Chapter Four Hundred and Forty Four

"Even less time until Ruby comes home!" Charlie said excitedly the next morning.

Joey grinned and hugged her from behind, placing her coffee down in front of her.

"I'd say we should have a little party or something but that might overwhelm her," she said. "But perhaps we, Kerri, Watson, Danny and Claire could have a dinner here or something. Just us. Welcome Ruby home, get to know Claire. We need to do a lot of welcoming for Claire. Make her feel included."

Charlie nodded.

"That sounds like a good idea," she said. "Did you speak to Kerri yesterday, by the way? I forgot to ask."

"Yep," Joey said. "It's all sorted. And we spoke to Claire on the phone too, with Ruby, and they've arranged to spend the morning together on the Sunday so hopefully, everything will work out with the living arrangements."

"Fingers crossed."


While Xavier was getting ready for school, Gina took John aside.

"I think you need to tell the kids that you already knew about the bus project," she said. "It looks like it's tearing Xavier up. It's making me uncomfortable."

John sighed.

"Fine," he said. "It's been fun playing with them but yeah, you're right. Okay, I will. After school."

"Good," Gina said. "Thank you."

She kissed him and then called her son to go to school.


"Indi, look, would you just tell me what's wrong?" Sid finally asked.

He could take the look of misery on her face no longer. It was frustrating and heartbreaking all at the same time.

"Nothing," she said sullenly.

"Indi, please communicate with me," he said, keeping his tone kind. "How can I help you if…?"

"You can't help," she told him.

"What's happened?"

"Romeo and I have broken up," she snapped.


"Liam, can we talk?" Bianca tried when she got to school that morning.

"I have no interest in talking to you," the music teacher replied, keeping his back to her.

Her heart sank. She knew he would be upset that Vittorio was back in town, especially if he worked out that she had lied to him about being ill the night they were meant to go for dinner but she hadn't expected him to be quite so angry.

"Liam, please?" she tried, touching his arm.

He jerked away from her like he had been burned and spun around.

"What?" he spat. "What do you want to talk about? About the fact that you lied to me about being sick because your ex was back in town? About the fact that you're back together with him and you haven't even bothered to tell me? What exactly did you want to tell me, Bianca?"

"We're not back together..."

"I saw you!" he said loudly, causing several students, including Indi and Romeo, on separate ends of the corridor, to look at him. "I saw you kissing him on the beach last night!"

Bianca faltered. She didn't know what to say.


Angelo was setting up for day while Alf was in the kitchen and Joey was sorting some paperwork in the office. He looked up when a smartly dressed couple who looked to be in their forties marched into the restaurant with a look of determination on their faces.

"We came in for dinner last night and we'd like to make a complaint about what happened here," the woman declared.

Angelo looked confused. Nothing out of the ordinary happened as far as he could recall.

"About what happened…?" he asked. "Um… okay…?"

"Yes," the woman said. "We'd like to speak to the man in charge."

"Well uh… I'll go and get the boss for you if you like but…"

"Yes," the woman said. "Go."

Hearing the commotion, Alf arrived from the kitchen.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yes, we'd like to make a complaint about what we witnessed in your restaurant last night," the woman told him.

"Oh, this isn't my restaurant," Alf told her cheerfully. "You'll need to talk to the boss."

Both the woman and her husband looked confused.

"Who's the boss?" the woman asked, faltering for the first time.

"I am."


Xavier apologised to Miles and excused him from class, having left the novel they were reading in his locker. Walking down the corridor, he paused when he heard this distinct sound of his mother talking on the phone.

"Well, I'll just be glad when they know you knew all along," she said. "I hate lying to them. I thought it would teach them a lesson at first but I genuinely think Xavier's cut up over all of this."

Not really listening to the exact words, Xavier saw red. Forgetting all about his novel, he marched up to his mother and challenged her, demanding to know exactly how much he and April had been lied to.

The woman blanched, as Joey stepped into the main area of the restaurant.


"So, what exactly is the problem here?"

"I wanted to make a complaint," the woman said, faltering slightly, as she exchanged glances with her nervous, silent husband. "But maybe… maybe this is just that kind of venue and we didn't realise. It doesn't advertise itself like that."

"What do you mean, 'that kind of venue'?" Joey asked.

"Last night… last night, you were kissing another woman," she accused.

Joey laughed.

"Is that it?" she said. "You're seriously complaining about that? I don't even remember it so it couldn't exactly have been a make out session."

"It was a kiss on the lips at about seven thirty," the woman said.

"You noted the time?" Joey asked. "What is wrong with you? Was the food that bad that you had to time me giving my partner a peck on the lips?"

