Escape

by M. K. Elliott

  There was no point in even trying to dive for the next few days, at least. The bottom of the ocean would be so churned up; visibility would be down to nothing.

  Rudy started to make calls around the neighboring resorts, trying to persuade some of them to take a few of the tourists. However, Rachel’s idea of asking other resorts to take some of their guests wasn’t going to work. Most of the other resorts had also suffered damage of some degree (though none as bad as Turtle View) and couldn’t take any extra guests who might refuse to stay at the resort.

  Caught up in the drama of the resort, he barely had time to think about Lucy. When he eventually got off the phone and finished trying to organize things, he looked up to find it was almost eleven o’clock at night. The quietness of the resort had caught him off guard. He was so used to every evening being filled with the sounds of parties and people having a good time. This evening, however, people were too shell-shocked by the storm to think about partying, and even if they had wanted to, the bar wasn’t even open.

  Rudy considered going up to Lucy’s room, but then decided against it. As much as he wanted to be with her, he needed to have a good night sleep so he could cope with the drama that would hit when the new tourists saw the state of the place. If he went up to Lucy’s room, he doubted he would get much sleep.

  He smiled to himself at the memory. She would probably be asleep herself by now anyway, and he didn’t want to disturb her. No doubt he would be able to catch up with her in the morning.

  Lucy woke up with a horrible feeling of dread sitting on her shoulders. Rudy still hadn’t been to see her, despite all his promises.

  Hunger gnawed at her stomach. She had to go down to the bar and see if they had started serving food yet. Yesterday’s meals had been something tinned from their supplies, and hadn’t been good.

  But Lucy didn’t want to go down to the resort. Though she desperately wanted to see Rudy, part of her was terrified of seeing him. She worried he would be awkward around her, that he would tell her he wasn’t interested.

  The night at his house seemed like just a wonderful dream. She was certain he’d changed his mind about her and seeing him again was going to be a heart-breaking experience.

  Despite her fears, Lucy needed to eat. Her stomach clenched with nerves as she headed down to the bar area, but Rudy was nowhere to be seen. A few people sat around eating and chatting among themselves. The atmosphere was subdued as people tried to figure out what they were going to do with themselves for the following few days, trying to change their travel plans.

  Serving behind the counter, stood Yang. He looked up as she approached and offered her a smile.

  “The kitchen is open again, then?” she asked.

  “Yes. But no fresh bread or fruit.”

  Lucy forced a smile back, “I’ll have whatever you’ve got.”

  “Pancake and bacon?” he offered.

  Her stomach growled in appreciation.“Sounds great.”

  She took a seat at one of the tables and Yang brought her over a bottle of water and a coffee. Though she hadn’t ordered the drinks, she appreciated his kindness. He clearly still felt bad about dumping her at the port, particularly since the storm ended up being so bad.

  Part of her wanted to ask him if he’d seen Rudy, but she kept her mouth shut. She hadn’t seen Rudy since the previous morning, and she refused to ask after him again. He knew where to find her if he wanted to.

  Time ticked by. She only had a few days left on the island and every hour not spent with Rudy felt like a waste.

  But she couldn’t shake the horrible, sick dismay that her fears may have come true. However busy, she didn’t understand why he didn’t take five minutes to come by and say hello. His boss at the resort couldn’t possibly make him work that hard. Lucy had seen Rachel flitting about, yet Rudy had all but vanished. She only had one explanation; he didn’t want to come and find her. He had slept with her and now he couldn’t even be bothered to speak to her.

  Rudy had just used her.

  At least the staff at the resort had managed to set up the restaurant again—though the roof was missing—and the kitchen was functioning at a basic level. Lucy hung out, drinking coffee and flicking through some magazines one of the other guests had left. She found herself constantly glancing around, keeping an eye out for Rudy. She was pathetic; he obviously wasn’t interested in her any more, but she couldn’t help herself.

  As she sighed and flicked to another page of the mind numbing magazine, one of the resort’s SUVs pulled into the car park. Lucy glanced up, interested. Maybe Rudy would be driving?

  A young couple climbed out first, excited and wary about what they were getting themselves into, followed by the long legs of a tall man. He reached up and used the roof of the vehicle to pull himself out.

  Lucy’s heart stopped; her eyes wide.

  The man straightened up and brushed himself off in the dusty heat. He walked around the back of the taxi and hauled a suitcase out of the trunk. Wearing smart, cream slacks and a collared shirt, he looked as if he had been transported from a posh London hotel to this Mecca for backpackers.

  He looks like I did when I first arrived, she thought.

  He pushed his glasses further up on his nose and peered around, squinting against the bright sunlight. He was exactly as Lucy remembered him.

  With a pounding heart, Lucy stood up and walked over to Max.

  His face lit up when he saw her and she smiled back. But beneath her smile, her heart was black and heavy with guilt.

  What was he doing here?

  “Lucy!” Max exclaimed, holding out his arms to her.

  Still stunned, she obligingly walked into them. He pulled her close in a hug and kissed her on the mouth.

