Life's A Beach, page 23
‘Cheers, sis,’ he replies.
‘OK, that’s too soon, or too weird,’ I say with a laugh. ‘Probably just don’t do it.’
‘Got it,’ he replies. ‘Catch you in a bit.’
When I reach the bar, I order my drink and then turn around to look back at the dance floor. Di is having the time of her life. It makes me so happy to see my baby sister so happy. As crappy as I feel about my own romantic situation, it’s hard to care when I’m basking in Di’s happiness.
I notice Alex stand up from his seat and make a beeline for the top table. He’s heading for Charles!
I get over there as fast as my heels will allow. By the time I’m there, Alex is giving Charles a handshake and a pat on the back.
‘I just thought you should know—’ Alex starts. I don’t let him finish.
‘Alex, can I borrow you?’ I interrupt.
‘Erm, yeah,’ he replies. ‘What, now?’
‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘Just for a few minutes.’
‘Looks like you’re wanted, mate. Catch up with you later,’ Charles tells him.
‘This way,’ I say, leading Alex over to the railings, next to the big drop down to the water below, where I’m having most of my important conversations, apparently. Perhaps I just like the idea of an exit route. ‘Listen, you need to leave.’
‘What? Why?’ Alex frowns.
‘She doesn’t love you,’ I tell him, cutting to the chase. Yes, I know that I promised Di I wouldn’t say anything, but this is damage limitation. If I don’t stop him, he’s going to do something, so I’ll take my chances trying to get through to him, even if tough love is the only card I have to play.
‘Yes, she does,’ he replies. ‘She told me she did. Well, she told me she could – she said we could get there, one day. Anyway, how do you know? We said we were keeping it under wraps.’
‘She told you she could love you one day?’ I reply in disbelief.
‘Yes. Like, eventually. If we took some time to date, get to know each other again, see where things went…’
‘I find that really hard to believe,’ I tell him. ‘It’s her wedding day. You need to get a grip. Would she really marry someone else if she did-slash-could love you?’
‘Wait, are you talking about Di?’ he says.
‘Obviously,’ I reply.
‘Oh.’ He thinks for a second. ‘Ohhh.’
‘Oh what?’
‘Yeah, I’m not talking about Di. I’m sort of seeing someone else,’ he confesses. ‘But don’t tell anyone.’
Does he really think I’m going to fall for that?
‘Did you tell her about Canada?’ I ask him.
‘Peach, how many have you had?’ he chuckles.
‘Come on, you must have,’ I say. ‘It makes so much sense. Matt and I were talking about it in the bathroom that joins onto your bedroom, on the night of the party – you overheard us.’
Alex sighs.
‘Are you really going to make me do this? Fine, OK, here it is,’ he rambles, annoyed that I’ve backed him into a corner. ‘I was with Vanessa that night, OK? She made me promise not to tell anyone until we knew where it was going, in case we upset anyone. I was with her that night, in one of the other rooms, because she said you were already in the room you share.’
‘You and Vanessa?’ I reply in disbelief.
‘Yes,’ he replies. ‘Is that so hard to believe?’
It’s like he’s reading my mind.
‘It’s been a matter of days,’ I point out.
‘We’ve been getting together, any chance we can. And we have known each other for years,’ he insists. ‘Sure, it’s early days, but we’re just seeing what happens. She went a bit funny with me, for a bit. All that stuff she did at the party – totally to make me jealous, and it worked! The passion between us that night, oh my God.’
Alex’s eyes roll into the back of his head.
‘Let me stop you there,’ I say quickly – I really don’t need to hear that part. ‘So, you’re not interested in Di, and you weren’t in your own room that night? You really did just come along for the free holiday?’
‘No!’ he replies firmly. ‘And yes to the free holiday – who turns down a free holiday?’
No one, apparently. Still, things just aren’t adding up. Di said her ex was hassling her. Begging her to get back with him. That he knew about the pregnancy scare. Why would she lie about all that?
And if it wasn’t Matt who told Di about Canada, and it wasn’t Alex, then who could it have been? I glance around the restaurant, looking for someone who could have something to gain by telling Di that Charles had been married before.
