Meet Me at Fir Tree Lodge

by Rachel Dove

  ‘Er, yeah,’ Robbie muttered, visibly trying to gather himself, and Rebecca finally allowed herself to look at him properly. He looked good, but it did nothing for her now. He looked the same as before, and she knew he was still the same man underneath. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here. You dating him now?’

  ‘Evidently,’ Luke said in a bored tone. ‘That was the plan. And you are?’

  Robbie didn’t look at him, but his jaw flexed. He was staring at Rebecca now, his brows knitted together, his fists clenching and unclenching by his sides.

  ‘This is Robbie. Goulding.’ Rebecca found her voice, finally. ‘Luke is my date, yes. And don’t call me Becks.’

  Robbie’s lip curled at her words. ‘Why not? It’s how you’re known isn’t it?’

  ‘No. Not anymore,’ she spat. ‘Robbie, it’s nice to see you, but we are trying to—’

  ‘Not anymore, eh? That apply to everything still? I thought no more dating was your thing.’ He made a loud gameshow noise. ‘Nuh-nuh, survey said? Incorrect. Lukey boy here is giving me the evil eye. Are you entering the Alpine Challenge? Is that why you’re back?’

  Luke was looking at Robbie now like he wanted to kill him. It made Rebecca feel oddly protected. Like he had her back. He’d come across all manly from the moment Robbie had rocked up. Rebecca thought he might pee around the table in a minute, mark his territory. That would make people look.

  ‘Becks?’ Robbie pressed her again. Same old bullish Robbie, she noticed. No patience. The people around them were already starting to take notice of the tension at their table. Robbie tended to do that wherever he went. She had forgotten what all that attention felt like, and now she had a reminder, she hated it even more.

  ‘Back?’ Luke echoed, all caught up and annoyed now. He squeezed her hand and stood up, facing Robbie. Robbie grinned at him, his best fake grin, and Luke’s eyes flashed.

  ‘Lovely to meet you, Robert, but—’

  ‘Robbie.’

  ‘Bobby, right.’ He took a half step forward, so his chest brushed against Robbie’s. ‘Well, Nobby, it’s nice to meet you, but we are on a date, and I’m sure that you have people waiting on you.’ He nodded his head behind them towards the bar, and Rebecca could see some of his old crew, along with a tall, black-haired woman wearing a short white dress who was looking at Rebecca as though she knew exactly who she was to her man. Rebecca stared right back till the other woman looked away. You can keep him love. I have no designs on the bloke. Mina walked past, and Rebecca caught the look of horror on her face when she clocked Robbie at their table. She started coming over, making her way through the tables as discreetly as she could.

  ‘Luke …’ Rebecca went to stand up from the table, and Luke automatically reached for her hand. Moving to her side, he pushed Robbie out of the way with his arm as he passed. Robbie went to grab his shoulder, and Luke grabbed him by the wrist. ‘Luke, please. Let’s go. Mina’s coming.’

  Luke was too busy glaring at her ex-fiancé to hear her, but he still kept his grip on both of them. He was eyeball to eyeball with Robbie now, their chests butting up against each other like men did before a fight.

  She found Luke’s ear and whispered, ‘Luke, come on. You do know you’re not actually Clark Kent, don’t you? What are you trying to do, laser beam him with your eyes?’

  ‘Eh?’ Luke asked, his head moving in her direction slightly before returning to glare at Robbie again. ‘Clark Kent,’ Robbie laughed. ‘As if.’

  ‘Shurrup,’ Luke growled. ‘I don’t need lasers for pretty boys like you.’

  ‘Luke,’ she whispered again, trying to move them. ‘Mina!’

  She didn’t want to cause a scene and get her friend into trouble.

  Mina arrived, and she did not look happy. ‘Robbie, knock it off. Go back to your pathetic snow groupies.’ Too late, she was standing at the other side of Robbie now. ‘You okay, Rebecca?’

  Robbie was looking around him as if he was the butt of some big joke.

  ‘The Great Becks Atkins, nothing to say? Mina, what the hell’s going on?’ He bent his head around Luke, looking right at Rebecca now with a confused look on his face. ‘When did you come back?’

  He was talking to Rebecca again now, peppering her with questions, and she was trying to take out money from her purse to pay for the food. Luke took her bag, closing it and tucking it under the arm holding hers.