  “I can’t believe you’re here,” she managed, breaking away from the kiss. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to surprise you, of course,” he said, his eyes wide in surprise. “I tried to call you on your mobile, but it was always switched off and I sent you numerous emails. After your mother called and said she’d emailed you and hadn’t heard back, I started to get worried.”

  “But how did you know where I was?”

  “You’d Googled the place on your laptop. It was easy enough to track you down.”

  “Great,” she said, her voice sounding forced, even to her own ears.

  She suddenly realized they were standing here together in the middle of the resort—anyone might see them together.

  Guilt worked in both directions. She couldn’t have Max meeting Rudy, or Rudy meeting Max, but part of her almost wanted Rudy to see them together. At least then, he might realize he couldn’t just pick her up and drop her again whenever it suited him.

  “You must be exhausted,” she said, her brain whirring, only wanting to get him out of view. “Come up to my room. You’ll feel better after a shower and some sleep.”

  He pulled off his glasses and ran a hand across his face. “I am kind of beat. It’s a long, old journey.” For the first time, he properly looked around. “Wow, this place is a wreck. You could have chosen somewhere with at least a few stars, Lucy.”

  She felt herself bristle, feeling strangely protective of the resort. “It didn’t look like this a few days ago. You must have heard about the storm?”

  “Of course I did. Damn boat wouldn’t leave the mainland.”

  Lucy recognized the irony; if the storm hadn’t come in, the chances were that she would have been on a boat heading back to the mainland, while Max was on a boat here. They could have passed each other in the middle of the ocean.

  “I had to stay in this grotty little backpacker’s hostel,” he continued, “and share a room with two Irish guys.”

  “You poor thing,” she said, half-heartedly. Then she remembered what she had been doing the night Max had been subjected to anything less than a four star resort, and her cheeks colored with guilt.

  “Come up to the room,” she said again, not wanting anyone else to
see them—especially not Rudy or Rachel.

  The thought made her stomach flutter in panic. Her two worlds had collided and she didn’t like it very much.

  This time Max allowed himself to be ushered up to her room. She could feel the eyes of the young Thai boys on them as she walked away.

  What were they thinking? Would they say anything to Rudy? They were all friendly with Rudy and had obviously seen her with him. They were bound to mention to him that another man had arrived and gone up to her room.

  Of course, she shouldn’t feel guilty as far as Rudy was concerned. He knew she had a boyfriend at home and he hadn’t exactly been proposing to her since their night together. It served him right if she had someone else.

  In the room, Max showered and promptly fell asleep on the spare bed.

  Seeing him again was strange, but not unpleasant. With her bruised heart she found comfort in his presence, like having a little bit of her world, her home, as protection. That was why she couldn’t bring herself to tell him it was over. She had already promised herself she wouldn’t tell him about Rudy, but that had been when she’d imagined this encounter happening in London, not out here, where the two of them might easily bump into one another.

  Even if she didn’t tell him she’d slept with someone else, she still needed to tell him their relationship was over. It just seemed so cruel for him to come all this way, only for her to dump him. At least that was her excuse. She tried to ignore the fact that keeping her mouth shut was more down to her bruised heart and cowardice than anything else.

  But she didn’t want to be with Max; she wanted Rudy. Max felt wrong to her now; all long limbs and angular joints. His skin was pale from London living and she missed the smooth brown of Rudy’s back.

  By the time he woke up, Lucy had brought food and drink up from the restaurant. She set the meal up on the balcony, trying to keep him away from the restaurant. She couldn’t help comparing the meal to the breakfast she had shared with Rudy. Just the thought of him flooded her eyes with tears and she wiped them away, angrily, not wanting Max to see her crying.

  “Oh, wow!” he said as he walked out of the room, taking in the ocean ahead of him. “I guess at least this place has nice views going for it.”

  He settled down at the table and she sat down opposite.

  “How’s it been at the hospital?” she asked, making small talk, not wanting to say the things she was really thinking.

  “Chaos,” he grinned. “Same as ever. Everyone is missing you, of course. People keep asking after you. I still can’t believe you just up and left like that. You made me look like a right idiot. Everyone kept asking why I hadn’t gone with you.”

  “I had to get away.”

  “I know you’ve been finding the job hard lately, but you’ll get over it.”

  “I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t think I can do it anymore.”

  He snorted laughter out through his nose. “Yeah, right. You live for that place. What else would you do?”

  Lucy said nothing. Max couldn’t imagine a life where he wasn’t a doctor. It was all he had ever wanted to do with his life and he had worked his butt off to get there. In his mind, all doctors (including her) felt the same.

  What was she supposed to do about her career? She had trained to be an ER doctor, thinking she would like the excitement and that she enjoyed having to think on her feet. But now the thought of going back to work at the hospital filled her with dread. Maybe it was just the idea of going back to work in London. After all, the city had a high violent crime rate and that had to have an effect on the hospital. She could always have trained as a general practitioner, but the idea of sitting in the same office day after day, seeing the same people, was suffocating.

  Lucy sighed, but it went unnoticed by Max.

  Maybe she simply wasn’t cut out to be a doctor. There was always going to be a certain amount of depression working with sick people. Of course she was going to see bad things. She just hadn’t understood how much it would affect her.

