A pause.
I clear my throat.‘How’s Luke?’
Another pause.This one longer.Louder.
‘He’s okay,’ she says eventually.‘There’s been some rain.The land’s slowly recovering.He’s still pissed, though.Refuses to talk to me about it.’
I nod, my chest tightening.‘Has he … has he said anything about me?’
Ella sighs again.‘He’s been closed off.Quiet.Angry.Which, to be honest, is refreshing after the blank stare he gave me for weeks.He’s in Darwin for a wedding.Just for a few days.Maybe that’ll shake him out of it.’
I freeze.
A wedding.
In Darwin.
Just for a few days.
My brain, already spinning, starts assembling an emotional heist plan I didn’t agree to.
Maybe this is my chance.
The thought hits me hard – sharp and full of possibility.Maybe this is my shot to be the girl who fights for what she wants.The one who stops hiding behind sarcasm and clever exits.
‘Jamie,’ Ella says, cutting through my mental spiral.‘You still there?’
‘Yeah,’ I say, softer now.‘Whose wedding is it?’
There’s a pause – suspicious, calculated.
‘Cal and Rosie,’ she says.Then adds, ‘Whatever you’re thinking, don’t.’
‘I’m not thinking anything.’
‘You’re a terrible liar.’
‘I swear.I’m not going to do anything.’
She exhales, long and slow.‘Leave him alone, Jamie.’
‘I will.’I say it with a smile.
Because that’s the last lie I’ll ever tell.I promise.
THIRTY-FIVE
I’m sweating and not in the cute, dewy kind of way.This is the kind of sweat that lives in the crooks of your elbows and makes your tote bag stick to your armpit.Glamorous.I’m standing in line at the Darwin airport taxi stand, bag slung over my shoulder, adrenaline doing a much more effective job at keeping me going than the espresso I chugged at 6 a.m.
This is it.I’m doing the thing.
The thing I have always judged other people for doing.
It’s the kind of thing I used to laugh at – people making grand gestures for a relationship that’ll statistically end in divorce.Desperate.Pathetic.A little bit delusional.
And yet, here I am.
Ticket?Check.
