She caught sight of the total on the handheld card-reader as Daniel typed in his PIN and her eyes widened. Eighty euros for two sun loungers! And you didn’t even get a towel. They’d both brought their own: Daniel knew the drill, and she had already packed one out of habit from childhood visits to Brighton, sitting on the cold stones, shivering, after braving the rough grey waves.
Here, the sea was a clear aquamarine, and the waves made a little flop sound as they collapsed, seemingly exhausted, onto the beach. Cherry lay down on the lounger next to Daniel, the umbrella casting a welcome shade over her, for it was already hot. She looked up and saw her umbrella was made up of circular orange and white stripes, striking against the clear blue sky. They continued across their section of the beach, a pattern of orange and white circles, like humbugs. Out to sea were the yachts, gleaming white and bobbing gently on the water. Some were ostentatious, some merely grand.
‘Hey, there’s Brigitte,’ said Daniel, and Cherry’s heart sank. She looked up to see a group of people stepping out of a motorboat that had just beached itself on the sand. They bounded up to them, sand stuck to their wet legs, and Cherry saw that along with Brigitte had come Nicole and one other girl, plus two guys, all young, tanned and beautiful, and all in swimwear. They arrived and flung themselves down on the sand, sitting with arms outstretched behind them. One of the guys casually lifted his hand to summon a waiter for some drinks.
Introductions were made, and Cherry was pleased to see that Nicole refused to meet her eye and sat a distance away from both her and Daniel. The other girl was also French, a friend of Nicole’s. The two guys were boyfriends, but she couldn’t quite make out of whom and had to rely on who was rubbing on whose suntan lotion or playfully caressing whose hair, although none of this was a guarantee of attachment.
They spoke about trivial things – parties, each other – and they teased one another, throwing up sand onto the girls’ flat stomachs. As Cherry listened, it was revealed that they were spending the day on Nicole’s father’s yacht, although Cherry couldn’t work out which of the luxurious floating white islands out there was his. She briefly wondered if this was what these people did most summers and almost immediately knew the answer, and also that she was probably only glimpsing the tip of their privileged iceberg. She noticed that Daniel, although polite, seemed content just to lie back and listen idly. After a while, the drinks were finished and Nicole stood and asked if they wanted to go onto the yacht.
Cherry stiffened: she most definitely did not. While they were around, she felt she had to keep up some sort of required ebullience, or at the very least alertness, and smile and nod at the right places in the conversation when all she wanted to do was read her book. Except, if Daniel were going, then she would too. She waited for him to answer and was pleased when he politely said he’d maybe join them later.
‘You OK?’ Daniel asked casually after they’d left, as if knowing she’d felt a little out of her depth.
‘Fine.’
‘Peaceful, isn’t it?’
She giggled. ‘Yes.’
‘Book time?’
‘You took the words right out of my mouth.’
And so they both settled back on their loungers, he with some cycling book and she with an old Persephone classic. Before she opened it, she looked up at the sky. She liked its vastness, and the way if she followed it to the horizon, she could see the curve of the earth. It made her feel like she had a place in the world, as if she could get perspective on all that was around her. She drank this in for a moment, gaining strength and peace from the steady expanse of blue, then started to read. Before long, her eyes started to droop heavily.
She woke with the sensation of someone stroking her calf. Lifting her head, she peered down to see Daniel gently applying some suntan lotion.
‘I moved the umbrella’ – he pointed – ‘but your leg was still getting the full glare of the sun.’
‘What time is it?’ she asked groggily.
‘One.’
‘Already?’ She’d been asleep nearly an hour and the sun had moved higher in the sky and was hotter than ever. She watched, smiling, as he carefully continued to apply lotion, his hand moving higher up her leg. He stopped at the top of her thigh, humming, pretending not to notice where his hands were. He hesitated a moment, his finger stroking the top of her leg, and then grinned teasingly.
‘All done.’
‘Thanks.’
‘You’re welcome. Fancy a swim before lunch?’
They went hand in hand down to the sea, and when they reached the water, she scrunched her toes up in anticipation of the chill, but it was deliciously warm. She waded in, Daniel diving into the wave in front of her, and then he stood and splashed, and she squealed. She took her revenge by scooping a cascade of water into his face and the war was on. She realized she was falling for him. Yes, she loved his life and she wanted it for herself, but she was also enjoying his company. She’d picked a man who was fun, decent too.
After lunch, they swam again and then returned to their sun loungers. Cherry was careful to back up her earlier claim and diligently pulled out some work books. He felt he ought to do some too and the two of them spent a couple of hours studying, looking up at each other and baffling one another with excerpts from their texts. When it got cooler, Cherry said she was hungry and they wandered along the harbour front looking for somewhere to eat. Daniel texted Laura to say they’d decided to stay in St Tropez for dinner and they ordered line-caught sole meunière and a bottle of Sémillon. It was from the Minuty estate, noticed Cherry, as the waiter poured her a glass. Funny to think if things had gone differently, she would have been there today. She wondered if Laura would be annoyed that they hadn’t spent the day with her.
It was late evening when they got back to the house, just as Laura was about to leave.
‘Oh, you’re back,’ she said. ‘I waited a while . . . Have you had a good day?’
Daniel dumped the beach bag on the worktop. ‘Great, thanks, Mum. You?’
‘Quiet. Relaxing,’ Laura quickly corrected.
‘Where are you going?’
‘Vincent’s. I booked a table.’
Daniel looked surprised. ‘On your own?’
‘Er . . . well, I did book it for three. But it’s no problem,’
she smiled. ‘I’ve let him know it’s just me now.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ He looked contrite. ‘We should have come back.’
‘Honestly, it’s fine.’
Cherry thought she ought to add her apologies at this point. ‘Sorry, Laura. If we’d known . . .’
She thought she saw a flicker of irritation cross Laura’s face before: ‘Not to worry.’
‘It was thoughtless.’ Daniel moved over to the fridge, opened it and peered inside. ‘Tell you what – I’ll cook you something.’
‘No, honestly.’ Laura stood. ‘Vincent’s expecting me. He wanted to catch up with the family news.’
‘You sure?’
‘Of course.’