Chapter 26
Cece
“Addy? Addy?” My knocking grows more frantic by the second, but I keep my voice low.
I have no desire to be kicked out of Nikau Palms. After spending what feels like a billion hours listening to Will Sharpe’s autobiographical exploits, I need a shower more than I ever have in my life, and there’s no way I'm risking losing my reservation at the one place I’m willing to take my clothes off right now.
“Adalasia Renaldo, open this door right now or I swear to God, I’ll tell Aggie you think all her cooking is shit!”
The door swings open.
“Bit drastic, Cee.”
Jake is standing in the doorway in nothing but a towel, his tattooed arms folded across his chest. For a second, my heart leaps.
He’s here! He came for her! He’s clearly post-nut!
Then I remember his coffee with Jenny and scowl at him.
Fucking doesn’t mean forgiving, so until I know he’s made amends, Jake Graves-Holland is still far from my good books.
“Where’s Ada?” I snap.
“Bedroom,” he says, stepping aside.
“Addy?”
“Cee?”
I walk into the room and find Ada sitting up in bed, the covers pulled to her chest.
“Hi,” she says. She looks scared, and my heart clenches. I’ve been running on fumes since I left Silverlight, and having listened to her voicemail in the car over, I only now remember we’re still technically fighting.
“Fuck,” I say, “I’m so sorry about everything.”
She closes her eyes. “Me too.”
“Me more, especially the part where I said you should act normal. You’re better than normal. You’re amazing.”
“Thank you, and I know that’s not what you meant when you said ‘act normal.’ You meant ‘normal for me.’” She opens her arms. “Come here.”
I take a running jump at the bed and wrap myself around her.
Ada’s hugs are like solar eclipses, rare, but always perfect.
She doesn’t let people close enough for touches like this often, so every time I get one, I make the most of it.
Then I tuck the memory away in the special little Ada pocket of my heart where I can pull it out when I need an extra surge of strength.
“You girls want a cup of tea?”
“Go to hell, Jake!”
“We like Jake now,” Ada whispers. “We’ve made up.”
“Ooh, yay,” I whisper back. “Yes, please, Jake, that would be great!”
“Sure thing, Cee.” His voice is drier than the Sahara, and I shrug at Ada.
“Better to be safe than sorry.”
She smiles. “Definitely. Could I please have a cup of tea, too, babe?”
“Of course,” Jake says at once.
“Ooh, babe,” I tease Ada, and she pokes me right in the ticklish part of my ribs. “Sorry, sorry!”
“I’m guessing you listened to my voicemail?”
“Yeah.” I flop back on the mattress. “Thanks for saying sorry. But you were right about some stuff. I should have bitten Col Wintergreen’s ear off for that gum stunt.”
Ada snorts, no doubt at the thought of me physically attacking anyone, let alone a member of the first fifteen. “You couldn’t save me from myself.”
“I could have done better. I should have. I was so insecure about myself and where I fit in, and I was afraid to call people out for their shit behaviour.”
“Ah, Cee.” She squeezes my hand. “High school was a balls-up for everyone. The whole fucking thing.”
“Doesn’t matter what it was. I’m still sorry.”
“Me too.”
“Can we draw a line under it now?” I ask. “Forgive each other for how we both acted when we were too stupid to know better? Dump all the underlying causes on our future therapists.”
“Sounds good to me, best friend.” Ada smiles, and at least one of the massive knots that’s been pulling my chest tight all evening unravels.
“I love you,” I say, holding up my forearm.
Ada bumps her tattoo against mine. “I love you too.”
We keep our forearms pressed together for a moment until the eye contact clearly becomes too much for Ada.
“Right,” she says, turning away. “So, is there a reason you’re knocking down my door after midnight, instead of being badly sexed up by Will Sharpe? Is the nightmare already over? Did he lose his dick in a violent car-related accident? Please say yes.”
I sigh. “Unfortunately, he remains intact. Even more unfortunately, he remains functional. The closest he got to me was an elevator pash and an extremely mild feel through his pants, so you can take heart from that.”
Ada gapes at me. “Not that I’m not incredibly pleased, but how the fuck did this happen?”
“What’s going on?” Jake enters the room carrying two cups of tea. “I heard something about dick touching?”
“It was over the pants and definitely does not count.”
“True.” Jake delivers us our tea and rightly moves to pull the cozy-looking armchair in the corner over so I can stay where I am on the bed next to Ada.
