Chapter Four Hundred and Fifty Nine

Charlie and Watson had sneaked into restaurant for a cheeky morning coffee before their duty guarding the paparazzi began. Any excuse to see Joey was a good excuse as far as Charlie was concerned.

They were in the middle of discussing the move and how strange it was going to be not practically living next door to each other, what with Watson always being round at Kerri's all the time, when Bianca and Vittorio entered the venue.

"Well, you two look like you have news," Joey remarked.

Bianca extended her hand and showed off a rather sparkling engagement ring.

"Wow!" Joey said. "That is quite the rock!"

Charlie took Bianca's hand and admired the ring.

"Wow, indeed," she agreed.

Vittorio looked rather pleased with the admiration. Bianca was blushing and smiling.

"Congratulations," Watson said.

Charlie and Joey were eager to chime in.

"What are we congratulating?" Angelo asked, appearing from the kitchen.

He was a little gruff, his mood having not much improved after all his disappointment following Shandi getting it on with Miles instead of him.

"Bianca and Vittorio are engaged," Joey told him, hoping he might be cheerful about it.

"Oh," he said. "Congratulations."

He politely shook Vittorio's hand and smiled at Bianca. He wasn't particularly in the mood to celebrate the romance of other people when he felt so hopeless himself but if he had learnt anything over the last year or so, it was that there was no need to be rude.

Vittorio and Bianca thanked him and he headed out to sort out the tables for the day, passing April and Xavier on their way in.

"Oh, hey," April said, surprised to see her sister there.

She approached Joey and asked for her rota for the month before she went to school.

"Oh, sure," Joey said, heading out to her office to grab it.

"How come you're here before school?" April asked curiously.

"Well, uh…"

Bianca looked as Vittorio, who nodded.

"Vittorio and I are engaged," the pretty blonde told her sister, shyly showing her the ring.

April stared at it and then at her sister's face. 'Congratulations' was far from her mind.


Romeo was deeply unhappy. Ever since that night when Indi had run out on him, she had been swerving him and he was frustrated and hurt at her avoidance. Every time he tried to talk to her, she made excuses and left and she was refusing to take his calls or answer his texts.

"Indi?" he said, approaching her at her locker.

"I've got to get to class," she lied.

There was plenty of time before the bell.

"Please can we talk?" he begged.

"I really don't have time," she said, hurrying off to her lesson.

He sighed heavily and watched her go, desperately wondering what he had done wrong.

"She'll come round," Charlie said, trying to cheer Bianca up.


April and Xavier had both left, as had Vittorio. Bianca had a free first period and so had decided to hang around at the restaurant with her friends.

"I hope so," she sighed. "She's my sister. We've always supported each other through everything. I don't want to be apart on this."

"I know," Charlie said, patting her gently on the back. "I think she's just being cautious because of what happened with Vittorio before. She doesn't want you to get hurt."

Bianca nodded.

"I do think he's changed," she said.

"Then that's all that matters," Joey chipped in. "And that he's the guy you want to be with."

Bianca immediately thought of Liam. She shook the thought away.

"He is," she said, not sure if she was trying to convince them or herself.


Nicole sat next to Romeo in class. Indi had sat deliberately away from her boyfriend.

"Okay," she said. "Tell Auntie Nicole all about it."

Her housemate sighed heavily, tearing his gaze away from the girl he loved.

"I don't even know where to start," he admitted. "One minute everything was going perfectly. We were going to… you know. But she ran out and she hasn't spoken to me since. And I don't know what to do. I keep trying to talk to her but she's just ignoring me and I feel like she hates me. But I don't know why. I don't know what I've don't wrong."

Nicole looked at Romeo and then at Indi.

"It sounds like you haven't done anything wrong," she said. "It sounds like it's something she has to work out on her own. I think you need to let her know that you're there without forcing her to talk to you."

"But I just…" he protested.

He sighed heavily and slumped into his seat, missing Indi terribly.


"Right, it's our turn to take our pap shift," Charlie said. "In fact, we're a little late so we'd better love you and leave you."

She leant over and kissed her girlfriend goodbye. Watson said her goodbyes also.

"I'd better head off to work as well," Bianca said. "I've got some marking to do before my first class. Thank you for all your support, guys."

"Have fun," Joey said. "See you later."

The three of them left via the stairs and through the Surf Club, stepping out into the sunshine, where a big crowd of reporters were in a huddle. Bianca cringed to find Vittorio in the middle of them all.

