Come to think of it, he didn’t want to lie about anything anymore. Lies. Half-truths. Obfuscations. He’d been victim to them all during the past year and they still hurt like a red-hot poker to the eye. He’d also done his fair share of hiding the truth as well. Admitting you’d been sacked and that your marriage was over was a little too much information to want to share with people.
But being home, and being with Anna, meant something in him had changed. Seeing her this morning, her face bare of make-up, her lips pink and swollen from being kissed, she looked better than she ever had to him before. This was just her. No camouflage. No costume. Laid bare.
None of that la belly figura stuff.
It felt like a new start. A second chance. And it had to be built on the truth.
‘I slept in, Ma. It’s Sunday, I’m allowed to.’ Anna yawned and watched as her mother stacked one plastic container after another in the fridge, but only after rearranging the existing contents to her satisfaction. It had happened before, but this morning, it grated. She was a thirty-five year old woman, for God’s sake. Did her mother really think she needed help with the placement of the jar of sun-dried tomatoes?
‘You left the engagement party last night with that man.’ Sonia Morelli’s voice was half muffled by the open fridge door.
‘That man is called Joe. He drove me home.’ And then Anna opted for the diversion. She didn’t want to have to justify herself to anyone. ‘It was a lovely party. How many people do you think were there? One hundred and fifty, maybe?’
Sonia straightened. Closed the fridge door and turned to her daughter, her mouth tight and her eyes narrowed. ‘Anna. What were you thinking?’
‘Ma, I was thinking that I didn’t want to turn up to that engagement party alone. Especially in the place where I had my wedding reception. That’s what I was thinking.’
‘But you’re still married. Everyone at church this morning was talking about you. They couldn’t believe it, what they saw last night.’
‘I’m glad they find my social life so interesting but I don’t feel the need to put a notice in Il Globo to announce my divorce.’ Anna folded her arms, hoping the move would stop her wanting to strangle someone. She wasn’t sure if it would be her mother, Joe or herself.
‘Well, they don’t know about you and Alex. And you turn up last night with another man and what should I say?’
Anna felt her blood pressure rise. ‘What about telling them the truth, Ma? That I’m moving on with my life because the guy I married was cheating on me?’ The words hung in the air between them while her mother struggled for something to say. Anna understood that her family had felt it too, the end of her marriage. And last night they would have had to endure the stares and whispers and questions. But this morning, twelve hours away from it all, Anna felt emboldened by the truth. But the words didn’t have the emotional sting to Anna anymore. Joe’s words were there instead: Those people don’t get to decide who you are.
Sonia Morelli’s hands flew into the air like a conductor’s. ‘Turning up last night with a strange man on your arm and dancing the way you were. Anna, that was not the way to do it.’
‘I made my choice. And look at it this way, now everyone knows. Word will spread like a bushfire and you won’t have to announce it to anyone. Doesn’t that make you feel better?’
‘But who is he, Anna?’
There were heavy footsteps behind Anna. She watched her mother’s mouth drop open in shock.
‘I’m an unemployed former journalist turned bartender, Mrs Morelli. And I’d like to spend more time with your daughter if that’s okay with her.’
CHAPTER
35
Anna stomped down the hallway, fancy Italian swear words bouncing off the designer white walls. ‘What the hell did you go and do that for?’
Joe stood his ground in the kitchen. He decided it was probably best not to chase after Anna when she was in full meltdown and he was rather enjoying it, truth be told. He hadn’t enjoyed her mother’s reaction in quite the same way. Sonia Morelli had simply glared at him, grabbed her handbag and left, her chin held high and haughty, disdain on her face. And now, the daughter was charging about the house, her arms flailing in fury.
For fuck’s sake, the way they were acting you’d have thought he’d appeared in the kitchen naked as he day he was born. But no, he was fully dressed, in yesterday’s jeans and a T-shirt. Yeah okay, his feet were bare and the stubble on his jaw hinted that perhaps he hadn’t shaved that morning.
