Page 49 of Last Breath

The cocktails reared up Nella’s throat like the groping hand of a drunk. ‘That doesn’t mean anything, Daisy.’

Daisy searched her face like she could hear Nella’s battling thoughts.It means something. Why would Clarkson go to the La Marca property when he knew they were suing us?

Did he find something?

‘I’m sorry,’ Daisy said, head low.

‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ Nella said. ‘I just don’t want you caught up in this any more than you already are. It’s not fair that you’re involved just because you work for me.’

‘If that was a problem, I would have found another job.’

Nella closed her eyes for a second. ‘You should.’

Daisy looked taken aback but quickly fixed her features as Eliza returned. ‘I gotta run,’ Daisy said, her face still searching Nella’s for something. ‘Got a date.’

‘Good for you,’ Nella managed, trying to push the revelation about Clarkson’s visit to the La Marcas into the depths of her mind. ‘Everyone’s on a date tonight. You! Jett!’ She laughed like a supervillain, and Eliza poured more water into the glass, almost knocking Nella’s tooth out as she forced it up to her lips.

Daisy’s smile was tight; she and Pearl were the last ones from work still at the pub but it wasn’t even 8 p.m. The funeral had clearly sucked everyone dry. Ian had lasted five minutes after the shirt removal before he’d called it quits.

‘We should head off soon too,’ Eliza said as Pearl gripped Nella in a fierce hug, then pushed through the crowd after Daisy. The band was on their second set and the line for drinks was a sweaty, three-deep human sandwich.

Nella shook her head. ‘I don’t want people to think I’m leaving because I’m embarrassed to be sitting here in my bra.’

‘No one will think that,’ Eliza soothed, pouring more water into Nella’s glass. ‘Most people here are just annoyed it’s still on.’

Nella looked down at her chest. The bra was deep magenta, with soft lace and full cups that pushed up her boobs in a pin-up style that hadn’t looked inappropriate under the high-necked funeral shirt but now definitely needed at least aMature Audiences recommendedrating. ‘I don’t have a ride,’ she admitted, stabbing the lime from her empty mojito with a pineapple skewer from Eliza’s pina colada.

Eliza rolled her eyes. ‘You always have a ride.’

‘Not tonight.’ The lime was too brittle; it broke in half and its green fleshy parts floated away in dregs of melted ice. ‘Jett actuallyison a date. I wasn’t lying.’ What would Jett say about Clarkson going to the La Marcas? Would he just tell her she was being paranoid – again?

Eliza slurped the unblended remains of her pina colada. ‘That’s surprising,’ she eventually said in her signature deadpan tone. Eliza once took a psychopath test online and had refused to divulge the result to Nella – but most likely because she was disappointed it said she didn’t fit the criteria.

‘It’s not,’ Nella said. ‘Jett’s single, he’s young, he’s not exactly ... well, he’s ...’

‘Sex on legs?’

Nella spat out her drink.

‘You can’t deny he’s good-looking,’ Eliza said.

‘I didn’t deny it. Why would I deny it?’

‘You’ve never really brought it up before.’

‘Your nurse is hot – should I be interrogating you about why you haven’t brought that up before?’

‘Which nurse?’

‘Kristy.’

‘Kristy breeds axolotls.’

‘Hotandresourceful, although I don’t actually know what an axolotl is ...’

‘Jett being on a date doesn’t mean you don’t have a ride. He has never refused to pick you up, not once.’

‘Things are different now.’ Nella didn’t keep secrets from Eliza, but for some reason she’d never been able to tell her what she’d said to Jett after the funeral. And she hadn’t told her about his resignation.