Chapter Four Hundred and Twenty Six
"Are you sure you're okay looking after him?" Charlie asked. "Because we could find a way to delay our work shifts and everything if you need us to stay longer."
"That's very kind," Morag said. "But I'll have help with his nursing staff and everything. And you said you'll come back when you next get a couple of days off…"
"We will," Charlie and Joey promised in unison.
The three of them, plus Ross and Ruby were all enjoying a leisurely breakfast together before the girls were due to head back to the Bay.
"Thank you all for coming to see me," Ross said.
"Of course we came, Dad," Ruby said. "We love you."
"And I love you," Ross replied. "All three of you."
"When you're feeling better, Ross, we'll go to Summer Bay and visit the girls, won't we?" Morag said. "It'll be nice to go and see that restaurant of yours again, Joey."
"And go fishing," Ross put in with a grin.
"You bet!" Joey laughed. "I still can't convert Charlie!"
"It's boring and it smells!" Charlie protested.
Ruby swallowed a distinctly immature teenage remark about Charlie liking fish and focussed on eating her toast instead.
Back in the Bay, Romeo pulled his surf board from the sea behind him and strolled up the beach where he found Liam trudging along the sand.
"You don't look as happy as I was expecting you to," the younger man remarked. "I thought last night was your big date with Bianca."
"It was," Liam replied. "It didn't go so well."
"What happened?" Romeo asked, genuinely concerned for his friend.
"She's still in love with Vittorio," Liam told him. "The only problem is… I'm in love with her."
"Ugh! Why isn't there ever any hot water when I want a shower?" Bianca stropped, storming out of the bathroom and into the lounge in her robe.
"Sorry," April said from the table. "I guess we all took longer ones this morning."
"It'll heat back up in a bit," Irene put in.
She waved and headed out of the house, off for her shift at the Diner. Bianca growled in frustration.
"In a bit, isn't going to help me get ready now, is it?" Bianca snapped, flopping onto the couch.
Sighing, her sister came to sit beside her.
"I'm guessing your date with Liam didn't go so well?" she said.
"It sucked," Bianca said, examining her nails unhappily.
"What happened?"
"I'm still in contact with Vittorio," Bianca confessed. "And as much as I hate myself for it, I'm still in love with him."
She sighed heavily.
"Where does that leave you with Liam?" April asked, trying not to show her own disappointment.
The last person in the world that she wanted her sister to end up with was the man that had treated her so badly.
"I don't know," Bianca said. "I like him. I really do. But I keep feeling this tie pulling me back. And that means it's impossible to move forward."
"Well… Liam won't wait around forever," April said as gently as possible. "It sounds like you need to do a lot of thinking."
It had been a long drive back and despite their breakfast, everyone was peckish by the time they got home. Too tired to cook, Charlie, Joey and Ruby agreed to stop at the restaurant instead for a snack. It also felt quite fun to Joey to surprise her staff.
Arriving at the restaurant, she found Angelo and Alf busily working behind the bar. Everything seemed to be ticking over nicely, although Angelo didn't seem to be offering service with a smile.
"He really isn't himself these days, is he?" Joey mused, as they were shown to a table by one of her waitresses.
"No, he seems really distracted," Charlie agreed.
"Angelo!" Joey hollered across the room.
He looked up in fright, nearly dropping a glass, which amused her. Then he hurried over.
"Join us for lunch!" she half requested, half ordered.
Dex had sneaked out of the house first thing that morning, not wanting to face his father, who he was sure would know by now all about his fumbled attempt at telling Marilyn how he felt about her. He wished now that he had heeded Ruby's advice and kept his feelings to himself. She knew was she was talking about, after all. She'd been there. And as she'd predicted, the whole thing had been a big, fat disaster. He never wanted to see his father or Marilyn every again. He wanted the ground to swallow him up whole.
Ruby had left her parents to it, not wanting to get engrossed in their Angelo orientated conversation. She didn't really have anything better to do but she didn't especially want to discuss business or money worries.
Over lunch, Angelo had finally revealed what had been bothering him for the past week or so. It turned out that Paulie had come to visit him, not for his delightful company. He had racked up $30,000 worth of debt and was in a world of trouble and it seemed that it was down to Angelo to sort it out. All heart of course, it was playing Charlie and Joey's minds. They wanted to help.
"Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Charlie asked.
"I think it's worth looking into," Joey said, although she still felt anxious about it.
"It's a lot of responsibility to take on for a guy we don't even know," Charlie put in.
"But we do know Angelo," Joey said.
"Case in point," Charlie remarked.
Joey laughed loudly and looked at the barman, serving drinks to customers with Alf.
"He's changed a lot though, hasn't he?" she said. "He's a lot more trustworthy now."
"He is," Charlie agreed.
"So?" Joey said.
"Okay," Charlie said.
"Angelo!" Joey hollered again.
He jumped all over again.
"Would you stop frightening me?" he begged.
"Guilty conscience?" Joey teased.
He was grateful that she didn't notice how stricken he looked. The loan he'd applied for in her name last night was chasing his every thought.
"So, you haven't seen him all day?" Marilyn asked.
She and Sid and gone for coffee to discuss the Dex situation. It had been weighing on both of their minds since last night.
"He disappeared first thing this morning without even speaking to me," Sid confirmed.
"Have you tried calling him?"
"I don't know what to say," the Doctor sighed. "Where do I even begin?"