"Oh no," she said.

"Bianca! Bianca!" the crowd said.

She anxiously headed over with Charlie and Watson, who joined the officers in charge.

"So, this is officially my fiancée," Vittorio said, offering an apologetic glance at Bianca.

She had no choice but to pose with him for photographs.


After class, Romeo couldn't help but catch up with Indi and beg her to talk to him.

"Romeo, I just… need space," she said.

"But why?" he asked. "I just don't understand."

Nicole sighed and left them to it. He had gone against her advice immediately.

"What have I done wrong?" Romeo asked.

"Nothing."

"Then why are you ignoring me?"

"I'm not."

"You clearly are."

"I haven't meant to," Indi said honestly. "I just…"

"What?"

"I need space."

"You said that already."

"And you haven't given it to me," she snapped, walking off.

He stared sadly after her.


Charlie and Watson were on duty, making sure the press didn't cause trouble. It was a boring shift but as long as Prince Vittorio was news, it was something they had to do.

"So, with all this talk of weddings, do you think you'll pop the question any time soon?" Charlie asked Watson.

Watson looked surprised.

"Me?" she asked. "Oh… I don't know. I hadn't really uh… well…"

Charlie chuckled.

"I didn't mean to freak you out quite that much!" she laughed.

Watson blushed.

"I think we need to wait a little longer before marriage is on the cards," she decided. "And live together. But I like to think one day. What about you? Will you be getting down on one knee sometime soon?"

Charlie exhaled and looked out at the sea.

"I don't know," she said. "We're very happy as we are. And we're buying the house now. But yeah, I do believe we'll get married one day. I certainly can't imagine my life without her."


It was lunch time and the high school kids were eager to escape. With her head a mess, Indi headed straight for the restaurant. Joey was always the person Romeo turned to for advice so she thought perhaps she might be the person who could help her with her current problem. She hoped that she would have the time.

Nicole also headed over to the restaurant, keen to see Claire, who was working the lunch shift. Their discussion regarding Ruby had been bothering her for days and she needed to talk about it. Both of them were concerned about their friend's welfare, worried that she was going to get hurt.

On his way out of school, Romeo bumped into Bianca. The picture of Vittorio and Bianca was already online, proudly announcing their engagement.

"Are you happy?" he snapped.

"Excuse me?" the blonde replied.

"Showing off your engagement to the whole world when Liam had to leave town because you left him with such a broken heart?"

"Liam and I were over and Vittorio and I were engaged even before I met him," Bianca said. "Not that it has anything to do with you. Also, may I remind you that I am your teacher?"

"I don't care," Romeo snapped. "I don't care about anything anymore. But Liam is my friend and you've treated him like crap."

He stormed off. She felt awful.


Indi sat at the bar, waiting to get Joey's attention. She had been avoiding the situation with Romeo for too long now and she knew she was hurting him. It wasn't fair. She had to face her demons.

"What can I do for you, Indi?" Joey asked kindly, aware that teenager looked like she had a lot on her mind.

"It's… well, it's…" she tried.

She didn't know where to start.


On her break, Claire sat down with Nicole and told her everything Ruby had said when she had tried to raise the issue about the prediction.

"She's so desperate to cling onto it," she sighed. "She was really annoyed with me when I brought it up. She basically told me she needs to hope and believe. And that really worries me. It's that kind of fantasy, you know, the whole Liam Murphy dream that put her in there in the first place. I don't want her to get fixated on some fictional idea that falls apart and breaks her."

She sighed heavily.

"I don't think she's going to listen to either of us," Nicole said. "Or her parents."

She glanced at Joey, who was deep in conversation with Indi. She hoped that they were discussing Romeo and how Indi could move forward with him.

"So what do we do?" Claire asked.

"Maybe we need to talk to Mitzy," Nicole suggested.


"I'm just so embarrassed," Indi said. "I mean, I just panicked and cried and now I don't know how to be around him."

Joey reached out and held Indi's hand.

"Hey, this is Romeo we're talking about," she reminded her. "Sweet, gentle, loving Romeo. He's just worried about you and wants to care for you. It doesn't matter that you cried and panicked. But I think the worst thing you can do right now is ignore him and leave him in the dark about what you're experiencing and how you're feeling."

Indi sighed heavily.

"But I don't even know how I'm feeling," she said. "I don't know why I panicked or what made me run anyway."

"Perhaps talking about it will help you unpick what's going on," Joey suggested. "I mean, what happened right before you panicked?"

