Ex, The

by Moriarty, Nicola

  Georgia was completely bewildered. What was the point in Cadence playing this ridiculous game?

  ‘Why am I doing this? Oh, that’s bloody rich. Considering every little thing you’ve done to me. All the abusive notes. The emails, the Facebook messages. Jesus, Cadence, you broke into my home. And tell me something, if Luke is still your boyfriend, then why did he move out of here? Where did he go?’

  ‘Stop it! Stop making up all this weird horrible stuff! He hasn’t moved out! He took some of our stuff, yes, but that wasn’t because he moved out. That was because he’s getting our new place set up. He can’t have moved out, he was here this morning!’

  Georgia started to back up herself now. Cadence was raising her voice and wringing her hands together. She looked like she was really panicking. And there was something else. Something about the way she spoke. She was so . . . emphatic.

  Was she so deluded that she’d created an entirely different reality for herself? One in which she and Luke had never actually broken up. One that she really believed?

  Georgia had to reconsider her game plan here. Maybe she’d done the wrong thing by coming. Maybe she should have trusted that the police would eventually sort all this out. It looked like Cadence needed professional help. She needed to see a doctor, a psychologist. And what about the tablets she mentioned before? The ones she claimed had messed her up in the lift that day? Maybe she was self-medicating. Georgia remembered the man at the hospital, the one with the knife who was experiencing drug-induced psychosis from being incorrectly medicated. And the violent woman who was suffering from hyperactive delirium. People can find extraordinary strength when they’re not themselves.

  Georgia shouldn’t be here.

  Cadence might be dangerous.

  As if on cue, Cadence lunged at her. She put her hands on Georgia’s shoulders and started shoving and shoving her towards the door.

  ‘GET OUT!’ she screamed, ‘Get out, get out, get out. Leave me alone you horrible, evil woman. Leave me the hell alone.’

  Georgia didn’t fight back. She was too stunned. She allowed herself to be pushed backwards until she’d stumbled right out into the hallway, and next thing the door had been slammed in her face.

  She took a few more steps backwards until she was leaning against the opposite wall, and then she slid down to the floor and held still, breathing hard.

  From the other side of Cadence’s door, she could hear crying.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  That night, Georgia had her first ever fight with Luke. She didn’t tell him that she’d been to see Cadence again. She was too shocked at the way Cadence had reacted. Did Luke realise just how deluded she was? That she was pretty much living in an alternate reality? And how much damage had Georgia caused by trying to force Cadence to face the truth? She was confused and scared and she couldn’t bring herself to admit to Luke how reckless she’d been. The police had advised getting a restraining order and not responding to any of her messages. And what had she done? The complete opposite. She knew she’d have to tell him eventually, but not now, not while she was still trying to understand it all herself.

  So, when Luke suggested they go out so she could try to cut loose a bit, she agreed. It was funny, both Amber and Rick had sent her texts asking her to meet them. Rick wanted her to come to the Bella Vista for drinks with all the others and tell her side of the story.

  None of them believe you would have stolen drugs, he wrote in his message. Don’t worry, the truth will get sorted out for sure.

  Amber said she didn’t care where they met, she just wanted to talk — face to face. But Georgia kept on ignoring their texts. She wasn’t ready to see any of them. Especially not when there was this horrible niggling feeling that someone among them wasn’t the friend she’d thought they were. Cadence might have been behind the set-up, but someone who worked with her had to be involved; she couldn’t have stolen those drugs on her own.

  However, the chance to drown her feelings with Luke was appealing. They’d walked up to the main road and were having drinks at the Hillside Tavern when everything began to tip sideways. She was drinking fast. She knew that. It was because she wanted to numb the pain of the last few days. There were times when you intend on having a few drinks, and somehow you get carried away and unexpectedly find yourself remarkably tipsy. And then there were other times — times like tonight — where you have one goal, and that goal is to write yourself off. She wanted to be drunk, she wanted to be drunk enough that she could bury her head in the sand and forget everything that was going on. But apparently life had other plans for her.

