Just Like in the Movies

by Heidi Rice

  If she could survive without Matty, she could survive without Luke. And it wouldn’t even hurt as much, once she got over the loss. Because Luke wasn’t dead, he just wasn’t ever meant to be a permanent fixture in her life.

  The Ruby Movie didn’t need a man for its Happy Ever After. Because The Ruby Movie was a feminist romcom. No lovesick nonsense allowed.

  ‘Just to Brynn’s. I’m meeting Luke for a drink,’ she said, the wobble all but undetectable.

  Jace propped her elbow on the hoover’s wand and studied Ruby. ‘Why do you need to go out to meet him when he’s going to be scaling the fire escape later?’

  Ruby blinked. Fine, she knew they hadn’t fooled Jace, or probably anyone else for that matter – the amount of well-meant “bedroom tips” she’d been getting from Beryl was actually scary – but did Jacie have to be quite so direct?

  ‘Because we’re just going to be talking, I guess,’ she replied, deciding to meet direct with direct.

  ‘What are you going to be talking about?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ruby said, no longer able to hold on to the wobble.

  Dropping the hoover wand, Jacie strode over to the box office counter where Ruby had been busy restocking the popcorn maker before she’d gotten Luke’s text of doom.

  ‘Rubes?’ She threw her arm over Ruby’s shoulder, gave her a comforting squeeze – which managed to hold the wobble back, thank goodness. ‘Has Luke done something? Said something?’ Jacie asked, her incredulity a sign that even she had discovered Luke’s charms. ‘You’ve been so happy in the last few weeks. I thought you guys were having fun together?’

  ‘We are …’ She gulped past the blockage in her throat. ‘Or rather we were. But I think he’s going to tell me he’s flying home tonight.’ She brushed her hair back from her face, sniffed loudly, and stepped out of Jacie’s hug, feeling foolish now, as well as wobbly.

  She’d always known this would happen. Why was she taking it so hard? Perhaps it was just that with Luke gone she wouldn’t have him to lean on when she and Jacie did the presentation they’d been working on for The Rialto tomorrow morning. She hadn’t spoken to him about it, at all, because they’d both been careful to avoid any questions about The Royale’s future.

  But without Luke’s sturdy, steady presence by her side, as a lover and a friend, and his expert skills in the sack to send her into an endorphin coma, reality just seemed that much more real.

  This wobble wasn’t really about Luke and his imminent departure, this was about her and all the pressure she’d been busy refusing to acknowledge since they’d begun their nightly bonkfests. Avoidance had been wonderful while it lasted, but she couldn’t spend the rest of her life relying on Luke to make her feel good.

  ‘Perhaps you could persuade him to stay?’ Jacie offered.

  Ruby’s heart punched her ribs as she shook her head.

  ‘No, I couldn’t. And even if I could …’ And luckily, even she had never been that delusional. ‘I wouldn’t.’

  Jacie shrugged, but didn’t argue the point.

  As Ruby headed upstairs to prepare for her first – and probably last – proper date with Luke Devlin, the hole in her stomach didn’t feel quite so bottomless.

  She and Jacie had worked up a brilliant proposal and they’d gotten the green light from The Rialto to make the presentation tomorrow. She didn’t need Luke to save her, because she’d always been capable of saving herself.

  She was going to make the Happy Ever After finale of The Ruby Movie happen even if Luke Devlin was about to leave the building.

  ***

  ‘Hey, Ruby, long time no see,’ Brynn wiped down the bar and sent Ruby his sauciest smile when she stepped into the local pub three minutes after six o’clock. The place wasn’t too packed yet because it was a week night before ten and Brynn wasn’t doing any of his special events to attract customers like Drag Singalong, or Drag Stand-Up or Drag Queens’ Quiz Night.

  ‘Hi, Brynn,’ she said, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darker light inside the bar.

  ‘By the way, Ruby, do you fancy some free entertainment for your Babs and Bob night on Saturday? I thought I could do my version of The Way We Were for the punters. I know how much Matty adored that song.’

