Just Like in the Movies

by Heidi Rice

  ‘Dolly Levi, of course,’ he said, with a flourish. ‘I have a gold glitter ball gown which is absolutely perfect, all I need to do is source some feathers for the headpiece.’

  ‘Wonderful,’ Ruby said. ‘Are you still okay to sing the theme song before the screening?’

  ‘Darling, just try and stop me,’ he said. ‘So how about you, Luke. I’m thinking you could pick any of Bob’s characters from his prime years.’ Brynn gave Luke a careful once over. ‘Better known as The Sundance to Waldo Pepper years.’

  Luke took a judicious sip of his beer. ‘When is this event?’

  ‘Tomorrow night,’ Ruby and Brynn said together. Ruby could hear the stupid yearning in her voice and wanted to take the words back.

  Had he heard it, that eager desperation? The desire she’d had on lockdown for weeks. It seemed he had, when he placed the bottle back on the bar and the easy smile on his face disappeared. ‘Unfortunately, I’ll have to give it a miss.’

  Oh shit.

  The piercing pain swelling in Ruby’s lungs scored a direct hit with the confirmation of everything she’d feared his arrival in the bar signified.

  Luke had come to say goodbye.

  You already knew that, you ninny. Do not screw up all your hard work, not now, not when there has never been anything you can do to change the final fade out of this affair.

  ‘That’s a shame,’ Brynn said, speaking for both of them. ‘You would so have rocked Bob as The Great Gatsby in his Roaring Twenties flares.’ Sending Luke a smile, he headed off down the bar to serve a customer that had just walked in.

  ‘So what movie are you celebrating Babs and Bob night with?’ he asked. ‘Is it another of Matty’s Classics?’

  She wondered, momentarily, why he was prolonging their conversation. But then she took a deep breath – the painful swelling in her chest threatening to cut off her air supply – and suddenly realized she didn’t care what his reasons were.

  She wanted all the final minutes she could get with him. Why shouldn’t she grab them with both hands? She could handle the pain later. Today had already been awful enough. Losing Luke was going to be hard, but he hadn’t left yet.

  ‘The Way We Were,’ she said, in answer to his question. ‘Matty loved Babs and he always said Bob Redford was at his most bonkable in that movie.’ The blush ignited, but she ignored it. For goodness sake, don’t think about how bonkable Luke is, that will just make this even tougher. ‘I know a Streisand obsession is a bit of a gay cliché,’ she said, trying to steer the conversation back on to safer ground. Movie trivia had always saved her in the past, and now her life depended on it. ‘But Matty always said cliché is cliché for a reason. The film is a wonderful melodrama about two people who fall in love but are total opposites. She’s a working-class Jewish spitfire, passionate and determined and believes in fighting for lost causes, and he’s a handsome WASP who’s laid-back and privileged and doesn’t believe in lost causes, let alone fighting for them …’

  Her words trailed off – why on earth was she giving Luke a plot synopsis for The Way We Were in their last moments together? And how come she couldn’t get over the horrible significance of that plot all of a sudden.

  Had Luke figured out the truth? That she was totally Katie in this scenario – destined to be heartbroken and alone – and he was Hubbell – aloof and pragmatic?

  The irony helped her even out her staggered breathing a bit. Get a clue, Rubes.

  This wasn’t a movie, it was real life. Too real life.

  ‘You think I haven’t seen The Way We Were?’ he said, surprising Ruby so much she sputtered and nearly choked on her lemon-tini

  ‘You’ve seen it? Really?’

  ‘Yeah, really.’ Luke drank his beer, his piercing blue gaze meeting hers. ‘It’s the longest most turgid melodrama in movie history so kind of hard to forget.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’

  ‘You think?’ he said and she had the strangest feeling he wanted to prolong this moment as well. Why did that make the moment even more precious and yet even more painful at the same time? ‘It’s goes on forever while going nowhere …’ He added. ‘And that damn theme tune is like the ear-worm of the century.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll admit the movie is a bit laggy in places,’ Ruby said, managing a smile despite the sadness searing her throat. Just keep talking about the movie and everything will be all right. ‘But Robert Redford is beyond gorgeous in Navy whites …’

  ‘If you like your guys short and squat and with too-perfect hair,’ he cut in, as he swept back the dark wave of hair that always flopped over his forehead.