When Anna reappeared she was dressed in skinny jeans and a long-sleeved red shirt. Which kind of put a kink in his plans to take her back to bed. Her face was as red as her shirt and the languorous smile he’d enjoyed so much when she’d woken up was gone.
‘Why did I do what?’ Joe folded his arms and pulled himself taller. He wasn’t going to fight with her but he was going to stand his ground.
‘Barge in to the kitchen … and my mother … and looking like that … and …’
‘Looking like what? I’m perfectly decently dressed.’
‘But you look like you’ve just got out of bed. My bed, specifically.’
‘Maybe it’s because the walls in this house are incredibly thin or, maybe it was the fact that you were arguing, but I could hear every word your mother was saying to you and frankly, it was pissing me off.’
Anna stopped and, if he wasn’t mistaken, looked like all the wind had been blown out of her sails.
‘Arguing?’
‘Yes.’
Anna snorted. ‘That wasn’t arguing. It’s how we talk to each other.’
‘Jesus, I’m surprised you’re not all half deaf. Tell me one thing. Do you really give a fuck what people at your mother’s church are saying about you?’
Anna hesitated, found her necklace and started twirling it into a twist. ‘No.’
‘Good. That’s a start.’
‘What do you mean a start?’
Joe looked into her deep caramel eyes and didn’t feel as scared as he thought he might at what he was going to say. ‘This thing with you and me. If it’s going to work, we have to have a rule. No bullshit. I don’t know if it’s being back in Middle Point, but it gets under your skin, strips away all the fakery and crap. I’ve done bullshit and I don’t want to do it again.
‘Oh,’ Anna’s mouth curled in a half smile and her eyes sparked with life. ‘We have a “thing”, do we?’
‘You know we do. But we have to be honest. We’ve both been burnt by lies and I’m not going to let that happen again.’
Anna thought for a moment. ‘If you really mean it, that you don’t want any bullshit, you have to know that I do care what my family thinks. They’re my family. My mum may be angry now, but it will blow over and I’ll still be her daughter. That’s me, take it or leave it.’
‘I’ll take it, thanks very much.’ Joe moved to her, took her in his arms. She snaked her hands around his waist and slid them into the back pockets of his jeans. Their eyes met and they held it for a long moment.
‘Good,’ Anna said.
‘You think they’ll grow to like me?’
Anna scoffed. ‘An unemployed former journalist turned bartender? You’re probably not what they had in mind to replace the lawyer.’
‘And, of course, I’m not Italian.’
‘True.’
‘All hope looks abandoned then.’
‘Looks that way.’
Joe dropped his lips to hers and they kissed, long and slow. ‘All this fighting’s made me hungry.’
‘I know a great place for breakfast.’
‘So, tell me this, Joe.’ Anna sipped her espresso and lowered the cup back onto its saucer.
‘Hmm?’ Joe peered distractedly at Anna over the opinion section of the Sunday paper. ‘Tell you what?’
To anyone wandering by the cafe, they would have appeared to be like every other couple enjoying Sunday brunch. Sections of the newspaper covered the wrought-iron table, Joe having split it i
nto sections so they could both read it. He’d gone for the opinion section and Anna had picked up the movies and books pages. Somewhere under the newsprint were empty plates that had been delivered to them fifteen minutes earlier full of free-range eggs and crispy bacon, fried mushrooms and wilted spinach. The sun was shining, filtered through the plane trees that marked the footpath like columns, and it was still a warm enough that she didn’t need a coat.
Anna decided it was the perfect post-sex-with-a-naked-handsome-guy kind of day.
‘Here’s what I’ve always wanted to know about you reporters. How can you keep yourself from getting emotionally involved? How can you stop yourself screaming from the rooftops when you see injustice or criminality?’
Joe lowered the paper onto the table, having all of a sudden lost all interest in what he was reading. He’d realised that he was doing what he’d done a million times in his life, sharing breakfast in a café with the newspaper and bacon and eggs. Sunlight, good coffee and a lively conversation. This was what Sunday morning after amazing sex should feel like.
