There wasn’t enough concealer in the world to fix this.
I sighed and went back downstairs, curling up in an armchair and wrapping my arms around my knees.
Just a few more hours. I just had to survive the next few hours, and then I could go home to Mum and that cup of tea and the work of rebuilding myself from the ground up.
The French doors clattered as Cece stumbled in from the verandah. She looked like I had in the mirror, and the Mummy Mandie instincts that were hardwired in me pulled me to my feet. ‘Hey, are you all right, Cece? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.’
‘I’m fine,’ she said, although she looked anything but. ‘Murray’s nearly here.’
Those words hit me like a bull bar to the chest.
Murray’s nearly here.
‘So it’s done, then,’ I said numbly. ‘It’s over.’
Dylan Gilchrist, your heart is the other half of mine,Romeo-Dylan must have said.I love you.
I love you too,she must have replied. Words she had never said to me.
‘Yeah,’ Cece said. ‘It’s over.’
My knees just about gave out. I sat down heavily in an armchair, covering my eyes with my hands, trying to force those traitorous hot tears back.
Just a little longer. I just had to not think about their perfect fairy-tale ending for a little longer. To not think about her moon goddess dress, the creases in the corners of his kind eyes, the jewel-studded backdrop of the night sky behind them as they kissed.
‘I am fucking out of here,’ Heather announced. ‘I can’t wait to see you three bitches never again – oh.’
‘Dylan?’ Cece whispered.
I can’t tell you how fast I turned around. I don’t think I even did, really. I heard her name, and then in the blink of an eye, I was looking at her.
Except it wasn’t her.
‘Cece,’ Romeo-Dylan said hoarsely.
Murray had turned up, I dimly registered. Some cameramen, too, and some soundies. They were desperately trying to get footage. Heather was complaining. Lily was loving it.
‘I couldn’t do it, Cece,’ he said. ‘I love you too much.’
I burst into tears.
If the past few days had stretched out agonisingly long, the next few moments were agonisingly full. Romeo-Dylan declaring his love to Cece, again and again and again. Cece fainting. Murray shouting.
And shouting. And shouting. It was mostly Murray shouting, if I was being honest.
‘How long has this been going on?’
Romeo-Dylan and Cece couldn’t answer to his satisfaction, so he shouted some more. And more. And more.
Unbelievably, I was jealous.
How long has this been going on?Murray would shout at us.
In a physical sense? Not that long,my Dylan would reply.In a real sense? Since the day we met.
She’d look across at me, squeeze my hand, clasped tight in hers.Sound about right, Mandie?
Yep,I’d reply.
