Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
The following night we went to one of our favourite Indian restaurants. We were regulars back in the day and had even held meetings there when things first started to take off for us.
Maca and George had stayed at Jimmie and Len’s the night before.
After my parents had left and things had calmed down a little bit, Bailey had mentioned in front of Maca that George had been seeing someone.
We’d shut him down as quickly as we could, and then the lot of us had proceeded to get pleasantly stoned.
George had come over to our place that afternoon. She and Maca were all over each other, so I assumed Cameron King was no longer in the equation, and they had sorted their shit out and were back together.
Like the night before, after my parents had left that is, I felt this weird sense of …
I don’t know what, exactly. I felt calm and content, happier than I had in a long time.
I was sitting, eating dinner with four of the people I loved most in the world and it warmed the cockles, as my dad would say.
Despite Len booking a table towards the back and in the corner of the restaurant, we were still recognised and asked to sign autographs, but even those interruptions couldn’t dampen my happy mood.
In that moment, I didn’t feel like a rock star.
I didn’t think about the places I’d been, the people I’d met, or the things I’d seen over the past few years.
For the next few hours, I just kicked back and enjoyed my favourite food with my brother, sister, and two of my best friends.
Then we tried to leave the place and all hell broke loose.
Some fucker had tipped off the press and they were everywhere.
I’d just told George she needed to eat a few more curries and fatten herself up as we walked outside. She’d turned to me and said, “Fuck you, Marls. That’s as insulting as telling a fat person they should eat less and lose weight.”
“Ignore him, babe. You’re fucking perfect,” Maca had called out from behind me.
“You’re such a brown nose, McCarthy,” I told him.
“What?” he replied. “She is perfect. Too skinny, but always perfect in my eyes.”
“You’re such a wanker,” I said.
Suddenly flashes were going off and Georgia was almost pushed over.
I heard a “Fuck off,” being yelled from Maca and an “Oh shit,” from Len, who had waited inside for Jim to use the bathroom.
I grabbed a hold of George and tucked her under my arm as the cameras flashed all around us as reporters screamed out questions.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Are you going home with both the boys?”
“Are you the latest piece of meat in a Marley and Maca sandwich?”
Cheeky fuckers.
I wanted to knock the bitch that asked that last question flat on her arse, but I didn’t hit women, even arseholes like her. I wanted to scream at all of them that she was my little sister, but there was no way I was giving up that piece of information.
“Keep your head down and don’t say a word,” I said into her temple, not sure if she could hear me above all of the commotion going on around us. I kissed the top of her head in reassurance as I could feel her entire body shaking as I held her.
Maca unlocked his car from behind me and I shoved my sister into the passenger seat.
“Keep your head down,” I told her again before running back to help Maca, Len, and Jimmie out. They were surrounded by a bunch of screaming girls, as well as the journalists and photographers.
“Get the fuck outta here,” I told Maca. “I’ll go with these guys. You’re probably better off staying at G’s.”
He moved away from Jimmie’s side and I replaced him in protecting her from the pushing and shoving.
We’d given Milo the night off, convinced we’d be fine just nipping out to our local Indian restaurant with our family, but it was a lesson learned.
It was no longer possible for us to nip anywhere and it dawned on me that Georgia had just had a rude awakening to what our lives were like these days, and I wondered how she’d deal with the press intrusion.
Once they found out her and Maca were back together, her life would change considerably.
George rang me Saturday afternoon while I was still at my brother’s place to invite me to a party at my dad’s club that night.
It was for a mate of hers and Jimmie’s, and Len and Maca were both going.
I said that I was up for it too. Everything felt right with my world, except I was still the odd one out, still the single one.
When Maca came to pick me up later, I knew something was up with him straight away. He was quiet the entire drive back to our place.
“What do you know about her and this bloke she’s been seeing?” he asked, sitting down on the sofa as soon as we were in the door.
I took off my jacket and hung it on the back of a bar stool before sitting on the sofa opposite him.