‘You know, I think we were in Chris’s room,’ Alex says. ‘So maybe he crashed in my room?’
As soon as Alex mentions Chris’s name, I spot him, sitting at his table, slumped back in his chair. He’s drinking whisky, and he’s knocking it back. He’s also glaring angrily and, when I follow his gaze, I can see what he’s looking at: Di and Charles cuddled up on the dance floor, dancing to a beautiful, slowed-down, stripped-back cover of ‘Toxic’ by Britney Spears.
Suddenly everything clicks into place and it feels like the cave is closing in on me. Every part of the puzzle fits together perfectly and suddenly so, so much makes sense, but there’s so much I can’t get my head around too. Di and Chris?! My sister and my ex?!
‘Sorry for accusing you,’ I tell him quickly, trying to pretend everything is fine. ‘I just got my wires crossed. I’ll have a word with Van for you, if you like? I’ll tell her to be normal.’
‘Cheers,’ he replies with a laugh. ‘I do kind of like her weird though.’
‘We all do,’ I say. ‘Sorry again.’
‘That’s OK,’ he says. ‘I was just about to tell Charles how happy I was for the pair of them. I’ll have to wait until he tears himself away from his bride now.’
‘Looking at them now, I reckon that will be after the honeymoon,’ I joke, but suddenly it gets really hard to pretend I haven’t just figured out exactly what’s been going on. ‘Hey, can you ask Chris if I can have a word with him, please?’
‘Yeah, sure,’ Alex replies. ‘See you in a bit.’
I watch him wander over to Chris. He speaks into his ear before pointing me out. Chris throws back the last of his drink before heading over, as instructed, but the path he’s taking is hardly a straight one. I feel motion sick just watching him.
‘I don’t want you back,’ he tells me, making himself clear from the get-go.
‘I know you don’t,’ I reply. ‘You want Di. My sister.’
I can hardly say the words. I can’t believe it.
‘Yeah, yeah, all right,’ he moans. ‘Don’t you start too. “Oh, she’s my sister, we shouldn’t have done it.” Blah, blah, blah. She told you then?’
‘She didn’t need to,’ I reply, swallowing down the lump in my throat. ‘You overheard me and Matt talking about what Charles did in Canada?’
‘Yeah,’ he replies.
Wow. So Di must have lied about it being Matt who told her because she didn’t want us connecting her to Chris.
‘And you figured out I’d bought a pregnancy test, and that it was for Di,’ I continue.
‘You weren’t very subtle about it,’ he points out with a snort.
‘So, what, the two of you slept together before she went on holiday?’
‘Ding, ding, ding,’ he replies kind of cruelly. ‘Give this girl a medal.’
‘How long were you together?’ I ask.
‘Well, just one night,’ he replies. ‘But it was a great night, and we left it at, saying when she got back from her holiday, she would call me. But she never called – and then Charles eventually called and I wound up here, and then it all felt like fate and I knew I needed to chase her.’
‘Charles only invited you here to mess with me, you moron,’ I tell him. ‘And it’s been far more effective than he could have anticipated.’
‘When I realised Di thought she was pregnant—’
‘Well, she isn’t,’ I inform him.
‘Yeah, I figured that out when I saw her knocking back the drinks,’ he replies.
Chris dials the bravado down a notch. I swear, it’s almost as though he seems disappointed.
God, what a mess. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this week, it’s that the women in my family need to meet some new men, rather than simply sharing out the few we’ve got on the books already.
‘Chris, what do you think is going to happen?’ I ask him softly.
‘I thought I could convince her to give things a shot with me,’ he says confidently.
‘And how’s that working out for you?’ I reply. ‘Because, from where I’m standing, it looks like Di just married someone else, right in front of you.’
‘I know,’ he replies.
‘Whatever you think you have with her – she doesn’t feel the same. She just got married and look how happy she is. She isn’t thinking about you. You just need to quit while you’re ahead, and while no one knows.’
‘What if I love her?’ he says. ‘What if I’ve always loved her?’
