The Heartbreak Cafe

by Melissa Hill

  ‘The hell you’re not….’

  Her gaze shifted to Erik who had followed her out to the hallway. ‘Actually Erik, I am.’

  Chloe and the agent locked eyes and an understanding seemed to pass between them.

  ‘OK then, I’ll get the car brought round,’ Chloe said sweetly, as if addressing a small child, and she nodded at Erik before the elevator doors closed.

  Inside, Ruth took a deep breath. ‘Thanks Chloe, I owe you one.’

  ‘No problem,’ she replied, distractedly keying something into her BlackBerry.

  Outside the car was waiting, and Ruth quickly got inside, relieved to be out of there.

  Then she saw none other than Troy sitting opposite her. He was drinking bourbon from the limo’s bar.

  ‘Not you again,’ she groaned. ‘Well, get out – you’ll need to hitch a ride from someone else.’

  ‘Why?’ There was a smile in his voice.

  Ruth purposely ignored him. ‘Driver, take me back to LAX please. Troy, out of the car – now.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere sweetheart and neither are you. That’s my child and you’re staying here.’

  Chloe spoke firmly. ‘Driver, do not drive to LAX. Ms Seymour is confused.’

  She glanced sharply at her assistant who averted her gaze. ‘I don’t believe this! Are you two trying to trap me? You treacherous little…’ In the rear-view mirror, Ruth met the driver’s hesitant gaze. ‘Please sir, if you can help get me out of this hell-hole, you’ll be doing me the biggest favour of my life.’

  ‘Like I said, you’re not going anywhere,’ Troy repeated, before the car started up and quickly pulled off.

  ‘What the …?’ Chloe cried, trying to twist around her twig-like neck. “Where the hell are you going?’

  ‘LAX like the lady asked.’

  ‘You goddamn idiot – you stop this car right now or you’re fired, you hear me!’

  ‘I’ll give you a thousand dollars …’ Ruth pleaded and the driver gave her a small nod.

  ‘This is kidnapping!’ Troy piped up. ‘If you think you can take away my child…’

  Ruth had a sudden thought. If this … ass thought he could get away with playing the loving daddy with her baby he had another think coming. ‘It’s not your child,’ she said blithely, waiting for his reaction.

  Troy leered at her. ‘Come on, you’re peeing up a rope if you think I’m going to believe that. You called me, after you took the test and told me it was mine, remember?’

  ‘I was wrong.’

  ‘Yeah? So whose is it then?’

  Ruth smiled, ‘Just some Irish nobody’s,’ she said recalling Erik’s words and Troy frowned, thinking hard. ‘After all babe,’ she continued, ‘when I called you didn’t you yourself accuse me of being a whore? Oh, and I also remember you saying something else – like how you wanted nothing to do with it?’ She eyed him steadily. ‘Back then while you were urging me to get rid of it, it didn’t seem like you had any interest in being a father, so why the sudden change of heart?’

  He shrugged. ‘So what? It’s your word against mine, and if you try and pretend the kid’s someone else’s, I’ll just demand a paternity test.’

  Ruth flicked an imaginary piece of lint off her dress. ‘Well I guess you could go down that route, but then somehow the press might get their hands on the transcript of our conversation that day, mightn’t they?’

  ‘What transcript?’ Then his face changed. ‘Oh man. You recorded us?’

  ‘Of course.’ Ruth tried to keep a straight face, knowing she had played an ace. That would be the last thing Troy wanted; it would be bad for his doting daddy act if there were proof of him implying she was a whore and saying he didn’t want anything to do with it. Of course, there was no such recording, but Troy didn’t have to know that.

  Anyway the lie was all too easy to believe; they all knew the way this town worked, and this was just the sort of thing a lesser person would do.

  He glared at her, but remained silent. ‘I thought so,’ Ruth smirked. ‘Like I said, we’re going to the airport.’

  It didn’t take long for them to get back to LAX, but for Ruth it felt like the longest journey of her life.

