Page 55 of Love Unlocked

His eyes run over her and she feels goosebumps rise. The old familiar feeling. ‘But you don’t want it to be the only thing in your life either. You can’t have it both ways, Melody.’

‘You keep saying that.’

‘Because you don’t get it. You have your music. You should focus on your life. You make it harder for me, having one foot in and one foot out.’

‘But I like working with you and this was our dream,’ she whispers. Her heart beats dangerously.

‘It can’t be ours anymore.’

The penny finally drops. Sam doesn’t just want her to leave today. ‘You’re asking me to leave the business?’

He softens. ‘We could buy you out. Louise and I are planning to someday open our own bricks-and-mortar Stuffed.’

It’s like a punch in the stomach. She steps back. He reaches out to catch her elbow as if she’s falling. Maybe she is. Is this how Al felt when his best friend and fiancée sat him down and told him they were moving on without him? Worse of course, but the feeling of rejection is overwhelming. She started this and now she’s being left behind. ‘When are you going to let her go?’ Louise had asked him when they were in their kitchen, the tabloid newspaper spread open in front of them. Melody is thinking that moment is now.

‘Louise wants me out,’ she says, unable to hold back on the bitterness.

‘It’s my idea,’ he says firmly. ‘I’m doing it for Louise, for our family. For Faith. She has been nothing but patient and understanding in this weird situation.’

‘What weird situation?’

‘This. Us.’

‘What’s weird about us?’ Melody asks, getting vexed and flustered. This is not going her way. First the podcast, then the truck. What next? Her music?

‘Things have been difficult for me and Louise lately,’ he says quietly. ‘It would be healthier for all of us, for me and Louise especially, if you move on. If we move on. Because I have. I really have. I took my time. It took longer than it should have, but Louise had patience and when Faith was born I copped the hell on. I shouldn’t have done this business venture with you, but I wanted you back in my life. I should have let you go when you let me go. But, did you, Melody? Did you let me go?’

Her defences go up. She’s being rejected. ‘Do you think I’m here because I’m still in love with you?’

He stares at her hard.

‘I got into this, because my conscience was eating me alive. I felt like I’d destroyed your life because that’s how everybody made me feel. I felt like I owed you.’

He looks amused, why is he amused? He takes a step towards her.

‘So you did this all for me? Because you felt guilty.’ He stands so close to her, inches away. Eye-level.

‘Not just that.’ She swallows. ‘Because you’re my friend.’ Her voice is just above a whisper. ‘Because I care about you.’

The energy is radiating from him. He’s so close she can feel his warmth. He always made her feel safe. He always made her laugh uncontrollably. He always had her back. They weren’t wildly passionate or romantic but they were best friends and she’d lost him because she couldn’t promise forever. But not forever doesn’t mean never.

She thinks he’s going to kiss her. Her heart pounds. What’s going on? Louise could return at any moment. Does Melody want this? He leans in, his rough stubble brushing against her cheek as he moves his lips to her ear. She likes being kissed there. She feels his lips on her ear, which tickles, and instead of the kiss, he whispers in her ear, ‘You see?’

He pulls back.

‘You don’t know what you want, Melody. And you shouldn’t be around people you can hurt, until you figure it out.’

He walks away from her without another look and opens the oven door. Slides out a tray of potatoes. Louise chooses that moment to return to the truck. She looks at both of them, from one to the other, alert, wife antenna trying to figure out what happened.

‘Don’t worry, Louise, I’m leaving,’ Melody snaps, feeling utterly humiliated and filled with rage. ‘You can have him. You can have the truck. You can have fucking everything now, okay? Everyone happy?’ she yells.

They both look at her in surprise. She storms out of the truck, her rage and humiliation so great she works hard not to flip the picnic tables and everything in her path.

23

AL

The spectators are stamping their feet and blowing into their hands to stay warm on the banks of the River Shannon. Al’s body temperature has soared as he sweats with panic and fear.