Angelo was grateful when Charlie and Joey headed out of the restaurant and back home for the day. The first moment he could, he left Alf behind the bar and headed into the office in a desperate bid to cancel the loan he'd applied for. He just hoped he wasn't too late. He had a horrible feeling that in his foolishness last night, he just ruined everything he'd worked so hard for.
Bianca found Liam at the Diner, looking morose and distracted. She sat at his table without being invited and immediately apologised for what had happened the night before.
"You can't help who you love," Liam replied blandly. "Nobody can. I have feelings for you. You don't have feelings for me."
"I do have feelings for you," Bianca interjected. "I just… still have feelings for Vittorio too."
"So many feelings!" Liam half laughed.
Bianca managed a smile.
"Anyway, I've got other problems today," Liam added glumly.
"What's wrong?" Bianca asked, almost glad not to be the only thing making him miserable.
"The record company called just now," he told her. "They want to sign me."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" she asked.
"Yeah," Liam said. "But what I mean is that they only want to sign me. Not Ruby. And I have no idea how to break the news to her."
Ruby was tucked away in her room, catching up with some homework that she had neglected to do, what with rushing off to the city to see Ross and Morag.
"We need to make sure we get back to visit again soon," Charlie said, flopping onto the sofa. "It's been too long."
She lifted her legs into Joey's lap. Her girlfriend assumed the natural position of a foot rub, making her girlfriend grin happily and consider herself rather spoiled.
"Definitely," Joey agreed. "The fall has been a bit of a wakeup call, hasn't it?"
Charlie nodded and sighed, feeling rather heavy hearted.
"We'll go for a planned visit and we'll make a proper fuss of him," Joey promised. "And Morag too."
"She looked pretty tired, didn't she?" Charlie worried.
"She did," Joey agreed. "But we'll do what we can to make it better."
Angelo finished his shift and hurriedly met up with Paulie on the beach. He had cancelled the loan application but that didn't necessarily mean the paper trail didn't exist so he wasn't out of the water yet. He was still worried.
"Did the loan come through?" Paulie asked eagerly.
"No but Charlie and Joey might have," Angelo said, noting silently that his brother hadn't even said hello to him.
Paulie looked confused.
"They're looking into extending their business loan for us," Angelo said.
"Really?" Paulie asked. "Why?"
"Because they're good people," Angelo said.
"That's really good of them," Paulie said. "But Angelo?"
The former cop looked at him.
"When they apply for the loan, won't your previous application be flagged up to them?"
Joey lay in Charlie's arms on the sofa, as they debated a movie night with their daughter. They both had early shifts in the morning and really wanted to relax and recharge their batteries.
"What should we watch?" Charlie asked.
"Mmm… I don't care," Joey said, stealing yet another kiss.
They'd been making out like teenagers for quite some time now.
"We could ditch the movie idea and…" Charlie mused with a wicked grin.
They kissed again. Charlie wrapped her arms around the woman she loved.
"That sounds good," Joey moaned. "But we should probably tear ourselves away and make an effort with Ruby. She's been alone for a lot of the day."
Her mothering instinct kicked in and Charlie reluctantly tore herself away from the moment. She stole another couple of kisses before calling Ruby out from the room and suggesting a family DVD.
Angelo sank down onto the sand, feeling panicked. Paulie sat beside him, feeling bad.
"They might not mention it," he said, trying to be helpful. "It might not come up."
"If it does, it's all on you," Angelo warned.
"Look, you're the one who made the application," Paulie said, holding his hands up in defence.
"For you!" Angelo snapped. "Once again, you could have completely fucked up my life!"
He looked up and spotted Xavier on the beach with April. Suddenly, he had a brand new idea.
Kerri wasn't feeling entirely comfortable on her evening out with Brax and his River Boys. She hadn't been feeling great about things for a few days, ever since the altercation she and Danny had witnessed between Brax and Watson. And then there was last night to deal with. She and Watson had kissed. And now she couldn't get her out of her mind – not that she ever really had. She was more confused than ever and she felt completely disconnected from Brax and his friends. She couldn't help but wonder what she was doing with these people.
"Xavier!" Angelo called, approaching the teenager.
The blonde boy looked up sharply. He eyed him with caution. There would always be a little bit of tension between them, unspoken and lurking just beneath the surface.
"Have you still got the money Hugo left behind?" Angelo asked, getting right to the point.
Xavier looked anxious.
"Why?" he asked.
"Have you?"
The money was still a point of panic for Xavier. He had tried so many times to get rid of it. It was illegal and a stain on his heart, a memory of all the evil his brother had done.
"Yes," he managed.
"Care to let me take it off your hands?"
"I'm so sorry!"
"It's fine, don't worry," Kerri replied.
The young man who had bumped into her smiled gratefully and headed off on his way. He stopped abruptly when he found himself surrounded by River Boys.
"Do you think it's okay to push into a woman in a wheelchair?" one of the boys demanded.
"No, I… I apologised," the young man said, sounding genuinely frightened.
He looked to Kerri for help.
"He apologised," Kerri agreed.
She looked at Brax, who had been in a bad moon all night. He stepped towards the man. Kerri was grateful. She'd seen him simmer his boys down before. He was the leader of the pack, after all. She was horrified when she realised that he was only going to wind them up more.
Next time… Angelo gets caught, Kerri makes some changes and Xavier has a dilemma…