The woman stared at her.

"I mean, seriously? Was the food bad? That's something I'll address. But if you're just homophobic, don't eat here. I don't want you here. The restaurant is for the unprejudiced members of society."

"You can't just dismiss me!"

"Really? Because I think I already did."

She gestured with her hand for the couple to leave. The woman was outraged.

"But…"

"I have spent too many years afraid and apologetic over who I am to be told by some customer that I'm not allowed to be gay in my own family business," Joey said. "I wouldn't tell you not to give your husband a peck, you can't tell me I can't do the same with my partner. If I had my tongue rammed down her throat, that would be a discussion but we're discreet enough that you wouldn't have even noticed if you weren't so nosy. So be nice or get out."

"I've never been so insulted!" the woman exclaimed.

"I'd like to say neither have I but it's just not true," Joey told her. "You're the most recent in a long line so I'm sure you can understand my impatience."

She hurried the woman and her husband out the door to a round of applause from Angelo and Alf. Re-entering the room, she took a proud bow.


Still upset over her altercation with Liam, Bianca used her lunch break to meet up with Vittorio. She introduced him to the Diner, although knew immediately that it was a mistake as Colleen had barely left him alone since they'd sat down.

"Look, it's my turn to be honest with you," she said. "I'm not saying no. But I don't know if I can ever trust you again. I want to trust you but… I don't know if I can. But maybe we can try. That's… that's where I'm at. In a state of total confusion."


Nicole had been worried about Indi and Romeo. She had comforted Indi as best she could and now her mission was to tackle Romeo, who was the one responsible for the breakup. So now, she was dragging him over to the restaurant to use her best weapon – Joey.

"Why do you girls always insist on giving me a talking to every time I do something you don't like?" he complained, sitting at the bar beside Nicole and in front of Joey.

"Because you're doing something we don't like," was the response he got in stereo.

He rolled his eyes. Angelo chuckled and left them to it.

"So, talk to Auntie Joey about Indi," Nicole instructed.

"We've broken up," he said.

"Why?" Joey asked. "You were so good together."

"We just weren't working," he said.

"Why not?"

"We weren't in the same place," he told her. "We were moving at different paces."

"She told him she loved him and he broke up with her," Nicole explained.

Joey hit him with a bar mat.

"What is wrong with you?" she demanded.

"Ow!" he complained. "If she loves me and I don't love her, surely the kindest thing to do is to end things? It's better not to string her along, isn't it?"

"You don't have to be in exactly the same place as each other, Romeo," Nicole told him. "As long as you feel you'll get there in there end."

"I don't think I will," he sighed.

Joey hit him on the head again.

"Ow!" he complained. "Would you stop doing that?"

He rubbed his head to make a point.

"You have got to stop living in the past, young man," Joey said firmly.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"I know you loved Annie," Joey said. "And I know she hurt you and left you and it was horrible and hard to get over but for goodness sake, get over it. Indi is lovely. She is beautiful and kind and she adores you. She could be your soul mate, better than Annie ever was and you could lose her because you've got your head stuck in the past, thinking about what you lost. Indi wants to be with you but she's not going to wait around forever, letting you treat her like this. Wise up, Romeo. Snap out of it. And for goodness sake, realise that you are in the same place. You do love her. You've loved her for ages. You're just too afraid to admit it."

Romeo stared at her.

"You really don't sugar coat stuff anymore, do you?" he said.

"Sometimes you need a bit of tough love," Joey replied.

She leant across the bar and kissed the part of his head that she'd hit. He grinned.

"I'm all bewildered about Indi but I'll always be a bit in love with you, Jo," he told her.

"You know it," she grinned, offering a cheeky wink.

Nicole giggled and announced that she had better drag him back to school.


After school, John was waiting for Xavier, eager to make amends over the bus project fiasco. Xavier had already fallen out with Gina for being strung along, yelling that he hadn't wanted to lie in the first place and now he had been punished unnecessarily. He had then fallen out with April for making him the ultimate loser in the whole thing.

"Xave," John tried. "Can we talk about all of this?"

The teenager turned around and walked right back out the door. John hurried after him, desperate to talk things through.

"Xavier!"

"I'm not interested!"

"Please?"

Xavier spun around, furious.

"You know what the sad thing is?" he snapped. "I was actually starting to like you. I thought we were really bonding. I was begging April to tell you the truth because I hated lying to you. We fell out constantly over the whole thing because I hated not being honest. And all along, you were enjoying lying to us. All that trust and friendship we were building up… it was all fake. It was all a waste of time. I should have just kept on hating you, just like a do now."