  ‘And your rendition of it,’ Ruby added, smiling. ‘That would be absolutely wonderful, Brynn, I’ll stick it on the poster, if you’re sure?’

  ‘Course I am, honey,’ he said, then pointed her towards the back of the bar, beside the stage. ‘Your man’s in the corner booth waiting on you. You want me to fix you a lemon-tini?’ he added with a wink.

  ‘Yes, please.’

  Your man? Had her and Luke’s liaison been a secret from anyone at all?

  She hesitated by the bar, not wanting to dash straight over to Luke and give away her eagerness.

  ‘You go on, I’ll bring it over,’ Brynn said, picking up on her eagerness anyway. So much for subtlety.

  As she approached the back of the bar, Luke had his head down, tapping out something on his phone with both thumbs – probably travel plans – and nursing a Sam Adams, which she now knew was his favourite craft beer. Funny to think of all the pieces of useless information you could pick up about a man after sleeping with him every night for close to three weeks.

  Spotting her, he clicked the phone to sleep mode and stood up as she approached.

  Had it really only been twenty days?

  She absorbed his muscular physique in the dark designer suit, the jacket unbuttoned and the perfect crease in the trousers. He looked like the man she’d first seen up close in Ryker’s office, rich and reserved, and nothing like the man who had lived in worn overalls and a tool belt doing manual labour for the past five and a half weeks.

  ‘Hi, Ruby, glad you could make it,’ he said, touching her arm and guiding her into the seat across from him. ‘Is that a new dress? I haven’t seen you in it before,’ he said, his gaze skating over the green satin mini-dress she’d taken out of mothballs.

  ‘Let’s be honest, you haven’t seen me in much except my Royale T-shirt,’ she said, trying to smile flirtatiously past the ball of misery forming in her throat.

  Why did everything seem so formal all of a sudden? And why was having that hot appreciative gaze on her once more only making this tougher?

  ‘I’m starting to believe in kismet,’ he said, his gaze finally returning to her. ‘Because the dress is perfect for what I had in mind for tonight.’

  ‘It is? What did you have in mind?’ she asked because his gaze had gone past formal straight to feral, and as much as she wanted to keep it there, the not knowing what the heck was going on was not relieving the tension in her tummy.

  ‘I need you to rescue me.’ He covered her hand on the table and stroked his thumb across the knuckles, making heat coat the knots in her stomach. ‘Please tell me you got Jace to sub for the whole night?’

  ‘I did.’

  He lifted her fingers and kissed the knuckles, just as Brynn arrived with her lemon-tini.

  ‘Here you go, Honey, although it doesn’t look to me like you need it,’ Brynn said with a conspiratorial smile which made Luke chuckle before the bar owner left again.

  Lifting the frosty glass, Luke handed it to her. ‘Here, drink up, you’re gonna need it.’

  She picked the lemon slice off the rim and took a quick sip of the citrusy cocktail. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because tonight we’re going to the preview of my mom’s one-woman show.’

  Ruby let out a delighted laugh, the burst of relief flooding through her veins with the liquor. ‘But that’s …’

  Wonderful. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. And not a goodbye. Not yet.

  ‘Likely to be painfully cheesy,’ Luke supplied with a playful shudder which made her feel as if she had just landed in Oz. ‘I need you with me, to protect me from death by a thousand clichés.’

  ‘You shouldn’t talk like that about Helena Devlin,’ she said taking a jauntier sip of her lemon-tini. ‘I’m sure h
er show is going to be incredible.’

  And Ruby was going to be one of the first people to see it.

  ‘Your mum is an icon,’ she added.

  But it wasn’t Helena’s status as an actress, a performer, a personality, even a legendary love goddess that was making Ruby so excited.

  Tonight she was going to get the chance to meet Luke’s mother. And sleep with him. Again.

  After her brief conversation with Helena over the phone all those weeks ago, and years of devouring her exploits in movie magazines, and the few things that Luke had let drop about her, Ruby would always have been curious and excited to meet her.

  But what intrigued her most of all now was the thought of seeing Helena with her son, and getting a new insight into the man she’d fallen in— She cut off the thought, hastily reconfigured it … Fallen in lust with.