  ‘Becks!’ Robbie was shouting now, and the diners closest to them had heard him over the soft music and relaxed chatter. She could see people starting to look, putting things together. She felt hot, her hand clammy in Luke’s. She went to pull away, but Luke pulled her closer, pushing some notes into Mina’s hand. ‘Sorry Mina, we’ll be leaving now. It was nice to have met you.’ He glared at Robbie, who whooped like a schoolgirl at him.

  ‘Ooooo, you getting mad, are you? Big man, eh? Come on then, let’s share Becks stories eh? Can’t top Canada, can he Becks?’

  Mina was trying to push him out of the back now, Robbie’s own security posse standing close by. The guy needed his own security team because he was such a colossal dick. They looked positively fed up, and Rebecca smiled at them apologetically. Lester, Robbie’s head security guy, gave her a wink and rolled his eyes. He mouthed ‘you look great’ at her, and she loved her old friend for it. Lester stepped forward then, his thickset arm easily wrapping around Robbie’s waist as he reached where they were all standing.

  ‘Pleasure to see you Rebecca,’ he said just low enough to be heard, ‘Luke, take care of my friend. Robbie, time to go. Team, extraction in 3. Next location.’ The next bar, it meant. Somewhere else for Robbie to make his presence felt. She’d spent enough time in their company to know all their little codes.

  The people around him started to shift, moving Robbie and his party back away towards the bar, and the side exit. Robbie was having none of it.

  ‘Come on Becks, what the hell? You got nothing to say to me, eh? You just going to leave me here, standing like a fool?’ He was taunting her now, she could feel it and Luke was reading her face, his own getting darker by the minute. He faced her now and made her look at him. He nudged her chin with her finger till she looked at him. He squeezed her hand again.

  ‘You okay?’

  Robbie was yelling behind him, Lester telling him to knock it off and Mina telling him to bugger off in her mother tongue. Rebecca knew that Mina knew all the worst curse words too. She was furious, the whole night was ruined. ‘Just ignore him. I take it you dated?’

  ‘Dated! Ha!’ Robbie, bat-eared and wrapped in a bear hug by Lester, was flailing his arms around everywhere. The diners had mostly chosen to ignore him now, though a couple had pulled their phones out. This was bad. Damn the inventor of the smart phone. Nowadays you couldn’t have a poo without someone making you into a viral internet star. ‘We were more than that, we were partners. Right, Becks? Or is it Ice Rebel? You tell Luke about any of that, eh? About Canada? When I proposed?’ The whole room gasped, and the phones were all out now. She felt like Harry Styles in a concert hall, mobbed and filmed from every angle.

  She closed her eyes tight when he said those words. She didn’t need to look at Luke to know that he’d heard every little detail. Her name, and all the gory secrets she’d tried to hide for five years. Her truly spectacular fall from the top of her sport, and with a messy and very public break-up to boot. Luke had frozen still, his hands still in place. She felt a tear drop down her cheek and into his hand, before his shirt blotted it into the fabric. He started to walk, tucking her into his side as he parted the crowd before him like a messiah. Rebecca kept her eyes to the floor, willing herself not to break down till they got to the front doors. Mina was telling Lester to get Robbie out, that he was barred, but Robbie didn’t care. He was loving every minute.

  ‘That’s it Becks, run away! It’s what you do, right? We’ll be seeing each other, don’t worry. We have a lot of catching up to do. Enjoy the rest of your whatever that is.’

  Luke
was there one minute, and gone the next. He turned, growling his head off like a baby tiger, and ran at Robbie with a booming war cry that would make Mel Gibson look like David Brent.

  Mina took a step back, Luke swerving around every person effortlessly. Wow, thought Rebeca. When he was mad, he was so sure of himself. If he’d have run like that normally, he would have ploughed through them like bowling pins. Lester, still holding Robbie, shrugged at Rebecca, who was looking at him in horror, and dropped him back onto his feet. He tried to back into Lester, but Lester just laughed.

  ‘Sorry boss, breaktime.’ He took a step back, motioning for his guys to retreat to the bar. ‘Play nice.’

  Luke felled Robbie half a second later, flying through the air and slamming him to the floor in a rugby tackle. Robbie grunted as the air was knocked out of him. Mina disappeared and Rebecca ran over to them both; they were now rolling around on the floor. Lester, now drinking a virgin cocktail with the others, was telling Robbie’s girl to stay put, whilst she shook her fake nails at him and gestured wildly.

  ‘Luke, get up!’ She tried to reach him, smacking him on the bottom as it bobbed past her.