"I just… we were going to… you know…"

Joey nodded.

"And it was our first time… and the last time I was with anyone like that was Owen and I guess I haven't really dealt with what happened there, you know with him and my Mum and…"

She looked down, a wave of emotion hitting her.

"There you go," Joey said gently.

Indi looked up at her tearfully.

"Indi, you have so much to deal with," Joey said. "So much to process. Be kind to yourself. And open up to Romeo. He wants to support you and be there for you. He loves you."

Indi nodded.

"Thank you," she said.

She reached across the bar and hugged her, hurrying out of the restaurant to find her boyfriend.


As soon as her shift finished, Claire met up with Nicole and they went to visit Mitzy in her caravan. They were armed with a plan to be direct and straight to the point in asking her about the prediction she had made for Ruby. And then they would be able to make some sort of plan based on that as to how to help their friend.


Charlie came to the restaurant after work, arriving at the same time as Bianca, who had had quite a long day. She had been inundated with congratulations regarding her engagement, but she had been seriously stung by Romeo's attack on her. And the fact that he had brought up Liam had made her not be able to stop thinking about him for the rest of the day.

"Wine," she requested. "I really need wine."

"You seem rather strung out for a girl who just got engaged," Charlie remarked.

Bianca sighed heavily.

"I'm starting to think I'm doing the wrong thing," she admitted.

"Because you still have feelings for Liam?" Joey asked bluntly.

Charlie winced. Bianca rested her head face down on the bar and groaned.

"What am I meant to do?" she asked.


Marilyn stopped outside Mitzy's caravan when she heard voices inside, having decided to visit like she normally did in the afternoons.

"We just need to know if this prediction you made for Ruby was real or not," Nicole said. "Because she's got her heart completely set on meeting someone in the next couple of months and she's very, very vulnerable."

"It wasn't real," Mitzy admitted quietly. "I was just trying to make her feel better."

Nicole and Claire exhaled tightly. They weren't sure whether to feel relieved or not.

"I'm sorry," Mitzy said awkwardly.

Outside, Marilyn didn't know what to think or how to feel. She decided to delay her visit.


At the house, Indi and Romeo were sat side beside on the sofa.

"I'm really sorry I've been pushing you away," Indi said, holding his hand.

She had done her best to explain her history with Owen, who had run off with her mother. It had genuinely only been today that she had begun to start processing it and working it out.

"It's okay," he said. "Just… please let me in now."

"I will," Indi said. "If… Please can we take things more slowly?"

"Of course," he said. "I just want to be with you. At any pace."


Back at home, after a long day at work, Charlie and Joey were glad to be tucked up in bed.

"What do you think Bianca is going to do?" Charlie mused.

"I have no idea," Joey said. "But she needs to think fast because she can't lead Vittorio up the garden path if her heart is still with Liam. It's not fair. I know he cheated on her back in Italy but he has tried to make things right since."

Charlie nodded and kissed Joey's forehead, where her girlfriend was snuggled into the crook of her arm.

"I just don't think she should be agreeing to marry anyone she's not completely sure about," she said.

"Me neither," Joey said. "Marriage is forever, isn't it? Or it's supposed to be."

They kissed tenderly.

"I totally freaked Watson out earlier, by the way," Charlie giggled.

"How?"

"Asking if she was going to propose to Kerri soon."

"Is she?"

"No," Charlie said. "For the reasons we just said. It has to be the right time. Because it needs to be forever."

Joey nodded and snuggled in closer.


April was just getting a glass of water just as Bianca was heading to bed.

"Bianca?" she said.

Her older sister turned to her, waiting for the attack over Vittorio.

"Can I just ask you one question?"

"Okay…"

"Are you still in love with Liam?" she asked.

Bianca swallowed.

"I'm going to bed," she said hurriedly. "Goodnight."

It was all the answer April needed.


"Oh, Claire had lunch with Nicole today," Joey told Charlie sleepily.

They'd turned the light off and they were snuggled down for sleep when the memory popped into her mind.

"Really?" Charlie said, also sleepy. "That's good that Claire's making friends."

"Yeah, I'm really pleased," Joey said. "It's nice to see her settling in properly."

That night, Bianca's dreams were haunted by Liam Murphy. She found herself muttering 'I love you' out loud. Thankfully, she was sleeping alone.


Next time… Marilyn raises her concerns about Ruby, Joey tries to lift Angelo's mood and Shandi gets flirty…