Page 9 of Hate You to Love You

‘I’ve got something to update you all on too,’ Jones announces. ‘I start as a script coordinator on a new Australian drama series in two weeks. Shooting takes place in Queensland in a few months.’

‘Dude, that’s incredible!’ Sal congratulates Jones, then waves his hand in the middle of the table to get everyone’s attention. ‘Wait a minute, does that mean you’ll need to move up to Queensland?’

‘Not straight away,’ Jones answers. ‘I’m subletting my place here while we shoot the first season. All things going well, I’ll relocate permanently if it gets picked up for a second season.’

I feel my heart break in two at the thought of Jones leaving. I don’t know if our friendship will be able to survive the distance. Things have already changed so much between us, and being separated by state lines wasn’t going to bring us any closer.

‘We’re so happy for you, Jones!’ Laney squeals. ‘Aren’t we, Patrick?’ I sense something shift in Laney’s mood. She and Patrick look at each other sheepishly. Patrick had a habit of giving blank, stoic expressions, to the point where you could assume he was uninterested in a conversation. That was until he’d turn around and be the one to give the most considered responses. ‘And… while we’re all sharing, Patrick and I have some news as well,’ she begins. ‘We’re engaged!’

Laney places her left hand in the centre of the table to reveal an engagement ring. Jones gets up from his seat to give her and Patrick a hug, while Sal’s first instinct is to grab her hand and inspect the ring.

‘Mate, you finally did it!’ Jones tells Patrick as he releases him.

‘I’m so happy for you two,’ Sal says, his eye still on the ring.

Despite everyone’s happy reactions, Laney gives me a worried look and nervously brushes her hand up and down her arm. Her freckles are prominent in the evening light. ‘Is everything okay, Carlos?’ she asks me.

No, it isn’t, I want to tell her. In the span of fifteen minutes, I’ve been hit with a flashforward of my friends drifting further away from me.

‘I thought you didn’t want to get married?’ I say abruptly.

Sal elbows me in the ribs. ‘What are you doing?’ he whispers to me.

Laney’s happy expression drops and she lets out a sigh. ‘Sal, it’s okay. I know I was adamant that marriage was something neither Patrick or I wanted. But after everything that happened with my mum last year, taking this step felt right. We want this to be forever.’

At the beginning of last year, Laney’s mum had been diagnosed with stage 1 Hodgkin lymphoma. Laney was by her mum’s side throughout all her cycles of chemotherapy. It was a gruelling time for their family, but her smile never faltered. Which is why it hurt to see her with a forced smile tonight. And not just that, her eyes drift off into the distance. There’s pain behind them. But I can tell from the way her eyes sparkle as they lock onto Patrick that he truly brings her happiness. Even Patrick has snapped out of his usual stone-cold expression and is smiling. The last time I saw him smile this much was when the Sydney Swans won the AFL grand final. There’s joy in my heart for them, but I can feel a little piece of it shatter knowing that things are going to change between us again.

‘That’s really great. Just make sure you’re getting married for the right reasons,’ I add, catching a glimpse of Jones and Sal wincing at me.

Jones nudges me in the gut with his elbow. ‘Mate, knock it off.’

The table falls silent.

Patrick clears his throat. ‘This calls for a bottle of champagne,’ he says.

‘There’s no way you’re paying for the drinks,’ Jones says as he gestures for Patrick to sit back down. ‘The bottle is on us. Carlos, help me with the glasses?’

‘I actually was going to—’

But Jones grabs my arm and pulls me inside.

‘Mate, what’s your problem? What was that, back there?’ he asks me while we wait at the bar.

My eyes dart away from him. ‘I congratulated them.’

‘Yeah, your snarky comments were real lovely,’ Jones buzzes from one side of the bar to another to flag down a bartender. We always teased him that while he might have been the shortest person in the room, his euphoric energy made him stand out more than everyone.

‘Don’t you think Laney deserves our support, especially after everything she went through with her mum being sick last year?’

The bartender hands over a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and a handful of glasses. Since we’d been familiar faces to this venue for years, the staff at the venue recognise us as regulars and often shout us a free drink. Tonight, the manager, Becca, gives us complimentary champagne. I grab the glasses and walk back towards the courtyard. ‘I’ll always support her,’ I reply firmly.

There’s a small hallway that connects the interior of the pub with the courtyard, just by the bathrooms. Jones stops me before we step outside. ‘Are you sure everything is okay, Carlos? There’s nothing else going on?’

‘Why would there be something else going on?’ I ask.

‘I don’t know. Your mood wouldn’t have anything to do with Elliot being back in Sydney, would it?’

My throat closes up at the sound of Elliot’s name. ‘How did you know Elliot was back?’ I certainly hadn’t mentioned it. Even though Elliot had become part of the group while we’d been seeing each other, I was pretty sure that he had been giving them the same silent treatment he gave me.