17
‘What the FUCK?’
It sounded like Adam was coming in to apologise to me again, his voice sounding genuinely remorseful, but any hint of that is gone as he shouts across the room. I’m still wrapping my head around what’s going on when suddenly more voices start chiming in.
‘What’s going on?’
‘Lottie can you— oh my god!’
‘Wait, is it what I think it is, woohoo, about fucking time!’
Realising all of my friends are stumbling upon the scene is the cue I need to finally move, and I scramble to reach for the duvet then throw it over myself, which only serves to trap Rory under there too. But not for long.
In the space of a second Adam’s stormed into the room and grabbed Rory by the shoulders, only his attempt to haul him up is useless given that Rory’s clearly the stronger of the two.
Instead, he resorts to pushing against Rory’s chest, barely nudging him, but it’s the flare of his nostrils and the white-knuckled clenching of his fists that has me worried.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ he spits, and I quickly reach down the side of the bed to grab a pair of pyjama shorts and start wiggling into them under the covers.
‘I think you could see exactly what I was doing, and I’m not thrilled at having been interrupted.’ Rory smirks, drawing to his full height, arms crossed in front of his chest and I could almost laugh if I wasn’t still mortified.
Adam doesn’t like that one bit, his face turning red hot as he takes another step closer to Rory, sizing him up. ‘Do you know who I am? Who I am to her?’
Rory chuffs, head nodding like it’s obvious. ‘Yeah, buddy, I know who you are. And I think you mean what you were to her. It’s clear what you are now is a pain in the arse, so if you don’t mind me asking, fuck off.’
Oh no, I think, as Adam gets more riled up, like a wound-up spring that’s about to be let loose and cause utter chaos. I’ve managed to cover myself, so I jump out of the bed ready to position myself between them, but I’m too late.
Adam launches himself at Rory with enough force to make him stumble but not fall. He rights himself quickly, fast enough to duck and avoid Adam’s swinging fist, and I hear gasps from the doorway where all my friends are still looking on. Their collective heads all peeking into the room.
‘Are you guys planning on helping, or just enjoying the show?’ I ask, throwing my hands in the direction of Rory and Adam as Rory dodges another swing.
The force of it leaves Adam dizzily falling against the wall and nearly punching a hole through that instead.
‘I’m happy watching,’ Tilly says.
The others all nod their heads in agreement, and I groan. They are going to be no help at all.
I inch closer, trying to stay out of the way of Adam’s flailing arms as he moves in a frenzy.
‘How about we all calm down and…’
Adam whirls around to where I’m standing by the bed and I instantly back away.
‘Oh, so now you’re trying to be the peacemaker when the whole reason this is happening is because you’re whoring yourself around!’ he spits back at me, and I’m stunned.
I hear Rory sigh, glancing over at me as he rolls the muscles in his neck and clicks his knuckles.
‘Sorry, but now he’s left me no choice,’ he says.
Then he throws a perfectly timed punch that lands squarely on Adam’s jaw.
His head whips to the side, but before he has time to come back to his senses, Rory’s charged at him, arms wrapped around his middle and they start barrelling towards the doorway.
The floating heads of my other friends scatter, jumping away like cartoon characters.
I join them and we all chase after the action as Rory keeps pushing Adam backwards.
I keep thinking they’ll stop, but if anything they get faster until they’re suddenly dangerously close to the front door.
Rory groans as Adam jams his knee up into his stomach, finally managing to wriggle free, but instead of separating he uses his freedom as a run-up to push Rory out of the doorway.
Rory grabs him though at the last second, and together they tumble out of the front door and into the thick snow that surrounds the chalet.
I don’t know what to do as they continue to brawl, Adam shouting expletives I can’t make out whilst Rory continues to dodge any strikes.
I turn to find the others gathered behind me again, Tilly with her phone out, videoing. I move so I’m standing right in front of the camera with my arms folded.
‘Okay, can we agree we’ve all had our fun now and can someone please help me end this craziness?’
‘Not if ending it means Rory will have to put a shirt back on,’ she says, and I roll my eyes.
Even Meghan can’t look away from Rory, his still-naked torso practically glistening as it gets covered with a dusting of snow.
‘Hey! Long-term boyfriend standing right here,’ Lucas says, waving his hand in front of her face, which she bats away before they both laugh to themselves.
I smile, watching the way they joke so easily with each other, and I can’t recall a time they’ve ever argued or bickered. Not like me and Adam, who is currently telling Rory where he can stick it.
