Ex, The

by Moriarty, Nicola

  They stopped for a break and Luke eyed her up and down.

  ‘What?’ she asked. ‘What’s that look for?’

  ‘Nothing . . . it’s just, you look really fucking hot right now.’

  ‘I do not.’ She laughed. She was wearing the pink beanie he’d bought for her.

  ‘No, I’m serious. Watching you skate is the sexiest thing ever. You’re good at this.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, noting that an inner glow she hadn’t felt in ages was creeping back in. It felt as if they’d stopped having these kinds of moments. These wonderful, ‘we’re still in the early stages of our relationship and everything is fresh and bright and magical’ moments. Cadence had taken that away from them.

  ‘You know the only problem?’ Luke asked.

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘My plan was to have you slipping all over the place so I could be the manly man, holding you up, and instead, you skate better than me.’

  ‘Ha. If you like I can hold you up instead?’

  ‘Yes please, my lady. Actually, how’s this?’ He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and they pushed off from the side to start skating around the rink again, Georgia leading.

  ‘Can you believe everything we’ve already had to endure through our relationship? Cadence trying to break us up. Even that dick Brett trying to get me to date him.’

  ‘I know. We’re like Romeo and Juliet — star-crossed lovers.’

  ‘Jack and Rose! There was room on that door for Jack, you know.’

  ‘Yes! Or Ross and Rachel.’

  ‘Actually, I think we’ve gone off track and started naming random couples that aren’t actually star-crossed lovers,’ Georgia mused.

  ‘Good point. Okay, I have one. Florentino and Fermina,’ Luke said.

  ‘Who the hell are Florentino and Fermina?’

  ‘They’re the couple in Love in the Time of Cholera,’ Luke replied.

  ‘Ah.’ Georgia had never read it. Although, something was twinging at the corner of her mind. Where had she heard of that book only recently?

  Luke squeezed her a little tighter. He kissed the top of her head and they glided smoothly across the ice. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘No one has succeeded in breaking us up. We’re stronger than ever.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Georgia was waiting on a park bench the following morning. After Luke had kissed her goodbye and headed off to work, she’d been lying in bed, wondering whether she’d leave the apartment today or just curl up on the couch again. There had been no further information from Denise about the investigation. When the message came through Facebook from Lena, Georgia was going to decline. Their history was so difficult, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk to her. Besides, she wasn’t even seeing her best friends at the moment. But then the last line of Lena’s message piqued her curiosity.

  Hey stranger, the message had begun. It was really good to run into you the other day but I wished we’d been able to chat properly. I get why you didn’t want to talk with me — but I do often wonder how you are and I miss being friends with you. Although I’m not altogether sure how you’ll be feeling about me now after realising that Luke and I know one another!!

  Lena had gone on to suggest that they catch up and Georgia had found herself agreeing and suggesting they do so right away. I’m not altogether sure how you’ll be feeling about me now after realising that Luke and I know one another!! What did that mean? Luke said he barely knew her. The curiosity had overcome her apprehension.

  Georgia thought it was strange that Lena had suggested meeting in a park. It made her think of clandestine meetings between spies with turned up trench-coat collars and black umbrellas. But when Lena arrived Georgia discovered she had two small girls, who immediately made a beeline for the swings.

  Lena gave her yet another great big hug as she sat down next to her and Georgia hugged her back awkwardly.

  ‘Wow,’ Georgia said as she managed to pull back. ‘I can’t believe you have two kids now.’

  ‘Georgia!’ Lena exclaimed. ‘They aren’t mine! I nanny for their parents.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Wait, let me guess, even though we’re friends on Facebook you have me hidden from your feed so you have no idea what’s going on in my life?’

  ‘Oh, I don’t really use Facebook that much . . .’ Georgia could feel her cheeks flaming. She absolutely had Lena hidden from her feed.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Lena. ‘I understand.’ She pointed at her two charges. ‘The little one on the swings is Eliza-Jane and the one hiding in the sandpit is Darcie.’

