It takes me a second to realise that he’s after a kiss.
I flip off the tap and lean towards him, feeling effervescent as his lips meet mine in a brief, gentle press. I withdraw, blushing, and he smiles at me, his eye contact steady as I carry on filling the pint.
‘I thought you’d gone home,’ I say after my customer has settled up.
He frowns. ‘Without saying goodbye?’ He suddenly seems so familiar to me with that affronted expression.
‘Do you want to come back to mine later?’ I have to pluck up the nerve to ask, so I’m gratified when he nods.
Gasps and yelps from further down the bar wrench my attention away. My heart is in my throat when I see what’s caused the commotion: Chas has collapsed.
I fly over to him while our new bar girl stares in shock.
‘Chas? Are you okay?’ I ask urgently.
His eyes are open, but his face is ashen and he’s clutching his chest.
Rach muscles in behind the bar next to me.
‘He was complaining of light-headedness and nausea earlier,’ I tell her.
She shouts to Amy, ‘Call 999!’ and then over the bar top to her friend Ellie: ‘Go and get the AED!’
She’s referring to the portable defibrillator that has been hanging on the wall of the Surf Life-Saving Club for the last few years, ever since the community fundraised enough money to buy it.
To me, she says, ‘I think he’s having a heart attack.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
The only people left with me at Seaglass are Finn, Rach and Ellie.
Dan went with his uncle in the ambulance and Amy is following behind in their car. The rest of us are sitting here, reeling.
I simply can’t imagine this place existing without Chas behind the bar. I’m in shock.
Ellie was so cool and collected when she ran back with the defibrillator. She and Rach both volunteer at the Surf Life-Saving Club and are trained in resuscitation, so they knew exactly what to do. Rach had already cut Chas’s T-shirt open and she and Ellie fixed the two pads to his chest. Chas was awake – he hadn’t gone into cardiac arrest – but the AED would have delivered an electric shock to try to restart his heart if needed.
I felt completely useless, standing by. Dan and Finn were the ones to clear people out of the bar so that the paramedics had good access once they arrived.
‘I think it’s time to make a move,’ Rach says wearily, patting Ellie’s thigh.
‘Yeah,’ I agree, looking around.
The rest of the clean-down can wait until morning – I sent the staff home twenty minutes ago.
I walk Rach and Ellie to the door. ‘I’ll see you downstairs in a sec,’ Rach murmurs to Ellie after we’ve said goodbye and I’ve added another thank you to the ones I showered on her earlier.
Ellie leaves and Rach turns to me, apprehension gleaming in her hazel eyes.
‘Thank you so much—’ I begin to say, but she interrupts me.
‘Liv.’
‘Yes?’
‘Ellie’s my girlfriend.’
I stare at her for a moment, uncomprehending. And then I get it, all at once, and my chest inflates. I pull her in for a fierce hug, hating that she would ever doubt that this would be my reaction.