  “The truth is, Lucy,” Max said, snatching her attention. “I’ve really missed you. It didn’t seem right you running off by yourself.”

  Her heart was in her stomach and she felt sick. She didn’t want to lead him on. He deserved better than that.

  “Max...” she tried to interrupt him. She had to tell him. This was the last thing she wanted to hear him say.

  “No, please, let me finish,” he said, reaching across the table and taking hold of her hand. “I know I’ve not been the most supportive boyfriend in the world and I tend to let work take over everything, but I need you to know that things will be different when we get back. I’ll be different.”

  “It’s not about you, Max,” she sighed.

  “Please, don’t say any more.”

  He took hold of her hand and leaned across the table, pulling her toward him.

  Miserably, she allowed herself to be tugged across the table and he moved in and kissed her. His lips felt warm and dry and familiar. Too wretched to push him away, she let him kiss her, but then she became aware of someone standing on the steps, watching them. She pulled away to see Rudy watching them, white faced in anger.

  He turned and fled.

  “Rudy, wait!” She leaped from the table and her chair clattered to the floor behind her. “Rudy!” she called out again and rushed after him, her head spinning.

  “Lucy?” Max called after her, bewildered.

  Lucy didn’t even pause.

  She chased down the steps after Rudy, her heart pounding, watching his broad back as he hurried away.

  “Please, Rudy,” she called after him. “It’s not what you think!”

  He reached the bottom of the steps and spun around to face her. His normally gentle face was screwed up, his forehead furrowed, his eyes narrowed.

  “What do I think, Lucy? Tell me what I think?” He sounded like a different person, so hard, so cold. “Because—and correct me if I’m wrong—I am fairly sure that was the boyfriend from home you were kissing.”

  “Yes, but, I didn’t want to!”

  “That’s not what it looked like to me.”

  “I didn’t even know he was coming. He just showed up here.”

  Rudy gave her that look again; the one like he didn’t recognize her anymore.

  “I was stupid for thinking you were different,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re just like all the other girls we get here. Only out for a bit of fun.” He sounded so disappointed in her, it broke her heart.

  “No, I’m not.” Tears streamed down her face. “Please, Rudy. Don’t do this.”

  “I haven’t done anything. You did, Lucy.”

  “Well you’re the one who has ignored me for the past day,” she threw at him. “You had your fun and then you didn’t want to know.”

  He stared at her, incredulous, and then raised his hands, gesturing at the resort around them. “Not everything revolves around you, Lucy! In case you hadn’t noticed, I’ve been kind of busy. The resort is a wreck and everyone could be out of a job unless it gets repaired quickly.”

  “I don’t expect everything to revolve around me,” she said, furious. “But why does this resort seem to revolve around you? Why do you seem to be in charge of everything? I thought you were just a dive instructor here. Why aren’t the managers or the owners dealing with it?”

  “So, what? Because I’m too busy to spend time with you, you run off with another man?”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, “Actually Rudy, technically, you are the other man.”

  He stared at her, not speaking, and her heart plummeted. She had pushed him too far.

  “I don’t have time for this shit,” he said, shaking his head. He turned away from her and started to walk away, but as he did she heard him say, “And I thought you were different.”

  This time she let him walk away. Her eyes filled with tears and her world swam in front of her.

  “I thought you were diffe
rent too,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

  She sank down and sat on the bottom step, and put her head in her hands. Tears spilled down her cheeks, but she didn’t deserve them. They were tears of self pity, but she wasn’t the one who had been wronged. She was the one who had done the wronging.

  A young couple walked past her and she had to move over to let them pass. They glanced at her with curious concern, but they didn’t speak to her to ask her if she was all right.

  Where her heart had been filled with love for him, she now only felt anger and hurt. How could eyes that had looked at her so adoringly only hours before, now look at her with such mistrust? Where had things gone so wrong?

  Everything was her fault. If she had been honest with Max in the first place—either at home before she left, or even via email—she wouldn’t be in this position. He would never have followed her out here. She had the opportunity to tell him as soon as he arrived, but she had held her tongue. There were plenty of times she could have told Max it was over, but she’d been too frightened she would end up on her own.

  Rudy had come to see her after all. He was just busy.

  Why did she always think the worst about everything? Why did she always jump to the wrong conclusions?

  Lucy desperately wished she could go back and change things.

  She was trapped between the rest of the resort and her room, and she didn’t want to go to either. She couldn’t stand to see the pain and the questions in Max’s eyes. He wasn’t stupid; he would have quickly figured out that she had betrayed him. It was all so wrong.

  But she wasn’t going into the resort. She was too upset and embarrassed.

  Anyway, she owed it to Max to tell him what was going on. She had left things far too long already.

  Lucy wiped at her eyes and sniffed. She felt exhausted; emotionally exhausted.

  With heavy legs and an even heavier heart, she dragged herself up the steps toward her room.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Max lay on the bed, one arm slung over his face. He sat up as Lucy walked in. His eyes were dry, but bloodshot, and he looked at her in much the same way Rudy had only minutes before.