  When she saw Luke pull his phone out of his pocket to look at a message, she didn’t even need to ask who it was from.

  ‘It’s her again,’ she said.

  He nodded and stood up. ‘Yeah, um, we kinda need to get the hell out of here.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘Because she’s here. She’s watching us.’

  Georgia closed her eyes and breathed slowly out of her nose. She knew it. She knew that bloody innocent act that Cadence had played with her was all utter bullshit. She couldn’t believe she’d almost started to feel sorry for her. She opened her eyes and looked back at Luke. ‘Sit down,’ she said.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘I said sit down. I’m not going anywhere. She doesn’t get to control our lives anymore. This isn’t happening.’

  Luke hovered above her. ‘Ah . . . I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.’

  ‘She’s probably bluffing. She’s probably sitting at home pretending to be here watching us. I’m not letting her chase us away. I’m having a good time and I’m staying.’

  ‘Small problem with that — she definitely isn’t bluffing. I could tell from her message.’

  ‘Why? What did it say?’

  ‘It said that I look really sexy in my blue shirt . . . It said . . . um, it said that by tonight my blue shirt would be on her bedroom floor, and then . . .’ He trailed off, looking nervous.

  ‘And then what? What the fuck else did that bitch say?’

  ‘Babe, seriously, the rest of the message is the worst part, that’s why I want us to get out of here. She sounds deranged, dangerous.’

  ‘For fuck’s sake, Luke, just be honest with me. Tell me what it says.’

  ‘Okay, okay. It says if she sees you touch me one more time she’s going to come over here and scratch your eyes out.’

  Now Georgia did stand up. She spun around on the spot and almost fell over. ‘Where is she? Can you see her? Fucking hell, Luke, help me look!’

  ‘Georgia, calm down, please!’

  ‘Calm down? You want me to calm down? You have got to be joking. She’s talking about scratching my eyes out and you think I need to calm down.’

  ‘I know! I know. But I don’t want you to get hurt. I want to protect you, Georgia.’

  ‘But you’re not, are you? If you were protecting me, you’d be storming over to her right now and telling her to back the fuck off. You’d be telling her that you love me. Me and only me. You’d tell her that she means nothing to you, absolutely nothing.’

  She knew she was screaming, knew that people were staring, that a baby-faced barman who’d served them earlier was now headed towards them, a concerned look on his face. But she didn’t care, she couldn’t take it anymore.

  ‘Okay, I will tell her that, I’ll tell her all of those things, but right now you’re not the only one who’s had enough of her. I have too. I think we just need to leave.’

  He put his hand on the small of her back, ready to guide her out, but Georgia pushed his arm away.

  ‘No! She said if she saw us touch she’d come over and scratch my eyes out and you just touched me. So, where is she?’ She whipped around again, searching for her enemy. ‘Where are you, Cadence?’ she screamed. ‘Come at me, bitch!’

  The bartender stepped up to them. ‘Is everything okay here, guys?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ said Luke, at the same time as
Georgia shouted, ‘No, it’s not!’

  ‘Um, I think I might have to ask you two to take this outside.’

  It seemed absurd to Georgia that this child was playing the part of the mature adult, asking them to ‘take it outside’.

  ‘It’s okay,’ said Luke. ‘We’re leaving.’

  ‘No! We’re not! Not until we find her. Not until we tell her this is not okay!’ She knew what the bartender must be thinking. Jealous girlfriend doesn’t like the fact that there’s some other woman in her boyfriend’s life. She wanted to explain, she wanted to tell him, It’s not me! I’m not the crazy one! It’s her!

  But she knew how she sounded. She was drunk and she was shouting in the middle of a bar, and now a bouncer was heading this way, and he was big and he had that no-nonsense look that bouncers always had, and she knew she’d lost.

  She pulled away from both Luke and the bartender. ‘It’s fine! I’m fine! I’m going!’

