‘Good,’ I smile through my teeth, still perplexed by the questions about how we’ll play the tour. Do they… not know?
His mum exhales. ‘Thank goodness. He was really hurt last time, not that he’d admit that to anyone.’
‘Mum,’ Lydia groans.
‘What? You know our Luc. He’s so sensitive. It’s the writer part of his brain, I reckon,’ she says.
‘Leave it,’ his dad grumbles.
‘I just don’t him to get hurt again,’ Luc’s mum protests. ‘You know we love you, Sienna. We always have. But Luc is my baby, and you live such different lives. And I don’t want you to walk out on him again and leave him wondering what he did wrong.’ She shakes her head. ‘Luc is too nice for his own good. He’s not very vocal with how he feels as long as everyone else is happy.’
Luc returns and drapes his arm over my shoulder, handing me a bottle of 7Up with the cap taken off. The sweet, sugary liquid fizzes in my mouth to distract me from the shattering in my chest.
I can’t focus on the football. I’m distracted, unable to stop thinking of Lydia’s question, Luc’s mum’s protectiveness. And I’m overly aware of Luc’s presence next to me, of how the next time his whole family comes to a game like this, I won’t be around.
Kareem picks Luc, Dennis and I up from a designated area outside the stadium. Dennis jumps in the front of the car, leaving Luc and I to climb in behind. Luc reaches over the seat and holds my hand, running his thumb over the soft skin.
It’s still daylight outside but the back of the car is dark,protected by those blackout windows. Luc’s deep, dark brown eyes are looking at me carefully. I gaze at him, trying to read his thoughts, trying to communicate my own without having to say them out loud.
‘So, you might have noticed the tour question…’
Shit. I didn’t expect that to actually work.
‘Don’t they know…’ I trail off, the words balling up on my tongue, ‘that we’re breaking up at the beginning of the tour?’
‘The short answer… no.’
‘Luc,’ I groan, shaking my head, face in my hands. ‘We agreed,’ I mumble against my palms.
‘I was supposed to tell them, but they were just so excited after everything that happened with Rose. And then one date turned into more and now I don’t know how to go back.’
I glare at him, giving him everything in me. ‘You know what’s going to break their hearts more?’
He looks away.
‘Getting to know me again and seeing you “happy” and then you telling them you lied and that we were never actually together,’ I explain.
‘I just won’t tell them.’
‘That feels like it has bad karma attached to it.’
‘I don’t believe in karma.’
‘How can you not believe in karma? That’s really weird.’
‘You’re weird.’
I faux gasp. ‘Hold the front page.’
Dennis’s eyes flicker up to the internal mirror in the front of the car. I catch them and shake my head subtly, looking down as I do it so that Luc can put it down to a twitch. He doesn’t need to know my secret language with Dennis just yet.
‘I know what I’m doing,’ Luc says. He runs his hands through his hair and pulls at his roots. ‘You don’t think I have my own reasons for agreeing to Mimi’s plan?’
‘Yeah, to show Rose you’ve moved on and good press for your writing, right?’
‘There’s more but… can I tell you later?’ He gestures towards my team in the front. ‘It’s not really something I want to discuss in public.’
I look at Kareem and Dennis, knowing they are two of my most trusted people. That I wouldn’t let anyone who is a threat to my privacy close to me, let alone that close to me that often. But, in the same breath, I also understand that I wouldn’t be able to trust Luc’s most trusted people. I nod. ‘Noted.’