  ‘Please, don’t do this,’ Chloe pleaded, and Ruth knew that such pleas weren’t out of love for her; but more about her pay cheque and the removal of her Hollywood meal-ticket. Being assistant to a potentially Oscar-nominated actress was about as good as it got in PA-world. Still, Ruth recalled how, whatever her intentions, Chloe had often been there for her when she needed her over the years.

  ‘I’m sorry Chloe, but I’ve made up my mind. It’s over; I’m done with all of this.’

  ‘You are making such a huge mistake,’ Troy hissed, looking at her with pure venom when the car pulled up outside the departures area.

  The driver got out and came round to open her door. ‘Actually, for once in my life, I know without a doubt that I am not making a mistake.’ Getting out of the car, Ruth smiled and shook her head. Then, taking huge satisfaction from slamming the door in Troy Valentine’s face, she looked at the driver who was wearing a half smile.

  She opened her bag and reached inside, privately hoping that he wouldn’t mind taking a cheque, but the man stopped her.

  ‘Please, there’s no need.’

  ‘But you might be fired – ’

  He grinned. ‘Ma’am if I had a dollar for every time somebody in this town threatened to fire me, I wouldn’t need a job at all. I’m not worried.’

  ‘Well as long as you’re sure – ’

  ‘I’m sure.’ He handed Ruth her bags. ‘Now you take care of yourself – and good luck to you and that little kid of yours.’

  ‘Thank you. Good luck to you too,’ she replied, meaning it.

  Entering the airport building, she marched straight to the ticket counter, a spring her step. ‘Could I get a ticket for the next flight to JFK please?’

  The wide-eyed clerk put a hand to her mouth. ‘Oh my gosh, Ruth Seymour! I just love you in Glamazons, you’re the whole reason I watch that show!’

  Ruth smiled. ‘Thanks honey, but I guess you’ll just have to watch me in syndication.’ When the girl frowned, she explained further, a smile in her voice. ‘From now on, I’m going off the air.’

  Chapter 30

  After a cosy lunch in Blackrock, during which time Jess heard all about Nina’s ‘errand’ that morning, she dropped her friend into the centre of the city.

  She felt a great camaraderie with Nina – much more than she’d felt with her own friends recently, and was especially glad that she’d decided to take her into her confidence. She got the sense that with her mother abroad, Nina didn’t have all that many people to talk to about this – and from what she’d heard about her father, he seemed the kind of old-fashioned country type that wouldn’t give her much support. No wonder the poor thing was considering adoption.

  Well hopefully Jess had given her something to think about.

  As Nina had pointed out, her and Brian’s circumstances were completely different; they had security, a (mostly) solid marriage and were mature enough to deal with whatever parenthood might throw at them, whereas she was faced with being a single mother of a child who would most likely never even know its father.

  They’d had a very enlightening conversation, and as Nina outlined the extent of her problems and her confusion over what was to come, Jess hoped that their chat would help her see things more clearly – might even offer her a solution.

  But now she needed to talk to Brian, really talk to him. The news of Dave’s affair had shocked her, and if such a thing could happen to their friends, then it could very well happen to them too. Jess figured that the time had come for them to be frank and completely open with one another about what was going on.

  She’d spoken to Emer on the phone that morning; her poor friend understandably distraught about the situation and Jess, in return distraught that her actions had brought it to a head.

  ‘
I had my suspicions though,’ Emer sniffed. ‘Things have been tough this last year, with the new baby and all, but I can’t believe he would do something like this.’

  ‘But are you absolutely sure he has done something?’ Jess asked, wanting to play devil’s advocate. ‘It could very well have been an innocent phone call.’

  But apparently in the end, Dave had admitted everything. ‘He said I was too wrapped up in Amy to even notice. He said he feels like I don’t need him anymore, that I don’t even notice him most of the time, and it’s like he’s just there to put food on the table and money in the bank.’

  ‘That’s no excuse Emer, and don’t even think about blaming yourself for this.’

  But Jess realised that Dave’s words were dangerously close to the ones Brian had used in a recent conversation. ‘Jess what do you want from me?’

