Lovestruck

by Bronwyn Sell

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, and she turned and walked toward her villa.

  He rubbed his cheek, over the imprint of her hand.

  And now he had a fallout of his own to deal with.

  Trip Review: Curlew Bay

  Rating:

  Review: My drinks bill ended up being huge! I told the concierge they should have warned me my bill was getting so high but she said the prices were clearly stated on the menus. I refused to pay and walked out. But then I remembered I was on an island so had to pay.

  34

  Amy

  ‘Josh’s mum is here? You’re kidding me!’ Carmen spoke through clenched teeth as she slid her apartment door closed behind Amy. ‘Sanjay and Dad were adamant they didn’t want a photographer. They said they didn’t want the day to be interrupted, or to feel like the whole thing was all for posterity. “We just want to enjoy the moment.”’ She plucked the offered brioche from Amy’s hand. ‘I haven’t factored in any time for portraits, and the whole ceremony is orientated for the sun and views—it’ll all be either backlit or too bright. We’ll have dappled shade over the floral arch and practically midday light, and I would have positioned the arch and chairs in entirely different places if I’d known it was going to be photographed.’

  Amy had no idea why midday light and dappled shade were such a curse, but as long as Carmen wasn’t interrogating her about Josh and their lovefest, it was all good.

  ‘Josh’s mum said the photographer had cancelled,’ Amy mumbled through the last, still-warm bite of her brioche, swiped in a stealth attack on the kitchen. She walked over to where Mika was sitting on the rug, intently working on a puzzle, and planted a kiss on her crown. The little girl absentmindedly brushed it away, the kid version of a Do Not Disturb.

  ‘This is all some messed-up family politics, and I’m caught in the middle,’ Carmen continued. ‘And is she a guest or staff? Do I need to add a seat to a table? Change the catering order? Make another placename? Dad and Sanjay think this is all so easy.’

  Amy hung her dress bag on the wooden ladder that served as a drying rack and unzipped it.

  ‘Don’t put that on yet,’ Carmen snapped. ‘Wait till after we’ve done hair and makeup.’

  The door slid open and Geoff stepped in. ‘How are my gorgeous groomswomen and flower child this morning?’ he said, catching Amy in a one-armed hug as Carmen took the suit bag from his other arm and walked into her bedroom to hang it up. ‘Were you hungover this morning?’ he asked Amy as he released her. ‘Your mum was expecting you at yoga. Apparently, she’d choreographed it with you in mind. “A warm-up,” she said.’

  Oops. A warm-up for the dance. ‘Oh, I just thought I’d pace myself today. Not get up too early. Long day ahead, you know.’ She moved to the open door and peered up at the powder-blue sky, as if checking the weather. If he looked her in the eye, he’d probably figure out she’d hardly slept. No need for smoky eye makeup today.

  ‘I guess you know Pippa’s here?’ Carmen said, returning. ‘What’s the deal with that?’

  Geoff gave both his daughters a loaded look. ‘First things first, I have to use the bathroom. Nervous pee number three of the day.’

  ‘Thanks for oversharing!’ Amy said.

  ‘Awww, Dad, are you nervous? That could be the cutest thing ever in my life.’ Once he closed the bathroom door, Carmen sidled up to Amy and lowered her voice. ‘Next to him being clueless about you and Josh.’

  ‘Not that there’s anything happening there.’ And how long would their little secret last, now that Josh’s mother knew?

  ‘Sounded to me like there was plenty happening.’

  ‘Ugh, you heard?’

  ‘I had to tell Mika that you guys were fixing something in the bathroom, with all the banging this morning. And then she wanted to go and help. So if she asks, the tap was leaking, okay?’ Carmen pressed her lips together. ‘Everything all happy families in Incest Land?’

  ‘Shut up.’

  ‘It sounded happy.’

  ‘Oh, Carmen, it was.’ That part was, anyway. Sex definitely hadn’t broken The Pull. And it hadn’t degraded their flirtation. It’d felt like much more than just a physical release—the way he’d looked at her, the way he’d held her, the way she’d felt.

  The alarming fact was that Josh had been every bit as charming and fun and attentive in bed as he was out of it. And she couldn’t really complain about him pushing her away afterwards, as it was exactly as they’d agreed. She just didn’t appreciate the way he’d shoved—a boot on the arse when she was already halfway out the door.

