Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
‘ I ’ve been trying to call you! ’ An exasperated Amber finally reaches me.
‘My phone battery died.’ I pull myself up from my slouched position on my seat. ‘And being so tired last night, I must have stupidly packed my charger in my case – or I’ve forgotten it.’
‘And? You could have bought a new one here and found somewhere to charge it.’
‘Oh… so I could have.’ I mentally kick myself for not thinking of that – a clear sign I’m still not in top form. ‘Anyway, that wouldn’t have changed anything. The flight went ages ago. How did you even get in here with an expired boarding pass? And Cat… you’re… here?’ I add tentatively, as if one false move will cause her to spontaneously combust.
‘Yes, I’m here. I got your message.’
‘That’s good.’ My gaze drops to the floor. ‘I… I know I’ve already said it but I’ll say it again. I’m so sorry, Cat. I really don’t know what came over me.’
‘Well, actually, you do. ’
I look up at her, taken aback by the gentleness of her tone.
‘You explained it all to me yesterday,’ she says. ‘I just wasn’t in a place to listen. It was only when I read that lovely message you sent that I finally snapped out of it. You really have had an unsettling and confusing few weeks, so it’s quite understandable that you lost perspective. You knew what you’d done, albeit a little late, and you had the guts to admit it and apologise. That had to count in your favour. As well as the fact that this is the first time we’ve ever fallen out.’ She pauses briefly. ‘Also, if I’d been straight with you in the first place, things might not have happened in the same way.’
‘No, Cat, you have no responsibility in this. It was—’
‘Hey, enough.’ She puts a finger to my lips. ‘You’ve already apologised many times over. You made a mistake, but I made one too. I also didn’t put myself in your situation, where it’s easy to act first and think later. With the rollercoaster you’ve been on, you probably don’t know whether you’re coming or going.’
‘You’re right, I don’t. It’s been… a lot.’
‘I know. So, it would be ridiculous to throw away our friendship, especially when it turned out that one of your close friends was doing exactly what you thought. It just wasn’t me. You may have acted out, but I can understand what drove you to that.’
‘Oh, Cat, thank you.’ I’m welling up again. ‘I’ll never, ever hurt you again. I promise.’
She smiles at me. ‘I know you won’t. You’ve learned your lesson and I’ve learned mine too. I should have told you about seeing Dave with Sara, although I obviously didn’t know it was her. And I shouldn’t have been so secretive about Mike. ’
‘Mike?’ It takes me a few seconds to twig. ‘Oh, right. Mike. That’s his name. Is it still going well?’
‘It is. We’re now officially exclusive.’
‘That’s amazing, Cat. I’m so pleased for you.’
‘Me too.’ Her cheeks turn crimson and we hug it out, me clinging on as tight as possible, fearful that she might change her mind at any moment.
‘All right, you two, break it up,’ Amber complains. ‘You’re making everyone uncomfortable.’
We look around the gate and see that there’s no one there.
‘OK, you’re making me uncomfortable.’ She gives an unapologetic shrug.
Laughing, we dive on her, pulling her into a group hug she’ll loathe being part of.
‘I’ll introduce you to Mike when we get back from our trip,’ Cat promises, as we separate and get up from our seats.
‘That would be great. Wait… what trip?’ I’m perplexed. ‘We’ve missed our flight. There’s no holiday to go on now.’
‘I’ll let Amber tell you the rest.’
‘Yeah. The story of how I saved the day.’ Amber puffs out her chest, looking immensely pleased with herself.
‘Right, well, this I’m dying to hear,’ I say to her. ‘Though can I go buy a charger and find somewhere to hook my phone up while we chat? I feel lost without it.’
‘I’ve got a portable one you can use.’ She digs in her carry-on luggage and hands it to me.
‘Thanks.’ I connect the power supply to my phone while she and Cat take a seat next to me. ‘So? Do share.’