  She realised now that she couldn’t fall into the same trap Emer had, of making babies and motherhood her first priority, and sidelining her marriage in the process.

  She knew that work-wise things had since calmed down a bit for Brian; he’d sorted out the problems with the errant clients and seemed, while not exactly in good form, at least more positive about where the business was headed. She bit her lip. She just wished he could be as positive about where they were headed. Well, she’d work on that when he came home tonight.

  Now that Jess had stopped feeling guilty about the repercussions of what she’d done, she was certain she could bring Brian around to her way of thinking.

  Brian was already at home when Jess returned. After dropping Nina off in town, she’d had a couple of errands of her own to run and it was late in the afternoon by the time she got back to the house.

  ‘Well this is a surprise,’ she said cheerily, coming into the kitchen where he looked to be preparing dinner. ‘I thought your flight wasn’t in till six.’

  He looked at her, his face impassive. ‘I decided to get an earlier one.’

  She reached forward and put her arms around him, but he returned her hug with none of his usual enthusiasm, handling her as if she were something fragile. He was being so careful around her these days, which she’d interpreted as distant, but wasn’t it just as possible that he was worried about her health? It was only natural that he’d be concerned about the physical side of things, given her own worries about her age.

  So perhaps she’d been fretting for nothing?

  ‘Well, you deserve it!’ she said, determined to be upbeat. ‘You’ve been working so hard lately. And there was no need to make dinner, I could have done it.’

  ‘No problem.’ He shrugged and went back to the hob, where he looked to be making pasta. ‘We’re almost good to go here – do you want to get the cutlery organised?’

  ‘Of course.’ Jess moved to the drawer, pleased that he seemed to be on the same wavelength as she was. Clearly Brian too had got tired of their tiptoeing around one another for the last few weeks. He was home early, being convivial if not exactly friendly and he was making dinner.

  ‘Should I open a bottle of wine too?’ she said, going to the fridge. ‘I know it’s early but what the hell it’s the weekend and I think we both deserve it.’

  He paused and looked at her with furrowed brows and too late Jess realised what he was thinking.

  ‘Oh I’m sure one glass won’t be a problem,’ she said quickly, cursing herself. ‘I know Deirdre used to have one now and again with the boys.’

  ‘Right.’ Again his expression was unreadable. ‘Whatever you think is best.’

  Worried about what he might think of her slugging back wine, she decided to backtrack. ‘Actually you’re right. If you fancy one go ahead and I’ll just stick with fruit juice.’

  Brian dished up the food and they sat across from one another at the table; Jess chatting away about the latest at work, and about bumping into Nina. She didn’t say anything about Dave, having promised Emer she wouldn’t, but there was a side of her that wondered if Brian already knew.

  ‘Oh, how is Nina?’

  ‘Great, she was in Dublin for the day so we went for lunch.’

  ‘That’s nice,’ Brian said, idly stirring through his pasta.

  ‘Yes, she had some errands to run, things she couldn’t do in Lakeview.’

  ‘I’d imagine you can’t do too much in Lakeview actually,’ he commented.

  Jess tried to continue steering the conversation in the direction she wanted it to go; namely about their own situation. ‘Yes, there are limited options there, I suppose. That’s why she was here, with the baby coming and all.’

  ‘Oh, is she thinking of moving closer to the city or something?’ he asked. He still seemed distracted, Jess noted, but at least the discussion was moving along the right track.

  ‘Possibly.’ Jess didn’t want to break Nina’s confidence about the adoption idea so she came at it from another direction. ‘I feel so sorry for her actually, having to bring up a baby on her own – you know how I told you about her breaking up with the father and all that?’

  He gave a vague nod.

  ‘We’re so lucky by comparison. I mean, we won’t have to face any of those problems. We’re very comfortable money-wise and have plenty of room here and – ’

  ‘Jess,’ he said, sighing softly. ‘We’ve know each other for a long time now haven’t we?’

  She stared at him, confused. ‘What?’

  ‘You and me – we’ve know each other for a long time and I’d like to think we know each other inside out too.’

