“Er, just give me a sec.”
The door clicked to a close, and I leaned against the scuffed wall opposite, catching my breath.My heart felt too big as it bounced in my chest.Okay, maybe love does need a little composure.
The sound of muffled voices caught my ear. Jeremy shushed the other person. A moment later, he stepped into the hallway wearing a towel tied around his waist and a creased shirt, buttoned askew.
“I’m afraid you’ve caught me in a bit of a moment.” He scratched his neck.
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I’m just looking for Francesca. Have you seen her?”
“Er…” His eyes flicked around. He settled his gaze on the wall behind me.
“I see your mind is elsewhere.” I laughed and knuckledhis shoulder. He looked down at the spot I’d touched as if I’d burnt him.
“Look, Trusty… there’s something, I… well, I mean, we?—”
“Wait…” A horrible sinking feeling took hold. “It’s her in there, isn’t it?”
Jeremy’s nod was almost imperceptible.
Blood rushed in my ears. I swallowed and shoved past him, the door handle in my hand, twisting and opening. My vision blurring at the edges before settling onherin his bed, wearing nothing but his bedsheets.
“Good morning, Catherine.” Her voice was cold and unapologetic, like I meant nothing to her and this should mean nothing to me. I was just a footnote in a bigger plot, an inconsequential comma in Francesca’s story.
No, no, no, no, no.
Bile burned in my throat as I caught the sweet scent of her mixed with the sour odour I’d noticed before — the smell, I realised, of sex.
I turned to leave, but Jeremy’s hands closed around my arms. His voice warped as he said, “Trusty, why don’t you sit down for a minute?”
Her laughter hit me like a sucker punch, and I tore myself from his grip, stumbling out the door.
“Catherine, come back. Let’s talk this over.” His voice; maybe hers? I couldn’t tell.
One foot falling over the other; tears streaming, blood rushing. Stairs, then air, finally air, but it was too much, too quick, and I was gulping in great big lungfuls until I was on my hands and knees vomiting the sludgybrown remnants of that morning’s tea and toast into a hedge.
Laughter burst from a passing group of students.
“Christ, it’s not even ten yet,” one of them said, followed by another bright burst of laughter, the sound dropping like a stone of mortification inside me. I wanted to crawl under the hedge, but I found my way to my feet.
In the brief time I’d been inside, wet snow had settled into a slushy blanket on the ground. It splashed up my legs, the burning cold soaking into my Dunlops as I ran between the skeleton trees across campus towards my halls.
Faces stared, laughed and blurred. I heard my name called more than once, but I couldn’t stop. My stomach ached with a sickening churn as bile clawed up my throat, threatening to escape and splatter a Jackson Pollock of puke over the fresh white canvas.
Brakes squealed, and someone shouted, “Look out!”
I whipped my head around, but it was too late.
Something blunt and hard slammed into my side, knocking the last of the wind from my lungs as it tipped me up, over and out.
20
PANIC!
PRESENT DAY
After the emotional whiplash of discovering the gorgeous woman in red was her new neighbour, Jules, then meeting her annoyingly handsome husband, Will, Catherine spent the rest of the day in a sour mood. It was a mercy she had no plans with anyone else; she was getting on her own nerves, which felt like a new personal low.
She considered returning to bed to sleep it off and reset, but she didn’t indulge the notion for long. It seemed a lot like wallowing, and that was something she warned her clients against. Besides, she couldn’t bear the possibility of hearing Jules and Will in the bedroom.
