For Blue1927. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Three Hundred and Eighty Three
"I win!" Joey hollered when she reached the beach flag just ahead of Charlie.
"No fair!" Charlie complained, crash landing and gasping for breath.
Joey quickly pounced, straddling her hips and laughing.
"That'll teach you to sit around and eat doughnuts all the time," she teased.
Charlie sat up and pouted.
"I get plenty of exercise!" she insisted.
"I know," Joey said rather seductively. "It's usually with me!"
They kissed passionately, oblivious to the world.
"I wasn't looking!" Xavier said guilty when he heard someone call his name.
Spinning round, he came face to face with Romeo, with whom he hadn't spoken to in a good few weeks after the debacle with Gina, John and Jill.
"Yeah, me neither," Romeo smirked.
Both boys had indeed been watching Charlie and Joey make out on the sand.
"If they didn't want people to watch then they really shouldn't do that in public," Xavier pointed out.
Romeo grinned and nodded. Xavier turned back to face him.
"So, how are things?" he asked.
"Yeah, they're okay," Romeo said. "I'm trying to get all my school work done and surfing and stuff."
"And hanging out with Indigo Walker?" Xavier asked, having seen them spending a fair bit of time together.
Romeo blushed and insisted that they were just friends.
"How are things going with April anyway?" he asked.
"Yeah, they're good," Xavier said. "I really like her. She's a lot more sensible and a lot less impulsive than other girls I've gone out with. It's a refreshing change!"
Romeo nodded as their conversation tapered off.
"Listen, Xave, can we just put everything behind us?" the surfer asked.
"I'd like to," Xavier agreed. "I'm sorry for… everything."
The pair of them shook hands.
"Hey!" Joey protested when she realised that, having raced each other home, Charlie had joined her in the bathroom.
"Are you objecting to me showering with you?" Charlie asked with mock hurt.
She saw a familiar and wicked flash in her girlfriend's eyes.
"Definitely not," she decided.
She whipped off her top and hit the power button on the shower, giving the water a chance to heat up. Stripping out of the rest of her clothes, she quickly helped Charlie out of hers. They wasted a lot of water in the shower.
Elijah followed Leah helplessly around the house as she slammed about, getting ready for work. She'd found the signed form from the night before and was utterly furious that her fiancé had lied to her about his intentions to leave Summer Bay.
"I signed it in anger!" he protested. "I didn't…"
"Didn't plan to make me fall in love with you and then ditch me at the last minute?" Leah snapped.
"Leah, you know that that's not what this is!" Elijah snapped.
"Are you or are you not planning to leave me for several months of the year while you feed the homeless or whatever it is you do out there?" she demanded.
"Maybe," he admitted. "But you knew this about me when we got together. I don't see why it's such an issue all of a sudden!"
"I knew you were minister, Elijah," Leah told him. "It's not the same thing. It's not what I signed up for."
"Well maybe we shouldn't be signing up for anything then!" he yelled, storming out of the house.
"We're going to be late," Joey mumbled.
She lay on the bed with Charlie on top of her, towels vigorously discarded.
"Shame you're not the boss then," Charlie replied, burying her lips against Joey's neck. "Oh wait, you are."
Joey was about to protest but moaned instead as she felt Charlie's tongue flick against her skin.
"Restaurant be damned," she decided, throwing herself into making love for the second time that morning.
Leah arrived at the Diner in a state of distress. She genuinely couldn't figure out who was right and who was wrong in her fight with Elijah. Was it a crime to want to actually live with her future husband? No. But was it a crime to want to go out into the world and try to save people's lives? No, that definitely wasn't either.
"You look as good as I feel," Rachel commented glumly when she approached to take her order.
"Care to exchange tales of woe?" Leah asked, shirking her responsibilities to talk to her friend.
Charlie and Joey eventually arrived at the restaurant rather later than they'd intended. It had all started innocently enough as a run on the beach but as usual, it had become competitive and then it had got romantic.
"If I don't open in time, I'm blaming you," Joey joked.
"You could have stopped me at any time," Charlie smirked.
Giggling, Joey caught hold of her hand as they walked through the Surf Club in order to go up to the restaurant.
"Joey!" Alf said cheerfully, moving out from behind the bar.
"Hi, Alf," his former employee greeted warmly. "How are you?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good," he replied. "The customers are missing you at the bait shop. And so is Marilyn. But anyway, I've got some contracts for you to sign about the opening."
He, Joey and Charlie took seats at a vacant table. Joey tried not to look too overwhelmed with signing to documentation but carefully scanned each page and handed it over to Charlie for double checking.
"Wait, what does this mean?" she asked, pointing to the top of page three.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry about it," Alf said. "It just means that if the restaurant doesn't open in time you might incur a penalty fee and potential cancellation."
Joey looked stricken.
"You're going to open in time, aren't you?" Alf checked.
"Well…"
"Yes, we are," Charlie said, taking Joey's hand. "She's just panicking."
"Everything's going well then?" Alf asked.
"It's going perfectly," Charlie assured him. "We've almost got everything the way we want it, haven't we, Joey?"
Joey nodded quietly, still silently fretting that something would go wrong.
Dex left the Diner in a state of swoon. While buying his lunch, he had run into Marilyn, his father Sid's new girlfriend. And he was smitten. He thought Marilyn was the most beautiful woman in the world and he was very eager to get to know her more. He jumped when Elijah, the local Revered left the Diner in a hurry, pushing past him without apology and running towards the beach. Shaking his head, Dex thought of Marilyn again and a smile returned to his face.
"I've never bought so much booze in my life!" Joey remarked.
