There was something sticking out of the back of the book. It must have slipped when she was looking through it. She could see it was Cherry’s flight ticket and she was just tucking it back in when she frowned.
Open return. Laura pulled the ticket from the book. The flight out was for the previous Friday to Nice. Five hundred pounds. There was no return flight booked.
Why would Cherry have only booked one portion of the flight? She’d always known she was originally going home today. Laura scanned the printout looking for something to explain . . . what?
A bird flew close past the window and its abrupt movement startled her. She suddenly felt uncomfortable in the room and quickly put back the ticket. She hurried out and carefully pulled the door closed to the same degree as before.
Out at the pool, she lay on the sun lounger but couldn’t settle. It was a grubby thing, going through someone’s belongings, and Laura was unnerved not just by how she’d done it but how quickly and easily she’d rooted around, picking things up, snooping through Cherry’s possessions, her private papers. She was embarrassed, ashamed. And yet there was something about that ticket that she couldn’t shake, something that made her uneasy.
Maybe the water would cleanse her, clear her head. She waded in and set herself a task of a hundred lengths. Six, seven decent strokes and she’d reach the end. Break her focus. Why hadn’t Cherry booked a flight home again?
When Daniel and Cherry came back later that afternoon, she was in the kitchen preparing the dinner. Cherry went to change and Laura waited until she was safely upstairs and she heard the shower start to run. She started to wash the salad leaves she’d picked from the garden. Daniel was sitting at the large table, enjoying a glass of wine with her. It was the kind of moment she usually loved, just the two of them doing nothing much, and she realized they hadn’t done this since he’d come back from university.
‘You’re so meticulous,’ he said, amused, as she held each leaf individually under the tap, inspecting them thoroughly as the water trickled over.
‘You’d be amazed where they hide. Look! See, I nearly missed that one.’
‘Would it really be so bad if you ate a few?’
‘Don’t be disgusting.’
He laughed and watched as she shook the leaves dry and put them in a bowl. Then she started chopping some cherry tomatoes.
‘They from the garden as well?’
‘A couple of early ones.’ She threw one at him and he darted his hand out but missed. He picked it up off the floor and, after a quick inspection, chucked it in his mouth.
‘Yuck!’
Daniel grinned. ‘Tastes just fine.’
She’d have to bring up the subject soon or Cherry would be back. ‘So, it’s nice Cherry can stay a bit longer.’
‘Uh-huh. You got any more of those tomatoes?’
She threw him another. ‘Lucky her, eh? Did her boss call or something? Just to see if she wanted to spend longer on holiday?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
‘Bit weird, though – having your boss call you when you’re away just to see if you want to extend your trip.’ She smiled.
‘Yeah . . . Actually, now I remember. I think she rang in to see if they needed her to do any early morning viewings on her first day back and it just came up. They’re quiet at the moment apparently and her boss is keen for Cherry to use up some of her time.’
‘But originally . . . she was going home today? That was the plan?’
‘Yeah . . . Why do you ask?’
‘No reason.’
‘Come on, there must be a reason.’
Laura tried to laugh it off. ‘I was just wondering . . . that was what we’d agreed on.’
‘Yeah . . . Course it was.’
She smiled casually, but her silence said something else.
It suddenly occurred to him: ‘Do you think Cherry had a different day in mind?’
‘Did she?’
He was getting irritated now. ‘No! Look, we discussed the dates with you. She booked the flight and I sent over the six hundred quid.’
It took all her effort to keep a pleasant expression, to remain calm. Six hundred pounds?
‘You paid?’ she said lightly.
‘Yes. A trainee estate agent doesn’t earn that much.’
She heard the warning in his voice and smiled genially. ‘I can imagine.’
Anyone passing Cherry’s bedroom at that moment might have been disconcerted by how still she was, so still, eyes fixed ahead with great intensity. If that person had come into the room, they would have seen she was staring at the dresser, or more accurately the book on the dresser, and that person would have wondered what about it could hold someone’s penetrating stare.
Cherry repositioned it so the spine was parallel to the edge of the dresser. She knew it had been picked up, looked at, the document hidden at the back taken out. And that document’s information was probably fermenting like some sort of multiplying bacteria right now in Laura’s brain. She was livid but knew better than to confront her. No, there would be another way to deal with this. For now, she would keep it to herself.
FOURTEEN
Monday 30 June
Cherry showed no sign of leaving. The days drifted by, lazy, plentiful and filled with sunshine, and Laura kept waiting for her to say when her holiday was used up or talk about when she had to go back to work, but she never mentioned it. Suggestions for day trips that they could all do together completely dried up: Laura didn’t quite feel the enthusiasm she had before. They fell into a pattern: at breakfast, she would wonder what they had planned for the day and if they were going to the beach. She now felt a sense of relief if they did, as she wouldn’t have to continue to make polite conversation. Instead, she would lie by the pool, peaceful but lonely, and she found herself starting to resent Cherry’s presence. This was her holiday too and she hadn’t counted on having her son’s girlfriend present the entire time. She wanted some time with Daniel too, just the two of them.
She broached the subject once more with him, a week after Cherry was meant to have gone home. To his credit, he was apologetic and offered straight away to find a hotel they could stay in instead. But then Laura realized she wouldn’t see him at all, and on the spur of the moment, she dissuaded him.