  She liked the gentle and faintly teasing way he said that; it was the kind of way the old Brian used to talk. ‘Yes of course we do.’

  ‘And you know that I’ve always loved your drive and determination – it’s what makes you so successful in everything you do.’

  ‘OK.’ She seriously wondered where this was going.

  ‘You’ve also always had an amazing imagination, again which I love. But you also have this crazy side that gets you into some incredible fixes.’ He smiled. ‘Remember that time you tried to get out of spending time with that couple we met in Thailand by telling them we were going to the zoo?’

  She grinned. ‘Yes.’

  ‘And the time you pretended to those politicians who called here that you were French and couldn’t speak English?’

  ‘Of course,’ Jess laughed.

  ‘So we both know that that imagination of yours can sometimes run away with itself,’ he went on and Jess looked at him, mystified. ‘And like I said we know each other well and have always been one hundred percent honest with one another, haven’t we?’

  ‘Well yes of course.’ What on earth was he getting at with all this?

  ‘So can’t you just tell me the truth?’ he said gently.

  ‘About what?’

  ‘About this … the whole baby thing.’ Brian put down his knife and fork. ‘I know what’s going on.’

  ‘What do you mean “you know what’s going on?”’ she repeated, her heart thumping.

  He sighed, as if disappointed. ‘I know what you’re doing, and why you did what you did that day at the party. I really don’t know where you think this is going to end, but don’t you think it’s about time you came clean with me?’

  ‘I …I really don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘Jess, I know that you told everyone we were trying to get pregnant,’ he said then and her heart almost stopped. Oh no. ‘Kevin was joking one day about how me and Dave must have been in competition to strike first or something,’ He wrinkled his nose in distaste. ‘At first, I didn’t have a clue what he was on about but soon enough, the penny dropped.’

  ‘Well I didn’t actually say that, Brian, they just assumed –’

  ‘Did they also just assume that you’d stopped taking the pill without telling me?’ he said and her face flushed. ‘Because it’s all a little coincidental, don’t you think? Jess, honestly – ’ Now he sounded not only frustrated, but disappointed, and Jess hung her head.

  ‘I’m sorry b
ut I had no choice,’ she interjected. ‘You wouldn’t talk to me about it and I knew it could take ages for my body to get back to normal, and in the meantime time was moving on so – ’

  ‘OK fine. I’m not happy about being lied to, because I far as I was concerned we didn’t do that to one another. But what about the rest?’

  She looked up. ‘The rest?’

  ‘What exactly is my role here, Jess? Am I just supposed to play sidekick to you and all of your crazy notions?’

  Crazy notions … Was he talking about the baby? ‘Of course not – it’s something we’ll be doing together and –’

  ‘Jess, I’m going to ask you one more time. Tell me the truth.’

  She felt tears in her eyes. ‘But I really don’t know what you mean.’

  Brian stood up and now she saw a combination of hurt and anger in his eyes. ‘Wow, you’ve really lost it, haven’t you? This whole thing has you driven crazy. I must admit I never expected it, least of all from you.’

  ‘Expected what?’

  ‘This! All these lies, and so much subterfuge. What the hell has happened to you Jess? Where is my lovely, fun-loving, sane wife?’ He pushed his chair away from the table. ‘I came back early today in the hope that we could have a nice dinner and a good long chat and that maybe, just maybe, you would open up to me, confess to me how silly you’ve been and that it had all gone too far. But you’re determined to push ahead with this, aren’t you? What’s going to happen in a few months time, Jess? When this … baby is supposed to arrive?’

  The disdain in his tone was almost too much to bear. ‘I …I don’t know …’

  Jess wasn’t sure what to say, she was so terrified. He was going to leave her, wasn’t he? He was going to give up on their marriage like Dave had given up on Emer.

  It was too late, and despite her hopes of making things better, instead she’d blown it.

  She should have told him the truth, should have confessed about giving up the pill but he’d been so weird since the announcement she didn’t want to run the risk of letting him know she’d deceived him. But now it seemed he’d given her an opportunity to tell the truth and she’d blown it.