I huff, finally at the end of my tether. I stomp down the front porch steps, getting as close as I dare before yelling at the top of my lungs. ‘For god’s sake will you both grow up, you testosterone-fuelled IDIOTS!’
They pause for long enough to look over at me, and they must see how done I am with them both as I stand there with my arms crossed, tapping my foot against the snow.
I realise then that I didn’t put any shoes on before coming out here, and all at once a wave of pain shoots from my ankle up towards my knee.
I wince, taking as much weight off it as I can, and try to ignore the sharp stinging that’s coming both from my injury and the freezing snow my toes are sinking into.
‘Shit, your ankle! Let me get your shoes,’ Rory says, stepping forward.
‘Let me carry you back inside,’ Adam says at the same time, but I lift both my hands up to stop them.
‘Enough!’
They freeze. I squeeze my fingers against my temples and take a deep breath to try and steady myself, but I’m too riled up.
‘I don’t need either of you helping me right now. What I need is for you to keep your hands to yourselves and listen to me for two seconds.’
Thankfully they do, and so I address them each in turn, starting with my troublemaker of an ex. ‘Adam, I honestly don’t even know where to start with you.’
‘I’m so sorry, Lotts,’ he rushes out.
So much for letting me speak for two seconds.
‘Listen, you know I didn’t mean it, I—’ He advances towards me but I push him away with two hands planted firmly on his chest.
‘No, Adam, you listen!’ He stumbles back a bit, clutching at where I pushed him, but I’m not backing down. ‘You can’t just say an awful thing about me and then think an apology will cut it.’
Whoring myself around. He actually said that to me. A person he claims he still cares about. Does he seriously think he can patch up the cut those words have made on my heart with a blurted apology?
‘And all of this…’ I continue, gesturing around us at the snow that’s now got the shape of two bodies imprinted into it, at Rory, and at the others who are watching us like we’re primetime TV. ‘It’s ridiculous, Adam!’
‘I know, but—’
‘Later,’ I cut him off. Unlike him, I don’t want to end up saying something I’m going to regret. ‘Just go. Please.’
He doesn’t like that, but at least he takes the hint this time and shrinks backwards, walking sulkily towards the house.
‘And you.’ I turn to Rory, who is still standing unashamedly shirtless in the freezing cold. I focus on his face, not wanting his body to distract me from letting him know he’s not off the hook.
‘I came on this holiday with the goal of creating as little drama for everyone as possible, and whatever that was…’ I trail off, picturing the way he landed that punch on Adam’s jaw.
‘And whatever this is…’ I go on, pointing between us, the events of today leaving me with no clear idea on how to describe what our relationship to each other is. ‘It’s a lot.’
I finish, unable to think of a more articulate way to sum up how I’m feeling. Instead, I wrap my arms around myself to ward off some of the chill. Unlike Adam, Rory waits before he speaks, checking I’ve said all I want to say.
‘I’m sorry. I may have gotten a bit carried away.’ He lifts one arm to scratch the hair at the back of his neck, causing the muscles along the side of his chest to stretch taut.
‘Very. You got very carried away,’ I correct.
Adam may have been the one to start the fight, but Rory sure as hell didn’t help.
Do I find it sexy that he jumped in so quickly to defend me?
Yes. But am I also annoyed with him for doing so when it’s objectively made everything worse with Adam?
That too. And I need some space to be able to work through both of those feelings without him and his bare chest tempting me to pull him back inside and finish what we started.
‘There’s a lot of history here,’ I admit, an understatement to describe the complex path of mine and Adam’s relationship over the years. ‘And I need to deal with this on my own. Can you let me do that?’
He pauses as if he wants to say something, offer his help maybe, but in the end he just nods.
‘Do you have your phone, or a piece of paper and a pen?’ he asks.
‘My what?’ I pat my sides, but somewhere in all the commotion I took off my fleece. Even if I was still wearing it, I now remember that my phone is in the pocket of my coat, which is hanging up inside.
‘Here!’ Tilly appears at my side, thrusting a pen into my hand instead. ‘I couldn’t find any paper.’
How she got there that quickly is beyond me, but when I turn, I see that Meghan, David and Lucas are still gathered at the doorway, all trying to look like they’re engrossed in the paintwork on the wraparound porch.
‘Uh, thanks,’ I say, taking the pen from her hand, although I’m not sure it’ll be of any use on its own.