  She hated the fact that half the people in there were all staring at her as she left.

  Luke followed her. As soon as they were out in the fresh air, she wheeled around to face him. ‘Why do you let her win? Why do you let her do this to us? You said she was going to stop!’

  He nodded. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘You’re absolutely right. This has been going on long enough. I’m not certain if the police have served her with the restraining order yet or not, but either way, I know they went to talk to her about the break-in, so it’s unbelievable that she still hasn’t let up. I’m so sorry.’

  His refusal to get drawn in by her angry accusations and argue back was starting to take some of the wind out of Georgia’s sails. She took in a deep breath and when she let it out, she tried to release some of the anger at the same time.

  ‘But . . .’ she said, her voice smaller now, ‘why did we have to leave?’

  ‘To be honest, I was being selfish. I know you wanted me to confront her but I didn’t want to have to see her. I’m tired and I’m stressed and I don’t know the right way to deal with all of this. But I couldn’t bring myself to face her. She’s trying to ruin my life — our life. And I’m at the end of my rope. I don’t know how to fix this and I hate that. I just needed to get out of there. I’m sorry.’

  ‘Oh.’ Georgia felt a flood of guilt wash over her. What if the reason Cadence had followed them tonight was to get back at her for going to her apartment? What if Georgia had been the one to set her off again?

  ‘I’m sorry too,’ Georgia said.

  Luke took her hand and they started walking towards home.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The following morning Georgia wanted to start the day on a better note. She woke up early, before Luke, and forced herself to get out of bed. She snuck out to the kitchen to make him some breakfast. After checking through the pantry and fridge to see what ingredients she had to work with, she decided to go with French toast with berries. An impressively gourmet-looking but easy to make breakfast feast.

  I will not get sucked back down into the darkness. I will not give in. I will not go back to that place. I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.

  She was frying the egg-dipped bread when Luke emerged from the bedroom, one hand massaging the back of his neck as he shuffled towards her and yawned. He kissed the back of her neck. ‘What’s all this?’

  ‘French toast,’ she said proudly.

  ‘Ah.’

  ‘Ah?’ she said. ‘That’s all I get? Ah? I thought you’d be way more impressed.’

  ‘Oh, no, no, I’m totally impressed. Sorry, babe, it’s only that . . .’

  He trailed off and Georgia stared at him, waiting for him to continue. ‘Only what?’ she prompted.

  ‘It’s nothing. Seriously, nothing. This is awesome.’ He gave her another kiss and she turned her attention back to the bread, flipping it over before it could burn. ‘But what were you going to say?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘Luke! Tell me.’

  ‘Okay, you don’t remember me mentioning . . . the thing about French toast?’

  ‘What thing about French toast?’

  ‘How it was something Cadence always used to make.’

  Georgia spun around again. ‘No! You never said that! I would have remembered.’

  He shook his head. ‘You’re probably right, maybe I never did say it. It’s stupid anyway. Just because she used to make it doesn’t mean anything. I can’t let the woman put me off it for life. Please forget I said anything.’

  ‘Oh, but now I feel bad. This was supposed to be a nice surprise for you to take your mind off Cadence after last night. I’m sorry.’

  ‘No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even mentioned it. I’m being childish.’

  Georgia made a snap decision and picked up the pan, tipping the contents into the bin. ‘You know what, let’s just go out for breakfast and both stop apologising.’

  *

  They wandered through the shops after breakfast, window shopping. They went into a clothing store, where Georgia tried on a bright pink beanie and Luke insisted on buying it for her because he said she looked like a cute little elf in it. They left the centre and walked out through the piazza, where they discovered the main street had been closed for a food festival with live music.

  ‘I didn’t know there was something on here this weekend,’ said Georgia as they found a spot in the sun where they could sit down to watch a band playing folk music.

  ‘They’re good,’ said Luke, putting an arm around her and letting her lean back into him and rest her head on his chest.

