Page 87 of Just Like in the Movies

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.

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