Chapter 26 #2
Their airways were checked, and tight-fitting masks fitted over both their faces.
Inside the ambulance, both of them were set up with IVs.
The mask on Lucas’s face was making him feel hot again, pressing into his skin, but the oxygen being pumped into him was a relief, and he sagged into the sensation.
When he squeezed Clem’s hand – because she still looked petrified, and as grey as stone – she didn’t let go.
He could feel her hand quaking and he looped his fingers through hers.
Even as they were transported from ambulance to hospital for more tests, and they were separated, he couldn’t stop thinking about Clem’s panic-stricken face, the smoke engulfing her like the thick, heady breaths of a monster, her shaking.
The whole tent could have come down on top of her. She could have died.
He never would have seen her again.
Had that been Georgina’s plan all along? It made him sick thinking about it. She still couldn’t let him go, after all this time, but would she resort to this ?
On the way out of hospital – he’d tried to find Clem but she’d messaged him to say her mum had picked her up – he fished his phone from his jeans and tapped out a message.
I saw you go behind the tent, Georgina , he wrote. We need to talk.
She saw the message but didn’t reply. His suspicions prickled at him like ivy. Did she really have something to do with this? Considering the possibility made the prickling sensation increase until he felt hot and itchy.
Why had he fought so hard to keep away from Clem?
He could have fought for both – his family and for her.
He’d been so convinced that any relationship outside of the one with his family was a distraction, he’d ignored how he really felt about her.
And if something had happened to her, he would have sorely regretted that forever.
His previous concerns had drifted away like a wisp of smoke, because he’d realised what he should have known all along. That if you cared about someone, it was worth holding on to. Life was too short. Perhaps in maintaining his friendship with Georgina, he’d been holding on to the wrong things.
*
The day after the fire, Lucas was at home, coffee brewing in the pot in the kitchen, and filling the house with the scent of rich, aromatic beans.
In the chaos following the fire, no winner had been announced on the grass yesterday as planned.
The online world was abuzz with talk about the blazing tent and what had caused it – how whoever was responsible should be brought to justice and punished.
They were also demanding to know who had won.
Lucas’s feelings on winning had churned in the aftermath of the fire.
He poured steaming, hot coffee into a mug and splashed in some milk and sugar.
He didn’t know how he felt. His burning drive to win had gone, replaced by numbness.
Maybe that was simply what had happened to him in the tent.
Either way, he couldn’t control the outcome and he was tired now, tired of pushing.
And he was sick of this cough already, brought on by breathing in so much smoke – he hadn’t slept well, even though the hospital said he needed plenty of rest. He kept waking up to cough repeatedly, his chest painful and tight.
A tap sounded on the front door. Tentative.
Hope soared, because for a moment he thought it was Clem. But he’d asked Georgina to come here.
Reina started barking and bounded into the hallway; he heard her claws clacking on the wooden floor. He left the coffee machine gurgling and went to open the door. Reina danced around his heels, bushy tail swinging, pink tongue on display.
‘Down, girl,’ he said, stifling another series of coughs as she tried to leap upwards and nearly toppled him over. ‘Calm down.’
With Reina somewhat subdued, circling him in the hall, he opened the door.
Georgina stood on the doorstep, looking distinctly less polished and shiny than usual.
Her hair was scraped up into a messy ponytail, with lumps sticking up along the side of her head, and her denim dress was creased.
There were purplish circles under her eyes; she mustn’t have slept.
The only items she carried were her phone and car keys.
‘Dwayne’s not here, is he?’ she checked. Her voice was strained, stretched out with panic.
Lucas held Reina by the collar to stop her from tackling Georgina. ‘ No , girl,’ he chided her, the emphasis on the word making him cough again. ‘And no, he’s at work like I said he would be,’ he added, voice a little scratchy. ‘All day.’
They had agreed Lucas would be on sick leave until he recovered – he’d spoken to his doctor this morning, who had also said that was a good idea.
If he took good care of himself and there were no additional complications, he could be working at Muddy Paws Café in a week or two.