And he was feeling it with Anna.
‘What makes you think I never got involved?’ Joe took off his glasses, folded them and put them on the table.
‘Isn’t that what reporters are supposed to do? Only look at the facts?’
‘Of course I got involved. If you’re a normal human being, there’s no way you can sit through a murder trial and not want to kill the bastard who pushed his wife into the ocean from a cliff top. Or not want to sentence thieving corporate bastards to a lifetime of hard labour for defrauding their mum and dad shareholders.’
Anna closed her section of the newspaper.
‘But you can’t reveal any of that when you’re writing a story. You have to let the readers decide for themselves. But hell, that didn’t mean I didn’t feel anything. I just learned to hide it. To bury it.’
Burying things had been his lifelong modus operandi. He leaned forward, scrunching the newspapers, getting as close to Anna as he could. He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, to feel her as well as see her but he held back.
‘And that worked out pretty well for me for a long time. But I don’t feel like keeping it in anymore. It sits inside you, Anna, and wells up like bile in your throat, until you can’t swallow it anymore. It eats you up. That’s why I don’t want any more bullshit.’
‘Feeling it is part of letting it go, don’t you think?’ Anna said.
For a long moment, they looked at each other, a growing awareness and understanding developing in the space between them.
‘And letting go means making room for something else,’ Joe said.
Anna dropped her eyes.
‘Someone else.’ Joe reached over the newspaper and took her hand. ‘Anna, I don’t know what the hell is going on. You’re the last thing I thought would happen to me when I came home.’
‘You’re the last thing I thought would happen to me at a wedding in the sleepy coastal town of Middle Point.’
‘Hey, sleepy can be good.’
Anna sighed. ‘This isn’t just sex and surfing lessons. This is a thing, isn’t it?’
‘Shit, I hope so,’ Joe said.
‘So what are we going to do?’
‘We’re going to see each other again. And see what happens after that.’
‘Honestly, sometimes Middle Point feels like Grand Central Station.’ Julia lowered herself backwards onto the white leather sofa. ‘Everyone’s coming from somewhere or going somewhere else. What will I do over these long, cold, windy winter months without you, Lizzie?’
Lizzie patted Julia’s knee. ‘C’mon, Jools. We’ll only be away for four weeks. We’ll be back in August, ready to start thinking about the next summer season at the pub. Did I tell you I have some incredible new ideas?’
‘Your brainchild last summer was a stunning success. The Market was incredible. What’s the new plan?’
Lizzie glanced up at Dan and they shared a knowing smile.
‘No, I’m going to let them percolate while we’re away and you, missy, don’t need anything else to worry about. Just rest and grow my god-daughter slash god-son.’
‘Yes, Dr Lizzie.’
‘Hey, speaking of doctors, have you seen Anna lately?’ Dan sat down next to Lizzie on the sofa, and reached an arm around her shoulders. She moved into him and rested a hand on his thigh.
‘Yeah, I saw her for a check-up last week when we were up in Adelaide. Everything’s fine with the baby. Apparently, it’s totally normal to feel like a blimp. Actually, I’ve invited her down this weekend for the big Dan and Lizzie farewell bash.’
‘It’ll be nice to see her again,’ Lizzie said, aiming a wink at her best friend. ‘Joe was up in Adelaide a couple of weekends ago.’
‘Really,’ Julia replied.
‘He stayed the whole weekend. Didn’t come home until late Sunday night.’
‘Is that so?’
‘And when I asked him where he’d been—’
Dan chuckled. ‘Asked him? More like interrogated him.’
Lizzie elbowed Dan in the ribs. ‘When I asked him where he’d been he said, and I quote, “No comment”.’
‘Very interesting,’ Julia said, tapping a forefinger on her chin.
‘Hold on,’ Dan said, shaking his head a little. ‘What are you two up to?’
