Chapter 28
28
KARA
Kara was squirming under the glare of the interrogation light. Or it might just have been some fancy ceiling fixture in the posh airport lounge.
‘So that’s it? That’s the whole story. Over and done. And that’s the only time you met?’ Ollie had asked her. Or was it Drea? She was too busy panicking inside to take in the details.
‘Yeah,’ she’d insisted. ‘Definitely.’
‘Really?’ he’d asked.
‘Absolutely…’ she’d nodded.
But she’d never lied to him in her life, and she couldn’t do it now. She cracked like an old windscreen in a car crusher.
‘Okay, that was a lie. I met him one more time, but it wasn’t planned, I swear. I bumped into him again here at the airport last year. On the same date as we’d met before. The second of January. I was on my way back from spending New Year in Croatia with you and he was going home to Dublin.’
Kara watched as Drea’s chin dropped and now her sister was staring at her as if she didn’t recognise her at all. Which was probably true. Kara was the least likely out of the three of them to ever do something illicit or scandalous.
‘And that was what? Just an accident?’ Ollie asked.
‘Yes,’ Kara blurted, before backing down again. ‘Well, a happy accident. That was maybe a little hopeful. Since that first meeting, I’ve found a reason to fly in and out of the airport on the second of January a couple of times. On the years that I wasn’t travelling, I’d make an excuse to Josh that I had to pop into work and instead, I’d come here for a coffee, hoping I’d bump into him, just to see how he was doing. Last year was the first time it actually worked and our paths crossed again.’
She could feel her toes curling inside her boots. This was so embarrassing. She hated being on the spot and she hated being the focus of attention. Right now, she was both, and the two people she loved more than anyone else on earth were clearly finding this all to be shocking.
Ollie reached for his beer. ‘You know there’s a thing called social media now, right? You can track down just about anyone. Maybe even drop them a text to see how they are. It would have saved you a fortune on flights.’
If they were still fifteen, Kara would have punched him on the arm for his sarcasm and for the amused grin on his face that showed he was making fun of her.
‘I was aware of that little development, yes. But that would have felt… disloyal. Like cheating on Josh. Whereas, if we just happened to bump into each other…’ She let them fill in the blanks, before going on, ‘Look, I didn’t say it was the most logical plan in the world, but in my head it made sense.’
‘And so, last year, you just had a nice chat and then went your separate ways again?’ That was from Drea, who was clearly in need of fortification for this confessional and had just signalled the swirly finger thing to the waitress.
‘No, he missed his flight again, maybe a little deliberately, so we booked a room at the hotel across the road again and spent the night fully clothed, watching TV and snacking from the minibar – exactly the same as the first time.’
She didn’t want to add that it was, and would always be, one of her favourite memories.
‘I’m still struggling to understand why you didn’t tell us. Or why you didn’t call things off with Josh and see if there really was something between you and… What was his name?’ Ollie never did have a great memory for names.
‘Zac,’ Kara said, already preparing her justifications and hearing how lame they sounded in her head. ‘And I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d both have the faces that you’ve got on right now. I know it sounds crazy…’
‘It does.’ It freaked her out when they spoke in unison.
‘Yeah, okay, Mr and Mrs Judgemental there. But I liked having a secret that didn’t have to go anywhere. The two of you are fixers. Action people. I’m the one who just goes with the flow all the time and that wouldn’t have been good enough for you. You’d have grilled me to death, and you’d have wanted me to act on it, to rethink my relationship with Josh, to make the thing with Zac more than it was. Kind of the way you’re doing now. But that was the whole thing about Zac – there was no pressure. We were just two strangers who met up by chance. Sliding doors. Coincidences that threw us together. It was romcom stuff. Without the riding off into the sunset thing at the end.’
Ollie seemed to be missing the point and introducing safety concerns into her romcom bubble. ‘A romcom that could actually have turned into a slasher movie if he’d been some kind of maniac stranger who lured you into a hotel room and then murdered you while you slept.’
Kara rolled her eyes. ‘You really need to work on your sunny optimism.’
Before he could say anything, Drea piped up. ‘So what happens now? Are you going to look him up and see if there’s something real between you? Something that could maybe become a thing?’ she asked, then got distracted before Kara could answer. ‘Ollie, are you okay? You’re looking really flushed.’
