The Love Resort (38 page)

‘And every gay man needs a diva with great dress sense as their best friend.’

*

‘It’s hopeless, Jimmy, hopeless.’ Carla tried each window in turn, while Jimmy concentrated on the door.

‘She’s got us secured all right.’

‘But she can’t leave us here for ever. When is our flight?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve lost track of the days. I mean, we’ve only been in here for one but it feels like more.’

‘I know what you mean. Are you all right?’

‘About Emily?’ he asked; Carla nodded. ‘Surprisingly I am. I was angry but now I’m too tired, and Lee and her—well, they seem more natural together than we did.’

‘I hate to say it but you’re right. I thought he was the only man I could ever love.’

‘Shit, you sound like one of Anne-Marie’s novels.’

‘You’re funny, Jimmy, really.’

‘I think that’s a compliment.’

‘You seem more confident without her.’

‘I hope so. As do you, without him.’

‘I suppose I am. Now all we need to do is fall in love and then there’s a perfect ending.’

‘Carla...’

‘I’m joking. The only thing I care about right now is getting out of here.’

‘It’s not that I don’t find you attractive.’

‘Jimmy, I don’t need you to reject me, I was joking.’

‘And so am I.’ His eyes twinkled and although their task was proving fruitless, they both laughed.

*

‘I know we’ve only been together for a few days, although it seems like more,’ Lee began.

He was in the kitchen with Emily and Todd. Todd looked at them, amused. It was as if they were confessing to him.

‘I know, but then we didn’t really get together under normal circumstances. In fact, we’ve only been on one date,’ Emily added.

‘Really?’ Todd asked. He wasn’t sure if he approved of what they did, but then he wasn’t really in a position to sit in judgment.

‘Yes, but what happens when we get out of here?’ Lee asked. Todd wasn’t sure if he was addressing him or Emily.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘I’m going to London to study and Emily lives in Devon.’

‘In a pub,’ Emily added.

‘Oh, yeah, maybe I’ll come and live with you. Sorry, bad joke.’

‘Oh, for God’s sake, just because Tim has a problem with drink doesn’t mean you can’t mention the pub.’

Again, Todd wasn’t sure if they were talking to him or each other.

‘I guess not. Anyway, how are we going to do this?’

‘I suppose that I could visit you. I mean, I work in the pub but I’m on great terms with the boss.’

‘And if it works out then maybe you could move to London,’ Todd suggested.

‘With you, Lee?’ Her eyes sparkled with excitement, and Todd melted. There was something so endearing about a couple newly in love.

‘Well, I’m not sure, but I think so.’

‘In that case, I’m not sure either, but I think so too.’

‘Glad we’ve got that sorted,’ Todd finished.

*

Thea looked at Tim in horror; he was deteriorating fast. She had dozed off, after all the talking she’d done, and when she’d woken, she’d found Katie and Todd watching them, and Tim like this. The shakes were getting worse and although he drank some water, he kept vomiting it up. She rubbed her eyes.

‘What can we do?’

‘Todd,’ Katie said calmly, ‘can you take her to the other room?’ Thea looked at her, ready to object.

‘Believe me, you should go with Todd. I’ll take care of him. Ask Emily to come and help.’

Todd pulled Thea to her feet and led her out. She let him; she had no strength to argue.

‘Hi,’ Emily walked in and sat down; Carla was with her.

‘Emily,’ said Katie, ‘can you keep trying to get water down him? He’s dehydrating and I think he might pass out.’

‘Oh God. Of course.’ Emily tipped Tim’s head up and started feeding him water.

‘Is there anything I can do?’ Carla asked. Katie shook her head; Carla thought she looked as if she might burst into tears.

‘To be honest, I have no idea what to do. I’m out of my depth. He needs proper care. Actually, could you resoak the cloths?’ Katie handed them to Carla, who went to the bathroom, grateful for something to do. She knew that the situation was serious with Tim, so much so that she hadn’t even thought about her own situation. She returned to the room and gave the cloths back to Katie.

‘Thanks.’

‘He seems to have kept some down,’ Emily said, giving him more water.

‘Thank God. I can’t think of anything else to do.’

Prayer seemed fruitless.

‘So what’s the story with you and Tim?’ Todd asked. He and Thea were in the kitchen away from the others. Todd had renamed it the Confessional.