‘OK…’ Amber makes it clear she’s going to enjoy every second of this. ‘As you know, my taxi got stuck in traffic. It turned out there had been an accident on the road—’
‘ I knew it. ’ I look triumphantly from Amber to Cat. ‘ Things like that do happen. That’s why I go to the airport so early. It’s completely—’
‘No. It’s not,’ Amber cuts me off before I can finish. ‘And that’s not why I didn’t make it in time. The taxi driver took a detour via Kings Knowe to avoid the worst of the traffic jam, but then the taxi had a tyre blow out on the bypass. Quite scary, even by my standards.’
‘ No way .’ My hand goes to my mouth.
‘Yeah-huh. We were stuck at the side of the road, traffic racing past, waiting for a recovery vehicle. The driver tried to get me another taxi but they wouldn’t pick me up from there. Said they weren’t covered on their liability insurance or some nonsense like that.’
‘Then what happened?’
‘Well, luckily Cat called me and admitted she’d been an idiot. She wished she’d come with me, but knew there was no way she’d make it on time. She’d tried to call you but got your voicemail, so I told her to get packed and come and get me.’
‘ What? Why? If you knew you weren’t going to make it.’ I’m utterly riveted by this story.
‘That’s the good bit.’ Amber continues her peacocking. ‘While I was waiting for Cat, I called your sexy friend, James, at the travel agency, and for a small fee he managed to switch us onto another flight.’
‘ You. Are. Kidding. ’
‘I’m not. You need to go to the airline’s customer service desk to pick up a physical boarding pass – something to do with the change. And we’ll have a slightly longer journey through a different connecting airport, but it means we’ll still have our holiday.’
‘ Wow. ’ I’m absolutely blown away. ‘You’re both amazing.’
‘That’s right.’ Amber’s grinning from ear to ear .
‘She did a fabulous job,’ says Cat. ‘It was all Amber really.’
‘Well, no, you also decided to come,’ I say. ‘That’s massive. Oh, I’m so happy right now! You know, when the flight was about to close, I did actually consider going on my own.’
Amber snorts. ‘I don’t believe for a second you would have got on that plane alone. You’d have lost it completely. Also, with a dead phone, how would they have scanned your boarding pass?’
‘Oh, yeah.’ I face palm. ‘So, how much do I owe you for the flight change?’
‘Forget that,’ says Amber. ‘It wasn’t a lot and it’s sorted.’
I try to protest but she shuts me down, so I let it go – for now.
‘I honestly can’t thank you enough.’ I beam at my two best friends. ‘I have to tell Lottie you’re coming, Cat.’
‘Of course, how’s she doing?’ she asks. ‘I’m so sorry to hear about her accident.’
I bob my head. ‘She’s OK, thankfully. A few injuries that should heal in time, and all being well, she’ll be home in a couple of days.’
‘That’s a relief. Amber said you’ve been feeling guilty about leaving her. I get why, but you shouldn’t. She wants you to go, and it sounds like she’s being well looked after.’
‘Yeah, Lottie’s neighbours are great. Really lovely. I’m much more comfortable knowing that they’re keeping an eye on her. Eva was going to get her iPad so I can keep in touch with her, so I’ll try her now.’
I switch on my charging phone and dial Lottie through FaceTime.
‘ Hi! ’ I squeal excitedly as her face appears on the screen. ‘How are you?’
‘Hello, my love.’ She smiles at me, and I’m pleased that she looks a lot better than yesterday. ‘I’m doing fine. Being well looked after. Is that you at the airport?’
‘Yup, and guess who’s here?’ I aim the camera at Cat and Amber, who wave and call hello.
‘You’re all going together. That’s wonderful news. I hope you have a fantastic time.’
‘We will. We’re doing it for you, so we’re going to do it properly. Ten days of nothing but relaxation, fun and new experiences,’ I say, as Amber points to the time on her own phone to hurry me along. ‘Anyway, it was just a quick call, we need to go. I’ll be in touch.’
‘I look forward to it,’ says Lottie. ‘Safe journey, all of you.’
‘Bye.’ I blow her kisses until the image freezes and the call disconnects.