Now Kara could see it too, but Ollie shrugged it off. ‘Just warm in here.’
‘You sure?’ Drea checked. ‘Because not that I’m the only important one here, but if you drop down sick or give us all some mad flu and it affects my wedding, I will bear a grudge for the rest of my life, and it won’t be pretty.’
Kara exhaled, feeling the change of subject had finally taken the pressure off her.
Or maybe not. Drea was staring at her again. ‘You didn’t answer. Are you going to track him down or am I just going to have to book flights in and out of Glasgow on the second of January for you until the end of time?’
Kara shook her head. ‘Nope. That’s why I didn’t find an excuse to come here last night. I’ve given up on relationships. I’ve spent eight years in the same one and walked away with nothing, from a guy who let me down. What a total waste of time. So from now on, I’m officially off all that romantic stuff because I’m clearly crap at it.’
‘Or maybe you just picked the wrong guy,’ Ollie shrugged.
He was still a bit flushed. Kara couldn’t remember if she’d packed any paracetamol, so she made a mental note to pick some up at Heathrow, if they ever got there.
Just at that, a murmur of discontent went around the room, and they saw that it was coming from all the people who were now staring up at the information board on the far wall.
‘Oh no. Oh bugger, no.’ Drea was up and speed walking towards the board to find out what was causing it, leaving just Kara and Ollie.
‘Can’t believe you’re full of secrets, Miss McIntyre.’
‘Not full. Just one,’ Kara corrected him, but there was an edge of apology in her voice. Ollie was just being concerned about her safety and all the points that both he and Drea made were completely valid. ‘I’m sorry. Don’t hate me. It was just a special little interlude from real life, and I didn’t want anyone to burst my bubble… even for the right reasons.’
Drea returned and slumped down in her seat. ‘My nerves are shredded. Half of tonight’s flights have just been cancelled, but ours is still going, so we should still make it to the hotel at Heathrow for tonight, and be on schedule for the Hawaii flights tomorrow.’
Kara knew that Drea’s travel expert brain was all over this. She’d obsessed for days over the best way to get to Honolulu before settling on the Glasgow-Heathrow-San Francisco-Hawaii route, with the layover at Heathrow tonight. Kara was 100 per cent positive that the gods of the airways wouldn’t dare mess that up for fear of Drea’s ire.
‘They’ve delayed it another hour though, so we’re just as well hunkering down here. Any other deep dark secrets you want to tell us to pass the time? A side hustle working in a morgue? A bondage fetish?’
‘Only on the weekends,’ Kara said, making her sister grin.
‘Good to know,’ Drea retorted, before getting up and grabbing her bag. ‘I’m just going to go find Mum and tell her about the delay.’ She turned to Ollie. ‘If this one confesses to being a serial killer or having a stamp collection while I’m away, get it on tape.’
As she strutted off, Kara’s phone buzzed on the table, so she picked it up and turned it over to see an alert notification:
CLYDESIDE STUDIOS SHAKE-UP
What? Surely they weren’t making an announcement about her leaving? She was no one in the Clydeside sphere. There was no way they’d even notice she was gone, never mind send out a press release about it.
‘Hey Kara, the stuff Drea was saying… you know, about us being single at the same time… Do you ever think about…?’
She could hear Ollie speaking, but she wasn’t really paying attention because she was furiously clicking through to the article mentioned in the headline.
When she reached it, she gasped. ‘Ollie, look at this!’ She turned her phone so that he could see the article’s tagline on the screen.
Corbin Jacobs out. In a surprising move, the fan favourite’s contract has not been renewed, with the studio citing, a ‘new direction for the show’.
She scanned the rest of the story and got the gist of it pretty quickly. Whatever language they used to soften the optics, Corbin Jacobs had been fired and Casey Lowden had agreed to a new contract that would see her stepping up into a directorial role on one show per week, while still maintaining the spotlight on her current character.
Wow. Just wow.
Ollie sat back in his chair. ‘What does that mean for you?’
Her phone began ringing and Josh’s photo flashed up on the screen. It was her favourite pic of him. On the beach last year in Greece, after they’d had the most amazing lunch in a little taverna and then walked for miles along the golden sands, hand in hand, totally in love. If someone had told her then that she would call off their wedding, she’d never have believed them.
‘I’ve no idea. But I think he’s probably calling to tell me.’