‘I’ve known him all my life. Our mothers were friends. My father walked out when I was a baby and his left when he was ten. We’ve stuck together ever since. Like brother and sister really.’

‘You’re not in love?’

‘No, don’t be silly. Tim and I could never be together. It would be like incest.’ She managed a weak laugh. ‘I really mean that. We bathed together naked as children, I know everything there is to know about him. Well, not everything.’

‘Why does he drink?’

‘That’s what I don’t know. It started to get bad when we left university. I guess he lost his structure and couldn’t cope. I worked, doing crappy extra work to pay the bills, going to auditions, classes—you name it—so I didn’t really spend much time with him. I guess that’s why I didn’t notice; I was focusing on my career, which wasn’t, isn’t, going anywhere.’

Her guilt was nudging her.

‘Hey, we’ve all been there,’ Todd said kindly.

‘Really, even you?’

‘Have you seen many B-movies?’

‘No.’

‘Good, because otherwise you will have seen my worst acting. There are quite a few of them as well.’

‘But you made it.’

‘I was lucky. Then, I did work for it; I even married Katie for my career. I would have done anything. But now, it doesn’t seem as important.’

‘Nope. It doesn’t.’

‘But that doesn’t mean you should give up. You’re young and you just happened to be kidnapped with two people who can help you.’

‘Really? You’ll help me?’

‘And Tim as well. Katie wants him to go to this very good rehab place in LA.’

‘But it’s so far away, and I don’t have any money.’

‘She’s going to pay. She wants to, Thea. This is personal for her, but I’ll let her tell you. Anyway, if Tim is there, then you can be too.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, we can give you a chance. If you’re good, then there must be something we can help you with. Even if my career is over, I’m fairly well connected.’ He raised his eyebrows like a lecherous old man. ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’

‘Not sure I’m your type,’ she quipped.

‘No, Tim is more my type than you’ll ever be.’ Enjoying the honesty of the exchange he reached over and hugged her.

*

‘Can I help?’ Lee asked awkwardly, as Carla went back to the living room.

‘Not really,’ she replied.

‘Tim’s bad, isn’t he?’ Lee looked really worried. ‘Am I to blame? I mean, I encouraged him to drink, and I drank as much as him, or I thought I did. Oh God...’

‘Lee, he’s sick. But we’ll get through this,’ Carla said sensibly. She wasn’t sure if she should be hugging him or hitting him, but she knew that this wasn’t the time to have another confrontation.

‘I’ve missed you.’ Even with Jimmy there, slumped on a crate, having given up as hopeless any attempt to find a way of breaking out, Lee was feeling confessional and contrite.

‘Lee...’

‘No, Carla, I have. We’ve been friends for three years, and I always thought of you as one of my best mates. I know the sleeping together thing wasn’t right and it also wasn’t right that I somehow led you on—’

‘You didn’t know,’ she cut in. She wasn’t sure where her anger had gone, but it definitely had.

‘I should have done.’

‘Yes, you should,’ Jimmy stated protectively. Carla was glad he was there. Thea had Tim to worry about, but Jimmy and Carla had a bond as a result of their cuckolded status and their broken hearts.

‘I know but I do care about you and now I feel as if there’s this barrier between us.’

‘My ex-fiancée.’

‘Yes, Jimmy, we’ll come to that. But, Carla, I do still want us to be friends. I’ll understand if you can’t.’

‘How big of you,’ Jimmy snapped.

‘Jimmy, it’s all right. Lee, I am mad at you but more so at myself. But I do miss you, your friendship. Perhaps we can salvage that.’ She was surprised by how easy it was to say that, although she wasn’t sure if friendship was going to happen again. Their relationship had been built on deception. She hadn’t told him how she felt, and he hadn’t acknowledged her obvious adoration of him. She didn’t know where their friendship was now, or if it even existed. But this wasn’t the time to analyse it.

‘Jimmy?’

‘We were never friends.’

‘True, but we were getting there, before all this happened. I thought.’ Lee looked at Carla, his eyes looking for mercy.

‘Jimmy, you should forgive them,’ she said simply.

‘Why?’ He folded his arms stubbornly.

‘Because right now we’ve only got each other. And Tim needs us.’

‘Oh, what the hell.’ Jimmy held out his hand and Lee shook it. ‘Anyway, you’re better with her than I ever was.’

‘Thank you.’

‘But if you ever hurt her—’

‘I won’t.’

‘Well, if you ever do, just let me know and I’ll thank you.’

