Chapter 5

• “Shut up, enough of the back–seat driving, who’s fucking this duck?” Adrian rolls his eyes in the rearview mirror at Ben who smiles at the usual banter. Adrian scowls as he leans his head back into the headrest. “And for the record, I don’t fuck ducks.”
• Josh smiles and nods. “Good to know.” Twenty–five minutes later they are driving up a one–way street in Rose Bay.
• “Where the hell are we going?” Adrian asks. Josh doesn’t answer as he cranes his neck and looks up the road.
• “It should be just up here on the right. Pull in here.” He points to the left. He sits with his elbow on the car door, his thumb under his chin, rubbing the side of his pointer finger back and forward over his lips, deep in thought. They sit in silence for ten minutes.
• “Mind telling me why we are here?” Ben asks quietly.
• “Someone I used to know lives in that dark brick building over there.” He points to the large older style apartment block across the road, still deep in thought.
• “And we are here, because?”
• “I want to find out what apartment 5B is. It looks like there are two apartments on each level. Is the left side A or B?”
• “I‘ll go look,” Ben hops out of the car and heads across the road. Josh stays silent, deep in thought. Adrian sits quietly in the back, assessing the situation, trying to work out what the hell is going on. Whatever it is, Josh is acting weird, really weird.
• Ben returns. “It’s on the right, five levels up.”
• “Did you get in? Isn’t there a security door?”
• “No, I went in when someone left.”
• Joshua nods and looks up. “She’s home.”
• “Looks that way,” replies Ben. They all stay silent for another ten minutes, then Josh gets out of the car and walks around to the road–side of the car, resting his rear on the door. His hands in his suit pant pockets, his feet crossed in front of him, he continues looking up at the window. Adrian and Ben follow, each standing on either side of him, also leaning on the car.
• “What’s going on?” Adrian asks quietly. Josh stays silent. Ben blows out a breath—the dark mood Joshua has slipped into is concerning.
• “Why don’t you just go in and knock, man?” Joshua doesn’t move—he’s unresponsiveand a depressive demeanour hangs over him.
• “Do you want me to go in and knock?” Adrian asks, but Joshua shakes his head.
• “How long since you’ve seen this girl?” Ben asks.
• “Seven and a half years,” Joshua answers flatly.
• “Does she know you’re back in town?” He shakes his head again. “So where do your parents live from here?” Adrian opens the back car door and gets out his iPad.
• “Toorak, Melbourne. About twelve hours south.” Adrian and Ben frown at each other.
• “But I thought we were here for three months so you can see your family?”
• “Yes we are, but they are in another state.”
• “Please don’t tell me we are in Sydney for this girl?” Joshua is still staring up to apartment 5B.
• “Maybe,” he answers. “To be truthful I have no idea what we are doing here, I feel unsettled already.”
• Ben raises his eyebrows. “Joshua Stanton unsettled by a woman, never thought I’d see the day.”
• “It’s… complicated.” He blows out a breath.
• Adrian’s mouth drops open. “But I thought you said.”
• “Yeah, I lied.”
• “So this girl… is her name… Natasha?”
• Joshua hangs his head and blows out a breath. “Yes,” he answers.
• “Hmm a part of the jigsaw puzzle fits into place,” Ben smiles. “So you do have a heart?”
• Joshua smirks. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
• Adrian lies on his back across the bonnet and blows out a breath, hands behind his head. “You know I think Rod Stewart was right on the money.” Joshua and Ben frown at each other and then him.
• “You know, the first cut is the deepest.” All three men smile.
• “That is true. You remember every minute detail. Come on, let’s go. Enough of this shit, she fucks with my head.”
• “Aren’t we going in?” Adrian asks.
• “No, I just wanted to see where she lives.”
• “Does she have a boyfriend, married, what’s her story?”
• “No, no nothing. Nothing I can dig up anyway.”
• “You’ve kept tabs on her?”
• “Yes, from a distance.”
• “When did you last speak to her?” After a silence of five minutes, Josh blows out a breath and replies.
• “Seven and a half years ago, the day she dumped me.” Adrian and Ben look at each other, the shock evident on their faces.
• “So you haven’t spoken a word to her since?”
• “Nope.”
• “You haven’t called?”
• “Nope.” They all look back to the window and the lights go off.
• Ben urges for a second time. “Just go in man.”
• “Even if I wanted to, the law forbids it.”
• “She had a restraining order put on you?” Adrian gasps.
• Joshua shakes his head. “No,” he answers quietly.
• “Her parents did?”
• Josh looks back up to the window. “Something like that. Get in the car, let’s go and don’t let me come back here. This is pointless.”
• “Ok. But are we not here because of her? Isn’t that defeating the purpose?”
• “Shut up dick,” Josh smiles at Adrian. “Stop making sense.” As the car speeds away Josh puts his head back into the seat and rubs his face.
• “I need a drink, a strong fucking drink.”
• 11.50 pm, Bondi
• Joshua leans over the railing of the balcony looking out to the ocean, sipping his Cointreau and ice out of a thick short crystal tumbler. The place Adrian has rented for him for the three months is swank, on the water. It is a little dated and well below the standard of his LA house.