  ‘Hey, don’t spank me!’ he shouted as he rolled, pinning Robbie to the floor. His knee was digging into Robbie’s chest, and Robbie was spluttering, trying to bitch slap Luke, who kept deflecting the blows. He straddled Robbie, one knee right near his crown jewels.

  ‘Say sorry to Rebecca,’ he commanded, and Rebecca tried to pull him off. He didn’t budge, a button popping off his shirt as he twisted gently away from her. ‘Step back Rebecca, I don’t want you to get hurt.’ He got a slap right across his chops from Robbie, who had seized the opportunity. ‘Hey!’

  He grabbed at Robbie’s hands, and Robbie was stuck. All he could do was wiggle on the floor like a worm, whilst Luke kept slapping him with his own hands.

  ‘What you hitting yourself for, eh?’ Slap. Robbie’s face was as red as a tomato, and he was shouting for Lester. Some of the guests were laughing into their napkins. A couple of people shouted, ‘Yeah, hit him again!’ and ‘About time someone slapped that guy.’ Lester was chuckling too, she could see his shoulders jiggle up and down through his tight black T-shirt. Rebecca ran over to him.

  ‘Lester, come on! Stop this, please!’ Lester rolled his eyes and nodded.

  ‘Okay, but that was fun. You have to admit it.’ He gestured to the rabble on the floor, Robbie trying to buck Luke off, who was now open-shirted and laughing as he made Robbie move like a marionette.

  Lester strode over and put out a hand to Luke. Luke passed Robbie’s hand to Lester, and Lester half carried, half lifted him to his feet.

  ‘Show’s over folks, don’t drink and drive. Have a good night.’ A man at the table nearest to him flinched as Lester plucked the phone from his outreached arm and put it in his back pocket. ‘Call the office,’ Lester said to the dumbstruck man, who just nodded. One of Lester’s team was going round the room, giving people holding phones a knowing look. He gave the man a business card.

  Lester lifted Robbie into his arms like a father would a weeping baby. ‘And if anything goes online, in any form, Robbie’s lawyers, and we, will know about it.’ The lads behind him, all huge and quite fearsome-looking when they turned it on, nodded to the crowd. Lester winked at Rebecca, and she lifted her shaking hand to say goodbye. Luke was off the floor now, picking up the chairs that Robbie had kicked over and apologising to the diners. He passed her handbag back to her, his face unreadable as he looked her over.

  ‘We need to go.’ He placed her coat around her shoulders, throwing his own on and taking her hand to walk her out. No one said anything else, and she felt the atmosphere change as they reached the doors. A second later, they were outside, heading away from the heated area and down the street. They walked till they were out of sight of the place, away from Robbie who would no doubt still be close by. Probably chewing out Lester for making him deal with his own stuff for once. He should do that more often, the look on Robbie’s face was almost worth it. Almost. He wouldn’t leave it though. They’d had the perfect life, but then she’d crashed out in the competition, and changed overnight. He never got that, never.

  She let go of Luke’s hand, and started to head to the taxi rank. She could hear him chuntering to himself as she put her arms through her coat.

  ‘My shirt’s shot to shit now,’ he muttered, pulling each side apart and exposing his chest as she turned to look at him. He looked so hot, she couldn’t help but stop and turn to face him. She didn’t feel the cold anymore, but she was still shaking. ‘I’m so sorry, I never do that, or act like that.’ He bit his lip, striding over to her. She didn’t move till he was standing right in front of her. He was close enough to touch now, and she could see that his chest was heaving. He was pumped up from the fight. She felt it too.

  ‘Thank you—’

  ‘I wish I’d knocked him out as soon as he—’

  They laughed, their icy breath mingling together in the night air. There was no one around, the businesses here all closed for the night, the houses all lit up. The windows cast glowing shadows over everything.

  ‘I’m sorry I went for him.’

  ‘I know you aren’t though.’

  ‘No, I’m not. Sorry for that too. Again. I ruined our date. If you don’t want me to come on Saturday, I can stay away.’

  She was shaking her head at him.

  ‘Oh God, you don’t want me to come, do you? I was bluffing then.’

  Rebecca laughed, and took a deep shuddering breath inwards.

  ‘Robbie was my fiancé, for a day or two at least. My boyfriend and ski partner before that. We did go to Canada, but then something happened to me, and I didn’t handle it very well.’ She thought back to lying in that hospital bed, Robbie bouncing around her room, talking about exclusive interviews, and marriage sponsorship deals. ‘Neither did he. I changed. He changed too, I guess.’ Or I just saw more of his flaws, when my own were exposed. ‘He didn’t like my choices. He’s angry with me.’

