Page 73 of Just Like in the Movies

A clean break was the only way to go, but the more he thought about making that break, the less he wanted to.

Listening to Ruby’s gentle snores in the darkness, and the patter of rain on the window casing, he forced himself to switch off his thoughts, and leave figuring out the Ruby conundrum to another night.

Stretching, he snagged the cord for the lights and switched them off too.

Chapter 15

Can you take some time off tonight and meet me @ Brynn’s @ six for a date?

Ruby read Luke’s text for the second time, and tried to convince herself their first proper date was not a bad thing. But the sinking feeling in her stomach wasn’t cooperating.

Luke had finished repainting the foyer two days ago.

They’d had an impromptu staff party yesterday to christen the new look front of house area. Jacie had bought two cheap bottles of fizz from the cash and carry down

the road, Gerry had supplied the plastic cups, Beryl had produced some inedible cupcakes – which had a movie theme no one could decipher – and Ruby had given a speech thanking Luke for all of his hard work while trying not to blush knowing his hard work on the theatre’s infrastructure wasn’t the only work she appreciated. It had been even more of a struggle not to tear up at the knowledge Luke would be gone soon. But when the party had broken up and he hadn’t said anything, she’d convinced herself they might still have a few days, maybe even a week left to enjoy each other.

But as she reread the text again, she wondered, was the hammer about to fall?

Why else would he want to take her on a date, somewhere public, unless he had something to say he thought she might get over-emotional about? And why had he disappeared two hours before the pensioners’ early-bird screening had started? Was he packing even now, preparing to catch a night flight back to Manhattan?

The hole in her stomach hurt as she tapped out a deliberately nonchalant don’t-worry-Luke-I’m-not-going-to-have-a-breakdown reply.

No probs, Jace can cover for me, I’ll see you there.

‘Hey, Jace, can I ask you a favour?’ she shouted above the hoover her friend was using to suck the last of the crumbs from Beryl’s rock-hard cupcakes off the newly washed carpet before the pensioners started arriving.

Jace kicked the machine’s switch to cut off the noise. ‘Yup.’

‘I’ve got to go out, could you watch the fort until …’ She paused, how long was Luke’s parting speech likely to take? Would he want to come back to the flat tonight? The questions only made her stomach hurt more. ‘Until closing?’ she asked.

Even if their break-up drinks didn’t last that long, and he didn’t fancy a goodbye shag, she was likely to be in bits. No harm in scheduling time for a mini-breakdown until tomorrow morning.

‘Sure, where are you going?’ Jacie asked.

Ruby pressed her lips together to stop them wobbling. She really needed to get that reaction under control before she got to Brynn’s or she was likely to completely screw up the finale of The Ruby Movie.

If she could survive without Matty, she could survive without Luke. And it wouldn’t even hurt as much, once she got over the loss. Because Luke wasn’t dead, he just wasn’t ever meant to be a permanent fixture in her life.

The Ruby Movie didn’t need a man for its Happy Ever After. Because The Ruby Movie was a feminist romcom. No lovesick nonsense allowed.

‘Just to Brynn’s. I’m meeting Luke for a drink,’ she said, the wobble all but undetectable.

Jace propped her elbow on the hoover’s wand and studied Ruby. ‘Why do you need to go out to meet him when he’s going to be scaling the fire escape later?’

Ruby blinked. Fine, she knew they hadn’t fooled Jace, or probably anyone else for that matter – the amount of well-meant “bedroom tips” she’d been getting from Beryl was actually scary – but did Jacie have to be quite so direct?

‘Because we’re just going to be talking, I guess,’ she replied, deciding to meet direct with direct.

‘What are you going to be talking about?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ruby said, no longer able to hold on to the wobble.

Dropping the hoover wand, Jacie strode over to the box office counter where Ruby had been busy restocking the popcorn maker before she’d gotten Luke’s text of doom.

‘Rubes?’ She threw her arm over Ruby’s shoulder, gave her a comforting squeeze – which managed to hold the wobble back, thank goodness. ‘Has Luke done something? Said something?’ Jacie asked, her incredulity a sign that even she had discovered Luke’s charms. ‘You’ve been so happy in the last few weeks. I thought you guys were having fun together?’

‘We are …’ She gulped past the blockage in her throat. ‘Or rather we were. But I think he’s going to tell me he’s flying home tonight.’ She brushed her hair back from her face, sniffed loudly, and stepped out of Jacie’s hug, feeling foolish now, as well as wobbly.

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