God, that hurts. That really, really hurts. You can be totally over someone, with no intentions of getting back together with them and feel absolutely at peace, but you only do that by isolating when things were good from when things went bad. But thinking back to when we were together and wondering if Chris was pining for my sister the whole time… Wondering if my sister was pining for him… Thinking about the two of them getting together and keeping it from me…
‘If you do actually love her, you’ll leave her alone,’ I tell him. ‘She’s married, she’s happy, she’s not even thinking about you.’
‘So, what do you suggest I do now, huh?’ he asks.
‘Go home,’ I tell him. ‘There’s nothing you can do. Embarrassing her at her wedding won’t make her love you – it will make her hate you. So please, just go home.’
Chris massages his temples. He must know I’m right.
‘OK, fine, I’ll leave,’ he says. ‘I know when I’ve lost.’
He’s a few days behind schedule on that one but I’ll let him have it. I just need him out of here. I can’t even stand looking at him.
‘I think staying here is just going to upset you,’ I say. ‘So maybe pack up and leave before people get back to the villa.’
‘Fine,’ he says. ‘Fine, I’ll go.’
‘Thank you,’ I tell him, but he doesn’t reply. He just walks off.
That’s Chris dealt with, now to deal with Di. I make my way over to her, onto the dance floor, and the second she sees me she takes me by the hands and starts dancing with me.
‘Peach, it’s P!nk,’ she says excitedly as the band covers ‘Who Knew’. ‘We love this one! And Van requested ‘Hotline Bling’. She’s going to tell dad when it’s on, so Charles can see his moves.’
‘I’m legitimately so excited,’ Charles tells me.
Their happiness is overwhelmingly contagious. It’s hard not to feel something wonderful just by standing so close to them.
‘Can I just borrow you for a minute, Di?’ I say.
‘Erm, yeah,’ she replies. ‘Is everything OK?’
I stop as we get to the edge of the dance floor.
‘Just to let you know… Alex isn’t going to be a problem,’ I tell her. ‘It seems like he’s moved on to someone else.’
‘Oh, OK,’ she says.
She doesn’t seem all that relieved, but of course she doesn’t. She was never worried about Alex.
‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ she asks. ‘You don’t seem yourself.’
‘I’m fine,’ I tell her. ‘Just… you know. It’s an emotional day.’
‘You’re so sweet,’ she replies. ‘Thank you so, so much for making this wedding happen. I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever been happier.’
‘You’re welcome,’ I reply.
Di grabs me and squeezes me tightly. I squeeze her back.
‘Oh, by the way, Chris just came to say goodbye to me,’ I add as she releases me. ‘He said he had to fly back home tonight – I don’t know if he had some kind of family emergency. I didn’t want to pry. Anyway, he said to say sorry to you and Charles, but he had to go.’
‘OK,’ she says brightly. ‘Never mind, hey? Coming to dance?’
‘Go have fun,’ I tell her. ‘I’ll be there in a bit.’
It’s like I said earlier, sometimes you have to keep things a secret to protect people.
Di is my baby sister, I’d do anything for her, and this whole week has been about making sure today was her perfect wedding day. I love her and I’ll always have her back, and if that means pretending I didn’t find out about her one-night stand with my ex-boyfriend, then so be it. We’ve all made mistakes – we certainly all have at this wedding – and based on what Di said before when I thought we were talking about Alex instead of Chris, it’s clear she thinks it was a huge mistake, so what’s the point in calling her out about it? What would kicking off at her wedding achieve? At the end of the day, I will forgive her – I’m pretty sure I already have – and after everything I’ve been through to make sure this wedding goes ahead, I’m not about to be the person who ruins it.
I can’t stay here though. I need to leave. I can’t put on a brave face and pretend none of this happened. I need time, and space, to get past it, for everyone’s sake.
