Murfey's Law (20 page)

High above them the sky grew gradually darker as a huge black cloud passed in front of the sun. It didn't look like it would hang around for long but when it opened up on top of them the rain drops were so hard and so heavy it stung their eyes and smarted against the bare skin of their shoulders.

Over the noise the rain made as it hit the sea Zeb yelled at Lori to follow him and he pointed at the little shelter in the rock platform not far to their right.

Pushing their boards up and in Zeb climb skilfully over the sharp rock and turned around to pull her in by her arms.

‘You've done this a few times haven't you,’ Lori asked as she squeezed the water out of her eyes and settled her bottom on to the smooth surface of her board.

‘It's been here longer than I have.’ Zeb shuffled himself around so his legs were spanning both boards and Lori's back was leaning against his chest. ‘I used to bring Jonah in here when he was younger and listen to his stories of how he felt different to everyone else.’

‘He came out to you in a cave?’ Lori chuckled.

‘I know, ironic eh?’ He threw his head back and laughed. Wiping the wet strands of hair away from her shoulder, he leant his head forward again and kissed the length of her neck.

Lori shivered. She couldn't put it off any longer. If she kept finding inane reasons to wait then it'd never happen. It wasn't as if any time was going to be the right time. That she hadn't even thought about how she was going to say it or even what she was going to tell him was her own stupid fault. The simple facts were that she had a buyer for the shop, and although she was having second thoughts she couldn't fight the feeling that keeping the place would mean she had somehow forgiven her father. That's all she needed to tell him. He'd understand that surely?

Turning the words over and over in her mind Lori felt Zeb's teeth grazing the back of her neck and his hands massaging her shoulders. Breathing deeper against her skin he slipped one hand round to the front of her chest and into the wet fabric of her bikini while the other moved down to grasp her hip.

‘So... you never found a buyer?’ He asked casually.

Oh. Shit.

This is what happens when you lie.

‘Zeb.’ Lori turned herself around to face him and took his hands in hers. She searched his eyes, imploring him to appreciate why she did what she was about to tell him she'd done.

‘Lorikeet?’ He questioned her, pulling out of her grip.

‘I... I wanted to...’ Lori faltered unable to form any sentence that wouldn't sound like a pathetic excuse for making a stupid choice.

‘You have a buyer?’

‘I'm so sorry, I wanted to tell you but then we had, well you know, and...’

‘What the fuck?’ Zeb spat. ‘You had a buyer before New Year's Eve? I asked you specifically that night if you'd found a buyer and you said no. Do you remember that Lorikeet?’

‘I'm sorry...’

‘So you keep saying.’ He'd now recoiled so far from her she couldn't even reach him when she tried to put her hand on his arm.

‘Zeb please, listen to me, I didn't mean for it to happen like this,’ Lori pleaded. ‘I accepted the offer because of my feelings towards my father. When I came here I was absolutely set on selling so that I could erase all trace of connection to him, but I started to have doubts and I didn't know why. And then we kissed, and then the Peters' made their offer and I thought I had to see it through because staying in Murfey's Beach would be so awkward for both of us if we'd had a fling...’

‘If we'd had a WHAT?’ Zeb was yelling now, his rage incandescent.

‘I thought that was all you...’ Lori tried to interject.

‘How fucking dare you assume to know anything about me, or about anyone here. You swept in all bitter and wallowing in self-pity and everyone bent over backwards to accommodate you, Jenny has been waiting on you hand and foot, the other residents have been trying to help you realise the shop's potential in the hope you'd stay and as for me...’ He stopped himself. ‘No, I'm not doing this.’

Sitting up on his haunches he pushed Lori's knees aside and threw his board into the water. Without another word he dove in after it.

Tears streaming down her face Lori watched as he powered through the choppy waves reaching the beach in no time, storming out of the water he walked straight past the picnic and up the beach toward the road. As he disappeared from view Lori allowed the great heaving sobs she had pushed down in her chest to escape.

‘Lori?’ Kristy's voice called from the other side of the locked bedroom door.

Woof!

‘Lori come on, let me in.’ Kristy jiggled the door handle gently.

Woof!

‘Listen, Bob sounds hungry can I at least feed him? You can't keep him locked in there with you, he'll need to poop at some point.’

Woof! Woof!

‘I have cake.’

‘Cake and wine.’

Just as Tyler was about to have a go at the door handle with a screw driver he'd found in the cupboard under the sink, the lock on the inside clicked. Rubbing Kristy's arm encouragingly he turned and went back down stairs leaving the girls to themselves.

In the kitchen Jenny looked dreadful. She hadn't cared for a second when she had found out that Lori had kept the offer on the shop secret from her, it was the utter desolation she'd seen on Lori's face when she'd marched back in to the shop mid-morning. With a surfboard under one arm, an esky in her hand and a bundled up picnic rug, clanking with goodness only knows what, in the other, Lori had dragged the whole lot up the stairs without saying a word, Bob following closely at her heel, and locked herself in her room. When both Jenny and Tyler were unable to rouse her they had decided to call Kristy. Between Kristy's confession to knowing about an offer on the shop, and the note they'd found on the bow that had dropped behind the counter it didn't take long for them to work out what had happened.

‘Heeyyy,’ Kristy spoke softly as she opened the bedroom door and crept in with cake and wine as promised. Bob shot out the gap and Kristy pushed the door shut behind him.

