Page 55 of Strictly Friends
Griffin still hadn’t moved from where he was stationed just inside the closed door, and he flinched at the contempt in her voice. Then, asif he had nothing else to lose, he shrugged. ‘You talk about the truth and yet you won’t admit that it wasn’t all hearts and roses with Kenny.’
‘We werehappy!’ Ruby shouted, but Griffin didn’t back down.
‘Maybe that’s how you choose to remember it, but I was there, don’t forget, and the truth is you never loved Kenny. Not really. You fell for him because he was a tall, good-looking dude with a sexy Caribbean accent who told you how gorgeous you were. He made you feel good about yourself – and that was enough for you to decide he was the man for you.’
‘That’s so not true!’ she gasped.
‘Remember this is me you’re talking to, and that I know you better than anyone. From all the way back in school you’ve always been so hard on yourself about your looks. You’ve got it into your head that being small and cute is what every man looks for in a woman. Kenny was never right for you, and even Auntie Opal and Auntie Pearl told you so. But you ignored all of us and insisted he was the one, and now it’s time you owned that.’
‘No, Griffin. What Iwillown is that I made a colossal mistake in trusting you, but when it comes to learning lessons, it’s better late than never,’ Ruby said coolly, refusing to let him see that his words had cut her to the quick. ‘What this has taught me is that I can’t trust you, which makes having anything more to do with you pointless. So, when you get back to London next week, do me a favour and don’t call me or try to contact me or mine.’
Griffin blanched. ‘You don’t mean that!’
‘Oh, but I do,’ Ruby replied.
He took a couple of paces forward, staring at her in disbelief. ‘Do you know what that would do to Jake? I’m hisgodfather, for Christ’s sake!’
Ruby stood her ground and raised her chin defiantly. ‘Yeah, well, thanks to you he doesn’t have afatherthat lives with him any more, does he?’
‘Then that’s even more reason why you can’t separate us. Jake needsme, Ruby, you know that!’
She glared at him for a moment and then dropped her gaze. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. It wasn’t fair to punish Jake for Griffin’s crime, but she wanted nothing further to do with him.
‘Fine,’ she conceded. ‘For my son’s sake – not yours – you can arrange with Auntie Pearl when you see him, but I don’t want you anywhere near me.’
Griffin ran a trembling hand over his hair and exhaled hard. ‘Rubes,please! Will you let me tell you why I couldn’t tell you the truth at the time?’
‘Don’t“Rubes” me! I don’t care to hear anything more from you. Don’t you get it, Griffin?Nothingyou say will make a difference. You let my man walk out on me and leave my son without a father for six years! You saw what that did to Jake – why do you think we’re out here in the first place? I can’t believe that you, of all people, did this to us. I swore to your mum that I would always be there for you, but I don’t trust you any more and I don’t want you in my life. So, yes, once we’re off this island, you and I are done!’
In the tense silence that followed, Griffin pinched the bridge of his nose as if trying to hold back an overpowering emotion. Shaking his head, he said quietly, ‘You know what, Ruby? You can blame me for not telling you the truth, but you can’t pretend that Imade Kenny leave. Let’s face it, if he’d loved you enough, he’d have stayed and fought for you.’
Although it was what Ruby herself had thought, it was devastating to hear him articulate her deep-seated fear that she hadn’t been enough to keep a man. A flush of heat erupted through her body until even her cheeks were burning with humiliation.
‘Howdareyou?’ Her breath sounded loud and harsh in her ears, and her jaw ached from the effort of holding back the sobpressing to escape. In that moment she hated Griffin with an intensity she could never have imagined, and desperate to hurt him as badly as he had hurt her, Ruby scrabbled for something,anything, to retaliate.
‘You know what,’ she choked out, ‘you were right not to tell me Kenny had left because of you, because then I could have told you that he needn’t have bothered! Why would he think that I would want to be withyou? You have no goals and no sense of purpose other than seducing women and then making their lives miserable. I had – and have – way too much self-respect to want to be with someone like you!’
