Page 39 of One Day and Forever
It was already dark, cold, foggy and there was three inches of snow on the ground when Kara opened the boot of the taxi van to load it up with luggage.
‘How can you have so many suitcases?’ Kara asked Drea, using every ounce of strength her biceps possessed to haul yet another suitcase into the back of the vehicle that would whisk them to the airport. ‘Just how? Are we going for a week or are you fleeing the country?’
She’d counted four cases so far, and the driver had helped with the first two before claiming a bad back and retreating into the vehicle. At which point Drea had given her a desperate shrug and said, ‘I can’t risk breaking a nail. I’m getting married.’
Kara put her hands on her hips, bent over, trying to get her breath back. ‘Can I just check how often you’re going to use the “I’m getting married” card. Only, if it’s going to go on, I’m going to start using the “I’ve called off my wedding and I’m heartbroken” card to get me out of manual labour.’
Drea put her perfectly manicured hand through hers. ‘Are you heartbroken? Still? Because I feel that other than taking toyour bed for two days, you don’t seem to be sitting with your feelings.’
Kara wrapped her in a hug, appreciating the concern. ‘I don’t want to sit with my feelings because it only makes me want to go smash Josh’s windows and I’m trying really hard not to get arrested before your wedding.’
‘Good plan. Okay, let’s go before you change your mind.’
Desperate to get out of the snow that was beginning to fall thick and fast again, they clambered into the back seat of the van. While Kara shook out her feet to get the thick white slush off her boots, Drea clicked her seatbelt on while having a minor moan to herself. ‘I told Mum we’ll meet her at the airport because I’m trying to minimise my exposure to her. She has an opinion on every detail of the next week and I’m scared too much gritting my teeth will pop off a veneer.’
Kara didn’t respond. Their mum being a lot was nothing new. As the car pulled out of the street, she took in the dark sky above them and was grateful that in less than twenty-four hours she’d be in the sunshine. And yes, she should be wearing a white dress and saying, ‘I do’, but right now she’d settle for a pina colada and double scoop of coconut ice cream on the beach.
‘Anyway,’ Drea went on. ‘I want to hear everything about your encounters at work and with Josh this morning. What happened?’ Drea asked. ‘And leave out nothing.’
Kara rewound her day, back to the start when she’d walked into the Clydeside Studios with Tress, and then pressed play, mapping out everything that happened afterwards. Drea didn’t interrupt until they got to the bit where Kara left the meeting and Josh was in the reception area with Corbin Jacobs.
‘He was not!’ she gasped. ‘You know, screw it – we could still detour and pan his windows. So what did you do?’
‘Erm,’ Kara said, a little shamefaced, ‘I very boldly and bravely ran out of there like my arse was on fire.’
Drea pursed her lips. ‘Not exactly a superhero move, but okay.’
‘I know. Not my finest moment. But anyway, so then…’ On she went, laying out chapter two of the sorry tale, the one that was set in her old flat and that ended with her putting him on the spot. ‘I hit yet another all-time low by giving him a hypothetical scenario – if I agreed to still marry him, would he drop Corbin and the studio as clients and defend me instead? He didn’t say yes.’
‘Oh love, I’m so sorry. What an arse he truly is.’ Drea took her hand, her sympathy making tears pool on Kara’s bottom lids. She blinked them back and cleared her throat before answering Drea’s inevitable question. ‘What would you have done if he’d agreed? Apart from panic, because I already cancelled his flight.’
‘Yeah, he did mention that.’ Kara said, before falling silent for a second, as she contemplated Drea’s question. ‘I don’t know. The weird thing is…’ She was admitting this to Drea before she’d even admitted it to herself. ‘There was part of me that was relieved that he didn’t. How could I marry him when I couldn’t count on him to have my back? Or to put me first? I know Clydeside is one of his biggest clients, but he could have handled this another way. Instead, he just went straight into damage control, and this time, I was the damage.’
‘I get it and I agree. You deserve better. I told Ollie he should have married you when you asked him.’
‘I was eight and I just wanted his bike,’ Kara spluttered.
Drea cackled so loudly the driver did a welfare check in the rear-view mirror. ‘That’s exactly what he said when I spoke to him earlier. Anyway, you can stay with me and Seb as long as you want.’
‘Thanks, Drea.’
It was one of those beautiful sister moments, until Drea added, ‘But not too long because you spend an inordinateamount of time in bed and in the bath. There’s always your old room at Mum’s.’
Kara shook her head, a rueful smile. ‘I’d rather go back to Josh. Or sleep in my car. A Mini can be surprisingly roomy when it’s the best option.’
‘See, you should have married Ollie. You’d have got the bike, half of that swanky townhouse in Park Circus and an LA crash pad. You really are such a disappointment.’ She pivoted to the next fleeting thought that went through her mind. ‘You know what I don’t understand though?’
‘Empathy?’ Kara went with her best guess, but Drea refused to rise to it.
‘I don’t understand what’s happening with Casey Lowden. I feel like she’s letting you take the fall and all you were doing was defending her.’
Kara nodded thoughtfully. ‘I know what you’re saying, but the bottom line is that she didn’t ask me to step in. It was my choice, so everything that’s happened to me since is down to me. I don’t blame her in the least. Maybe she’d rather have handled it a different way.’
‘Yeah, well, I hope you hear from her.’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Kara countered honestly. ‘I don’t regret it and I’d do it again, so it’s all on me.’
Before Drea could respond, the car veered off the motorway and onto the slip road to the airport, sending her into a full-on flap. ‘Eek, we’re only five minutes from the airport. Okay, let me just check everything again. Passport, itinerary…’