Curled up on the bed beside the surfboard and wrapped in the damp and sandy picnic blanket Lori lay blotchy eyed and snivelling. Apart from getting up to unlock the door just now, she'd been in the same position for hours. Her hair had dried in a great mess of knots and her bikini was covered in salty tide marks. She wiped her nose on her pillow, making Kristy shudder.

‘How about you take a sh...’

‘No,’ Lori snapped like an irritable toddler.

‘Ok, lets start with the wine and cake then.’ She pushed the esky to the other side of the bed so she could sit down and pulled two plastic cups out of the pile of rubbish on the floor. ‘Ugh, reminds me of my Uni days.’

Lori didn't flinch.

‘Here.’ Kristy held out a bright blue cup for Lori to take.

Shuffling a little further up the pillows Lori reached her arm out and took the dark green one instead.

‘Do you want to tell me what happened?’ Kristy took a sip of the Zibibbo she'd brought several bottles of on her way over in the car after she'd received Jenny's call for help.

‘I have to go back to London.’ Lori sat up slowly, sniffed and took a few swigs of her wine.

‘Why?’ Kristy put her hand gently on Lori's arm to make her drink a little more slowly, then repeated her question, ‘Why do you have to go back to London?’

‘Because I'm an idiot.’

Kristy spat her wine back into her cup and looked at Lori's face. ‘That wasn't a joke was it?’

Lori shook her head and opened the cake box.

‘How about you tell me why you're an idiot.’ Kristy grabbed the box of tissues from the windowsill and picked up the plates off the floor. Wiping the sticky melon juice off, she held them out while Lori picked out two slices of cake with her fingers.

‘I don't want to sell the shop.’ There she'd said it out loud.

‘Then don't.’

‘But I have to.’ Lori's eyes threatened to spill over so she took another swig of her wine and tapped the top so Kristy would pour her some more.

‘Of course you don't have to sell the shop.’ She glugged the fizzy wine into both their cups.

‘I do, because I can't tell the Peters' that I've changed my mind.’ Lori didn't look at Kristy but she knew what she was thinking.

‘Isn't that what got you into this mess in the first place?’

‘I know, I know, but even if I could tell them I've changed my mind, which I can't, then what? Living here after what I've done to Zeb, the residents will make my life a living hell. I'll be the outcast. They'll boycott me, and the shop will finally go broke.’ Lori stuck her fingers in the cake box and swiped the icing from another slice, washing it down with more wine.

‘I don't for a second believe that. I don't see Zeb as the type to go telling everyone what happened and you know I won't tell a soul.’

‘I know you won't, but Tyler and Jenny,’ Lori whispered, running her fingers up and down the smooth surface of the surfboard beside her, ‘I'm not so sure about.’

‘Can I ask you a question?’ Kristy took a swig of her wine, feeling the fizzy bubbles making their way to her head.

‘Sure.’

‘Do you think you could be in love?’

A car horn somewhere outside saved Lori from having to respond to Kristy's question, not that she didn't know the answer.

‘Lorikeet darling, I'm so sorry to interrupt but there's a delivery for you,’ Jenny opened the door a little and spoke through the gap.

Looking at Kristy she questioned her with a frown.

‘Nothing to do with me,’ her friend replied honestly.

On the front verandah Lori stood staring at the beautiful old nineteen fifties delivery truck. The side of the shiny red vehicle emblazoned with the name of the company, Wattle Farm Timber.

‘Lorikeet James?’ The old bearded man called from the back of the truck.

She hesitated, then stepped down onto the driveway and walked slowly towards him. ‘Yes, that's me.’

‘Great, then this is for you.’ He drew back the giant bolts on the doors and swung them open.

‘Umm, I'm so sorry to have wasted your time, but my father passed away and I don't need the timber he was having you deliver anymore.’ Lori hoped he would take pity on her. She didn't really want to have to pay him for a pile of wood she'd then need to pay someone else to take away.

‘I know love, but before he died, he asked me to finish this for him.’ Leaning in to the back he undid a few long straps and lifted down an exact replica of the solitary armchair Lori found on her very first morning here.

‘Oh, ok, well umm...’

‘Don't worry, the account's all paid up.’ Sensing her concern the grey-haired gentleman smiled kindly as he closed the doors back up.

‘Thank you.’ She smiled politely as he gave her a salute and climbed back into the driver's seat.

Tyler came out of the shop and joined her in the driveway, picking up the chair he gave her a kiss on the cheek and carried it back to the verandah, placing it beside it's partner. Lori followed slowly behind.

‘Wait! I nearly forgot.’ The man jumped out of the truck again and jogged over to her, waving an envelope in the air.

‘Sorry?’ Lori spun around.

‘Your father asked me to promise you got this too, not sure what I would have done if you weren't here,’ he laughed and handed it to her, saluting again. ‘Goodbye love.’

‘Are you sure you don't mind staying with her tonight?’ Jenny asked Kristy as they put away the last of the washing up. Tyler had been sent home and the closed sign had been hung on the shop's front door as soon as Lori had taken off down the garden with the envelope.

‘Of course not.’ Kristy patted her arm affectionately. ‘I have cake and wine remember! I'll come and get you if there's any problem, I promise.’

‘Ok, well, it'll be getting dark soon so you should probably try and get her in before long.’ Jenny picked up her house keys and walked through the shop.

‘Don't worry, I'll take care of her. Unless the storm breaks soon I'll give her another half an hour and then go get her.’