She closed her eyes tight when he said those words. She didn’t need to look at Luke to know that he’d heard every little detail. Her name, and all the gory secrets she’d tried to hide for five years. Her truly spectacular fall from the top of her sport, and with a messy and very public break-up to boot. Luke had frozen still, his hands still in place. She felt a tear drop down her cheek and into his hand, before his shirt blotted it into the fabric. He started to walk, tucking her into his side as he parted the crowd before him like a messiah. Rebecca kept her eyes to the floor, willing herself not to break down till they got to the front doors. Mina was telling Lester to get Robbie out, that he was barred, but Robbie didn’t care. He was loving every minute.
‘That’s it Becks, run away! It’s what you do, right? We’ll be seeing each other, don’t worry. We have a lot of catching up to do. Enjoy the rest of your whatever that is.’
Luke was there one minute, and gone the next. He turned, growling his head off like a baby tiger, and ran at Robbie with a booming war cry that would make Mel Gibson look like David Brent.
Mina took a step back, Luke swerving around every person effortlessly. Wow, thought Rebeca. When he was mad, he was so sure of himself. If he’d have run like that normally, he would have ploughed through them like bowling pins. Lester, still holding Robbie, shrugged at Rebecca, who was looking at him in horror, and dropped him back onto his feet. He tried to back into Lester, but Lester just laughed.
‘Sorry boss, breaktime.’ He took a step back, motioning for his guys to retreat to the bar. ‘Play nice.’
Luke felled Robbie half a second later, flying through the air and slamming him to the floor in a rugby tackle. Robbie grunted as the air was knocked out of him. Mina disappeared and Rebecca ran over to them both; they were now rolling around on the floor. Lester, now drinking a virgin cocktail with the others, was telling Robbie’s girl to stay put, whilst she shook her fake nails at him and gestured wildly.
‘Luke, get up!’ She tried to reach him, smacking him on the bottom as it bobbed past her.
‘Hey, don’t spank me!’ he shouted as he rolled, pinning Robbie to the floor. His knee was digging into Robbie’s chest, and Robbie was spluttering, trying to bitch slap Luke, who kept deflecting the blows. He straddled Robbie, one knee right near his crown jewels.
‘Say sorry to Rebecca,’ he commanded, and Rebecca tried to pull him off. He didn’t budge, a button popping off his shirt as he twisted gently away from her. ‘Step back Rebecca, I don’t want you to get hurt.’ He got a slap right across his chops from Robbie, who had seized the opportunity. ‘Hey!’
He grabbed at Robbie’s hands, and Robbie was stuck. All he could do was wiggle on the floor like a worm, whilst Luke kept slapping him with his own hands.
‘What you hitting yourself for, eh?’ Slap. Robbie’s face was as red as a tomato, and he was shouting for Lester. Some of the guests were laughing into their napkins. A couple of people shouted, ‘Yeah, hit him again!’ and ‘About time someone slapped that guy.’ Lester was chuckling too, she could see his shoulders jiggle up and down through his tight black T-shirt. Rebecca ran over to him.
‘Lester, come on! Stop this, please!’ Lester rolled his eyes and nodded.
‘Okay, but that was fun. You have to admit it.’ He gestured to the rabble on the floor, Robbie trying to buck Luke off, who was now open-shirted and laughing as he made Robbie move like a marionette.
Lester strode over and put out a hand to Luke. Luke passed Robbie’s hand to Lester, and Lester half carried, half lifted him to his feet.
‘Show’s over folks, don’t drink and drive. Have a good night.’ A man at the table nearest to him flinched as Lester plucked the phone from his outreached arm and put it in his back pocket. ‘Call the office,’ Lester said to the dumbstruck man, who just nodded. One of Lester’s team was going round the room, giving people holding phones a knowing look. He gave the man a business card.
Lester lifted Robbie into his arms like a father would a weeping baby. ‘And if anything goes online, in any form, Robbie’s lawyers, and we, will know about it.’ The lads behind him, all huge and quite fearsome-looking when they turned it on, nodded to the crowd. Lester winked at Rebecca, and she lifted her shaking hand to say goodbye. Luke was off the floor now, picking up the chairs that Robbie had kicked over and apologising to the diners. He passed her handbag back to her, his face unreadable as he looked her over.
‘We need to go.’ He placed her coat around her shoulders, throwing his own on and taking her hand to walk her out. No one said anything else, and she felt the atmosphere change as they reached the doors. A second later, they were outside, heading away from the heated area and down the street. They walked till they were out of sight of the place, away from Robbie who would no doubt still be close by. Probably chewing out Lester for making him deal with his own stuff for once. He should do that more often, the look on Robbie’s face was almost worth it. Almost. He wouldn’t leave it though. They’d had the perfect life, but then she’d