  Carmen glanced at Mika, who was singing to herself as she fitted a puzzle piece. ‘Did you tell him you’d never done it before so he’d have to instruct you?’ she whispered to Amy. ‘Was he as patient as when he “taught” you to snorkel?’

  Amy tsked.

  ‘You know you’re going to have to try to dance with him today like last night didn’t happen,’ Carmen continued.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘People will be able to tell by the way you look at each other, the way your bodies connect. They’ll know you’ve either just slept together or are just about to, or both.’

  ‘Not both. It’s not happening again. We’re over it now. Itch is scratched! Maybe if I avoid looking at him? Smile at the audience instead?’

  ‘Oh no, that’ll be worse. It’ll still look like you’ve done it, but it wasn’t all that good.’ Carmen slid back up to normal volume. ‘Hey Dad! Good pee?’

  ‘The best,’ he said, eyeing them suspiciously, ‘until the next one in five minutes. What are you girls talking about?’

  ‘It’s a surprise,’ Carmen said.

  ‘Uh-huh.’ He gave a cartoonish wink. Amy froze. He knew about Josh? How? She glared at Carmen.

  ‘I think he knows, Aims,’ Carmen said, pointedly, ‘about the dance.’

  ‘Oh,’ Amy said, relaxing. ‘That’s a shame.’

  Geoff sat at Carmen’s little round dining table. ‘I’ve been around this family long enough to know what you and Josh were in the middle of that day at the cove, and what you weren’t in the middle of. I’ve been trying to talk Sanjay down ever since—without giving the plan away so one of us can be surprised. It hasn’t been easy.’

  Ever since? How often had it come up in conversation? ‘So that’s why you acted as if you hadn’t seen anything? Not that there was anything to see.’

  ‘He’s got this ludicrous idea that you two are getting it on. He’s paranoid. Sometimes I think he’s only marrying me out of a duty to give Josh siblings, as if you guys were all little kids.’

  ‘All thoroughly sensible adults here, Dad,’ Carmen said. ‘And Sanjay is marrying you for the sole reason that he adores you, and we love him for that.’

  ‘Just quietly,’ Geoff said, looking furtively over his shoulder, though the only thing over his shoulder was the kitchen, ‘he carries a lot of guilt over Josh and Pippa. In hindsight, he realises that the way they handled their divorce was designed more to suit themselves than Josh. If he could go back in time and arrange things differently, he would. It’s no wonder the kid’s a bit backward when it comes to girlfriends.’

  Yeah, maybe in some ways. In others? Definitely not.

  ‘So what’s the story with his mum?’ Carmen said, theatrically whispering and pointing to the wall that separated the apartments.

  Geoff rapped his fingernails on the table. ‘Sanjay sort of tricked her into coming, but you cannot let on. You know how he always wants to fix everyone’s problems. I tried to talk him out of it but he’s got this idea that this wedding has to be a happily-ever-after for everyone in the southern hemisphere, which is why he’s paranoid about protecting you girls from Josh. Josh’s track record with women is a little dubious.’

  ‘Maybe Josh just hasn’t found the right woman yet?’ Carmen said, earning an eye roll from Amy.

  Geoff leaned forward, lowering his voice. ‘Maybe he’s determined not to. From what I can gather,
he always seems to go for women he has no intention of getting serious with, for one reason or another. Tourists with weeks left on their visas, women who’ve just left their husbands and aren’t looking for another, women who aren’t his type at all. Women he can’t possibly fall for. If he met a woman who was available and he was genuinely attracted to, he’d sprint the other bloody way.’

  Is that right? Did that include women who were about to be related to him? Was he interested in Amy, however temporarily, because she was off-limits? Or simply because she wasn’t his type, as he’d so confidently declared?

  ‘Once, apparently, he even told a woman who was getting too close that he wouldn’t inherit a cent of Sanjay’s money. Told her it’d all go to some charity in India. Suddenly, she was less interested.’

  Amy sat, hard, on the rug beside Mika, her back to her father and Carmen, watching the chubby brown hands navigating the shapes. She’d smelled something shady about that story. Was that Josh’s standard morning-after line to get rid of a woman who’d overstayed her welcome? He couldn’t truly believe Amy was some gold-digger, could he?

  She hugged her knees and rested her chin on them. She was a fool, just like every woman who thought she was different. The stinging truth was he saw her as a meaningless fling like all the others he’d so infamously had, yet another woman to keep at arm’s length with lies.