Griffin looked stricken, but Ruby was too deep into her own pain to care. ‘Do you know the saddest thing about you, Griffin? Aftereverythingshe sacrificed for you, your mum would be so ashamed of what you’ve become.’
The naked anguish on Griffin’s face hit Ruby like a hammer blow. His skin looked drained of colour and although he opened his mouth, no sound emerged. But while a part of her desperately wished she could take back the vicious words, in that instant, her need for revenge was greater.
In silence, Griffin opened the door, and the moment he left the room, Ruby’s face crumpled. Feeling utterly wretched and deeply ashamed of what she had just done, she collapsed on to her bed, sobbing as if her heart would break.
38
Much to Ruby’s relief, there was no sign of Griffin at dinner that night or at breakfast the following morning. She had no idea how she would have reacted to seeing him, and everything inside her shrank from finding out. After he’d walked out, she had stayed in her room crying until Jake’s return forced her to duck into the bathroom, where the sound of the shower could muffle her uncontrollable sobbing. After dinner and once Jake was asleep, she had sat outside on the balcony, silent tears flowing down her cheeks as she replayed their hurt-filled exchange. Aside from her family, Griffin was the most important relationship in her life, but the vile words she had hurled at him had been intended to inflict maximum damage and she knew he would never speak to her again.
Nevertheless, despite her grief at losing her best friend, she couldn’t let go of the deep anger she felt towards him, not only for withholding the information she had so desperately needed, but also for dismissing her trauma from the years of cruel taunts about her appearance. Someone like Griffin, who had been born beautiful and simply oozed confidence, had no idea what it was like to not feel desirable and to suffer from crippling self-doubt, she thought bitterly. Even if he’d thought his brutal assessment of why she had chosen Kenny and why Kenny had walked away was true, all he had achieved by saying so was to leave her feeling crushed and exposed.
After breakfast, Kenny arrived as planned to pick up Jake for them to spend the last day of the trip together. Desperate to avoid running into Griffin, Ruby stayed in her room for the rest of the day, sorting clothes and packing, in between emailing back and forth with Nick to finalise the last touches to MissIda’s website.
It was six o’clock in the evening when Nick finally pressed the button to launch the Paradise Inn website live on to the internet, and Ruby lay on the couch scrolling through the beautifully designed web pages. The extensive picture gallery displayed the vibrant colour schemes of the bedrooms in Paradise Inn as well as the stately elegance of the house and its beautiful gardens. Nick had cleverly interwoven snippets of the glowing testimonials from guests across each page and Ruby smiled as she played the video of Mac – looking even more handsome than George Clooney – singing MissIda’s praises.
If that doesn’t bring the punters, then nothing will!
Seeing her spontaneous idea coming to fruition, Ruby felt her spirits lift. The stylish but functional website and user-friendly automated booking system and app would, she knew, prove a lifeline for MissIda’s business and allow her to keep her beloved home. Scrolling through the photo gallery and seeing the pictures of the marina, downtown, and the harbour, Ruby couldn’t stop herself reliving the memories. When she reached the section about the island’s nightlife, her fingers froze on the keyboard. The images she had taken at the Marina Beach Bar on her phone camera brought the memories flooding back of the magical night of dancing with Griffin, followed by the most perfect of kisses on the beach, and her spirits plummeted.
As the sun dipped below the horizon and the room grew dark, Ruby forced herself off the sofa. Jake would be back soon, andshe needed to share the good news. Picking up her laptop, she ran downstairs in search of MissIda. There was no sign of life in the hallway and, fearful of bumping into Griffin, Ruby cautiously stuck her head around the door of the dining room, relieved to see only Narita and a handful of guests. Walking over to MissIda’s office, Ruby knocked gently on the door, entering as soon as she heard the woman’s voice.