  Georgia smiled at the two small girls even though they weren’t really paying them any attention. ‘Cute,’ she said, because she really didn’t know what else to say.

  ‘Yeah, they’re good kids. So, listen,’ Lena said, getting straight to the point. ‘There are a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about. First, our history. You and I . . . we used to get along really well. You were such a great flatmate. And I know why you backed right away from me after your . . . your breakdown. You were embarrassed, right? Ashamed?’

  Georgia twisted her hands together and stared down at her feet. She didn’t like reliving that part of her life. ‘I don’t know,’ she said, her voice small. ‘I guess it was something like that.’

  ‘Okay, so here’s the thing. You don’t need to feel that way. Honestly. Everything that happened, it wasn’t your fault. And I miss you. Seriously. I don’t have a lot of mates. When we flatted together, you were pretty much my best friend. I don’t know, I kind of feel like us running into each other was sort of serendipitous. Like, it’s a chance for us to be friends again.’

  Georgia was still looking down at her feet. ‘Maybe,’ she mumbled.

  ‘You’re not convinced, are you? Now I’m embarrassed. Admitting I have hardly any friends and almost begging you to be friends with me again. Sorry, maybe this was stupid.’

  Georgia realised there was a real note of vulnerability in Lena’s voice and she finally looked up and made eye contact with her. Georgia was being mean and there was no need for it. ‘No,’ she said, ‘It’s not stupid. I’m the one who needs to say sorry. You’re right, we were good friends.’

  ‘Then is it the other thing holding you back from being friends with me? The thing with Luke?’

  ‘I don’t actually know what you mean by that.’

  ‘You don’t? That was the second thing I wanted to talk with you about, my history with him.’

  ‘What history?’

  ‘He didn’t tell you?’

  ‘No. He said he knew you from around, like, as friends of friends or something. Is there more to it than that?’

  ‘Sorry, I assumed he would have said. Now I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing by telling you. I’ve totally fucked up. Maybe you should ask him.’

  ‘Lena, please. Could you just tell me?’

  She winced. ‘I really don’t know if I should.’

  ‘Please.’

  ‘Okay. We met about six months ago. We literally bumped into one another — as in, properly knocked into one another at this bar. I’d just been stood up and I was getting up to leave when he walked into me and spilled his drink on me. We got to talking and, well, you know how it is . . . one thing led to another and we ended up having a one-night stand.’

  Georgia stared back at her, completely shocked. Lena rushed to reassure her.

  ‘It was before you two got together though — I’m certain of it. He was definitely single when we met, and anyway, we didn’t really have a connection. So, it was nothing more than a one-night thing. Is that weird? That I slept with your boyfriend before you met him? It is, isn’t it? You probably definitely don’t want to be friends again with me now, do you?’

  ‘Ah, no, it’s not that, it’s just . . .’ Georgia’s head was spinning. She was trying to make sense of everything that Lena had said. She’d slept with Luke? Before Georgia met him? But how was that even possible? Luke was with C
adence right before they met. And why would he lie to Georgia about the way he knew Lena? Unless . . . had he cheated on Cadence? Maybe he was too ashamed to admit it to Georgia.

  She was still untangling everything Lena had said, working her way back through the story.

  ‘You want to know something really funny?’ said Lena, seemingly oblivious to Georgia’s confusion. ‘The night we had that one-night stand, we actually talked about you.’

  ‘What? What do you mean? You said it was before Luke and I got together.’

  ‘Yes, absolutely it was, I don’t mean he talked about you, I mean I did. Somehow, we got talking about old flatmates and I ended up telling him about you — not by name, of course! Like, I wasn’t sharing all these intimate details about you or anything like that. It was more that he was telling me about his old flatmates, and then I was talking about mine and saying how I missed you, and then he asked questions, I guess, and —’ She stopped short. ‘Georgia, are you okay? Your face has gone all white. Is something . . . is there something wrong?’