Clem was also on leave from work – she’d messaged him the previous evening – though she apparently felt guilty about leaving Catpurrcino with a limited supply of baked goods.
‘Come in,’ said Lucas tightly, stepping aside. When Georgina stepped into the hall, he shut the door behind her and led the way into the kitchen. Reina danced alongside them, her tail wagging vigorously in excitement.
It was less bright in here, the sky outside having switched from luminous yesterday to clouded over and grey, the humid air and stickiness hinting at a thunderstorm to come. Thick, dark clouds were journeying across the sky.
‘Coffee?’ he said, gesturing to the machine, coffee still filtering through into the jug.
‘Okay . . . thanks,’ said Georgina.
When he started clattering around, she jumped, like a rabbit spooked by a car.
He remembered how she liked her coffee. Milky, sweet – but not real sugar, it had to be sweetener.
Behind him, she was twisting her car keys in her hand, jangling them.
He glanced back. Reina came over to sniff at them, intrigued, and she patted the dog on the head.
‘It was an accident,’ she blurted.
Lucas almost upended the coffee mug he’d poured liquid into and grabbed the top to steady it, nearly splashing the scalding liquid on his hand. ‘ What? ’ he said, turning to face her again, agape. ‘So it was you! Georgina – I mean, Genie, have you got any idea what—’
‘It really was a mistake!’ she shrilled, tearful. She clutched her car keys tightly, knuckles whitening. Reina whined and licked at her hands. ‘I went for a cigarette, figured I could be quick while the judges deliberated—’
‘So what? You flicked a lit cigarette into dry grass? In the middle of a heatwave? Are you stupid ?’
Her silence said it all. That was exactly what she’d done. He laughed in utter disbelief, although it wasn’t funny. Reina was cocking her head, looking between them, sensing something amiss between the humans.
‘Have you told anyone it was you?’ he demanded. He had abandoned her coffee now, forgotten on the countertop. He coughed, rubbing his chest to ease the ache.
‘No, I—’
‘You should —’
‘Lucas, I could get in serious trouble! I didn’t mean to cause it!’ she cried. ‘As if my life isn’t a mess enough, struggling for money in London, screwing up my chance with you—’
‘Listen,’ he interrupted her, voice hoarse, either from the coughing or the stress.
‘This has to stop. I told you I wasn’t interested.
I thought you understood, thought you’d move on and find someone in London.
But now you’ve come here and you’ve been picking at things from the past. Punishing Clem for it. ’
Georgina frowned. ‘I told her I liked someone who worked in the bistro, said I’d liked that person for years. She knew it was you and she talked to you anyway—’
‘How do you know ? Did she admit to that, or is this all something you made up to justify behaving like a child?’
Once again, she was quiet, because she had no argument. Lucas took a few deep breaths, trying not to cough. Reina scuffed her way over to his side, nosing at his hand, and he rubbed the side of her head.
‘It was you, wasn’t it?’ he realised suddenly. ‘Sharing around the video of Clem, from university? To try to make her look stupid? Why did you film it in the first place? Why would you do that to her? It was cruel.’
‘I told you! I told her I liked someone from the bistro and she—’
‘Someone? But you never mentioned me by name? She never knew it was the same guy she met in the library?’
Georgina pinched her mouth together, and he had his answer.
‘You know what?’ Lucas said. ‘You need to grow up. I thought London would have matured you but you’re still acting like a spoilt little girl, like we’re in high school or something. We’re twenty-nine . I don’t need this rubbish.’
‘W-What do you mean?’ she replied, blinking away the emotion. ‘We’ve been friends since we were kids, Lukey—’
‘Don’t call me that. We’re done.’
‘Done . . . ?’
‘Yes, done. You can finish up this coffee if you want, then I want you to leave.’ He strode to the fridge to retrieve the milk, splashing it into her cup with minimal effort, adding the sweetener.
It hurt to say all this, like a knife to the chest to go with the other stabbing pains from the smoke inhalation.
But he should have said it a long time ago.
‘We can’t be in each other’s lives anymore. ’
‘Lukey, please—’
‘Don’t,’ he said sharply.