“I thought you might like it back.”
Alex stared into her palm as if the most precious treasure in the world had landed in her hand. Maddie was itching to find out what it was, but she opted to stay in hiding and study Alex a bit longer.
“Yeah.” It was the first word Alex uttered and it came out cracked and quivering.
“Call me if you want to talk.” Rita stroked Alex’s lower arm with the back of her hand for a brief moment. “Anytime.”
Alex didn’t reply, but looked shaken. As Rita turned on her heels, Nat and Isabella exited the gym.
Maddie hesitated a split second too long and before she could emerge from the shadows, the three of them had set off in the other direction.
Maddie’s plan had come undone in front of her eyes. This wasn’t the gentle reconnection she had hoped for. It should have been her standing there waiting for Alex instead of Rita. It should have been her causing that array of emotions to creep along Alex’s face. She’d lost this battle and she didn’t know how to gear up for another one.
She’d been ready for a fight, but what if this was a war impossible to win?
ALEX
To any bystander not in the know—anyone apart from Alex and Rita—the rock Alex cradled in her hand was just an insignificant grey piece of matter. To Alex it was a reminder of the best day of her life.
When Alex had met Rita more than six years ago on a junk trip, she’d fallen hard and fast for the confident, long-legged blonde with the cool blue eyes. Alex had boarded the boat as a carefree twenty-something eager for a relaxed good time on her day off. She had disembarked eight hours later as a hormonal lovesick mess, reduced to monosyllabic replies to any questions asked, enthralled by Rita and her loud, room-filling personality.
They’d swum out to the shore together, Alex showing off her form and Rita—surprisingly—keeping up, and gotten caught up in a tipsy pseudo-philosophical conversation about a piece of rock stranded on the beach. Unbeknownst to Alex, Rita had smuggled the rock into her bathing suit and presented it to her a few weeks later, on the night it had finally happened.
Alex believed she didn’t stand a chance with the likes of Rita. Surely she could have any woman she wanted. They probably lined up for her, like all good Chinese people do when something delicious is on offer. She’d barely even tried, apart from hanging out whenever she could with the crowd that had introduced them.
“Remember this?” Rita had asked, while digging the piece of rock out of her coat pocket. “I’ll certainly never forget.”
It had been the prelude to their first night together and they’d been insanely happy for the next six years. Even Alex’s mother, who was notoriously hard to please, had taken a shine to the posh banker with her expensive pant suits and impeccable manners.
And then, all of a sudden, Rita wanted to take Mandarin classes, an initiative Alex had encouraged. She’d never have guessed it would be the end of them.
“Pizza’s getting cold, Pizza.” Nat rapped her knuckles against Alex’s bedroom door. “What are you doing in there, anyway?”
Alex inhaled deeply, cast one last glance at the rock, and flung it into a corner of the room. She got up from the bed and opened the door.
“I’m ready for that drink now.”
* * *
“I have the ultimate question for you.” They sat slouched in the sofa, shoulder to shoulder. Isabella was long gone and Nat had introduced Alex to the harder stuff. They’d shared more than half a bottle of Scotch and, despite the incessant spinning of her head, Alex felt free of worry for the first time since seeing Rita again. “If you were to go into your bedroom now and dig up your vibrator…”
“My what?” She nudged Nat in the side. “I don’t have a vibrator.”
“Sure. Whatever.” Nat pinched her in the thigh. “You get naked, get in the mood for one of your one-minute rides.”
“Wha—”
“I told you before, Pizza. These walls are thin. Flatmates don’t have secrets in this building.” Nat turned to her, a lopsided grin on her face, her eyes watery with the effects of alcohol. “Anyway, what I want to know is…who will you be thinking of?”
Alex burst out laughing. “The noises I had to hear coming from your bedroom. The least you can do is show me the courtesy of not mentioning my unmentionables.”
“Never mind that. Answer the question.” Nat placed her hands on Alex’s knees. She’d stopped pushing her bangs out of her eyes and her face was half-covered with hair.
“What kind of a question is that?” Alex held on to Nat’s arm in order not to fall flat on her back. The booze seemed to interfere with her core strength. “It’s too intimate.”