I’m not exactly sure how I can leave in a hurry though, because we had to organise boats to get us here, but I’ll find a way. The mood I’m in right now, I’d rather take my chances at swimming than stay here trying to keep this brave face on for another second…
36
I’m sitting on the boat dock, alone, far beneath the cave where the wedding party is still going strong. I can see the glow of the lights, I can hear the music and the happy guests. But down here, it’s just me, with my fancy shoes on the floor next to me and my feet in the water below. It feels so lovely and cool, but otherwise I’m feeling pretty crappy.
Before I came down here, I put in a request for a boat, but they couldn’t tell me how long it would take to get back and pick me up (I suppose I just missed the one Chris took, but I wouldn’t have wanted to sit with him anyway), so here I am, thinking about things.
‘Fancy some company?’ I hear Van’s voice call out.
She’s making her way down the last few steps, carefully, with her shoes in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other.
‘Sit next to me at your own risk,’ I call back. ‘I know about Alex.’
‘Oh,’ is all she says. She doesn’t retreat though. She plonks herself down next to me.
‘Have a drink,’ she says, passing me the bottle.
I take a swig.
‘Did he tell you?’ she asks softly.
‘Nah, I figured it out,’ I reply.
‘Do you think Di will be upset?’ she asks.
‘No,’ I reply confidently.
Well, she seems too loved-up, and with the Chris stuff being so fresh in her mind, I can’t imagine her giving Van a speech about girl code anytime soon.
‘I do quite like him,’ she admits. ‘I don’t know why. I’m a bit embarrassed, to be honest, because I don’t tend to like people.’
‘I’m sure we could come up with a few million reasons between us,’ I joke.
‘Funny you should say that… Turns out he gave most of his money to charity!’ she says in hushed tones, like it’s something sordid. ‘I have more money than him so, no, not that. I still like him anyway.’
‘Well, I think it’s great,’ I tell her. ‘I’m really happy for you, even if you’re not.’
‘What’s going on with you?’ she asks. ‘You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.’
‘I’m fine,’ I tell her. ‘Just ready to go home.’
My voice crackles on those last few words.
‘As much as I’m sure you’re enjoying living with your folks, I was wondering if you might be interested in sharing a place with me, when I move back to York?’ she asks kind of casually. ‘I don’t fancy living on my own.’
‘What, really?’ I reply.
‘Yeah, it will be great, like one of our old sleepovers, but much longer and with fewer Matthew McConaughey movies.’
I shoot her a look.
‘I said less, not none, and only the ones before he became a serious actor,’ she insists.
‘Sounds perfect,’ I tell her. ‘Thank you.’
‘We’ll set the wheels in motion after the holiday,’ she says. ‘You know, I probably won’t tell Di about Alex until after her honeymoon, at least.’
‘Great idea,’ I tell her. ‘I think the rest of today just needs to tick along as smoothly as possible.’
‘With that in mind, I have something for you,’ she says, passing me the bottle again. ‘Hang on to that, I’ll go get it.’
‘Erm, OK,’ I say with a cautious chuckle.
‘You just wait there,’ she says as she disappears back up the steps.
I feel lighter, for knowing that Van is moving back to York, and better still now that she’s invited me to move in with her. Well, I would have gone mad living with my parents for too long, and seeing as though I’m about to have a Di-shaped hole in my life, it will be so nice to have a friend – especially a friend like Vanessa.
I don’t have to sit on my own for much longer before I hear Van approaching me again.
‘Go on then, what have you got?’ I ask.
‘Er, I haven’t got anything,’ I hear Matt say.
‘Oh, sorry, Van said she was… Did Van send you?’
‘She told me you wanted to talk to me,’ he says.
Ah, so that’s what she had for me. I can’t help but laugh quietly to myself.
‘Yeah, I just wanted to talk,’ I say, owning it.
‘Were you leaving?’ he asks as he takes a seat next to me.
‘Yeah, I was just waiting for the next boat,’ I reply.
‘What? You can’t leave yet,’ he insists. ‘The night is young, the party has hardly started – and Di will miss you.’
I shrug.
‘I’ll miss you,’ he adds.
‘Listen, I’m sorry I thought it was you who told Di about Canada. Someone I love and trust very much said that you told them, but they were lying, because they thought it was the best thing for everyone.’