  ‘Don’t you dare tell her that,’ he said, sending her a quelling smile over the neck of his beer bottle. ‘Or this is going to be an even bigger ordeal.’

  ‘Bring it on,’ she said, clinking her glass with Luke’s bottle, and sending heartfelt thanks to whoever might be watching over her tonight.

  Chapter 16

  ‘Devlin? Luke Devlin? Luke? Look this way.’

  ‘Who’s the pretty lady with you, Luke?’

  ‘Are you looking forward to your mother’s show?’

  The photographers’ shouts hounded Luke across the red carpet, which seemed to go on forever, making him doubt his kneejerk decision to bring Ruby to his mom’s show every step of the way.

  What the fuck were you thinking, inviting Ruby to this shitshow?

  He kept his hand anchored to Ruby’s hip as he escorted her across the zoned off area toward the entrance of the National Theatre. The monolithic theatre complex’s Brutalist façade rose up on the South Bank of the Thames, the stacked grey concrete floors starting to reflect Luke’s ugly mood.

  If the press figured out who Ruby was, his cover would be blown at The Royale.

  A micro-celebrity he didn’t recognize stopped to pose for the cameras in front of them and he had to break his stride to stop from barrelling right through the woman.

  The shouted questions became more urgent, more insistent, and even more intrusive.

  ‘Who’s your father Luke?’

  ‘Why not confirm it’s Falcone?’

  Because it’s none of your goddamn business.

  His heart lurched in his chest. He dragged Ruby past the micro-celebrity – whose posing had finally drawn some of the attention off them.

  You’re welcome to it, sweetheart.

  But then a logjam of guests going through the bag check at the entrance halted their progress again.

  His lungs constricted and his palms started to sweat as they were trapped in the glare of the camera lights.

  Ruby’s fingers tightened on his hand. ‘Luke, it’s okay,’ she whispered, rising on tiptoes to speak in his ear. ‘They can’t get past the rope.’

  He stared at her, the new barrage of noise and light fading as his gaze locked on her face.

  How did she know? That he was about to freak out?

  But even as the humiliating question echoed through his consciousness, he knew it didn’t matter. All that mattered was holding on to her dry fingers like a lifebelt and getting into the damn theatre.

  Two seconds later – that actually felt like several lifetimes – they stepped into the lobby area and the cacophony outside was reduced to the hum of guests and critics chatting and the clink of glasses.

  His lungs finally released the breath trapped under his breastbone, making him light-headed as Ruby led him to a concrete staircase.

  The preview’s invited audience mingled on the roped off mezzanine, sipping expensive bubbles and eating fancy appetizers on silver trays like entitled peacocks. Ruby let go of his hand to snag them both a glass.

  ‘Drink this,’ she said, her concerned gaze searching his face as she passed him the champagne. The humiliation came back for an encore but then she smiled and took a sip. ‘Mmm.’ She smacked her lips. ‘Just as I thought, free fizz always makes things better.’

  A rough chuckle burst out – part relief, part who gives a shit – as he took a long gulp of his own free fizz.

  He shouldn’t have come. He hated these things, especially if they had anything to do with his mom because it dragged him right back to being a kid again and having cameras shoved in his face asking him questions he didn’t know how to answer.

  He certainly hadn’t intended to come to the show when the tickets had arrived at the house that afternoon by courier, followed by a ton of texts from his mom, which he’d deflected easily enough.

  He’d had other plans for tonight, more important plans, which involved finally breaking the news to Ruby that he only had a couple more days of snag work to do at The Royale and he had a flight to JFK booked for Saturday night.

  It was a good plan, a smart plan, a plan he’d been working on ever since the long night he’d spent contemplating the crack on her ceiling – the first night he’d stayed over, and all the nights since – and eventually come to the conclusion that the reason he hadn’t been able to walk away sooner was because he’d needed her.

  For sex, for friendship, to appease his guilty conscience over what his mom and dad had done to Matty and for a whole host of other reasons he would probably need a shrink to unravel. That’s why he hadn’t been able to say goodbye. But he was free and clear again – or he would be in a couple of nights, after he’d finally returned The Royale to its former glory.

