Chapter 10 #2
Flick had no words at all. That song, by a group called Purple Dragon, had been everywhere thanks to the annoyingly catchy tune and the stupid video that accompanied it.
There was even a ‘Crazy Monkey’ dance which everyone knew and would recreate in the clubs and pubs.
She’d danced to it herself when going out with her friends in London.
There were videos of people doing the dance from all over the world.
And there was merchandise, hats, t-shirts, mugs with the silly monkey on it, it was a phenomenon.
And while the furore had well and truly died down now, Luke must still be making fairly decent money from it.
He’d get money from people watching the video on YouTube, let alone any other revenue streams for it.
Suddenly the penny dropped. That was why Natalia and some of the other women of the town were always sniffing around him.
They wanted him for his money. That was why Polly had come out with a massive list of utensils and machines that she absolutely must have because she knew Luke was footing the bill.
Flick felt sick. The list of all the things she had got Luke to buy for the gift shop cost thousands too. She had unknowingly been as bad as everyone else. It would all have to go back, every single thing, and she felt her heart break a little because of that.
She heard a noise behind her and turned round to see Luke, who judging by his face had heard a good portion of the conversation or at least her side.
‘I, umm… I need to go,’ Flick said.
‘Oh OK. Tell Luke I’m not happy about any of this.’
‘I will,’ Flick said, weakly. She said her goodbyes and hung up.
‘I was going to tell you,’ Luke said.
‘But you didn’t.’
He pushed his hand through his hair. ‘I tried to last night.’
She frowned in confusion. ‘When did you try?’
‘When I said I was secretly rich and famous.’
She scoffed. ‘That’s not… That’s like when people say they are secretly Batman or secretly a witch. No one takes that seriously. That’s not how you tell someone you’re a millionaire.’
‘How do you tell someone?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but not like that.’
‘It’s not easy, believe me.’
‘Well when it was obvious I didn’t believe you, why didn’t you tell me you were telling the truth? Make me believe you.’
‘What, when you were going on about how much you hate rich people? Yeah, that felt like the perfect time.’
She realised why he’d been so adamant about some rich people being nice. She had to concede she had probably made it difficult for him to come out with the truth.
‘Why didn’t you tell me before? ’
‘I didn’t know you before.’
‘You knew me well enough to sleep with me.’
‘That’s different.’
‘I’m sure it is, especially when it’s just sex. It doesn’t matter if you know the person or not.’
‘It wasn’t just sex.’
‘Wasn’t it? I trusted you completely to feel comfortable enough to sleep with you, but you didn’t trust me at all.’
‘I did. I do.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me before instead of making up the lies about the kitty?’
‘I didn’t lie as such. I didn’t lie when I said there was an anonymous donor. I just didn’t tell you the anonymous donor was me.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because you wouldn’t have accepted the money and I wanted to help.
I’ve been very lucky in my life, and I’m living my dream being able to do wood sculptures every day.
I wanted to be able to do the same for you.
And when would have been a good time to admit the truth?
When you walked in on me naked? When I properly introduced myself a few hours later, “Hello, I’m Luke Donnelly and I’m a millionaire”?
Everything has moved so quick for us. There just wasn’t a right time. ’
‘You should have found the time.’
He sighed. ‘I should have and I’m sorry.
But every single person in Lovegrove Bay knows who I am and how much money I have.
It’s impossible to have any kind of friendship or relationship without wondering whether they like me for me or because of the size of my wallet – and ninety-nine percent of the time it’s the latter.
That’s why I’m leaving because it’s just become unbearable.
I wanted you to get to know me without any preconceptions. ’
‘You were testing me?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘Yes, you were. You wanted to see how I’d act around you when I didn’t know you had any money. Well I guess I failed that test, I gave you a list the length of my arm of things I wanted to get for the gift shop. I’m just as bad as Polly and everyone else using you for your money.’
‘You didn’t know I was footing the bill and you offered to pay me back. No one has ever done that before.’
‘Well, everything is going to be sent back. I’ll package it all up and send it back today, including these stupid shelves.’
Luke pushed his hand through his hair. ‘Now you’re being ridiculous.’
