Page 90 of Unnecessary Drama

‘I remember,’ Amber says. ‘The one with the fancy fruit platter.’ She does not smile, which makes me smile more. Is it possible for your eyeballs to sweat? Because I think that’s what is happening right now.

‘We’re just leaving to get something to eat,’ Jesse says.

‘Oh, that sounds good,’ I say, as if I’m going to tag along.

Amber is looking at me like I might be a dangerous stalker, and she’s possibly not wrong.

‘Sorry, what are you doing here?’ Jesse says again.

‘Oh um,’ I say, fumbling. My plan was to say, can we talk in private, but those words don’t arrive. Instead I say, ‘Someone crashed into your car.’

‘What?’ Jesse says, looking alarmed.

‘Not badly. But, um, you need to come home and give them your insurance details.’

‘I don’t have insurance!’ he says, looking even more panicked.

‘You don’t?’ I say, slightly horrified.

‘If they crashed into his parked car, why would they need his insurance details? It’s their fault. Wouldn’t you need their details?’ Amber says.

‘I’m not sure. You better come and sort it out,’ I say to Jesse. ‘They want to talk to you.’

‘Why did you come here, why didn’t you just call him?’ Amber asks. She’s giving me a I’m-onto-you look, and I’m not sure my lying can hold up under her scrutiny.

‘My phone is dead, so I just ran here,’ I say.

‘You were just on your phone, we saw you,’ Amber points out.

God, she should be a detective or a true-crime podcast host.

‘I thought my phone was dead, but it was just turned off,’ I babble. ‘Look, it doesn’t matter, just come.’ I pull on Jesse’s shoulder. Amber is wearing very high heels, so I am betting everything on the hope she won’t want to walk there and back.

‘Brooke—’ Jesse starts to say.

‘He’ll be back in ten minutes,’ I say to Amber.

‘Not a problem, I can come too,’ she says to me, leading the way out of the bar, looking extremely comfortable in her shoes.

Fuck.

The three of us start walking towards the house, and I contemplate throwing myself in front of traffic. It’s the only way to exit this hell of my own making.

Unless. If I text Harper right now, could she run out and bang up Jesse’s car a bit? How far do I want to take this?

I think of one last desperate move that doesn’t involve destroying Jesse’s uninsured property.

‘Amber, you can wait inside with me when we get there,’ I say. ‘Don’t worry, we haven’t seen any mice in a few days.’

Jesse shoots me a look and opens his mouth to say something but it’s too late. The minute the word ‘mice’ left my mouth she stopped walking.

‘You know what? I’m just going to wait right here on this bench,’ she says, sitting down on a bench seat on the footpath. She immediately pulls out her phone and smiles to herself as she starts typing a message to someone.

‘I’ll be ten minutes,’ Jesse says to her.

‘It’s fine,’ Amber says, without looking up, and waving a hand. ‘Take all the time you need.’ Her tone is cold. I have officially ruined Jesse’s date.

Jesse and I walk the rest of the way home together, and I am acutely aware that this is it, this is my moment, I only have one more block, time is ticking.