‘Nothing at all.’ Julia widened her eyes in mock outrage. ‘Why would you think we’re up to something?’
He looked from one of the women to the other. ‘I wouldn’t trust the evil twins as far as I could throw you.’
‘I’m not going to miss you, Dan, that’s for sure. So tell me, have you decided on your final itinerary? What’s your first stop? ‘Julia asked. ‘Go on rub it in. We won’t be able to travel for a million years. C’mon, make me jealous.’
‘We’re flying into Rome and we’re going to spend two weeks in Italy, a week in Paris and then we’re going to London.’
Just saying the word made Lizzie tremble a little. It had been more than a decade since she’d been attacked late one night on a dark London street. And the memory of it would always be there, even thought it had faded like an old polaroid, but knowing she was finally ready to face her demons and having Dan by her side as she was doing it, was all she needed to know.
When Lizzie saw Julia tear up, she felt the tears welling in her eyes, too.
‘Oh Lizzie, you’re going to have such a wonderful time.’
‘We’re going to take it easy,’ Dan said, ‘The last thing we want to do is race around after the year we’ve had. Lizzie deserves to lie back, relax and be looked after.’
‘I’ll miss you both terribly,’ Julia said with a sniffle and a smile.
Ry joined them, passing Julia her regulation cup of peppermint tea.
‘Thanks, Ry.’
Ry shrugged at Dan. ‘What sort of a drink is peppermint tea anyway? Is life worth living if you can’t drink real coffee?’
He smiled at his wife, who absentmindedly rubbed her growing tummy and glowed at him. Yes, Lizzie decided, Jools was actually glowing.
And she looked as happy as she’d ever seen her. Life was good for Julia and Ry.
And it was unbelievably good for her and Dan, too.
She so wished the same for her brother.
CHAPTER
36
Joe decided he was getting the hang of being a bartender. It had been a few weeks since he’d ingloriously covered himself in beer, and he was now getting used to the pace of life and service at the Middle Point pub. In fact, he woke up every day looking forward to going to work. He liked shooting the shit with Reg and Shorty, the two old blokes who propped up the bar every afternoon. The dinnertime regulars smiled at him now and said g’day, and even though the weekend crowds were slowing as winter set in, he liked it.
He’d just left work, and was on his way to Ry and Julia’s for Dan and Lizzie’s farewell party. There was a definite spring in his step about the thought that he wa
s going to see Anna again. They’d spoken a few times on the phone, sometimes a snatched conversation between patients or during his lunch break. She’d been busy with her Nonna’s birthday and he’d been doing a couple of weekend shifts, so tonight was going to be the first night they’d seen each other in three weeks. He’d endured twenty-one days of torture and he was about to be relieved of his suffering. That had to feel good.
Joe rounded the corner and the glass palace came into view. There in the driveway, shining like a nose on a drunk, was Anna’s little red sports car. The spring in Joe’s step just got springier and the anticipation of another weekend with Anna sent an adrenaline rush from his grin straight to his groin. Being together this weekend, down here at the Point, with the loved-up super-couples Ry and Julia, and Dan and Lizzie, was a coming out of the closet, of sorts. Breaking news, he thought. They talked about what they’d say and, in line with Joe’s no-bullshit policy, he wanted to come right out and tell everyone they were friends with benefits. Weekend fuck-buddies. Joe laughed. Neither of those seemed quite right. A couple of broken hearts who needed someone? Too sad. Two adults in their sexual prime who didn’t want to waste their hormones? Maybe that medical definition would suit Anna better.
For him it was pretty simple. If he was writing a headline, it would have said, ‘More Anna, All The Time’. Tight. Concise. The whole story right there in five words. As he crossed the designed-to-within-an-inch-of-its-life front garden of Ry and Julia’s place, he decided he’d nailed it. He wanted more of Anna. More time. More sex. More of that laugh. More of her craziness. More of everything.
Our Kind of Love Page 23