  Georgia swallowed. Her breathing was starting to become shallow again. ‘He asked questions about me? What kind of questions?’

  ‘What? No, no, it’s not like he knew that it was you we were talking about. I mean this is all just some sort of weird coincidence.’

  Georgia clenched her hands on the seat beneath her. ‘Please, what did he ask?’

  ‘Well . . . I don’t know, it’s hard to remember. I guess I told him you went through this really hard time emotionally and he just sort of . . . asked about it. But it was no big deal — we were chatting, that’s all, making conversation.’

  Georgia leaned forward and sucked in a big mouthful of air.

  Lena put a hand on her arm, ‘Georgia! Are you okay?’

  ‘Help . . . help me breathe . . . just . . . talk me through it.’ She didn’t even know what exactly it was that had brought this panic attack on. All she knew was that something was very wrong here. Something wasn’t adding up.

  ‘Okay, okay, sure. In . . . that’s it, yes, breathe in, hold it . . . Should you hold it? Or not hold it? Oh shit, I don’t know what I’m doing.’

  ‘Count . . .’ said Georgia. ‘Just count . . . for me . . .’

  ‘Right, got it. Okay. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . Now breathe out, yeah?’

  Georgia tried to ignore the clearly panicked tone in Lena’s voice and focused on the count instead. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. She was calming down. Quicker than last time. She was gaining control again. The clenched fist on her lungs was unfurling. She leaned right back on the seat and looked up at the wide blue sky above. A few more deep, slow breaths and she was almost back to normal. She stayed still for another good few minutes, just staring at the sky and breathing.

  Finally, she looked at Lena, ‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘That keeps happening to me lately.’

  ‘That’s okay. Don’t be sorry. But what’s going on? I don’t understand.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Georgia. ‘But I’m going to find out.’ She paused, as something clicked into place. ‘Lena, what was the name of the date who stood you up — the night you met Luke?’

  ‘I think it was Brett.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  For the third time, Georgia looked up at the old building on Francis Road in Artarmon. She couldn’t tell if she was more or less nervous than the last time she’d visited, but either way it was a different feeling. She was frightened, but this time it wasn’t Cadence she was frightened of. It was whatever she was about to find out. There was something strange about the way she and Luke had met, something . . . wrong. And the more she struggled to piece it all together, the more she felt like Cadence might have the answer. She was just hoping that she somehow had it all wrong. The idea that her perfect relationship with Luke might not be everything she’d believed terrified her.

  Once again, the front door was propped open; the Yellow Pages was gone, but there was a folded mat wedged in the door to stop it from latching. Georgia pushed it open and headed inside. At the sight of the lift she remembered how terrified she’d been, riding down to the ground floor with Cadence in there with her. Thinking that at any moment she might turn around and attack her. Then she remembered Cadence’s explanation. I had an episode. I was frightened.

  She stopped still for a moment and closed her eyes, pictured the way Cadence had looked that day. Was it possible she was telling the truth? Was she really having some sort of breakdown rather than trying to intimidate Georgia?

  She stepped into the lift and pressed number 5. It rose slowly with lots of clanks and bangs — enough to make her wonder if it was entirely safe. Finally, it juddered to a stop on the fifth floor. She walked down the hall to Cadence’s door, took in one more deep breath, and knocked.

  ‘Who is it?’ came the voice from inside. Once again, she sounded nervous and timid.

  ‘Cadence? This is Georgia again.’ She paused. There was no response from inside. ‘Listen,’ she called out, ‘I know you probably don’t want to let me in after last time and I understand, I do. But we seriously need to talk. So . . . could I come in? Please?’

  There was more silence and Georgia waited. Then the door opened slowly inwards and Cadence stood, her head down, her hair covering her face. She had her arms wrapped around herself protectively. She looked up, her hair shifted to the side and Georgia gasped.

  ‘What happened to your face?’

  There was a dark purple and black bruise around Cadence’s left eye. She immediately dropped her head back down. ‘It’s . . . it’s nothing,’ she said. ‘An accident.’

