Page 125 of The Fate Of Us

I shook my head free from my grip. “Not since it happened, no.” Silence graced us, thesun simmering and the world getting grey for a moment. “Alice, what do I do?”

Her sigh rattled through the screen. “Nate… you’ve been coming to me for what? Fiveyears now? And I think this is the first time I don’t have a suggestion other than ‘let her come to terms with things’.”

She slid her glasses back on her face, the glare just off in the corners, before she settledher arms back on the desk, talking with them like she always does. “It’s… unique, this situation you’ve found yourself in, and although I feel like I know you better than yourself… it’d be wrong for me to tell you how to fix this when that’s something webothknow you need to figure out on your own.”

“But—”

“Don’t let it control you.” I didn’t break our stare as she broke up my words. “You’vesat with your feelings, you’ve wallowed, but encouraging their company is only going to rot you from the inside out.” Her voice was controlled, and calm, all the things I wish I was. “Treat it like the attacks, Nate; breathe through whatever negative feelings that have pounced on you and picture what you could be if you made this right. Picture the good.”

I shot back. “But what if there’s nothing to picture anymore?”

“Oh, there’ll always be something to picture, Nate,” The lines in her smile faded as shesaid, “So long as you let her have her time, and show her that picture. Show her that you care.”

I dropped my stare to the dusty keys of my laptop, idly swiping at them before setting my eyes onAlice again. “And if she doesn’t like the look of it?”

Her shoulder rose to her ears and fell again as she let out a breath, her hurt for me, forAddy, painting her cheeks red as she said calmly, “Then I’ll see you when you’re back. But don’t blame her if she can’t see the beauty of that picture… you broke her heart in more ways than one.”

Chapter thirty-four

Adaline

Ithoughtthewholepoint of a location shoot was to film somewhere specific to thelocation.

If we had a scene set in the Hollywood Hills, with the white capital letters looming in thebackground of the shot, I would understand the need to film in L.A. Or on the Santa Monica Pier, or Melrose, or any other iconic location that the city was known for… I would have understood dragging all of us out here to La La Land.

But where my driver had just pulled into, I’d seen plenty of these back in New York.

“Are you sure this is the place?” I asked my driver, leaning my forehead against thelukewarm glass of the window, my eyes scanning the high school football field before us.

“It’s the address I have here.” My driver said through the rear-view mirror, catching myeyes as I rolled down the window and stuck my head out slightly.

Did they drag us all the way here for a football field? A football field that looks nodifferent from the ones I’ve been to back in New York.

And before the frustration could so much as make my lips purse, I realised that theycould have brought us out here to film a minute of the movie, in some random back ally that could belong to the West Coast of Australia for all the audience knew, but as long as it meant I was closer to Goldie, I wouldn’t have minded.

Still, this made no sense.

The car came to a halt, and a figure on the other side of my door pulled the thing open forme, the cerulean sky beating down on the set.

“Miss Moore, a pleasure,” I passed a friendly smile back to the woman I’d never seenbefore. “Makeup and wardrobe are just over there, and someone will take you to your trailer later on.” Her chirpy voice was nearly enough to bring a smile out of me. Almost.

“Thank you,” I muttered to her, and followed in step behind her, slyly taking in the setaround me.

I was in the makeup chair before I knew it, my face being tinted and highlighted andwhatever else the sweet makeup lady was doing to erase the bags under my eyes and make my skin look less grey. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a familiar collection of blonde curls and a cloud of pink.

“Morning Addy! How are you after last night?” Amber chirped as she came in the trailer,two iced coffees in her hand until she placed one on the vanity before me.

I passed her the most genuine smile I’d let show since finding out Goldie was going to college.

I took her up on her offer to go surfing with me last night, after hours of pacing andmental debating, until I realised that if I carried that on any longer, we’d be surfing with only the moonlight to guide us. The thoughts that felt like onyx clouds had parted since going to see my parents and Goldie, and I figured that a sunset surfing session would only quicken the breeze that was pushing them away.

And it did, although most of the night I spent floating over the waves with my legsstraddling the board Amber brought me, watching her cruise them like an ocean angel.

But still, it was a good night.

“I’m okay… although I don’t think I’ll be starting a professional surfing career anytimesoon.” I smiled up at her as I took a sip of coffee, the Rolling Pin logo that was pressed onto the side of the cup making my heart do a little flip.

Amber falls down into the makeup chair next to me. “If there was a sport for lookingpretty just sitting on the surfboard, then you’d be a world champ, I’m sure of it.” Her smile makes mine tug higher, and soon enough, I’m leaning forward as a laugh or two spews out of me.

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