  ‘And Babs is terrific,’ she soldiered on while allowing herself to get side-tracked admiring his too-perfect hair. ‘No way is the theme song an ear-worm, it’s beautiful and so evocative. And the whole two hours is worth it for that one scene in the bar.’

  ‘What scene in the bar?’ The blank look was back.

  ‘Oh, please? You don’t remember it?’ Okay, now she was offended. And a bit outraged. But at least she was breathing easier. She could do this, she could definitely do this. ‘Close your eyes,’ she said, suddenly gripped by an idea. A hopeless, silly, slightly pathetic idea. But one that had the potential to end this affair in the way she had always planned to end it. On her terms, as well as his.

  She let the giddy kick of adrenaline flood her veins to cover the lingering pain.

  Maybe Luke did not do romance. But when was she likely to get another chance to re-enact one of her favourite scenes from one of her favourite movies with a man who had given her so much in the last six weeks: he’d fixed their theatre and helped her get over the first big emotional hurdles caused by losing Matty, by simply being there when she needed him, and by giving her the best sex of her life. Surely that deserved to be celebrated not mourned?

  ‘Why do you want me to close my eyes?’ he said, the suspicious light in his gaze somehow flirtatious. Was this Luke’s way of saying goodbye? Letting her have a moment that would make this ending easier, no matter how hard?

  ‘Just close your eyes,’ she demanded, enjoying her own assertiveness and the ability to breathe again, if only for a little while. ‘I’m going to rewind the scene, so you can remember it.’

  He closed his eyes. And her breath slowed in her lungs. Not ending the pain, but easing it, a little.

  She studied him in the half light – and savoured the moment he was giving her – determined to remember it always. The fall of hair which had dropped back over his forehead, the lean lines and perfect angles of his face, the dimple in his chin. He was never meant to be hers for the long haul, but he had been hers for a little while, and she refused to regret a single second – which was really the main reason she could not fall apart right now.

  One piercing blue eye opened. ‘I’m waiting,’ he said, then snapped it shut.

  She laughed. ‘Okay, okay.’ She flexed her fingers and then started humming The Way We Were theme. Loudly.

  ‘Oh, hell,’ he said, but his lips quirked and she smiled, her heart skipping into her throat. However tough this parting was going to be, however poignant, they would always have this moment. And so many more.

  ‘Of course, I really should have had gel nails fitted for this …’ Ruby said as she leaned towards him. The stool wobbled, and she planted her palm to stop herself falling forward, only to have it land on the taught muscle of his thigh.

  The muscle tensed beneath her hand. And heat shot through her.

  ‘If this is just an excuse to feel me up …’

  ‘Shut up,’ she said, flustered as she snatched her traitorous hand back, took another sip of her lemon-tini, then rubbed the burning palm on her own thigh.

  She started humming again, her heart beating a giddy tattoo when his lips quirked. Then she reached out a nail, and slowly, delicately lifted a thick lock of his hair and smoothed it back from his brow. And all the pain seemed to coalesce into one simple thought.

  However much this hurts, it was always
, always worth it.

  His eyes opened as the song got caught in her throat, her whole body stilled from the lightning strike of emotion – and possibly one too many sips of lemon-tini before wine o’clock – as she found herself trapped in the sapphire blue, which for once didn’t look cynical or pragmatic. He simply stared at her, his gaze pensive and intense. And she wondered what he was thinking.

  Her lungs squeezed tight under her rib cage, the moment suspended in time – and she wondered if this hurt as much for him as it did for her.

  But then he broke the spell. ‘That’s it?’

  ‘Yes, you still don’t remember it?’ she said, appalled and breathless at the same time. ‘The scene in the club, where Hubbell’s on shore leave in his Navy whites and Babs spots him and he’s sleeping and she hasn’t seen him in years and she flicks his hair back. And it makes him wake up and their eyes connect.’

  Just like ours, now.

