Chapter 13
13
OCTOBER 1990 – HONG KONG
Moira
Moira was lying on the floor of her room, thinking that if anyone walked in right now they’d think she was indulging in some weird sexual fetish. Actually, she was just on her back, with a wire coat hanger attached to the slider on the zip of her jeans, because she was trying to pull the fricking thing up. She’d been here for ten minutes and it was still only halfway and threatening to burst at any second.
‘Nate! NATE!!!!!’ she yelled at the top of her lungs. There were too many crap things about her room to list them all, but two brilliant factors made up for them – the first was that she was between Carina and Lisa, which was mostly great, except for when Lisa was having loud sex with whatever random bloke she’d brought home from the bar or Carina was playing that classical stuff she loved to listen to at the crack of dawn. Moira had already demanded that at least one of them buy her earmuffs for Christmas. The second excellent thing was that the reception desk was just a few feet along the corridor, so if she shouted loud enough, Nate – their very own Michael Hutchence lookalike – could hear her. Or maybe not.
‘Na—’ she yelled again, but cut off mid word when her door flew open and there he was, looking more than a little wide-eyed and panic stricken, especially when he spotted her on the floor. ‘Moira! Are you okay? What’s happened? Aw, shit, I’m crap at First Aid.’
‘I don’t need First Aid, I need to lose the five pounds I’ve put on here because I’m eating too much fricking dim sum. Can you help me pull this up? I’m stuck. Urgh, this is mortifying,’ she added, staring straight up at the ceiling. ‘And don’t you dare mention my bra – my mother made me buy it. I think she was trying to make sure I don’t have sex until I’m fifty.’ As if there wasn’t enough indignity, today was washing day, all her sexy bras and knickers were in the machine, so she was wearing a massive cream bra with horrible clips down the front that should have been labelled ‘contraception’ in the shop because it was sure to kill any sexy notions stone dead.
Seconds passed and there was no sound, no movement, nothing. Had he buggered off and left her here in her moment of need? She strained her neck, chin forward, focused her gaze on the door and…
He was still there. But now there was a wide grin on that way too bloody handsome face of his.
‘What?’ she asked, exasperated. ‘Are you stuck too?’
‘Nope, just enjoying this too much to do anything about it,’ he said, laughter punctuating every word.
‘Noooo, don’t make me laugh,’ she begged, giggling, ‘I’ll do myself a permanent damage. Take pity on me. Please.’
He finally caved, still chuckling, and crossed the room to her. ‘Okay, how do you want me to do this?’
Moira didn’t want to say that she hadn’t actually thought through a plan, so she improvised. ‘Put one foot on either side of my hips, then try to pull the two sides of the denim together and I’ll yank the zip up. Squeeze, hold, pull.’
‘If you ever give up singing there’ll be a job for you on those dodgy sex chat lines. Although, you might want to work on your voice. No one ever understands that accent of yours.’
She gave him a playful punch on the calf, because it was the closest body part she could reach. ‘Don’t make me laugh. Don’t make me laugh,’ she pleaded again.
The thing was, he always made her laugh. That’s why – after Carina and Lisa – he was her very favourite person here. It wasn’t a crush, exactly. There were a couple of regulars who came into the bar that fell into the ‘innocent crush but I would if they asked me’ category. There was Zak, the only guy behind the bar who Lisa hadn’t brought home with her yet. And a cute guy called Ben, who usually came in on a Friday night with all the guys from his office. Other than that, in the three months she’d been here there had been a few after-work snogs, and a brief fling with a Welsh guy who was on a short term posting to the British army barracks on the island, but she hadn’t found anyone with the potential to sweep her off her feet yet.
‘Right, I’m in position. Are you ready?’ Nate asked.
Moira nodded. ‘Ready.’
‘Okay, go!’ With that he pushed the sides of her hips inwards, she pulled the hanger and… The zip slid straight up to the top.
‘Yasssss! Thank God. Okay, now you have to get me up, but I can’t bend so it’s going to be like dead lifting a 140lb weight. Just warning you.’
He was laughing again and Moira realised the contraceptive qualities of her giant bra only worked one way because she was absolutely definitely feeling stirrings of attraction and they were absolutely definitely taking her by surprise. There was no doubt he was gorgeous, sexy and kind – he’d carried Lisa up those stairs several times when she had passed out, and he always made sure they were up in time for work – but she’d firmly put him in the ‘friends’ zone’ because unlike all the guys at the bar, he’d given absolutely no flirty vibes towards any of them. Not a single lingering stare, chat up line, or innuendo.
‘Ah, you’re killing me here,’ he murmured, and Moira didn’t understand. He hadn’t even started to pull her up so he couldn’t be feeling faint yet.
‘Why? Did you put your back out?’
‘No, I— Hang on.’ He got up and took a few steps back towards the door.
‘Tell me you’re not about to leave me like this,’ Moira said, panic setting in.
