Chapter Thirteen
Rowan
Lila had asked for space to think, to try and get a handle on things again, and Rowan had tried to give her that, but the complete lack of response to his texts had him worried. He went in early to the unit base and instead of going to wardrobe first, he went straight to makeup to see if he could grab her to talk again.
It wasn’t professional, and it was probably the last thing she needed – for him to be so obvious in front of everyone – but it wasn’t like it was a secret anymore. Sibyl knew, Ruth knew, what was the point in sneaking around anymore?
Only she wasn’t there in makeup. Just Ruth.
‘Where’s Lila?’
‘Good morning to you too.’ She raised her eyebrows at him. ‘And shouldn’t you know, since she’s your girlfriend? Oroneof your girlfriends I should say.’
‘Only girlfriend – if she’s still talking to me,’ he replied.
Ruth looked somewhat mollified at that and sighed. ‘She’s gone.’
‘Gone?’
‘Gone. Packed her bags and left.’
‘She’s leftSicily?’
‘Apparently. Said she had a family emergency – although given that she lied about the pair of you and it’s all come out in the wash, I’m guessing that might not be one hundred per cent true, and now she’s left us in the lurch.’
Rowan rubbed his hand down his face. She’d left. And not told him.
Because everything she’d told him and that he’d witnessed, he’d still not quite grasped just how hard all this had been for her to deal with.
‘She lied because she wanted some privacy, that’s all,’ he said. ‘What business is it of anyone’s whether we’re seeing each other or not?’
‘She was my roommate and – I thought – my friend. It’s shitty being lied to, you know. She could have told me, and I would have kept it a secret for her. And you. Apart from anything, I owe you.’
‘You don’t owe me, Ruth, but if you did, the only favour you could have done me was not jumping down Lila’s throat when you found out about us dating. As her friend and her roommate, you must have noticed how shy she is? Sure, it hurt your feelings, but maybe you should equally ask yourself why she didn’t trust you. I was there when you were teasing her about meeting someone on the beach, threatening not to let her off the hook. Did you not notice how uncomfortable she was with that?’
Ruth crossed her arms. ‘I didn’t mean any harm. I was just trying to encourage her to come out of her shell.’
‘But you didn’t think about how she’d feel, did you? And what if she didn’twantto come out of her shell? Extroverts aren’t the only people with a right to live their lives the way they want.’
Ruth’s eyes widened but she didn’t snap straight back. ‘All right, all right, you don’t have to lay it on so thick.’ She leaned her weight back against the counter and narrowed her eyes at him. ‘You really care about her. Lila said you two only got together out here, that it’s only actually been a couple of weeks? Is that true?’
‘Yeah.’ Only a couple of weeks. Nowhere near long enough. It couldn’t be over. She made everything better for him…but maybe he made everything worse for her. ‘Did she say where she went?’
‘No. But I’m assuming back to New York because of the family thing.’
He pushed a hand through his hair and sighed. The only family she really had in New York was her mum, who would hardly be a comfort to her. ‘Could you do me a favour? If you do hear from her, can you let me know, please? I just want to know she’s okay.’
‘Sure. Maybe she’ll come back? When the “emergency” is over.’ She used her fingers to make inverted commas.
‘Do you think Sibyl will take her back?’
‘I don’t know. I guess she will if you want her to.’
His mouth twisted. Lila wouldn’t want that. He had no doubt it was Sibyl who had blabbed, not Sally – because it wouldn’t have been news to Ruth otherwise, since they were old friends.
Shit. Cassandra had probably gone to stay with Sibyl when he sent her packing the other day. She was probably one of the people working on the film Cassandra had mentioned knowing. She would have gone over, livid at him, and Sibyl would have seen an opportunity to help her out. Why hadn’t he thought about it? He’d been totally preoccupied with getting to Lila. So short-sighted as usual.
He couldn’t even go and tear a strip off Sibyl. It would be the nail in the coffin one way or the other – either because Sibyl would refuse to take Lila back, or because shewouldtake her back on, but Lila would hate him for doing the wrong thing again.