  Her rib cage contracted so much, she almost couldn’t breathe. ‘And he hits on her and they end up in her apartment. But the next morning he treats her like a one night stand. It’s heartbreaking and awesome at the same time, because she loves him and has always loved him and he doesn’t even know it.’

  She finally careered to a stop, realizing she had gone too far. Way way too far.

  You’re not in love with him, Ruby, that is not allowed.

  ‘No,’ he said, softly. And she heard the apology in his voice. ‘Don’t remember it.’

  ‘Oh, well.’ She sat back, knowing as she gathered the tattered remnants of her dignity – and her bruised heart – that while it hurt now, she had to carry on breathing through the pain. ‘I guess that explains then why you don’t appreciate everything that movie has to offer.’ She took a sip of the lemon-tini, only to find her glass empty.

  She swallowed, knowing what was coming next but suddenly knowing she would survive it, just like she had survived everything else.

  Perhaps she would never be able to watch Babs getting touchy-feely with Bob’s perfect fringe again while watching The Way We Were without seeing Luke but did that have to be a bad thing? Movies had saved her once upon a time, but she’d finally discovered, thanks to Luke, that real life could be so much more exciting than anything Bob and Babs had to offer.

  He lifted the keys from the bar and, taking her hand in his, placed the bunch in the centre of her palm. He wrapped her fingers around them as the deep pulse of desire in her abdomen joined her erratic heartbeat and the pulsing pain in her chest. ‘The work’s finished, Ruby.’

  She nodded, staring at their closed fists, unable to speak round the great big wodge of sadness lodged in her throat. If they could have been two different people, this might have worked. But she’d always have the memories.

  He let go of her hand, then tucked a knuckle under her chin. ‘You look after yourself, and The Royale, okay?’ he said, emotion thickening his voice.

  She sent him a watery smile and nodded, holding the pain deep inside – letting it sear her lungs and sting her eyes but refusing to let it overwhelm her before she had watched him walk out of the bar.

  ‘Has he left for good?’ Brynn murmured having come back down her end of the bar as the door swung shut behind Luke.

  Ruby nodded. She couldn’t speak, the pain in her lungs too intense to utter a single word.

  ‘Shame, he seemed like a nice guy,’ Brynn said, taking her empty lemon-tini glass.

  She nodded again and blinked furiously.

  He was. But he was never meant to be mine.

  And suddenly, Ruby knew what Katie must have felt like at the end of the movie when she had to let Hubble go.

  And exactly how much it sucked.

  ***

  Luke headed out of Brynn’s bar into the late spring sunshine of the last day in May. He could hear the cars heading towards Portobello Road, could smell dust and exhaust and the garbage left out in front of the grocery store across the street, could see The Royale on the opposite corner. But all he could really hear was Ruby’s sultry voice humming the Streisand tune, all he could smell was the fresh rose of her shampoo, and all he could think about was how much he wanted to turn back and dive into her again, the way he had so many times in the last three weeks.

  Dumb. Why would you do that, Devlin?

  Especially as the break-up he’d been dreading for days had gone much smoother than he had imagined it would. But as he headed past The Royale, something else about their parting came back to bug him.

  She hadn’t met his gaze when he’d asked her about the meeting with the guys from The Rialto today. Something wasn’t right, he was sure of it.

  He shot a look over his shoulder, checked his watch.

  No sign of Ruby, perhaps she was having another cocktail. Before six o’clock. Which didn’t make a whole lot of sense now he thought about it either. Ruby liked a novelty cocktail, but she wasn’t a big drinker, not since he’d known her. So why had she and Jacie been knocking them back at Brynn’s before opening for the evening?

  His steps paused and he crossed the street to The Royale. He spotted Jacie in the lobby. She looked up from the ticket booth and saw him standing in front of the cinema.

  Only one way to find out what had really happened at that meeting.

  He’d already said his goodbyes to Ruby, which had been a whole lot harder than he would have thought possible, but he couldn’t leave until he knew for sure she was going to be okay.

  ‘Hello?’ Jacie said as he pushed open the glass door. ‘Come to say goodbye?’ she added, the snap of resentment giving him pause. She hadn’t liked him at first, but he thought they’d reached an accord in the last few weeks.