Standing behind the bar with Charlie, Joey had been stacking shelves for quite some time.
"It did make me feel a bit like an alcoholic when we were looking around!" Charlie admitted with a giggle.
Joey stepped back and admired their display.
"I'm pretty impressed with us," she said.
"Me too," Charlie agreed.
Leah returned to her table with Rachel looking close to tears. Elijah had come to see her and all but insisted on postponing the wedding, believing that after all they had already been through, they just didn't know each other well enough to rush into things.
"What?" Rachel squeaked when she told her.
"It's over," Leah sighed. "Just like that."
Sid and Marilyn sat on a blanket by the lighthouse, enjoying good food, good company and sunshine.
"I have to admit I'm surprised," the Doctor said. "Dex doesn't usually like anyone, let alone someone I like so much."
Marilyn blushed and smiled at the admission. Sid seemed to be a very different person to the man she had heard so much about. His reputation seemed unjustified as far as she was concerned.
Joey took ice cream out of the large and nearly stocked freezer and sat round a table with Charlie, Rachel and Leah. Heartbroken over what had happened with Elijah, Leah had decided that she and Rachel both needed cheering up and that seeing Charlie and Joey was a wonderful way to do it, they had come to the restaurant to see them.
"Thank you," Leah said tiredly. "I feel bad taking your stock!"
"How many times did you bring leftovers home for us from the Diner?" Joey asked.
"A few," Leah admitted.
"Not forgetting a few months ago when I was ill and hiding and you brought food round especially," Charlie added, tucking into her dessert.
Leah managed a smile, grateful that her friends were willing and able to lift her up.
"I just thought everything was so perfect," she sighed. "If I hadn't started panicking about his missionary work, I don't think it would have been an issue. It's like he's chosen to commit himself to overseas work just to spite me."
"I really don't think it's that," Joey said gently. "It's probably that a conflict had never occurred to him before."
"It's better to deal with it now than after you were married," Charlie added.
"I guess," Leah sighed.
"Sometimes you think you want something and then it turns out you want something different," Rachel said, sounding very far away.
Charlie and Joey both eyed her curiously.
"Rachel's been offered an exciting job," Leah explained, hoping her friend wouldn't mind.
"That's really great," Charlie enthused.
"Except that it's in Boston," Rachel told her.
"Boston like, in America?" Joey asked.
"Yep," Rachel said. "My friend Daniel wants me to run an emergency ward over there and now I don't know what to do."
"Do you want to go?" Joey asked,
"Yes," Rachel said a little hesitantly. "But my life is here, you know? And so is Tony's."
"What's he said about it?" Joey wondered.
"Nothing," Rachel sighed. "Because I haven't even mentioned it yet."
Elijah had packed his things, ready to move out in the hope that some space and time might help him and Leah get things back on track. His heart felt heavy and he could hardly believe how rapidly things seemed to have spun out of control. It seemed like they had been so caught up in the drama that neither of them really seemed to know what their point was. Hovering in the doorway, he debated waiting for Leah or leaving her a note.
Leah and Rachel were heading out of the restaurant just as Ruby wandered in.
"You had ice cream without me?" she asked in horror.
"Wait a sec and I'll get you some," Joey said, hauling herself up to take the bowls back into the kitchen.
"You look chipper," Charlie remarked when her daughter sat down beside her.
"I've decided to change my life," Ruby said.
Joey reappeared with ice cream for all three of them, even though she and Charlie had already indulged. Charlie offered up no objections and eagerly tucked in.
"How are you going to change your life?" Charlie wondered.
"Well, I'm going to forget all about Liam," Ruby explained.
Both of her parents were relieved.
"And how did you reach that conclusion?" Charlie asked.
"Well, I was looking at him today and I realised that he's just a guy," Ruby said. "I mean, yeah, he's good looking and nice and talented and everything but he's not into me and there's no point in me being into him. Right now, I want to focus on school work, music work, the restaurant and my family. I'm totally over Liam and I'm glad."
Leah arrived home to find Elijah looking anxious. His bags were also packed, waiting to be taken out of the house.
"What is this?" she wondered.
"I thought I'd move back into the vestry for a little while," he explained. "Until we've sorted everything out."
"Elijah…" Leah tried. "Why am I feeling like we just broke up?"
"Of course we haven't broken up," Elijah said. "Unless that's what you want?"
"It's not what I want," Leah said shortly. "None of this is what I want. I just want things to go back to how they were before. You're the one moving the goal posts."
Elijah sighed heavily, torn between agreeing with her and wanting to defend himself.
"I love you," he finally said. "I just want to make sure that we enter into a marriage as two whole people, not two halves. I need my life as much as you need yours and part of my life is going out of my way and out of my comfort zone to help other people. But I do love you and I do want to marry you. You're still the best thing that's ever happened to me and I believe you always will be."
At the end of the day, Charlie, Joey and Ruby headed downstairs and through the Surf Club in order to go home.
"You seemed pretty busy today," Alf remarked pleasantly.
"We indulged in some ice cream," Joey admitted. "I'm already a bad owner."
Alf chuckled.
"I'm sure it's not against the law," he said.
"I just hope I open in time," Joey said. "We haven't got that much to do, I guess but we keep getting distracted and then there was the fire and everything. I'm really nervous."
"Everything will be perfect," Charlie insisted.
"Listen to your girlfriend," Alf instructed. "There's no way either of us would ever let you fail. This is too important to you and you're too important to us."
Next time… it's a group effort to get the restaurant up and running, Joey asks Liam and Ruby to perform on opening night and VJ is angry with Elijah…