  He owed it to Ruby, and to his uncle.

  His grand plan to finish the work so he could walk away without regrets had all made perfect sense when he’d sent Ruby the text that afternoon.

  But everything had changed when Ruby had appeared in Brynn’s wearing that emerald dress clinging to every curve, with a look in her eyes that he recognized, from their first merry meeting, in Ryker’s office.

  Fear. And grief.

  And he’d felt the grief too. For a relationship which was never supposed to mean anything.

  And in that moment. All he had been able to think was …

  I don’t want to tell her tonight. I don’t want to spoil the last nights we have left together.

  And the invitation to his mom’s preview had spilled out of his mouth before he could stop it. Kind of like a stealth bomber – wreaking havoc one bad decision at a time.

  But he hadn’t really factored in the true fallout from that decision until they’d stepped out of the taxi and walked into one of his worst nightmares.

  Weirdly though, even getting ambushed by tabloid hacks and paparazzi hadn’t been as bad as it could be. Because nothing ever was with Ruby there.

  ‘Oh!’ Ruby pointed her glass past his left shoulder. ‘Is that Ross Barlett? Who starred in Life’s a Bitch with your mother in 1999?’

  He glanced over his shoulder to see a distinguished looking older gentleman wearing a well fitted hair-piece with a much younger woman on his arm. They made eye contact, and recognition flickered into the guy’s famous hazelnut eyes before he immediately broke eye contact.

  ‘Shit, yeah it is him,’ he said, then grasped Ruby’s elbow to steer her to the other side of the bar, as far away from Barlett as it was possible to get.

  ‘Do you know him? Would you introduce us?’ Ruby asked obviously picking up on the eyeball tango they’d been doing before Barlett had ghosted him. ‘I’ve seen all of his movies.’ She continued trying to sneak a peek over his shoulder. ‘I had no idea he was still alive.’

  Luke chuckled at the unintentional insult which he knew Barlett would not appreciate, being the vainest man on the planet.

  ‘I do know him,’ he said. ‘We have history from that shoot. Which is why I’m not going to introduce you to him, to save you from having all your illusions shattered.’ He steered her towards the doors to the theatre auditorium as the five-minute call sounded. ‘You can thank me later.’

&nbs
p; ‘History? What history?’ Ruby asked, her eyes widening with interest like the movie buff she was.

  ‘That’s for me to know and you to never find out,’ he said, but he couldn’t help smiling as he led her to their seats.

  As long as his mom hadn’t arranged for him to sit within a fifty-seat radius of her former co-star – and even she wasn’t that Kamikaze – he could actually see the humour in his run-in with Barlett all those years ago for the first time.

  He might even tell Ruby about it later tonight – if she really wanted to know. It made a pretty funny story, and what was some movie gossip between friends? He had some juicy goods on Barlett. Goods Ruby would appreciate. And goods she wouldn’t rat to anyone else if he asked her not to.

  The lights dimmed as the rest of the invited audience took their seats.

  All he had to do was survive the next two hours – and get Ruby out of here before she came face-to-face with his mom – and they were all good.

  He placed his hand on her knee, rubbed the silky material and felt her shudder.

  Response echoed in his groin and he took his hand off her knee.

  He had two hours of his mom’s anecdotes to get through first.

  Dammit, what the hell were you thinking, inviting her to this show? When you’ve only got three nights left with her?

  ***

  ‘Your mum is amazing, she held the audience in the palm of her hand for two solid hours,’ Ruby managed as she was dragged through the milling crowd towards the theatre exit.

  ‘She likes the sound of her own voice, that’s for sure,’ Luke threw over his shoulder as he whisked them past the bar.

  Shoving open a fire escape at the back of the foyer, Ruby was shepherded out into the pedestrian thoroughfare at the side of the theatre.

  The musty smell of the Thames was overlaid with the vague aroma of disinfectant. As Luke’s grip tightened on her upper arm, he led her away from the Embankment towards the access road at the back of the complex.

  ‘Let’s grab a cab before everyone else gets out of there,’ he said as they reached the road.