‘No, I don’t want your money. I told you before, throwing money at this isn’t the answer.’
‘I’m not just throwing money at it. Having the café and the gift shop will get people through the door, which will help the artists to sell their products.
It will bring in much needed revenue to support the studios and most importantly will help to fund the workshops for those with brain injuries.
This is an investment and one I’m happy to make. ’
‘Why?’
He frowned. ‘You know this place is important to me because it helped my mum after her stroke. I want to save it for her and for your grandad who created such a brilliant legacy of helping other people. And I want to help you, you’re passionate about saving it and I can help, so why the hell not?’
Flick folded her arms across her chest, not liking the idea of being beholden to him.
‘Your bias against rich people is clouding your view of this. I want to help, there is no ulterior motive here. If you’re thinking that I bought you all this because I wanted you to repay me with sex then you don’t know me at all.
And if you do think that then we need to end this now because I can’t be with someone who thinks that little of me. Is that what you think?’
She frowned. Was that what this was? Was her bad experience with Ryan tainting this?
Was her subconscious waiting for Luke to demand something in return?
No, she knew Luke wasn’t like that. She trusted him.
She was just annoyed that she’d spent thousands of pounds of his money without realising and it still stung that he hadn’t told her.
‘I’ll take that as a yes,’ Luke said and walked out.
‘Luke, wait.’
But he didn’t and she was left alone feeling frustrated and annoyed.
Flick went looking for Luke later. She was still frustrated that he hadn’t told her before and that she’d inadvertently spent thousands of pounds of his money but she did understand why he hadn’t immediately shared that kind of information.
It wasn’t like she had led with ‘Hi I’m Flick Hunter, I have one hundred and sixty-four pounds, eighty-seven pence in my account.
’ It had just come as such a shock. Luke didn’t act or look like a millionaire.
It had also been hard to hear her nan dismiss what they’d shared because he hadn’t told Flick the truth.
She walked into his studio but while the lights were on and there was evidence he had been working there, he wasn’t there now. She wondered, briefly, if he was hiding from her in the store cupboard at the back of the studio space before she dismissed it.
She saw movement outside and realised he was in the garden standing in front of the wonky tree. She quickly moved outside.
‘Hey,’ she said.
He glanced at her and then looked back to the tree.
She chewed her lip and stepped closer.
‘The storm took out three out of the four supporting cables last night and one of the poles,’ Luke said, gesturing to the tree.
‘Oh no.’
‘We need to get someone up here quickly to try to reinforce it again but honestly anything stronger than a breeze and this thing is going to go. Look.’ Luke gave the tree a shove and it rocked precariously, lifting visibly out of the ground.
‘Most of the roots are dead anyway and so brittle, there’s nothing really left to cling to the soil. ’
‘Is there anything we can do in the meantime?’
‘Well, we can always get a concrete lorry to come up here and pour concrete in the hole. That might stop it from falling.’
‘Wouldn’t that kill it?’
‘I think the tree is clinging onto life by its fingernails. There are less than half the leaves we had last year and look at the state of them, brown and curling at the edges. At least if we concreted the tree in place it would preserve the landmark.’
‘I’d rather pour a load of compost in the hole with a ton of plant food and hope we can save the roots, rather than admit defeat.’
A smile spread across Luke’s face. ‘You really do like to fight for the underdog, don’t you?’
She didn’t know what to say to that.
‘OK, compost it is. I’ll make some phone calls and see what we can do about getting the tree reinforced too.’ He turned and walked away.
Flick stared after him. Were they really not going to talk about this?
She moved towards him. ‘Luke, wait.’
He turned back and suddenly his eyes widened in horror and he charged towards her. He rugby tackled her to the ground, cradling her body and head as they hit the floor just as the branches of the tree landed around them with a loud crash .
Her heart was racing at what had just happened but to her relief she realised they were surrounded by the thinner branches near the top, which shouldn’t have caused any injury. So she was shocked when Luke let out a moan of pain.
‘Oh my god Luke, are you OK?’ Flick said.
He let out another groan and a wheeze.
She moved her hands round his back to make sure he hadn’t been speared by one of the branches. She checked his back, sides, shoulders, neck and bum but could find no obvious sign of injury.