bag. ‘Knock yourself out.’
They sat in silence for a while on the floor of the cupboard, passing the chocolate back and forth.
‘What time is it?’ Gina asked.
‘About half nine,’ Ashley answered.
‘God, I was supposed to go on a date tonight!’ Gina remembered.
‘You were?’ Ashley asked.
‘Yeah. Eight o’clock at a bar in town. She’ll have gone home now.’
‘All she has to do is put on the TV, she’ll know why you’re late,’ Ashley told her. ‘Your picture’s probably all over the news by now.’
‘That’s a good point. She won’t be able to hold it against me, will she?’
‘No, she won’t,’ Ashley assured her. ‘She’s bound to give you another shot, and then if it all goes well, it’s a great story for the grandkids. How grandma one and grandma two missed their first date because grandma one got caught up in the robbery of a bloody pizza restaurant. It’s gold.’
Gina chuckled. ‘Yeah. I don’t think I’m gonna reschedule, though. I’m just gonna take the out.’
‘Oh?’
‘It was a blind date thing. I wasn’t that up for it, anyway.’
‘Why’d you say yes, then?’ Ashley asked, baffled.
‘I don’t like to make a fuss. Sometimes it’s just easier to go along with things than to say no.’
Ashley chuckled. ‘We are very different people.’
‘You’d have never said yes in the first place, right?’ Gina asked.
‘Nobody sets me up on blind dates anymore, actually,’ Ashley admitted.
‘Oh?’ Gina said.
‘You gonna pretend you don’t know precisely why?’ Ashley asked with a dry smile.
Gina shook her head. ‘I don’t.’
Ashley cocked her head. ‘Oh, really? After you called me an arsehole the last time we were in here?’
‘In my defence, you were sort of being one,’ Gina pointed out.
‘Of course I was,’ Ashley shrugged, accepting the criticism easily.
‘But so was I. Because I judged your family,’ Gina pointed out. ‘We were both arseholes for a minute. But that’s not all of us, is it? It’s not all of you.’
Ashley shook her head. ‘I don’t know. I’ve gotten comfortable with the title. Fits me pretty nicely now.’
‘Arseholes don’t risk their own lives to save others,’ Gina pointed out.
‘I didn’t really give that any thought. I just acted. Nothing to do with being a good person,’ Ashley argued.
‘I think it’s got everything to do with being a good person,’ Gina said philosophically, putting more chocolate in her mouth and swallowing quickly. ‘It was your instinct to help. You didn’t think about whether you’d look heroic, or if anyone was watching. You just did it.’
Ashley didn’t feel comfortable with this praise. Why was Gina doing it? There was no point propping her up anymore. She was out of the game, out of the circle of Rick’s trust. It was just them in a cupboard. Why was Gina saying all these nice things? An answer to that question popped quickly into her mind. Not a very nice one, either. ‘Oh shit, you think we’re going to die, don’t you?’ Ashley said in horror.
‘What?’ Gina said, spinning to look at Ashley.
‘You’re being nice to me because it’s the end.’
Gina laughed. ‘You know what, you might not be a total arsehole, but you’re definitely a complete headcase. You think I just said you were a good person because I thought it was the last thing I was ever going to say? Jesus. You really have been in the rough end of social interaction for a while now, haven’t you?’
Ashley sighed, too tired to deny it. ‘You’re right. I’m screwed up. And I never got to find out if there was a point to me being like I am; if it was going to take me anywhere because Rick’s gonna come in here sometime soon and shoot me. And that will be it, the story of me. Ashley Quick, a nothing-special reporter, talked her way into a hostage situation in the name of ambition and got a bullet in the head for her trouble. What a fucking great Wikipedia entry that’ll make.’ Ashley stopped ranting when she discovered a tear on her face. She wiped it quickly. But Gina had spotted it. She leaned a bit closer to Ashley. Not hugging her exactly. Just applying a little pressure with her arm. Contact. It had been a while since anyone had touched Ashley affectionately. It was nice. Ashley pressed back against Gina’s arm, just a little, as she wiped a second tear, feeling like she was pulling herself back together from her mini-meltdown.
They sat there like that for a few minutes, silently touching arms. Eventually, Gina said, ‘Hey, you