He turned and strode away. Little did he realise that John had started to suffer chest pains. Alone, John collapsed onto the ground.


Having finished work, Charlie headed over to the restaurant to see Joey.

"Your girlfriend has been on fire today," Angelo remarked, as Charlie pulled up a bar stool.

"Not literally, I hope," the police officer replied.

He chuckled and shook his head, as Joey came out of the kitchen and leant over the bar, pulling Charlie in for a kiss.

"I was just telling Charlie about your antics today," Angelo said.

"Apparently you've been on fire," Charlie informed her.

"We had a complaint," Joey told her.

"A complaint about what?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not allowed to give you a peck on the lips," Joey said. "It's offensive."

"Are you serious?" Charlie said.

"I told her to go fuck herself," Joey stated. "Slightly more diplomatically. Not a lot more diplomatically. But slightly."

"And then she gave Romeo what for because he broke up with Indi," Angelo put in.

"He broke up with Indi?" Charlie asked, alarmed.

"I know!" Joey said.

"See, we miss out on so much gossip with Ruby being away," Charlie sighed.

Joey squeezed her hand.

"She'll be back on Sunday," she reminded her.

Charlie's face lit up.

"And I think I sufficiently kicked Romeo's butt," Joey added.

"And hit his head with a bar mat," Angelo put in. "Twice."

Joey grinned triumphantly.

"You really had quite the day!" Charlie chuckled.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're both here!" said a breathless voice.

Charlie, Joey and Angelo all turned to find Bianca hurrying up to them. She looked rather frantic. Joey immediately poured her a glass of wine. She accepted it immediately. Angelo busied himself with serving other customers.

"I have no idea what I'm meant to do," Bianca said desperately. "Vittorio is here and utterly determined to sweep me off my feet and win me back. Liam hates me. He gave me a real dressing down at school and he's so hurt. I just…"

She held her head in her hands and took several gulps of her drink. Charlie put her arm around her, wishing that she and Joey could do more to help her.

"So, how have you left things with Vittorio?" she asked. "You looked quite close last night?"

"We had dinner and we kissed," Bianca said.

Charlie and Joey forced themselves not to react.

"He's said that he'll do anything to win me back," Bianca continued. "I told him that I'm open to the idea but that I'm honestly not sure if I can ever trust him again."

"And Liam?" Joey asked.

"He saw us kissing and now he hates me," Bianca sighed, drinking a bit more. "He shouted at me and wants nothing more to do with me. So now my heart's breaking because I have such a connection with him and if he was gone from my life, I'd be so heartbroken."


Still upset from everything that had happened with Bianca and everything he had lost, Liam had packed up his things, handed in his notice at the school and was now just about ready to leave the Bay. He just couldn't stand it anymore. And he couldn't sit idly by and watch the woman he had fallen in love with fall back into the arms of some handsome Prince. It was just too much.

He pulled out his phone and wrote a text message in order to say goodbye.


Penn was out walking when he spotted John lying collapsed on the drive of the home he shared with Gina and Xavier. He immediately launched into action, pulling out his phone and calling an ambulance, performing CPR in a bid to save his life.


"I just wish there was an easy answer, you know?" Bianca rambled.

She was on her second glass of wine already and had only been in the restaurant for half an hour. Charlie and Joey figured this would be a long evening.

"I guess it's about where your heart lies," Joey said. "Unfortunately, nobody can tell you that apart from you."

Bianca sighed loudly. Her phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the message, leaping off her stool and nearly falling over.

"What?" Charlie and Joey asked in alarm.

"Liam's leaving town!" she said. "I need to stop him!"

"Okay," Charlie said. "Let me drive you."

She waved apologetically at Joey and hurried with Bianca out of the restaurant.


Gina and Xavier were waiting anxiously at the hospital for news on John. Sid and his team were working on him to save his life and now it was just a waiting game. Xavier held his mother's hand, wracked with guilt over the last things he had said to him that he hadn't meant. He just hoped it wasn't too late to make things right.


Liam took one last look around him and then sped off on his bike, heading out of Summer Bay with a heavy heart. He had made a lot of mistakes in this town – Belle and Nicole to name just two. But he had really hoped that this time around, with Bianca, that he was going to get it right, that had found love. But alas, it was not to be. She didn't feel the same way.


Charlie's little, blue car pulled up just as Liam's bike pulled away. The police officer watched her passenger visibly deflate. A tear escaped. Charlie undid her seatbelt and wrapped her arms around her friend. She held her for a long time.


Next time… John's loved ones wait for news, Romeo plans a surprise and Paulie continues to be a nuisance…