“Just the one. She’ll be pleased to see me home.”
“The accountant?” Tarryn leaned across the table.
“She was. But she recently lost her job, and she’s also recovering from a major car accident.” Her heart pounded, increasing in speed with every lie she told.Change the subject. Fast.“What about you? Any siblings?”
“No, just me and Mama. I should get down to see her sometime soon. She lives in Sydney.”
“Maybe we can catch up when you do.” Why had she said that? Compounding the lie. She needed to stop this, make the clean break and get on with her life, with finding a new accountancy job, with a life that didn’t include the gorgeous woman sitting opposite.
“I’d like that. I might be—”
The waiter appeared bearing their starters, and Tarryn sat back to let him place the plates.
What was she going to say? Maybe she was planning a trip soon. Allie smiled her thanks as the waiter placed her pumpkin gnocchi in front of her.
“Ally and Elly will be pleased to have more of your time,” she said once the first mouthful had been taken.
“They will. Ally spat at me yesterday. She normally leaves me alone—knows the hand that feeds.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t spend more time with them.” Allie paused and took a forkful of food. There was the opening, right there, for Tarryn to say she was welcome back to see them. But Tarryn remained silent.
When the waiter cleared their plates, Allie topped up their wine glasses. Her stomach churned, filled with a mixture of rich food and lies. It had all seemed so harmless in the beginning—she’d simply been helping her sister out of a bind. She’d never planned on seeing any of these people again. Certainly, she’d never planned on falling for Tarryn.
“I’m thinking of training the alpacas as pack animals,” Tarryn said. “Maybe I could take people on longer guided walks in the rainforest. Elly would be fine, I think, but I’m not sure about Ally. She’s a feisty little minx. I’d have to lead her all the time.”
“You could trial it with people you know,” Allie said. “Maybe Will and Garrett would be into it. Would you camp along the way or stay somewhere?”
“If Will and Garrett were my trial, it would have to include a roof and a big bed. Can you imagine either of them in a leaky tent in the rain?”
“Not easily. You could use your Airbnb vouchers.” She wasn’t hinting, she really wasn’t, but if Tarryn were to say she thought she’d save them for the two of them to use together, then she would probably smile and give up all her plans to agree.
“It seems a bit of a waste. But yeah, I could.”
The waiter brought their main courses, and for a few moments, they were silent. Allie flicked a glance at Tarryn. She had her head down, eating steadily. Allie picked a piece of fish from the bones. It was good fish, great really, succulent and cooked to perfection. A shame she wasn’t enjoying it as she should.
She put down her knife and fork. “This is a bit awkward, isn’t it? Us being here, not really knowing what to say.” She sighed. “Maybe we should have left it at last night, said our goodbyes this afternoon, and I’d drive off to Sydney tomorrow, remembering a certain one night with great fondness.”
Tarryn, too, put down her cutlery. “Part of me says you’re right, but part of me is glad for this extra night.” She took a quick breath. “Last night was quite special, Sophie. I don’t know why. I’m not a relationship type of person most of the time. Maybe it’s because we worked together that I feel closer to you. And maybe, because I knew you’d be returning to Sydney, that allowed me to run with my feelings while I could. But…well, if you lived here, I’d ask you out again. And again after that. Until maybe we went out on so many single dates, we were in a relationship without knowing it.” A shoulder lifted. “But you’re going back to Sydney, which isn’t the end of the earth, but it is a big city, one where I would be stifled. My life is here, and yours is in the city.”
Allie’s fingers clenched on her wineglass. Tarryn wanted to go out with her. For a moment, she allowed herself a moment to dream of the two of them. In Quandong. Training the alpacas together. Dinner with Will and Garrett. Coffee and sass with Kirra. Maybe helping to organise the next Gay Bells festival.
But then it all came crashing down. She lived in Sydney. And the big one: she was Allie, not Sophie. Allie who was an accountant, who wasn’t the lesbian Tarryn thought but a baby-gay in training—not straight, but whichever way you looked at it, she wasn’t who she’d said she was.
She was deceptive and deceitful—a liar in so many ways.
She had to shut this down. But she couldn’t. Not entirely. There was no way she could let Tarryn believe she didn’t want her, not when Tarryn had just opened herself to the possibility of a relationship.
“I would date you too, in a heartbeat. I’d walk the alpacas through the rainforest with you, and I wouldn’t complain if Ally spat on my shoulder. But my life isn’t in Quandong. And it would seem crazy to move…now.”
“We could see how we go. Visit each other. Meet halfway. Use those Airbnb vouchers as everyone intended.”
“I don’t know, Tarryn.” Allie cut a piece of broccoli and raised it to her mouth, then put it down untouched. A few minutes ago, she’d been ready to offer Tarryn the moon and stars if she suggested something like this. But reality had crept in again, along with the renewed knowledge of what her lies would mean to Tarryn. She took a sip of wine to ease her suddenly dry mouth. “It could be the slow death. I’d rather remember one amazing, incredible night than suffer that.”
Tarryn’s face held the immobility of granite. “What about tonight?”
Allie reached across the table and took Tarryn’s hand. “We can have tonight. So we have two amazing, incredible nights to remember. If you want.”
“I do.” Tarryn tightened her grip. “Strange how I can say those words now but couldn’t yesterday.”