  And why shouldn’t he? ‘Meaningless fling’ was the agreement they’d made. She couldn’t be upset because he hadn’t fallen at her feet and declared his love. But she was allowed to be upset that he’d lied to her.

  ‘I take it that’s not true, about the charity in India.’ Carmen had killed the teasing tone. Going by the direction of her voice, she was watching Amy.

  ‘Of course not,’ Dad said. ‘Don’t let on that you know all this, by the way. Sanjay would kill me. Then Josh would kill Sanjay, and then I’d have to kill you guys—my ghost would—and Rosa would kill my ghost and Sanjay’s ghost would kill Rosa, and Nan would kill Sanjay’s ghost. And I guess it would end there but yeah, it’d be messy, like The Shining but in the tropics. So this is just between you and me, and whoever you tell,’ he added, a longstanding Dad joke. ‘But in all seriousness, don’t tell anyone, especially not today.’

  ‘We won’t say anything, right, Aims?’

  ‘Not a word,’ Amy said, her voice shrill. Her eyes watered and she hurriedly blinked. It wasn’t worth crying over. She hadn’t truly believed that Josh was falling for her, but she’d thought they’d at least understood and respected each other.

  ‘I reckon his parents’ experience damaged him, and then their odd custody arrangement made it worse,’ Geoff said. ‘I hope you girls don’t feel that way about relationships because of what happened between me and your mum. All this garbage Josh spouts about everything being temporary and no one knowing what they want for the rest of their life.’

  ‘No, Dad, you’re good,’ Amy said, swivelling, pasting on a happy face. This was his wedding day, and nothing was going to spoil it for him. ‘I just haven’t found the right guy. And Carmen hasn’t found a guy who can do hospital corners.’

  ‘So not true!’ Carmen said with mock offense, though one end of her mouth curved into sympathetic smile. She saw the deflection for what it was, and she was prepared to take the hit, bless her.

  Amy pushed to her feet. ‘Really? You’ve met a guy who can do hospital corners?’

  ‘No, but—’

  ‘What’s a hospital corner?’

  ‘You know, Dad,’ Amy said, straightening her kimono, ‘when you make the bed and fold the sheets like envelopes in the corners, like the room attendants do.’

  There was a rumbling outside. Aunt Jaz came into view, wheeling a large case along the veranda—the mobile spa kit—with Rosa following along behind. Jaz looked like she was ready for her own wedding, with her hair thrown into an artful updo and her makeup flawless.

  Geoff helped her navigate it over the door tracks. ‘Sheesh, Jaz, what have you got in here?’

  ‘Literally everything,’ she said, laying it flat and unclipping the edges. She opened it and withdrew a ring-bound document. ‘So,’ she said, flicking through it and scanning several pages, ‘the plan is to do low braided chignons, loose enough to look romantic and ethereal, secure enough to stay together, with blue-topaz jewelled combs to tie in with your dresses. And, most importantly …’ She reached into a compartment and pulled out a bottle of sparkling wine. ‘You know champagne was only invented to make it socially acceptable to drink before midday?’ She handed it to Amy.

  ‘I’m not sure that’s true, but I’ve never bothered with such distinctions, Jaz,’ Amy said, wandering onto the veranda to open it. The door to her mother’s apartment was still closed, the curtains drawn.

  ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea to start drinking now,’ Carmen said as Amy returned. ‘It’s a long day, and there are seven toasts.’

  ‘Tosh.’ Rosa was already pulling glasses from Carmen’s cupboards. ‘It’s my ex-husband’s party and I’ll drink if I want to.’

  Geoff picked up Jaz’s dossier. ‘What hairdo do I get?’

  ‘You get product,’ she said, popping the suitcase’s interior up into a mobile unit like the makeup witch she was. Amy still got a thrill from her decked-out supplies. It had been heaven for her and Carmen when they were young, and Jaz had indulged their every whim, seeing as Lena was an avowed tomboy and preferred playing with Jaz’s medical kit—though Amy had loved that too. ‘And you’re not allowed to touch it or complain about it. In fact, you’re not allowed to look in a mirror all day. Let me do the touch-ups.’

  Geoff lowered his jaw, making his chins multiply. ‘You’re not going to make me look like a tragic ageing rocker?’

  ‘That was my plan exactly.’ Jaz began pulling out products. ‘But less Bon Jovi and more Tom Cruise.’

  ‘Which Tom Cruise?’ Geoff said in a challenge.

  ‘Edge of Tomorrow.’

