Alice Cove

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

18.

I woke up, and for the first time in a long time I felt content, I thought about yesterday with Brody. I knew there was still a hard thing I had to do with Josh, but I could handle it, like Candy said, I need to do what’s right for me. Josh and I had been together for not even 6 months, and we’ve done this before and fallen back into being friends so I was sure we could do that again. But I had to make sure no one knew about Brody and I before that was done, for Josh.

I was back at work today, I shouldn’t have been, but I owed Candy for my sick day the other day. But at least that meant I was in the office by myself, no suspicious Candy giving me a hard time.

I had a quick shower and got dressed for work before having a quick breakfast and walk along the beach then straight to work.

“Well you look much better now,” Darlene declared as I walked through the door.

“You didn’t see me before,” I laughed at her.

She rolled her eyes, “Candice paints a very vivid picture.”

I laughed at that, I’d assume I’d laugh at everything today. That’s the type of mood I was in.

But today could be a potentially fast day. Even though we were now at the start of the slow season. Today was the day that emails started to roll in for next year. That’s why Candy called me in, she likes phones and I like computers. The phones would start in two days, but the emails were for returning patrons, like how my family use to be. Every year they could email two days prior to open bookings to keep their spot for another year once again.

It was 9am on the dot, our official opening time, and already 53 new emails to sort through.

It had been at least an hour of sorting through emails before I heard the door open and the chimes go, I looked up to see Brody.

I tried to hold my smile, but I doubt I hid it very well, but it’s okay because Brody was beaming too. Like a couple of school kids.

“Hey,” he leant his forearms on the bench in front of me.

“Hey,” I smiled.

“So umm, do we need to talk?” Brody asked.

“She’s busy!” I heard Darlene yell from her office.

We both laughed silently.

“My breaks at 2, meet me at the coffee shop then?”

“Alright,” he slapped the bench with one hand and was off.

“Bye Darlene.”

“Bye Brody!”

At 2 o’clock on the dot I walked over to the coffee shop and ordered a hazelnut latte. It was cooler now so my iced coffees were a thing of the past.

As soon as I got my coffee Brody walked over from the park and sat down across from me.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

We sat there silently for a moment then both laughed.

“Okay you start,” he told me.

“Well the Josh thing obviously,” I stated.

“I thought as much,” he nodded. This was very formal. But I was glad, considering what I had to say.

“I obviously have to break up with him,” I started and Brody instantly smiled, “so until that happens, we are as we were before.”

“Understandable.”

“Agreed,” I peered at him through slanted eyes.

“Agreed,” he gave in, “although I wish I didn’t have to keep my hands off you. That’s going to be hard.”

I flushed underneath his gaze. It was playful and full of lust.

I thought for a moment, this part he might not like, “you know I can’t do it straight away.”

He looked confused, but slowly his face softened, “I get that. He is a good guy, I wouldn’t want him to get home and have that news straight away.”

“I will do it though, just trust me.”

“I trust you.”

Should you though? I cheated on my boyfriend to be with Brody, that would be a huge red flag for me if roles were reversed.

“Hey,” he grabbed my hand on the table.

He could see the fight I was having with myself in my head, “I trust you.”

5 o’clock came around too quickly and I was no where near done with the emails, but I was back tomorrow to finish. And I was happy in the fact that most years when Candy does them I am left with way more to deal with the next day. I packed up my stuff and walked out with Darlene and towards the beach. I went for a walk along the beach, up to the lookout then back down by the road, coming back through the back of the park and to my van. It was already starting to get dark so I got my stuff together for a shower and headed over to have a deep clean including the hard task of washing my hair.

I almost expected Brody to be sitting at my place when I got back out, beer in hand, but he wasn’t. Probably for the best, I felt like I didn’t want anything s****l between us to happen at all before I could tell Josh myself, even though him being at my site wasn’t a huge deal and no one would think twice about it, I would.

I settled in on my couch and watched some Netflix with my dinner until it was time to go to bed.

I woke up a couple hours later and I was still on the couch, I must have fallen asleep as my screen had a message saying ‘are you still watching’ from Netflix. I turned the TV off a checked my phone, 3am!

I went to go inside my van and go to sleep when I heard rustling near the front of the annex, I froze, there was too much going on in my head for me to not be alarmed. I grabbed the closest thing to me that I could swing with blunt force, the remote. What a coincidence, my weapon of choice.

I thought about the hoodie man that I kept seeing, who else could it be? Everyone else would be asleep right now. I slowly crept towards the annex door, which I could now see fingers underneath trying to do the zip. I kept walking slowly, they kept fumbling, as I got to my perfect attack stance at the front of the door they finally got the zip and slowly unzipped it.

I was ready to pounce when I saw the person bend down and try to enter through the half open zip, I pulled my arm back ready to bring down a Hail Mary when they stood up.

“El?” It was Josh.

I dropped the remote before I could bring it down on him, “what the f**k you scared the s**t out of me!”

He just laughed, so bad he fell onto his knees then onto his ass. I slapped his shoulder, but I tried to hide my laughter.

