Page 13 of Rafferty's Rules
‘Off my what?’ She turns her head, and her complexion is pale, her expression a littlewhat the fuck.
‘You were drunk,’ I qualify. ‘No need to sound sorry for yourself. We’ve all been there. Now, lean over. Yeah, like that.’ Her back to my chest, she allows me to take her weight even as she turns her head to look at me. Funny, she looks more embarrassed than pissed off.
We’re almost at the cruise terminal, people milling around us in the pedestrian zone. Our fingers entwined and held in the air, I feel the moment the stitch dissipates as she sighs, her body relaxing against mine. It’s not an intimate moment, by any stretch of the imagination, so the sudden tug deep in my belly comes as a surprise. I step back. ‘Better?’
‘You must think I’m very irresponsible,’ she almost whispers.
‘Nah, not a bit of it. Like I said, we’ve all been there. And a hangover, dehydration, and no breakfast because either you can’t face it or you don’t have time, can leave you feeling crook.’
‘Crook?’
‘Under the weather. Ill. As sick as a dog,’ I over qualify. The things I’ll do for a smile from a pretty girl. A smile from a pretty girl who looks like she’s eaten a blueberry-flavoured ice block.Are her lips blue?I raise my hand as though to hold her chin, lowering it again just as quick. It must be the light, I tell myself. She’s just hungover, not ill.
‘Sure.’ She ducks her head, the word hitting the air on a little huff of a laugh. ‘But it’s not so much a rookie error as a list of them.’
‘Sure,’ I repeat, though in a completely different tone.
‘What? You don’t believe me? Cross my heart,’ she says, pressing her hand to the muscle in question. ‘I have never drank myself into... whatever it was that happened last night.’
‘Your secret is safe with me,’ I reply, matching her pained expression with a cocky one.Throwing in a wink for good measure.
‘I really ought to go.’ Her smile falters, and she makes as though to move again. At least until I pull on her arm.
‘It’s only a five-minute walk anyway. Why kill yourself?’
‘I’m not dying,’ she answers immediately.
‘Yeah, but if you make yourself spew, I’m not cleaning it up again.’ Her expression folds, and I immediately feel like a dick. ‘It was a joke. Obviously not a very good one but still.’ As she turns her head, she mumbles something I almost don’t quite catch even though the sentiment is pretty clear.
‘The story of my whole life lately.’
‘We all fuck up sometimes, but that’s what makes life interesting, right?’
‘My life has been far toointerestinglately. But thank you, Rafferty. Thank you for... whatever it was you did yesterday, and thank you for helping me get to the cruise terminal, too. With my luck, I’d have turned right and ended up at the train station or something.’
‘It’s an Aussie’s civic duty to look after our tourists.’
‘Well, I wish I could pay you back.’
‘Maybe you’ll be back in town some other time?’
‘I wish,’ she says over her shoulder, beginning to walk again. ‘We had planned on going only one way.’
We.Interesting. Not that I’ll ask because it’s none of my business, plus we’ve just reached the passenger terminal, the realisation of which feels like a sudden lead weight in my chest.Weird.
‘Here we are.’ Not that I think she needs telling on account of the great bloody ship in front of us.
‘But do you know what I can’t see?’ she asks, her tone bordering on panicked. ‘The cruise liner I’m supposed to be on.’
‘You’re shitting me.’ I almost laugh—because I’m a fuckhead—and though I manage not to, I still wish I could swallow back my stupid, cackling response. Especially as she looks about to cry.
‘Why would I joke about something like that?’
‘Shush, it’s okay.’ I take her hand again, this time swinging it a little. ‘We’ll sort it out.’
‘I can’t believe this is happening to me. Who did I piss off up there?’ Her head tilted skywards as her chin begins to tremble.
‘Ah, come on.’ I pull her to my chest, but unlike last night, she doesn’t wrap her arms around me in return. ‘Don’t cry, darl. We’ll sort it out. My civic duty extends to helping you sort this out, too, you know.’