“I don’t know anything. Jim and Len mentioned that she was seeing someone a few months back, but that’s all I know. She’s never mentioned him to me,” I told him honestly.
I didn’t know anything about my sister’s relationship, other than it was Cameron King that she was seeing.
His family had a bit of a reputation around our way.
They were the type that you didn’t mess with.
A bit like my family, I suppose, although I had never been a part of that life.
I wasn’t stupid. I knew that my dad, uncle, and brother had earned themselves a name as the type of businessmen you didn’t ever want to upset, but that was all I would say on that subject.
That hadn’t been Maca’s question though.
He’d asked about my sister’s relationship, not who it was with.
I should’ve stepped up and told him exactly who it was my sister was seeing, but I’d decided that I was staying the fuck out of their shit.
If there were any revelations to be made, they could be the ones going ‘Ta Da,’ not me.
I was staying the fuck away from anything that might cause trouble in paradise. I’d learned my lesson, well and truly.
“She’s been seeing him for a while then?”
“A few months, Mac. That’s all I know.”
“Is she fucking him?”
“What the fuck? I don’t know. I don’t wanna know and if you do, then you best have that conversation with my sister,” I told him. She’s twenty-years-old. They’d been seeing each other a while, so of course they were fucking. But like I said, I’m staying the fuck outta dodge.
He threw himself back against the sofa, letting out a long sigh and looking up at the ceiling.
“Maca, if this is gonna be an issue for you, then you need to either deal with it or move the fuck along. I’m not gonna sit back and let you break my sister’s heart and then watch you fall apart with guilt all over again.”
“I’m so fucking jealous and I’ve no clue how to handle it, Marls,” he said with honesty.
“This is all new for me. There’d been no one else before me …
I don’t … fuck, I don’t know. I’ve just gotta get my head around the fact that she’s lived a life while we’ve been apart,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“It’s been four years, Mac. Have a little think about what you’ve been up to in that time.
Like I said, you either need to move past it or move on.
” I’m pissed off with him now and feeling defensive of my sister.
Whatever she may or may not have been doing with regards to her sex life, I’d bet she’d lived like a nun compared to the things we’d been up to, at least I fucking hoped she had.
I shuddered.
“Can we end this convo please? My sister’s sex life is really not my favourite subject … ever.”
He gave me a small smile. “Ah, well, what’s done is done. I love her and want her back regardless. I’m just a jealous fucker, but I’ll get over it. She’s meeting him Monday to breakup with him anyway.”
He pushed up from where he was sitting. “I’m starving. We got any food here?”
“There’s bread in the freezer and beans in the cupboard, if you fancy beans on toast.” I tell him, grateful for the subject change.
We enter my dad’s club for Georgia’s mate’s party, just after midnight. Len had arranged extra security and we were smuggled in a back door and straight up to the VIP area.
The only people I recognised were Bailey and Lennon. There was no sign of the girls.
“Gia not here yet?” Maca asked straight away.
“Downstairs dancing,” Len said.
“For fuck’s sake, Len, why’d you let her go down there?”
“She’s a grown up, Mac. I can’t tell her where to go. They wanted to dance, and it’s not very busy up here yet.”
“She’ll be fine, mate,” Bailey added. “She’s here nearly every week and we never have any problems. You’re the famous one, Maca, not her.”
“I need a drink.” Maca said.
We had a few bourbons and a couple of lines of coke before we left our place, and I could tell he was a bit edgy.
And before you judge about the drugs … again, it was what it was.
The area that we grew up in—the circles that we were mixed in—drugs were just a part of our lives.
They were as normal for us on a Saturday night as a film and a takeaway were for others.
I didn’t indulge too much during those days, but I did still like a joint, and that would never change.
Maca went to the bar and got us both a drink, then went over to the balcony so he could look down at the dance floor below.
“You need to chill the fuck out, mate,” I told him as he scanned the crowd for my sister.