“I didn’t know you were home,” I growled.

“I wanted to surprise you,” he laughed.

“Well you did.”

I went to walk away back to the couch but Josh got up onto his knees and grabbed my hand, pulling me close as he hugged my waist, his head against my abdomen. He wrapped his arms around me tightly.

I didn’t know if I should hug him, knowing what I had done, but I was going to let him down softly, and I did love him honestly. I just didn’t know how it fit.

I wrapped my arms loosely around his shoulders.

“It’s 3am,” I told him.

“I know, I drove the full twelve hours without stopping to get back to you,” he breathed into my stomach.

“That’s actually really dangerous, you shouldn’t have done that,” I scolded him.

He looked up at me, with those innocent eyes, they were dark like the night sky, and so big, “but I missed you.”

I instantly softened as he pouted at me, “I missed you too.”

And I kissed Brody.

He let go of me and stood up, towering over me, “you’re all I thought about.”

You weren’t.

He looked down at me, slowly leaning down, I knew he was going to kiss me. And I had to kiss him back, I was an asshole but I did want to kiss him back.

I closed the gap between us by getting on my tippy toes and giving him a quick peck.

He raised a cheeky eyebrow at me, before holding onto my jaw with one hand, the other at the small of my back which pushed me towards him even more so, and with his hand holding my jaw he held my head in place as he kissed me again. Longer and deeper.

After he kissed me he bent down and picked me up over his shoulder, causing me to squeal. He somehow manoeuvred us through my van door and dropped me onto the bed, he pulled off his shirt and pants and got in bed with me.

Without even thinking we somehow ended up underneath the sheets and intertwined together.

“So how was it?” I asked.

“Uneventful,” was all that he said.

I wasn’t surprised, he would’ve been buying or selling his livestock, that’s what his dad always did on his trips, Josh was the cowboy and his dad was the salesman.

“Same here,” lie.

This was starting to become easy for me, lying, and that was scary.

“You have work tomorrow don’t you?” Josh asked.

I nodded against him.

“Well then go to sleep babe, and we’ll talk tomorrow,” he must’ve been tired, usually I’d be the one to tell him to shut up and go to sleep.

Plus, he wasn’t trying to rip my clothes off, I was relieved but surprised.

I snuggled in to prepare for sleep which I knew would come easily right now.

“I love you Elody Clark,” he said against my hair.

“Love you too,” I mumbled inaudibly.

Flashback.

“Do you really want to do this?” My mum asked me, putting a hand in my lap as we sat in the office of the court house, waiting for my lawyer.

My dad sat on the other side of me at the round table, saying nothing. There was rage in his eyes, it hadn’t left him for the last fortnight, ever since I woke up in the hospital room with him by my side. His eyes were usually light and friendly, his wrinkles around his eyes like they were permanently smiling. Until that day. They changed, they were dark and hard, and I hadn’t seen them shift back since. He didn’t say much, he didn’t need to. I felt his pain, his anger, as he obviously did mine. His baby girl at 21, had already felt more pain than anyone should. Losing a child was the worst pain in the world, he had always said he didn’t want to be around to lose a child, his children were going to grow old way past him. But he never expected his own to go through his own nightmare. I had never seen my dad cry until that night.

“I have to,” I finally replied. My sight going back to my mother. She has been the strong one in this. To my face anyway.

“You don’t have to Melody,” just at that moment my lawyer came through the door with her assistant.

She was a strong woman with short dark hair and thick rimmed glasses, she looked every bit of the part.

I looked up at her expectantly before she sat down across from us.

“But,” there it is, “it would make the case much stronger, to hear your side, because it’s obviously much different than his.”

“Doesn’t the police statement portray her side?” My dad spoke up.

She thought for a moment, “it does, but they weren’t there to see the events play out.”

“And what about her doctors statement? Doesn’t she say that she could see Jackson was upset by the ultrasound?” My mum chimed in.

“And the neighbours that stopped him?”

“All of that works in our favour yes, but they are all just opinions, no solid evidence,” she said, looking at all of us in turn, “Melody as a witness would bring the emotional side, and the sincerity.”

“If she’s a witness that means the defence can ask her questions too?” My mum asked.

My lawyer nodded.

“Just stop,” I almost yelled, “I want to do this, I want it over.”

I woke up to my alarm, luckily enough since I knew what came next in that dream. I wasn’t scared, I knew the hard part of these dreams were over, well the hardest part anyway. My heart still hurt for it, in general yes, I’ll never forget. But it was broken again from the last dream, I at least needed the bandaid back. Stitches would come in time.

I turned over and saw Josh sleeping soundly beside me, he didn’t even stir from my alarm, he slept so soundly and looked so beautiful. I can’t believe I was going to break his heart, even though I could feel mine leaning towards someone else, I didn’t want to break anyones. I kissed his nose and he stirred, I then got up and found some work clothes to change into.

I didn’t want Josh to wake up because in actual fact I really couldn’t be bothered even speaking to him, so I quickly did my hair up into a messy bun and grabbed my toothbrush to go brush my teeth in the ablution block and head to work probably earlier than I should.