The Girl in the Yellow Vest (43 page)

Well, that sucked.

Thanks, Trent, for ruining my life.

He knew that in good conscience, at this point, he had to take a step back and wait. If he was to have any sort of relationship with Em, she had to make the choice to reject Trent on her own
without
his influence. Of course, there was no guarantee that that’s what she’d decide. Trent had just offered her the one thing that she’d been waiting for all along. Now that she could have Trent, would she still want him?

He did a hundred sit-ups trying to burn off the stress. It didn’t work. If he were a fly, he’d be on the wall in her unit, listening to exactly what was going on. As it was, he was stuck here with the noble obligation of giving them both some space.

It was late when the knock came on his door but he was still up. Sleep was not going to come easily to him that night, so why even try? He flung open the door hoping it was Em, but knowing who it would be instead.

‘Will.’ Trent clasped his shoulder in a kind of half-hug before walking in. ‘How’s it all going?’

‘Er . . . good. How have you been?’

Trent rubbed his hands. ‘Fantastic.’

‘Listen,’ Will turned around, running his hands through his hair, ‘sorry I didn’t stay earlier at Em’s to see you.’ He walked further into his unit, expecting Trent to follow. ‘I thought you guys might have needed some space to talk.’

He turned back when he reached the living room and saw that Trent was looking at him with a rather arrested expression on his face.

‘You were over at Em’s place tonight?’

‘Yeah.’ Will raised his brows. ‘Sorry, I just assumed she told you.’

‘No.’ Trent looked stern. ‘She didn’t. Didn’t mention you at all.’

Will’s gut dropped heavily like a wet sponge. Probably didn’t even notice that he wasn’t in the living room when she’d returned there with Trent. Too distracted by the proposal, no doubt. He rubbed his temple. Had he really expected her to say, ‘Sorry, Trent, I’m in love with Will now’?

‘Is there something bothering you, Will? Because I’m here if you need to talk about it.’

He looked up, guilt firing his bones. This was exactly the place he’d been trying to avoid. If Trent knew what he’d done behind his back, their friendship would be over. When Trent had knocked on Emily’s door she’d been practically naked and in his arms. She still would be there if Johnny-Propose-Lately hadn’t turned up.

‘No, no,’ he mumbled, looking down. ‘I’m fine.’ He was only now appreciating the futility of his situation.

He’d exchanged no promises with Emily. They’d made no declarations. Clarified no long-term goals. Their encounter was one of two people who had given in to a crazy impulse. An impulse that probably never would have happened if Trent had still been in the picture.

‘You were there when I proposed, weren’t you?’ Trent demanded.

Will realised for the first time that his friend was looking angry rather than concerned.

He held up his palms. ‘Just barely. I pretty much got out of there as soon as I heard what was going on.’ He looked at the ground, flicking the edge of the floor mat with this big toe. ‘So what did she say?’

There was a moment of agonising silence while he waited for Trent’s response. And then it came like a knife through the heart.

‘She said yes of course.’

His head jerked up as pain sliced through his body. ‘She did?’ His voice barely made it out of his voice box.

‘Aren’t you going to congratulate me?’ Trent eyeballed him.

‘Congratulations,’ Will said dully, and then, because he knew it was expected, gave his friend another half-hug.

Surprisingly, Trent didn’t appear to notice his lack of enthusiasm. He was all news and plans as he went to make himself comfortable on the couch. ‘It was a long time coming, wasn’t it? But you know, Will, it was inevitable. We’ve been together five years. There’s too much history there.’

‘I guess so.’

‘So I’ll be staying at her place for the week while she wraps up a few things here. Then we’re flying off to Brisbane.’

‘Brisbane?’ Will repeated weakly.

‘Well, her R and R is due and we’ve got wedding plans, a ring to pick out and lost time to make up too. Seemed like a good idea to take a holiday together.’

‘Right.’ Will’s throat was as dry as jerky. He’d lost her again, only this time it was worse.

Much worse
.

‘When’s your R and R coming up?’ Trent asked.

Will was barely listening. ‘I don’t know. I think it’s this week.’

‘You should take it then,’ his friend exclaimed. ‘Give yourself a break, Will. The shippacker is in now, right?’

‘Shiploader,’ Will corrected him and also sat down, resisting with an effort the urge to drop his head into his hands.

‘Yeah, whatever.’ Trent waved it away. ‘The point is, you should take a break while you can. Not that I’m trying to get rid of you or anything.’ He laughed. ‘How about we catch up for dinner one night next week? You, me and Em can go into Mackay to celebrate.’

Celebrate?

The suggestion made him feel physically ill. He didn’t give a damn about the shiploader or whether the time was right for him to have his R and R. What he did care about was that Trent and Em were going to be living as a couple a mere three doors down from him. Sleeping in the same bed, talking weddings and expecting him to smile about it. He couldn’t watch them moon over each other for a whole week. He’d been through that once before and it had nearly killed him. Not to mention that this time there was the added complication of the awkward conversation he knew he and Em had to have. The one where she said, ‘You know the other night? It was a mistake. Can we forget it ever happened?’

Yeah, he’d much rather not hang around for that.

‘Actually, Trent, I think you’re right. I really should go on R and R while my workload is low. There’ll be plenty of time to, er, celebrate with you and Em when you guys get back from Brisbane.’

‘I completely understand,’ Trent assured him. ‘Well, listen, I better get back to Em. She’s probably wondering where I am. I was only supposed to take out the rubbish.’

