Chapter 23
23
KARA
Kara’s phone began ringing as soon as she walked into the executive lounge at the airport, and the Ghostbusters ringtone made everyone stare at her, turning her face bright red. Drea, meanwhile, found that hilarious, so Kara immediately knew who’d set that up.
‘ Ghostbusters ?’ she said to her sister, one eyebrow raised in mortification.
Drea didn’t even have the decency to blush. ‘Sorry, did it earlier, when you were loading up the luggage on the trolley. Thought it might make you smile and put you in the holiday mood.’
Kara eyed her with incredulity. ‘My whole life has fallen apart, I’ve lost my fiancé, my home and my job, and you thought a Ghostbusters ringtone was going to have me drinking pina coladas and doing the Macarena?’
Drea shrugged. ‘Well, I suppose when you put it like that. Anyone ever told you you’re a tough crowd?’
Her sister didn’t wait for an answer, because she’d spotted one of her favourite people across the other side of the lounge. And Ollie Chiles was waving and grinning right back at them.
Two couples sitting to the left of the door had just registered the identity of the bloke who had had his back turned to them for the last half-hour, and they were now surreptitiously lifting their phones and positioning themselves so they could take selfies with Ollie in the background. Kara threw them an icy stare and reminded herself not to be too over the top, otherwise photos of Ollie with his ‘new girlfriend’ would be viral within the hour. That had happened once before, a few years ago, when Ollie and Kara were in LA celebrating his wedding anniversary. Sienna was with them, but she’d gone off to the loo, and while she was away, Kara and Ollie had been messing around, laughing so hard they were buckled over. Of course, the photos were all over the internet in no time at all, and from a certain angle it appeared that they maybe, possibly, almost, could have, in a dim light, been kissing. Only they weren’t. They were both huddled over Kara’s phone because she was showing him one of those videos where people do voiceovers while their dogs are moving their mouths. Not exactly a salacious, illicit affair, but the worst of the internet believed it for a while, and Sienna had, aptly, put them in the dog house for days afterwards.
One of the lounge bartenders passed by and took a drinks order – another beer for Ollie and two glasses of Prosecco for Drea and Kara.
‘How are you doing, pal?’ Kara asked, feeling her soul soar just because she was in the same room as him. It was tough to have a lifelong best mate who lived in another country, and who also hobnobbed with Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon. Could give a girl a complex if she didn’t know with absolute certainty that he’d drop both Julia and Reese and fly to be by her side at a moment’s notice if she needed him. ‘I want to give you a huge hug and a smacker right on the face, but the two couples behind me have their cameras out and they’re doing the surreptitious photos thing. I don’t want to make your life even more complicated today.’
Ollie was either two beers past caring or had decided that he had nothing to lose, because he grinned, said, ‘Screw them’ and tugged at her arm. She knew that he just meant to pull her towards him to give her a hello hug, but he caught her at the wrong angle, when she was off balance, and she fell onto his knee, forcing him to react at lightning speed to grab her and prevent her from face planting on the carpet. So much for trying to keep their greeting low-key.
‘Well, that went well,’ she quipped, figuring it was already on its way to TMZ and giving him the tightest of hugs. ‘I’ve missed you, pal. Thanks for still coming with us. My horrible boot of a sister is ignoring my pain and making me go celebrate her half of our double wedding.’
‘Your horrible boot of a sister has arranged for you to have a swanky bungalow with an ocean view and a personal butler.’
‘I’ve always loved you, Drea,’ Kara giggled, finally climbing off Ollie’s knee.
She sat in the bucket chair next to him and she desperately wanted to take his hand, but they were probably in enough trouble. Instead, she just said, ‘Okay, so obviously I saw the video.’ Her nose wrinkled as she cringed. ‘I’m so sorry, Ollie. How are you feeling? Because you know I’ll come with you and slash her tyres. Or bribe her beauty therapist to overdo her Botox. There’s no gutter I won’t crawl into in the name of revenge.’ She was trying to make him feel better and make him smile, but they both knew there was a grain of truth in there. They’d been backing each other up since Gary Diller from the end of the street stole Ollie’s scooter when they were about six, and Kara had marched right up to his door and demanded it back or she was calling 999.
‘Weirdly, I am okay. I keep waiting for it to hit me, but in the meantime I’m strangely fine. You know it’s not been great for a while…’ Many of their weekly FaceTime calls over the last year or so had slid into discussions about the issues in both their relationships, so none of this was a surprise. ‘But I have to say, the Van Weeks thing came out of left field. I knew they’d become good friends and it was pretty obvious that he was always in awe of her, because, well… she’s Sienna Montgomery. But I just didn’t see him coming. Which probably says a lot about me. I guess I should have been paying more attention.’
‘Or maybe she should have been paying more attention to the fact that she was married,’ Kara retorted. ‘Don’t you dare take this and put it all on you. It’s not you who made the mistake here.’
Drea’s eyes suddenly swivelled towards her and there was a mischievous grin there, making Kara quickly regret the mention of ‘mistakes’, because she knew she’d just jogged Drea’s memory about the mistake she’d mentioned earlier when it slipped out that she’d been to the hotel across the road. Dammit. There was no way she was discussing that with her now, so she was going to have to try to keep the conversation on other subjects until Drea’s Prosecco kicked in. Kara knew how that would play out. For the last year, as soon as Drea got three glasses of vino in, she’d start talking about her wedding and she wouldn’t shut up for hours. It was a plan that wouldn’t be tough to implement because it had been a shitstorm of a week and they all had so much to catch up on.
The nice bartender appeared with their drinks and put them down on the table. Kara thanked her and then waited until she was out of earshot before steering the conversation back to Ollie’s situation. ‘So what’s the move then, Mr Chiles?’