  ‘Mmm, I could fall asleep sitting here in the sun listening to them.’

  Georgia was actually starting to let her eyelids droop when she spotted the familiar face, watching the live music just five or ten metres away. Her hair was different, longer and lighter. But the face was unmistakable. Georgia jolted forward, wide awake now.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Over there,’ she said, pointing. ‘That’s Lena, my old flatmate.’

  ‘Oh, is it?’ He looked at her and frowned. ‘You seem upset to see her.’

  ‘Umm, yeah, well . . . she’s not really someone I want to run into.’

  ‘How come?’

  ‘We just . . . we used to be friends, but then . . . there was this thing that happened. It’s hard to explain.’

  ‘You want to go? We can head home, if you like?’

  Georgia hesitated. ‘Does that make me a hypocrite? I was going on about you letting Cadence chase us out of the place last night, now I’m doing the exact same thing.’

  ‘Not at all. They’re two completely different things. Come on,’ he said, standing up and pulling Georgia to her feet, ‘let’s go.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  They were moving through the crowd when Lena somehow appeared right in front of them. She locked eyes with Georgia and threw her arms open wide. ‘I thought that was you!’ she exclaimed, and Georgia was alarmed to realise that she was coming in for a big hug.

  Oh God, why on earth does she want to hug me?

  There was no way out of it though, she had to hug her back and pretend she was delighted to see her.

  ‘I’m so, so glad to run into you,’ Lena said when they’d pulled apart again. ‘It’s been such a long time.’

  ‘Yeah, it has.’ Georgia really didn’t know what else to say, but at that point Lena finally turned to look at Luke and did a double-take. ‘Oh! Hey!’ she said.

  ‘You two know each other?’ Georgia asked, frowning.

  ‘Well, yeah, I mean, of course —’ Lena began.

  But Luke was already pulling on Georgia’s hand and starting to walk away. ‘Yeah, sure, great to run into you but we have to go.’

  Lena’s face changed from excited to a sort of hurt, bewildered look. ‘O-okay,’ she said, her voice faltering. ‘Bye . . .’

  Georgia let Luke pull her through the crowd and she waited until they were clear of the noise to ask him what was going on. Something wasn’t
right. She’d never seen him so brusque with anyone.

  ‘You know Lena?’ she asked, as they slowed their pace.

  ‘Nah, not really. Not properly.’

  ‘But . . . but how do you know her?’

  ‘Just from, like . . . friends of friends or whatever. Like I said, I don’t know her properly at all.’

  ‘She seemed like she knew you well.’

  ‘Yeah well, she also wanted to hug you when you clearly weren’t into it. Seems like she’s one of those people who go totally over the top with people she barely knows.’

  ‘Why didn’t you say you knew her, when I pointed her out?’

  ‘I didn’t even realise, to be honest. I didn’t recognise her until she was right in front of us.’

  ‘It’s weird though, right, that you knew the girl who used to be my flatmate?’

  ‘I guess, a bit. Although not that weird — sometimes it seems like everyone in the Hills area knows everyone else.’

  ‘I suppose.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Sliding across the ice was more exhilarating than Georgia remembered. She hadn’t been ice skating since she was a teenager. In fact, she’d thought Luke was joking when he suggested they go to the ice rink to take her mind off things that night, but he was completely serious.

  It was nice to discover that she was actually quite good at ice skating; she could go quite fast. Say yes to things, Georgia. That’s how you stave off the darkness. You say yes to things.

  Unfortunately, her insistence that she needed to say yes to things wasn’t extending to anyone else in her life right now. She was still ignoring Amber, Rick and her parents. The messages and voicemails were piling up. Say yes to Luke. He’s the only one that truly understands everything you’re going through right now. He’s the one that loves you.

  I’ll deal with the others later. They’ll understand.

  Meanwhile, Marcus still hadn’t replied to her messages — even though she’d sent him two more saying that she really needed to talk.