‘Nope, but if I stay that close to you, I’ll… I’ll…’
‘You’ll what?’
He threw his hands up, apologetically. ‘Moira, I want to kiss you, okay? There. I said it. I want to kiss you, and I know that’s crazy, because we’re mates, but that’s how it is. And then I come in here and you… you’re like that, and what’s a bloke supposed to do?’
‘Kiss me,’ she blurted, in a voice that sounded so strange she had to rewind and check it was definitely hers.
He didn’t move. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Seriously, Nate, my jeans are so tight I’m lying here like a plank, I can barely breathe and my internal organs are shutting down – if you don’t kiss me now you might never get another chance.’ It was so hard to laugh in these jeans, but she could definitely do the grin that was on her face right now, one that was only wiped off when he came back to her, crouched down and kissed her. Once. Twice.
‘I think we’re going to be here for a while,’ he whispered, his fingers stroking the side of her face.
The grin was back, and her eyes were locked on his. ‘I think I’m okay with that.’
This was like one of those movie scenes with fireworks and streamers and cheering crowds, only it was all going on inside her head. The only reason she hadn’t allowed herself to be attracted to him was because she hadn’t thought for a second that he was interested in her. Sure, they spent loads of time together. And yes, sometimes they’d sit up all night talking or playing cards or just listening to music on his CD player. And okay, he had started to come to their shows on his nights off. But Moira had just assumed he had a thing for Lisa, like every other male on the island.
Apparently not. Because he was kissing her again and oh, it felt good and now his fingers were trailing along her stomach and?—
The door flew open and Carina and Lisa charged in.
‘Eeeew, my eyes,’ came a howl from Posh Pal.
Lisa was more supportive with, ‘About time. He’s been wanting to do that for months.’
‘Really?’ Moira asked him.
‘Maybe.’ Nate admitted sheepishly.
Lisa cut right in. ‘It’s all he talks about, he’s fancied you for ages, but he swore me to secrecy so I couldn’t tell you. Okay, that’s you up to date. Jesus, what kind of bra is that? It’s fecking huge.’
‘Months?’ Moira asked him, still stuck on that bit and trying to control a second round of fireworks in her head. He was now just grinning at her with a daft smile on his gorgeous face.
‘Look, this is all very lovely, but it’s going to have to wait because we need you,’ Carina said, and for the first time, Moira noticed she was pacing the floor. Carina didn’t do pacing.
Lisa echoed the demand. ‘Yeah, we need you to come with us. Now. It’s urgent.’
Why did this have to be now? Did the universe hate her?
It didn’t matter. The bottom line was that pals came before blokes, so there was only one thing to do.
‘Okay, but it’s going to take at least two of you to get me up because I can’t bend.’
Carina sighed and shook her head, but Lisa pitched in and between her and Nate they managed to pull her up.
‘Can we take a raincheck on the whole kissing thing? I’ll wear a better bra next time.’
Before he could answer, Carina firmly nudged him out of the room. ‘We love you, Nate, but bye…’
As soon as the door closed behind him, Carina spun around. ‘I’m late.’
‘For what?’ Moira asked. They weren’t due at work until 6p.m.
‘No, late late. Period late.’
It was all starting to make horrible, terrifying sense. ‘Oh no. No, no, no.’
‘We bought a test,’ Lisa interjected, pulling a brown paper bag from her backpack.
Moira grabbed a sweatshirt that was lying on her bed and pulled it on. ‘Go do it now. Carina, it’s going to be okay. Either way, we’ll work it out.’ Moira had no idea what she was saying, but she was just trying to make Carina stop pacing.
Lisa pressed the test into Carina’s hands, and she disappeared into the bathroom. ‘Keep talking to me while I do this, otherwise I’ll freak out,’ she insisted, from the other side of the door that had been left open, so they could hear her but not see her.
‘Okay. I don’t get it though – you never have sex without a condom.’
Silence.
‘Carina?’
A small voice that oozed regret answered. ‘But I did. Just once. The ball at the naval base. The guy I was seeing. Rod. We got carried away and I swear to God if you make another joke about his gangplank, I’ll never forgive you.’
‘Not saying a word.’ The joke about the gangplank stayed inside with the fireworks from earlier, locked in by the crushing anxiety and fear she was now feeling for her friend. This could change everything for Carina. Ruin her plans. Devastate her. And her stroppy, snobby cow of a mother would have a fit. She’d already cut her off financially to try to make her go home. Who knew what she’d do if she found out about this.
‘How are you doing in there?’ Lisa asked, looking fearful.
Moira slipped her hand into her friend’s and squeezed it.
Carina came out at that moment, clutching the stick, holding it out in front of her so that they could both see it. ‘If a blue line appears in that box in the next sixty seconds, I’m screwed.’
For a full minute, all three of them stood, silent, still, and stared at a white stick.