Page 1 of Stuck

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ELIZABETH

I held Jane’s hair back with one hand and clamped the other over my nose to prevent myself from hurling. You’d think I’d be used to other people’s vomit by now, given how much of it I’d had to deal with over the years, but it still turned my stomach—and it seemed as though my sister was trying to barf up all her internal organs with her violent retching.

“Is she all right?” Bingley asked from the other side of the door, his voice full of concern.

I could tell he wanted to be the one doing the hair-holding, and honestly, I wouldn’t have minded switching places, but Jane hadn’t wanted her boyfriend to see her like this. Besides, it was my fault she was in this predicament, so I supposed it was only fair that it be me.

“In that she’s still breathing, sure,” I replied at the same time as Jane groaned, “I’ll be all right in a minute.”

“Jane, I hate to break it to you, but I think you’re going to need longer than a minute.”

She groaned. “I love you, Lizzy, but I’m never eating anything you cook ever again.”

“At least nothing with goat in it, maybe.”

It was only by chance that I’d been late home and not yet eaten any of the curry I’d had in the slow cooker. Jane, unfortunately, had taken the afternoon off to get ready to be Bingley’s plus-one this evening, and her early dinner had resulted in her head now being wedged down the toilet bowl.

Eventually, she had nothing left to throw up, and with Bingley’s help, she shuffled to her bed. Her flat—mine, too, for the next few months—wasn’t huge, so it wasn’t far from the bathroom, but she still collapsed onto the mattress as though she’d run a marathon.

“I might feel better after a quick nap,” she said weakly.

I caught Bingley’s eye as he lay down next to her and pulled her against his chest to stroke her hair. We both knew she wouldn’t be going anywhere tonight.

“I’ll let you tell her,” I said then left to fetch the bucket from under the sink in case she needed to puke again. I took a moment to dispose of the goat curry, jabbing it accusingly into the waste disposal unit. As I got Jane a glass of water and dissolved some electrolytes in it, I heard strained voices.

Jane’s bedroom and the kitchen both led off our cosy—read tiny—living room. That meant I was near enough to hear most of what was being said, and I sighed at the worry in Jane’s voice.

“Elizabeth,” Bingley called loudly, “will you please come and talk some sense into your sister?”

Shaking my head, I took the water and the bucket with me, setting one on the bedside table and the other on the floor. “He’s right, Jane. You can’t go.”

“I have to.” Peering feebly up at Bingley, she said, “You told me that after what happened with Laura, they wouldn’t invest unless you could prove you were a proper family man.”

I shifted warily on my feet. “Who’s Laura? And what happened with her?”

Bingley had turned an interesting shade of magenta and was wincing so hard he looked pained. “My ex. When we broke up, she…” He squirmed against the headboard. “She said some things about me that weren’t true, but the wrong people got wind of them, and now I have a slight reputation for being something of a playboy.”

“That sucks,” I said, a little nonplussed. “But even if it were true, it’s your private life. What’s it got to do with the way you do business?”

Bingley sighed heavily. “King Ventures is one of the investors we’re hoping to snag—one of the largest—and the owner is old-fashioned, to say the least. He’s made it clear he doesn’t like what he’s heard about me but said he’s willing to give me a chance if I can prove I’m not what people say I am. I’ve told him I’m in a serious relationship. He’s flown his wife and niece over from the States to meet ‘the woman behind my greatness’.”

He shouldn’t have divulged that, because as soon as she heard it, Jane tried to haul herself upright. Bingley pushed her gently back down again, insisting that it didn’t matter.

“Can’t you simply explain that Jane got food poisoning?” I asked.

“He’d probably think Bingley had made me up if I wasn’t there,” Jane argued, to which Bingley agreed with a grudging nod.

I folded my arms indignantly. “This is ridiculous! What does it matter whether you’re single or attached? You could be married and still sleeping around. And what if your partner wasn’t a woman?”

Bingley shrugged. “What can I say? I’m trying to do a good thing with this company, but I need King’s money to do it.”

I regretted the criticism, because not only was Bingley trying to do something good for the world with his design for groundbreaking new vertical farming technology, but it further distressed Jane to hear it confirmed how badly he needed the investment.

“You should take Lizzy,” she mumbled into his chest.

I wrinkled my nose. “That wouldn’t solve the problem of his girlfriend not being there.”