Page 93 of Just Like in the Movies

Ruby made her way down the flat’s staircase, her head aching from a crying jag that had begun as soon as Luke had walked out of her life, for good this time, and would not stop.

Pull yourself together. Tears never solved anything. He’s gone. And you’ll survive.

‘Just opening up now,’ she shouted through the metal shutter in reply to Jacie’s text.

She flicked up the switch to lift the shutters.

Luke had reconditioned the motor and replaced the tracking last week, so the shutter lifted smoothly in half the time it used to take.

Ruby sniffed loudly, wishing she had those extra minutes now to compose herself. A new boulder swelled in her throat. Every time she worked the shutter she’d think of him.

Until you sell.

With the shutter lifted, Ruby unlocked the door and shoved it open.

Jacie turned to shake her umbrella before ducking into the foyer, giving Ruby a few precious extra seconds to compose herself. But despite her best efforts to do so, as soon as Jacie’s gaze landed on Ruby’s face she knew the sixty-second shutter lifting delay that Luke had left her with hadn’t been long enough to hide the evidence of her Luke-induced meltdown.

‘Ruby, what’s wrong? You look like shit,’ Jacie said, appalled. ‘Is Luke still here? Didn’t he tell you he’s going to save the cinema? And why aren’t you dressed yet, it’s almost noon?’

Because I’m falling apart.

Luke had only left an hour ago. So much for being strong, being a survivor, finding a new life, she was an abject failure at all three.

‘I look like shit because I feel like shit.’ She waved her arm in the vague direction of the door to her flat. ‘I’ll go get dressed. Could you open up?’

‘Wait, where’s Luke?’ Jacie asked, cutting off Ruby’s retreat.

‘He’s gone. He’s not coming back. End of story.’ Ruby scrubbed her face and talked around the sob threatening to choke her. ‘You shouldn’t have told him about what happened at The Rialto meeting. And you shouldn’t have persuaded him to come back for the screening, I’m guessing that costume was your idea.’

‘He didn’t need any persuading.’ A blush darkened Jacie’s skin, but she didn’t relinquish eye contact. ‘I thought …’

‘You thought what?’ Ruby asked.

‘I thought he was going to stay,’ she said simply.

So did I, for one brief shining moment of stupidity.

Ruby’s face collapsed, the tears rushing back.

Jacie rushed towards her and enveloped her in a hard hug. ‘I’m so sorry, Rubes.’ Her friend fished a damp tissue out of her raincoat pocket. ‘Here, blow,’ she said, holding the tissue to Ruby’s nose.

Ruby blew, attempting to clear out the sadness clogging her sinuses.

It didn’t work. She felt washed out. Exhausted.

‘Why don’t I ring Beryl and Tozer and get them to cover for the matinee today?’ Jacie said. ‘We can order in pizza, steal some medicinal Prosecco from the bar and keep working on Plan B.’ Her friend examined her tear-streaked face. ‘I’m guessing you turned down his offer?’

Ruby’s tear ducts threaten to flood again as she nodded. ‘I couldn’t take his money, Jace. Please understand.’

I told him I loved him, and he had nothing to say.

She had re-considered her decision several hundred times since he’d left an hour ago – had she just done the stupidest thing imaginable by refusing his, what had he called it, his ‘financial settlement’ – but she couldn’t make herself regret it.

Maybe her head was saying she should have accepted the money. But her heart knew the truth. Accepting Luke’s money would have confirmed what Luke had always believed: that Matty had left him half The Royale because he expected his nephew to bail them out. When she knew the opposite was true.

But more importantly, this wasn’t about Matty, anyway, it wasn’t even really about The Royale – it was about her, and Luke.

It was Luke she wanted, not his money. And she couldn’t have him. Because he didn’t want her. How could she ever move on if she didn’t confront that reality? And while what she’d said about starting a new life had been a desperate attempt to get him out of the flat before she lost the last of her resolve and begged him to want her – like she’d watched her mother do too many times to count – maybe there was some truth in it. She had been hiding at The Royale. Allowing Luke to save her, the way she’d once let Matty save her, wasn’t good enough. What she needed to do was save herself.

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