  ‘He’s a jerk.’ Luke frowned when he noticed her shaking. He pulled her coat tighter around her and rubbed her arms with his own. His coat was a black puffed parka, lined with a faux fur hood that made his bristle look darker against his skin. It made his eyes sparkle. I’m in shock. This isn’t a fairytale. He’s not a prince, come to bloody save me. ‘Let’s go get warm.’

  ‘I’m fine. I need to get this out.’ She wanted him to know. She needed him to. ‘I was Ice Rebel, for a long time.’

  Luke’s head dropped. ‘I know.’

  Her shields came clanging up, the screech of welded metal ringing in her ears.

  ‘You know?’

  ‘Well, I didn’t, till him.’ Venom dripped from the last word. ‘My dad’s a bit of a sports nut. It’s how the student exchange thing came about. My mother was an ice skater, semi-professional. He loved ice sports. Loves. I thought I recognised you.’

  She gave him a sad smile. ‘I know you did. It freaked me out. Not many people know I’m here. I wanted to keep it that way.’ Want to. Period.

  ‘Why is he angry, because you broke off the engagement?’

  ‘Yes and no. The wedding was a bit of a money spinner, back then. We had our own sponsors. Till the accident.’

  Luke didn’t break eye contact, he moved closer. She could feel his bare chest through her coat, pressed against the fabric. ‘Money and fame, eh? I thought as much.’ He looked angry again, his eyes turning dark. She reached out and put her arms around his waist. His face softened, the response immediate. She could feel her heart pick up once more. ‘I’ve got to be honest, I can’t really see you two. He’s all show, you never did the showbiz thing, did you?’

  He’d paid more attention to her career than she’d thought.

  ‘No, it was about the sport for me. The snow was what mattered.’

  ‘Well, you are better off without him then. Obviously. If he comes to the café, I am going to spark him straight out.’ She laugh
ed at his words, which reminded her of home.

  ‘He doesn’t know I live here. He thinks I just flew in. I could tell. He doesn’t know I work at the café. My friends are loyal. Hans never liked him.’ That was the understatement of the year. When she’d come out of hospital, sponsors already onto the next hot thing, Robbie off on his tour as usual, Hans had scooped her up and given her a new life. If Hans ever saw Robbie again, it wouldn’t go well. She didn’t want that. ‘We can’t tell Hans about this.’ Mina would no doubt tell him or Holly as soon as she got a chance, but it wouldn’t come from her. She didn’t want to cause them any stress. They were in their own bubble, a baby bubble and given that Robbie was a massive prick, it didn’t take a genius to work out it wouldn’t be a good day for anyone. Once upon a time, he would have been an uncle to their baby. Amazing how ludicrous things looked in the rear view of your life choices.

  ‘It won’t come from me. I would never do that to you, Rebecca. I couldn’t. I just want you to be okay.’

  His face was lit up by the backdrop of the snow, and Rebecca took a moment to process just what had happened.

  ‘You really went for him. Are you okay?’

  She looked down at his shirt, their close quarters causing her forehead to brush down his face. He kissed it, the low rumble in his chest making her breath catch. ‘I’m fine, as long as you are.’ He moved his lips down to her cheek, kissing her once there, before slowly pulling back, and going in for the other cheek. His stubble brushed against her skin, and she tugged him closer, turning her mouth to meet his. He picked her up off the floor, walking them both backwards till they reached a shop doorway. He turned her to face the doors, pressing her gently against them with his body, deepening the kiss. She was clawing at his back, trying to get a better grip on him, and he huffed, leaning away a little.

  ‘I can’t do this.’

  His breath came out in hot little mists into the cold air. Her libido went ‘wait, what?’ as he took her hand and pulled her back onto the street. She went on wobbly legs, her lips still feeling on fire from his delicious mouth. ‘We need to get a cab home. Now.’ He turned to her, and the look she saw in his eyes had her walking that bit faster. They walked to the nearest taxi rank, standing in a thankfully tiny queue silently, their thumbs rubbing each other’s hands. The cab pulled up, Luke sweeping open the door and giving the driver the Fir Tree Lodge address whilst sitting her close to him in the spacious back seat. There was a glass partition between them, and the driver was listening to folk music, humming away to himself. Rebecca’s phone rang in her bag, and she reached for it with her free hand. Looking at the screen, she saw Mina’s name flash up on the screen. She showed it to Luke. ‘Mina.’