  ‘It doesn’t look like nothing, it looks pretty bad.’

  ‘Please, can you just tell me why you’re here?’

  ‘Oh okay, right. This is going to sound like the stupidest question in the world, and I don’t even know why I’m asking this because it’s not like I have any reason to believe that you’d answer me truthfully, but . . . fuck it. Have you been stalking me?’

  Cadence looked up again and stared her right in the eye. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I still don’t even know who you are.’

  A wave of pins and needles swept across Georgia’s skin. Cadence was telling the truth. It was written all over her face. Georgia’s heart plunged and she swayed on the spot. Luke had been lying to her. How could she have got everything so wrong? She tasted bile in the back of her throat and her body felt hot. Too hot.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I just need . . . I need a minute.’ She walked past Cadence and straight over to her couch where she sat down and put her head in her hands, trying to make sense of it all, trying to process this news. She breathed in and out slowly. Luke is not the perfect guy you thought he was. Luke lied. Luke orchestrated your chance meeting with him. But why? Why would he possibly do any of this?

  ‘Excuse me!’ Cadence said.

  But Georgia ignored her. After a few moments, she became aware of Cadence sitting down next to her.

  ‘All right,’ Cadence said. ‘Now it’s my turn. Why do you keep coming here? Why did you ask me if I’ve been stalking you?’

  ‘Because . . . oh God, how do I even explain all of this? Because, I think it’s possible that Luke has been lying to the both of us.’ She fought against the tears that were threatening to spill. She couldn’t fall apart. Not here, not in front of Cadence. And not until she properly understood everything.

  ‘But how do you even know Luke?’

  Georgia lifted her head out of her hands and looked back at Cadence. ‘I know him because he’s my boyfriend.’

  ‘Please, not this again. Are you going to start shouting at me and telling me we broke up? Because if you are then you can just leave right now. I can’t take that again. Not after . . .’ She trailed off and Georgia quickly shook her head.

  ‘No, no, I promise, I’m not going to shout. Let me stay. We have to talk, we have to figure out what’s going on. Here’s the truth. I met Luke a few months ago at
a bar in Castle Hill. He told me he was single, but that he’d just had a really bad break-up . . . with you. He said that you weren’t over him, but that you still lived together.’

  She saw the look on Cadence’s face, knew that she was doubting her story, so Georgia opened the photo album on her phone and passed it across. ‘Here,’ she said, ‘see for yourself. There are lots of snaps on there of the two of us together.’

  Georgia felt cruel, especially as she watched Cadence’s face change as she went through the photos. It was like she was crushing this girl’s heart with her bare hands.

  ‘But, these could have been taken any time,’ Cadence said. ‘Maybe you used to know him, maybe these are old.’

  ‘Look at the dates of the photos. When you click into it, it shows you.’

  Cadence passed the phone back. It seemed as if she couldn’t bring herself to keep looking.

  Georgia ploughed on with her story. ‘Then I started getting these nasty notes left on my car, messages sent to my phone — messages from you. At least, I believed they were from you. I don’t know, I don’t even understand how he could have done it, how he could have tricked me, but he did. I truly believed you were stalking me. He moved in with me but the stalking got worse instead of better. There was a break-in, my keys were stolen — he said he thought you took them from under my seat at the movies.’

  Cadence was shaking her head. ‘No! I would never, I —’

  Georgia held her hand up. ‘It’s okay,’ she said, ‘let me finish. I lost my job because someone framed me at work, and I guess . . . I guess I was hitting rock bottom — a place I’ve been before, if I’m honest. But then something weird happened. We ran into my old flatmate and Luke seemed to know her. So, I spoke with her this morning, and it turns out he lied to me about how he knew her.’ Georgia stopped and locked eyes with Cadence, making sure she had her full attention before continuing on. ‘Cadence, I think . . . I think he arranged it so that he could meet me. I think there’s more to the way we got together. I think neither you nor I can trust him.’