“Please don’t cry. I know this is hard, but please don’t cry. It fucking kills me”.”
“I can’t help it. I miss you. I want you to come home.”
“I wanna come home.”
“Then come home.”
“I can’t. I’m the head of Oceanic operations, there’s no one more senior than me. I need to be here.”
“What about Luke?” I felt a twinge of guilt at offering up my brother as a sacrifice, but fuck it. I wanted my husband back.
“Luke’s head of UK and Europe. You know that, Sarah.”
“What I know is that we were married eleven days ago, and I’ve not seen you since.”
“Get on a plane and come over here.”
“I can’t, Liam. I have to go back to work in the morning, my holiday is over.”
“Take unpaid leave, your boss will understand.”
“I’ll lose my job.”
“Who cares? You’ll be pregnant soon and will have to leave then anyway.”
“Not sure if you’re aware of how those things work, but you have to have sex to get pregnant. That’s not gonna happen while you’re twelve thousand miles away.”
“So fly over and I’ll have you pregnant within the month. I miss you. I need you to crawl into bed with every night. I need you to tell me this will all be fine and we’re not gonna get our arses sued for any kind of malpractice.”
I hadn’t realised that was a possibility, and the idea of Liam getting sued made my stomach twist. At no time had he mentioned this before, or he had and I was just such a selfish bitch I hadn’t heard him.
“Is there a chance that could happen?”
“Hopefully not. First indicators are that we did everything by the book and it was just a simple malfunction. Our lawyers are working through all of our practices, but they’re pretty sure that we’ve conformed. It’s always a worry when something like this happens, though.”
I had forgotten to breathe as I listened to his answer and almost choked when I eventually sucked in air as he finished talking.
“So, you want me to look at flights for you?”
“Liam . . .” I groaned. “I can’t just drop everything and fly to Australia.”
“Why?”
“My job for one.”
“Your job’s more important than I am?”
“No, of course not.”
That comment pissed me off.
“Then I don’t see a problem.”
“Well, just like you can’t get on a plane and fly back here because of work, I can’t get on a plane and fly there.”
“You can’t, or you won’t, Sarah? What I have is a career, employees, people depending on me. All you do is sit behind a desk, look pretty, and answer the phone for your boss all day.”
Wow!
“Fuck you!” I snapped and ended the call. His name flashed across the screen again, but I sent the call to my voice mail. It was childish, but how fucking dare he. I started my car and was about to attempt the drive home through my angry tears when it chimed with a text message alert.
I shifted the gear into neutral and grabbed my phone again.
Aussie Husband: Pick up the fucking phone!
I turned it off instead and then cranked the radio up when “It’s Not Over Yet” by the Klaxons started to play.
It was after nine when I turned onto my street. I was still pissed off, but I had calmed down considerably. I’d had time to think as I drove and realised that it probably wouldn’t be too difficult for me to take some unpaid leave. Though, Liam’s attitude and the way he just expected me to drop everything still pissed me off. My rage had cooled from boiling to a simmer, until I saw my brother’s car parked on my drive, and all the anger I had worked through started to bubble inside me again.
“Great. Just fucking great,” I said aloud as I slammed my car door shut and stomped towards my house. All I wanted was a hot shower and my bed—not a lecture from my big brother. I slammed my front door behind me and continued my stomp down my hallway and into the kitchen. My brother looked up from his laptop, and I could see the lecture he was about to give me just sitting on the tip of his tongue.
“Call you to do his dirty work, did he?” Luke stared silently while taking a swig from a bottle of beer. “Oh, and feel free to let yourself into my house and drink my beer.”
I pulled a glass from the cupboard and filled it with the red wine sitting on the worktop.
I drank it down in a few gulps and then refilled it.
“You finished?” Luke asked.
“Not even nearly.”
“Carry on then, don’t let me stop ya.”
“Pffftt. You couldn’t if you tried. It’s my house, I’ll behave however the fuck I like.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“And that includes, exactly like a spoiled thirteen-year-old, does it?”
“If I feel like it.”
“Grow the fuck up.”
“Make me.”
We stared at each other for a few second. Unable to ignore just how ridiculous I sounded, we both started to laugh.
I walked towards my brother, and he stood, holding his arms open for me.