Morning is broken. And we fear that Lucas’s little heart is about to go the same way, especially when he calls by Naomi’s van first thing and tries to knock her up. His dad, you see, had a good crack at doing the same thing the night before and is still lounging betwixt her sheets. Although Naomi manages to get rid of Luc before he realises that anything is amiss, Ric later spots Tony doing the walk of shame.Tone gets home to find Mandy on his doorstep; she’s there to offer him first refusal of the gym now that the business is on the market.Naturally, he’s in no state to be contemplating such purchases and turns it down flat. Kit, though, overhears their discussion and comes up with a cunning plan. Meanwhile, Tony spends the rest of his day racked with guilt for sleeping around behind Beth’s corpse. Well, as Kit said, they’re all trying to deal with her death the best way they can. Ahem.

Book lovers

A nation sighs collectively as Lucas tips up on Naomi’s doorstep again.

“I got you a special present”, he smiles, as he holds out a copy of Naomi’s all-time favourite book. (It’s Riders by Jilly Cooper.)

Naomi’s response isn’t so much cold as Himalayan.

“I’ve tried to be as nice as I can about this”, she howls, as icicles form on Lucas’s eyebrows. “But I can’t afford to have you coming over here and blowing my reputation and my career.”

After all, her new boss lives just around the corner - and she doesn’t want to have to explain to him why students are coming and going from her caravan at all hours of the day and night.

A moping Lucas later relates his woes to his father. “I think it’s the real deal”, he says, as love birds in the trees outside stick their feathers down their throats.

“I’ve never felt this way before.” A horrified Tone is on Naomi’s doorstep before you can say “and Jack makes three”, giving her a rollicking for hopping into bed with him when she’s been doing the nasty with his very own son.

He ends up feeling even worse when Ric tells him that he knows about his dangerous liaison - and is rewarded for his actions with the news that the girls have bought the gym for him.

Blonde moment

Belle, who is throwing a surprise farewell do for her mother, is pleased on several levels when Drew offers to lend a hand.

After all, there’s so much to organise... glass hire, party eggs, banner that says “Good Riddance”.

And she might as well have something nice to look at while she cracks on with it.

Naturally, Colleen lets the cat out of the bag before it’s even had its tail zipped in.

Amanda initially refuses to attend, but a word in her shell-like from the ever-persuasive Irene changes her mind.

For some reason, it’s left to Colleen - who is dressed like a sea anemone - to make the speech.

“All the terrible things she’s done, and all the lying”, she begins, as Alf barks abuse in her direction.

“Well, that’s all behind her now. And she’s shown herself to be a generous and loving mother and friend.”

Well, compared to Kelli, we guess she looks pretty much like a designer-sandaled Mother Teresa.

Anyway, it’s not long before Mandy is propping up the bar in a swank city hotel - and Peter, who has been doing some mulling, is hot on her heels.

“I can’t live without you Amanda”, he says, when he appears by her side in a puff of smoke. “I mean it.” Well, it’s your funeral mate.


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