  ‘Remind me?’

  ‘Regular guy saving the world with an effortlessly cool haircut. Short, simple and stylish with a hint of I’m preoccupied with bigger things. Tell him to trust me, Carmen.’

  ‘Trust her, Dad.’

  ‘Tell him he’s not allowed to mess with it, Amy.’

  ‘You’re not allowed to mess with it, Dad.’

  ‘I’ll do yours last so you have less time to be tempted.’ Jaz patted a dining chair, gesturing at Amy to sit. ‘Your hair’s damp, Aims. You haven’t washed it this morning, I hope?’

  ‘Of course not.’ No time for that. ‘It just got a bit wet in the shower.’ Thoroughly wet. It had been a long and eventful shower. ‘I’ve been swimming in the sea every day and using dry shampoo and only finger-combing, like you said. If you blow-dried it straight up right now, it’d stay that way.’

  ‘Can someone please pass Geoff some bubbly?’ Jaz said, rubbing her fingertips over Amy’s scalp. ‘I haven’t seen him this jumpy since his last wedding.’ Mika left her puzzle and climbed onto Amy’s lap, padding like a cat until she was in a position where she could watch Jaz work, then plonking down. ‘I picked it, you know, the gay thing,’ Jaz continued. ‘I warned Rosa.’

  ‘You did not.’ Rosa handed Geoff a very full glass, and started pouring another. ‘You told me he was the perfect man.’

  ‘Jaz!’ Geoff said, sloshing his drink before he’d even sipped it. ‘Were you jealous?’

  ‘Absolutely not! I was happily spoken for at the time. And my gaydar was bleeping like it was about to blow.’

  ‘Gaydar wasn’t even a word back then,’ Rosa said, handing her sister a glass.

  Voices mumbled from next door. Amy bit her lip to stop herself shushing everyone so she could eavesdrop.

  ‘Could Dad do hospital corners?’ Carmen said, holding up a palm to refuse a bubbly.

  ‘He prided himself in his bedmaking ability.’ Rosa placed the glass in front of Amy instead. ‘He used to tell me off for mine.’

  ‘Great Sco
tt, Carmen,’ Geoff said, ‘that’s why you can’t find the perfect man. You’re looking for someone as amazing as me, and there’s no one.’

  And they were off. Amy closed her eyes as Jaz teased and tugged her hair, and Mika traced the embroidered dragon on the front of the kimono with a fingertip. She let the conversation swirl around her, a cushion between her and the doubt over what had happened with Josh. Next door, quiet words continued to murmur. She tried to ignore it, soaking up the nurturing feeling of her aunt’s primping and her niece’s affection.

  Geoff announced he had to visit the toilet again. The door snicked shut, and Jaz whispered, ‘Now, Amy, quickly, before your dad gets back. What’s with the pash rash?’

  Shite. ‘The what?’ Amy opened her eyes and shot a hand to her chin. Rosa gasped and Carmen squeaked. Jaz angled a makeup mirror so Amy could see. Her chin looked sunburned. Come to think of it, it had been stinging, and she’d been dying for lip balm.

  ‘I must have had an allergic reaction. Maybe a jellyfish?’ she tried weakly.

  ‘Strange time of year for it,’ Rosa said, but not in a way that indicated she doubted Amy’s story.

  ‘Strange part of the body for it,’ Carmen said, as if she were seriously weighing up what breed of jellyfish could be responsible.

  ‘Indeed,’ Jaz said, also not fooled.

  The bathroom door opened. Amy raised her hand to shield her chin as her father passed, faking a small cough.

  ‘I can cover it up,’ Jaz continued, ‘but you’ll have to keep up with the touch-ups. And perhaps avoid that part of you coming into contact with whatever may have caused the reaction, at least until bedtime.’

  ‘That won’t be a problem. I’m not planning to go swimming today. And can we not mention to anyone else about the jellyfish? I don’t want to worry anyone. I’m sure it’s nothing serious.’

  ‘Understood,’ Jaz said with way too much meaning.

  A few minutes later, Amy heard a rolling noise—the door to her mother’s apartment sliding open. Seconds later came a rap on Carmen’s door—a courtesy, since it was open. Her back happily to the door, Amy listened as Josh introduced his mother to everyone, including Amy’s dad, which had to be awkward. ‘And Amy you’ve met,’ he finished, with an artificially casual tone. With Jaz working on her hair, Amy had a perfect excuse not to turn.