‘Yeah, yeah. No worries.’ Will was eager to see the back of him too. ‘Tell her I said congratulations, won’t you?’

‘Sure, mate.’ Trent clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Sure.’

Charlotte passed the next five days in a kind of emotional haze. Mark continued to remain in the background. He checked in at least once a day whether at work or at home. It was funny how when she saw his stern, uncompromising face a feeling of safety seemed to wash over her. He never uttered a loving word or even took her into his arms. And yet, whenever he was there, she felt at peace. Like everything really was going to be okay – they just had to get through it.

Trent, the lawyer they had hired, came to visit her every day to discuss what evidence Dennis was bringing against her and how they should counter it. It was a matter of law that both parties had to disclose to the other any evidence they had gathered prior to the court date. She read with disgust the documents that Denis had found to support his case, including her sister’s letter. In the meantime, Trent also proposed papers they could use to support their argument. Unfortunately, these would take a little time to procure.

Trent always came while Zara was at school and so in this way she was able to keep the entire ordeal a secret from her sister. The last thing she wanted to do was scare her. Zara had only just found out what her father had done and that blow had been crushing enough. She did not want to put this on her as well. In any case, children under the age of eighteen were not allowed to testify or even attend a court hearing concerning them. Luckily, Trent said he could build a good case without Zara’s testimony.

Otherwise she mainly passed the time cleaning and preparing the guest room for her brother to stay in while she was out of town. On the third day, when she went to her mother’s room to collect her dirty laundry out of the wicker basket, she noticed that something was sitting on the bottom of it under all the soiled clothes. She reached in and pulled out a sealed envelope. There was nothing but the words
To Emily
scrawled in a not very neat handwriting on the front. She could only assume that her mother must have picked it up somewhere in her wanderings. She was known to take a fancy to things and just put them in her pocket.

When Trent came around that afternoon she showed it to him.

‘I found this note for Emily with my mum’s laundry. I’m not sure how long it’s been there. Could you pass it on to her?’

‘Sure.’ He nodded and took it from her hand. ‘Did she tell you she’s decided to come with us to Brisbane?’

Emily had actually told her the day before. The young woman had turned up in the evening with a DVD and a box of chocolates.

‘Just here to cheer you up.’ Emily had smiled. But Charlotte got the feeling the need was actually pretty mutual. She’d heard that Will had very suddenly taken his R and R and wasn’t going to be back on site again till next week.

‘So,’ she drawled conversationally, ‘Trent’s visit! That was a big surprise.’

Emily groaned. ‘Tell me about it.’

Charlotte pressed her lips together. Given the lawyer was staying in Emily’s unit, she had to wonder where things now stood, especially with Will out of the picture.

‘What’s that look for?’ Emily demanded. ‘We’re not back together if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘It’s none of my business.’

Emily rolled her eyes. ‘The truth is, he probably would have left by now if he wasn’t doing this case.’

‘Oh cripes.’ Charlotte put a hand over her mouth. ‘You’re putting up with him for me, aren’t you? Why didn’t you say so?! I’ll give him his own room. No charge.’

Emily smiled sheepishly. ‘If you don’t mind, that would really make things a little easier.’

‘Of course.’ Then after studying Emily’s averted face for a couple more seconds she added shrewdly, ‘You haven’t said much about Will recently. Did you tell him how you feel?’

‘Nearly,’ Emily grimaced. ‘The night after the shiploader went in. We kissed . . . and
kissed
.’ She blushed. ‘But then Trent arrived and proposed.’

‘Proposed!’ Charlotte exclaimed. ‘That’s a little sudden!’

‘Yeah, I didn’t see it coming either,’ Emily nodded. ‘But he did and Will was in the other room. He must have heard everything because he bolted and then I made the huge mistake of not calling him till the next day. By that stage he’d already left.’

‘On R and R.’ Charlotte scowled and couldn’t help but compare it to when Mark had walked out on her in exactly the same way. ‘Have you tried calling him?’

‘Incessantly.’ Emily looked absolutely miserable. ‘But he won’t answer my calls. He just turns off his phone as soon as he sees my caller ID. I did get this one text message, though.’ She took out her phone, scrolled through her messages and then showed it to Charlotte.

Don’t worry about me, Em. I’m fine and I understand. We should never have crossed that line. Now you can have what you’ve always wanted. Just be happy. And I’ll be happy for you. xo

‘Ouch,’ said Charlotte.

‘Yep.’ Em dejectedly tucked her phone away. ‘He just wants me to get on with my life with Trent. I’ve ruined everything, including our friendship. Why else would he be avoiding me?’

Charlotte put her arms around her friend as the girl bravely, if not effectively, held a sob in check. ‘Oh, I’m sure you haven’t lost Will,’ she said soothingly against her hair. ‘He probably just needs a bit of distance for a while after what happened. He’ll always be your friend. That’s just the way he is.’

‘But everything’s changed now. Even if he will be my friend, that’s so much less than I want. It would be torture.’

Charlotte bit her lip, unable to find a comforting thing to say in this instance. ‘Plenty of fish in the sea’ seemed rather callous at this point.

Emily chuckled weakly. ‘Look at me crying on your shoulder when I came to take your mind off things.’

‘You have taken my mind off things,’ Charlotte assured her and then mused, ‘So I take it you’ve refused Trent’s proposal?’

‘Technically, I’ve agreed to think about it,’ Em revealed. ‘At least until your court case is over. He wants me to come to Brisbane with him, but I’m not sure.’