‘Dunno. I haven’t got much further than run away to Hawaii with my pals and stick my head in the sand until all my problems disappear.’
‘That’s so spooky,’ Kara exclaimed, laughing. ‘I thought long and hard about my situation, analysed it from all angles and then came to the very philosophical conclusion that I was going to run away to Hawaii with my sister and my pal and also stick my head in the sand until all my problems disappear. There’s a reason we’re friends,’ Kara laughed, which felt great, given that it was probably the first time all week.
‘I’ve just realised something,’ Drea blurted, picking up her Prosecco and pausing for effect. ‘This is the first time you’ve both been single at the same time. Can you not just do us all a favour and get together? It would save me a fortune at Christmas and birthdays, and it means I’d never have to pretend to love the terrible people you both choose as partners. Honestly, it’s exhausting. Acting as if I liked Sienna required so much forced smiling that I had jaw pain on your last visit. And as for Josh…’
‘Don’t do it, Drea, because I was with him for eight years, so if you suddenly tell me you didn’t like him, I’ll never trust you again,’ Kara warned.
She then watched as Drea held it in, held it in, held it in, then as if someone had kicked a brick out of a dam, let it all flood out. ‘Urgh, I always thought he was an arse.’
‘Seconded,’ Ollie admitted.
Kara threw her hands up, aware that neither she nor Ollie had actually answered Drea’s question about getting together, but too incensed by the twist in the conversation to address it. Besides, all three of them knew that Drea’s happy picture of Kara and Ollie riding off into the sunset together was just the stuff of her sister’s imagination and too many romcoms. Back to the point.
‘Well, you don’t have to worry about Josh any more, because he’s gone. And for the record, I was in love with him for a long time.’ That was true. Although she just realised that she’d had that thought in the past tense. ‘And yes, he might be an arse, but I’m the only one who’s allowed to say that out loud.’
‘You still haven’t told me what he did,’ Ollie prompted her.
Kara groaned. ‘I much preferred the version where my head was in the sand. I don’t suppose we can just talk about Drea’s wedding instead?’
‘For once, I’m declining that offer,’ Drea countered, obviously not quite at the Prosecco level required to unleash her inner bridezilla.
Kara knew that there was no getting around this, so, after a deep breath, she turned the clock back to Hogmanay, which felt like three days and a lifetime ago. ‘It started with me dancing with Casey Lowden…’ she began, only to be immediately interrupted.
‘She’s joined your show? How did I not know that? I worked with her on that play Sienna and I did last year while my show was on summer hiatus. She came in for the last week, after Sienna got food poisoning, and she knocked it out of the park. She was great.’
‘Yeah, she’s lovely. Although we’re going to be here all night if you don’t let me get to what actually happened.’
Ollie put his hands up. ‘Sorry. Okay, so you were dancing with Casey…’
She took the prompt and rolled out the rest of the story. Corbin. Grabbing at Casey. Holding on to her. Kara going for a diversionary foot break with… with…
‘My black block heels,’ she finished, praying Drea wouldn’t put two and two together and solve the mystery of why her Louboutins had been moved.
‘That arrogant fucker,’ Ollie hissed, and Kara watched as his jaw clenched in fury and then he pulled out his phone.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Calling him. There’s no way he’s getting away with this.’
Kara’s first thought was that this was exactly how Josh should have reacted. This was all she’d needed from him. Some support. Maybe a little action. But as for Ollie phoning him right now? Too late and wrong guy. She reached over and took his phone from his hands. ‘Whoa there, Rocky. I appreciate the support, but I don’t need you to fight my battles. I did okay by myself.’ She didn’t add that by ‘okay’, she actually meant ‘my whole life has gone tits up’, but that became perfectly clear as she recounted the rest of the story, right up until the showdown with Josh at their flat earlier.
‘Kara, you don’t deserve any of this,’ he said softly when she was done. ‘What can I do? I can speak to the chiefs at The Clydeside, tell them they’re out of order and?—’
‘Ollie, no. Thank you so much and I love you for saying it, but I’ve got this. I really have. I’ve decided to view it as the universe pushing me in a new direction. I loved my job, but it wasn’t 100 per cent fulfilling. I loved my flat, but it never really felt like mine, because Josh owned it, and he was already living there when we met. And I loved Josh, but I don’t ever want to come second. And now I’m beginning to realise that maybe I didn’t love him enough.’
Drea leaned forward in her chair. ‘Is that why you ended up in the hotel across the road? Don’t think for a single second that I’ve forgotten about that.’
‘Forgotten about what? What hotel across the road?’ Ollie asked.
Drea slumped back in her chair, astonished. ‘Oh wow. I’ve finally found something that you two didn’t tell each other. Well, hallelujah!’
Kara felt her face burn, deeply aware that Ollie was looking at her quizzically.
‘I think you’re going to have to tell me about this now then…’ he said, and she could see he was intrigued and maybe having a little bit of fun with her discomfort. ‘Was there another guy involved?’
‘Okay, yes.’
Ollie’s gorgeous face was still concentrating intently.
She definitely wasn’t getting out of this. ‘Fine! Do you remember?—’
‘Well, here you all are!’ The voice was so loud and exuberant that there wasn’t a person in the lounge who’d been able to ignore it. All eyes were now on the little group in the corner, who’d been minding their own business until that instant.
Kara wanted to put her head in her hands, but instead, she looked up and greeted the new arrival. ‘Hello, Mum.’
Jacinta McIntyre stood there in all her chiffon, colourful glory, platinum locks flowing down her back, red ruby lips outlined to within an inch of their lives.
And beside her stood a bloke that Kara had never seen before in her life. ‘Everyone, I’d like you to meet my brand-new friend. This is Cillian.’