‘Jimmy!’ Carla said, looking at him and then at Lee’s puzzled face.

‘Joke. Christ, I should stick to being serious; no one ever gets me when I’m trying to be funny.’

‘There’s a reason for that,’ Lee said, with a smile on his face.

‘That was nice of you,’ Carla said, as Lee left them.

‘He’ll never be a friend, though, and as Emily wasn’t my friend before she was my girlfriend I don’t see why she should be either.’

‘That’s fine.’

‘I know, but you’re right. It feels better to not be bitter. I’m even looking forward to going back home, to my garage.’

‘See, Jimmy, I told you. Now, shall we start digging a tunnel?’

‘I’ll go and get a spoon.’

*

‘Will he be OK tonight?’ Todd asked Katie, as they saw the light begin to fade outside.

‘I don’t know. He’s had some water, which is a good sign, and the shaking seems to have settled a bit, but it might not last.’

Todd had never been this tired. Even when he was filming and working eighteen hours a day (which happened regularly), he had felt better than this.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

‘Like a train wreck. I don’t know how I am going to get through this, but he needs me.’

‘How about I go and see if we can get some food together?’ He felt so useless, never more so than now. Katie nodded.

‘Who wants to help me make dinner?’ Todd asked, trying to sound cheerful.

‘How’s Tim?’ Thea asked. She was huddled up against Jimmy, and had clearly been crying.

‘He’s settled at the moment,’ Todd explained. He looked around. Carla was asleep, and Emily was talking to Thea, as Jimmy held on to her. ‘Lee, come and give me a hand.’ Lee did as he was told.

‘This is like
Ready
,
Steady
,
Cook
,’ Lee observed as they stared at the food on the counter. There were two apples, a banana, a chunk of cheese, some stale bread, and two tins of some sort of meat.

‘What’s that?’ Todd asked.

‘Oh, some UK game show. Todd, does the oven work?’ Todd tried it.

‘It all seems to work. We could toast the bread, pan fry the meat, to make it a bit less nasty and then melt the cheese on top.’

‘Sounds good.’

‘Well, it doesn’t, but it sounds better than eating it all like this.’

‘You’re really normal, you know.’

Todd laughed. ‘Normal? And by that you mean for a gay man or for an actor?’

‘I meant for an actor. It’s weird that we’re all here, and you and Katie are really famous.’

‘The whole situation is outlandish. We’ve been kidnapped. Without everything else, that is weird enough.’

‘It is. You must think I’m really bad.’

Todd laughed, they were back in the Confessional after all. ‘Yup. But then I also think I am. I shouldn’t have slept with that guy. I had no idea he’d turn out to be a blackmailer but that’s irrelevant. We’ve all done something wrong, which is why Anne-Marie felt the need to punish us.’

‘But I broke up an engagement.’

‘Lee, sounds to me like you want everyone to hate you.’

‘I’m a bloke’s bloke. You know—football, pints, and mates before sex.’

‘No, I don’t know.’ Todd rolled his eyes. ‘Do tell me.’

‘Well, I would never take another bloke’s woman. It’s against my principles.’

‘Right, so why did you?’

‘I couldn’t help myself. I think I love her. Todd, I’ve never said that word to any woman, and I’ve never thought it and I’ve never said it about a woman to another man. Don’t you see, something really bad has happened?’

‘Or really good.’

‘Yeah, or really good. But I wish I hadn’t caused so much trouble.’

‘Carla will forgive you.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘She’s a smart girl, and we’ve had a chat about it.’ Todd was beginning to feel like a camp counsellor among the British kids, who weren’t really kids although they were a few years younger than him. ‘She’s ready to get on with her life. And no offence, Lee, but she thinks she can do a lot better.’

‘And if he hurts her—this “a lot better”—I’ll kill him.’

*

The nurse came down the stairs.

‘Should you leave her?’

‘She’s asleep. I came to ask you to bring up some water and also to give you these.’ She handed Ed a set of keys.

‘What are these for?’

‘I have no idea. She said it was her fairy castle. I’m guessing she doesn’t actually have a fairy castle.’ The nurse turned and made her way back upstairs.

‘They are safe,’ Ed announced, joining the others and brandishing the keys.

‘Where are they?’ David asked, jumping up.

‘That I don’t know. But we have keys, and my guess is that when we find out what they’re for, we will find our missing guests.’