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘And to find out what the heck happened at your meeting this afternoon, because I asked Ruby and I don’t think she was straight with me.’

  ‘Why would you want to know that, when you’re leaving?’ she said.

  He bristled, annoyed by the accusation in her tone. What the hell more did she want from him? He’d worked his ass off for six weeks getting this place back to where it was supposed to be, didn’t he get any credit for that? But as he opened his mouth to finally have it out with her, he saw the flicker of distress cross her features … And suddenly, he knew this wasn’t about him.

  Jacie was tough, tenacious and a hard nut to crack for sure, but she was also smart and hard-working, she loved Ruby and The Royale and she was fiercely loyal to both.

  ‘What the hell happened in that meeting, Jacie?’ he said. ‘I can’t fix things if I don’t know what’s going on.’

  Her expression softened, and he could see the scared friend behind the tough girl act. ‘Do you really want to fix things?’ she asked.

  Every one of the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, his heart pulsed hard in his chest, and for once he didn’t question the wisdom of following his gut. ‘Yeah, I do.’

  Chapter 18

  ‘Brynn, thanks so much for doing this, you look incredible.’ Ruby forced a smile to her lips, determined not to let on to anyone she had an empty space in her chest she was terrified might never be filled.

  Watching The Way We Were – especially in her Katie outfit from the scene she had relived with Luke yesterday evening in Brynn’s Bar – was about to increase the torture.

  She missed him, so much, already. He’d walked away from her just over twenty-four hours ago and it had been a titanic effort not to fall completely to pieces in the hours since. Luckily, she and the rest of the team had had their hands full organising tonight’s screening. But now the lobby was packed with people rocking their Babs and Bob outfits – just as predicted there were enough Yentls to fill a synagogue – and she could feel the tears queuing up in her throat. How on earth was she going to survive listening to Brynn sing the song she had hummed for Luke yesterday, the last time she’d touched him?

  Brynn winked, the gold lamé gown sparkling in the fairy lights Ruby and Jacie had spent the morning stringing across the newly repainted l
obby.

  ‘Thanks honey, you look perfect as Katie,’ Brynn replied. ‘Matty always said you had more heart and tenacity than La Streisand. He wasn’t wrong.’

  She forced her mouth to curve. ‘High praise indeed. Shall I announce you?’

  ‘Oh my!’ Brynn’s gaze locked on something over Ruby’s shoulder and his eyes brightened. ‘Your Hubbell changed his mind. How wonderful.’

  What? No, it can’t be.

  Ruby swung round. Her heart stopped beating for two crucial seconds, then started beating so hard she was scared she might pass out … Or, worse, might be having an out-of-body experience. Because she could see Luke walking towards her.

  But this wasn’t Luke as she knew him, in his thousand dollar suits, or his paint-splattered overalls and tool belt, or his worn jeans and sweaters as he climbed into her apartment late at night, or his stretchy boxers the morning after, or nothing at all as they spooned in her too small bed.

  This was a new Luke, dressed in Navy whites, the black-and-gold epaulettes standing out against the pristine uniform, the officer’s cap perched rakishly on his dark hair, his jaw clean shaven, the true blue gaze locked on her face as he ignored the spontaneous applause and headed straight towards her.

  He came back.

  She was definitely having an out-of-body experience. But if this was an illusion it was the best illusion of her life. She could see Jacie – in her white two-piece suit with sail boat flares from What’s Up Doc? – grinning at her and clapping, Gerry and Tozer – in their matching pin-stripes from The Sting – laughing too, and Beryl clutching her Funny Girl pearls as if she were about to faint with the romance of it all.

  I know how you feel.

  The piano intro for Streisand’s signature song from the film floated over the applause, and Brynn’s Dolly began to hum the tune. Just as Dolly’s smoky voice caressed the opening lyrics about misty waters and memories, Luke reached Ruby. Taking her hand in his, he dragged her towards him and gripped her round the waist.

  ‘I think this is my dance,’ he said, his gruff American accent prickling over her skin and making her heart jiggle in her chest.