of it all. I start laughing until I’m bent double. My howls are ferocious and unstoppable and growing louder every second.
Jake grabs me. He looks worried, but I can’t stop laughing. Because Cece’s right. The neighbourhood is gone. The part that twisted and spread, diseasing everything it touched, has fallen. Because of me. And Betty. And Jake. And Rhys. And Cece. And Davis. And Grace.
Then I start crying. Laughing and crying.
I’m hysterical,I think, but that only makes me laughharder. I can taste blood, I’m howling so hard.
Jake makes a helpless sound. “Baby?—”
“Fuck off, Rugby.”
Cece shoves Jake aside and catches me, her arms crushing my shoulders. She’s crying too, great wracking sobs mixed with laughter, and we’re clasped together, so tight we can barely move, yowling like she-wolves under a full moon.
Jake and Davis hover helplessly, unsure whether to step in or step back, but it doesn’t matter. This isn’t about them. This isours. Cece and me. A release more than ten years overdue. As ugly as the things that caused it. As beautiful as the pink and lilac sunset falling around our shoulders.
We’ll never be what we were before. But that’s good. Now we can be better.
EPILOGUE
Two years later
Aggie
Itake the thermometer out of the Beef Wellington and study the dial. One-thirty. Still at least twenty minutes until resting time, but that’s perfect because the kids won’t get here until two.
“Aggie,” Krissy calls from behind me. “Is it okay if Blake comes to family lunch today?”
“Course, love,” I say. I don’t know why she asks. She and Blake have been together for months now. Krissy dropped a wineglass when she first saw Davis’s best mate, and as soon as Blake dived to help her clean up, I knew it was a done deal.
“Thanks,” Krissy says cheerfully. “Need me to do anything?”
“Check if the laundry’s arrived, will you?”
“Right away, Chef.”
“Not a bloody chef,” I mutter. If I live another hundred years, I’ll never get used to being called anything other than ‘Aggie.’ But all the kitchen staff call me ‘Chef’ and Krissy’s picked it up too. I wouldn’thave stood for it in the old days, but Afterglow isn’t a pub anymore. It’s a hotel. A proper, fancy little hotel.
I wasn’t sure when Cece first asked me to stay on. I’m a pub cook through and through, and I didn’t know a thing about fine dining. But it turns out I’m bloody good at it. And hiring staff for a posh place is a hell of a lot easier than convincing some ex-con to sweat over a fryer until two in the morning.
I’ve got an eye for talent, and Cece knows it. Before we opened, she made me the hiring manager and executive chef.
All that means is I plan the menu and sniff out scumbags when they come for job interviews. I’m proud to say none of the kids I’ve brought on have given us any grief, and the place is thriving.