I look at Ada over the rim of my teacup. “God, you were right. Will Sharpe is such a raging asshole. You’ve been trying to tell me. And I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
“What about Davis?” Jake interjects, and I stare at him in confusion.
“What about Davis?”
“He’s not a raging asshole.”
I raise a brow. “No, Gossip Girl, he’s not.
But what he probably is, is sick of my shit.
Even if he liked me—” Ada and Jake both open their mouths, and I hold up a hand to stop them saying anything.
“Even if he liked me, I’ve blown that now.
I’ll be lucky if he hasn’t handed in his resignation when I get back to Auckland. ”
“Do you want him to?” Jake asks.
“Of course not!” Heat crawls up my cheeks. “I don’t want to lose him! I mean…” I fumble over my words, the day’s emotions taking their toll, “… I don’t want the bar to lose him.”
“Cece.” Ada hits me with a hard stare, which is impressive considering she looks like an Italian Elizabeth Taylor right now, all big hair and big eyes under a strategically placed sheet. “It’s time to be honest. You don’t want to lose him for you.”
“Okay. I don’t want to lose him for me,” I whisper. “But I don’t see how I can keep him when I’ve spent the last month banging on about wanting someone else. I’ve royally fucked it up.”
“Interesting,” Jake mumbles, but he’s typing shit on his phone while he says it, so he’s clearly not interested.
“But this isn’t about Davis. It’s about Will.” I shake away the cloak of shame that surrounds me every time I open the Davis-shaped door in my head. “But it’s not what you think.” I reach for my clutch lying discarded beside me on the bed, and pull out my phone.
“I’ve brought you a present to apologise for not listening.” I press play on the recording. Will’s voice fills the room:
“And of course, they’re happy to be here. Gives the business a bit of a write-off too, which has been good because, like I said, Dad is breathing down my neck, now Jenny and I have called it off. But he can’t afford to lose our contract with the farm. They upgrade to every new model, y’know?”
I click pause and hand the phone to Ada. “I didn’t have the details you did, so I just asked as many questions as I could. I hope there’s something helpful on there.”
“You recorded Will for me? About Thompson Farms?”
I nod. “I don’t know if it will be any use, but you said he was in it up to his neck. Maybe there’s something you can use.”
Ada and Jake share one of those couple’s looks, which thrills me, until she says:
“We sort of have a plan in place already about Thrasher. And Grace. And the farm.”
I leave Ada’s hotel room two hours later, having agreed to join them in the morning when they meet up with everyone else now involved in this bizarre, super massive revenge plan.
My head is spinning from everything they’ve found out.
Everything I’ve found out. Everything Betty is compiling into a dossier that’s going to rock not only Thompson Farms, but all of Pukekohe.
As I climb into the shower to scrub off what feels like a lifetime of grime, I find myself overwhelmed with relief and something like gratitude.
That I have a friend like Ada. That Jake came when she needed him and that he’s been here for her ever since.
Without him… I shudder to even imagine what could have happened.
I saw Ada’s flute on the bedside table. I didn’t say anything, but I noticed.
And Ada noticed me noticing, a pink flush colouring her cheeks as she smiled at Jake.
He smiled back, and I realised they’re perfect for each other.
She’s found The One, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted for her.
That, and for her to make music again, both of which seem to have happened tonight.
Knowing that should be more than enough to make me happy, but when I climb out of the shower and finally tumble into the blessed softness of bed, my final thoughts are of Davis Sanderson, and where in the world he might be.
My racing mind wakes me before the sun does.
I shower again, more out of a desire to scrub any remaining traces of Will Sharpe from my skin than any real need for cleanliness.
I throw on a pair of ripped jeans and my old Pukekohe High sweatshirt and head to Ada’s hotel door.
From the sounds coming from inside, she and Jake might be a while, so I head down the street to Penny’s Café alone.
Pukekohe wakes up early. The sky is still pink-streaked, but Penny’s is slinging takeaway coffees and venison pies to a steady stream of customers in hi-vis and work boots, even on a Saturday.
I watch them closely, more alert than I’d normally be after everything I learnt last night.
But I don’t see anyone I recognise, and nobody gives me a second look.
My phone pings with an email on my second cup of tea.
Dear Ms. Taylor,
Thank you for your interest in the primary care position at Pukekohe Family Health. Please find attached an information packet and the link to apply. We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,
Jobseekers