Chapter 13
AMBER
There’s no sign of Dom when I wake the next morning.
Just a rumpled pillow and the faintest trace of his aftershave in the air.
I yawn and stretch, enjoying the feel of the sheet against my bare skin, my mind still hazy in its post-coital glow.
Sex with Dom is always great but last night it was off the scale.
The kind of sex you read about in the steamy romance novels Nessa loves. Intense. Erotic. Passionate.
Thinking of Nessa prompts me to reach for my phone. I want to tell her about Dominic and Simone. I want to know if she thinks I overreacted last night and ask what she would’ve done in my shoes. I tap out a text.
Hey, Ness. Got time for a chat?
The three dots take just a few seconds to appear.
Not right now, honey. I’m at work and you know what Rob’s like. He’ll give me the heave-ho if he so much as sees me near my phone.
My stomach swoops at the mention of Rob’s name.
No worries. Maybe we can talk tonight?
Course. I’ll call you later, yeah? Love you xx
I smile. Nessa isn’t just my best friend, she’s the closest thing to family I have.
I tell her I love her too, and haul myself out of bed and into the shower.
Twenty minutes later, I’m standing in front of the full-length mirror wondering if the vibrant maxi dress I bought in John Lewis makes me look stylish or like a ship in full sail.
The shop assistant assured me the bright and breezy yellow and orange print suited me, though under the harsh Mediterranean light I suspect I just look sallow.
But I’ve already ripped off the tags so I can’t take it back.
Besides, it feels like something Simone and Victoria would wear and, as Gran used to say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
I pin my hair up, carefully apply eyeliner and mascara and a slick of tinted lip gloss, pop my sunglasses on top of my head and head out of the room, following the smell of fresh coffee.
Felix is downstairs in the kitchen, battling with a chrome Gaggia coffee machine that has more dials and buttons than the dashboard of your average family saloon. He clouts it with his right hand as if he’s clipping someone round the ear, then lets out a stream of expletives.
‘Need any help?’ I offer.
He turns round. ‘Maria’s the only one who knows how to work the blasted thing, but it’s her day off.’ He sounds aggrieved, like he can’t quite believe his housekeeper doesn’t work twenty-four seven.
‘Let me have a look. What would you like?’
‘An espresso, please.’
I pretend to study the buttons and dials even though I know exactly how the Gaggia works: there was an older version of this model in the café I used to waitress in after I left college.
I take an espresso cup from the shelf above the machine, hit a couple of buttons and, moments later, dark liquid starts dripping into the cup.
‘Look at that, a perfect crema,’ Felix says. ‘A girl with many talents, eh?’ As I pass him the coffee, his fingers brush mine and I freeze. He takes a sip and sighs appreciatively. There’s no awkwardness, no embarrassment. Perhaps I imagined it.
‘Even better than Maria’s,’ he declares. ‘Want a job?’
I jerk my head towards him. ‘Sorry?’
‘D’you want a job here?’ His eyes gleam. ‘I can see you in a maid’s uniform. Sorry, that’s probably terribly inappropriate. Don’t cancel me, will you?’ He guffaws, and I force myself to smile back, even though the urge to punch him squarely in his pudgy, self-satisfied face is overpowering.
‘Thanks, but I have a job.’
‘Ah, yes. You’re a call girl, aren’t you? I remember Dominic telling me.’ He is positively leering now, and I take a step backwards, connecting with the worktop behind me with a thump.
‘I work in a call centre,’ I say tightly.
He holds his hands up, palms out, and snickers. ‘Just my little joke.’
I cross the kitchen and run myself a glass of water, not because I’m thirsty but to put some distance between us. ‘Where are the others?’
‘Vic’s dragged Barney on a run. Willow’s still in bed.
Dom’s down by the pool and I have no idea where my lovely wife is.
Probably on a work Zoom call. She’s desperate to prove to the partners at her law firm that she’s never off duty in the hope they’ll finally let her into the all-boys’ club.
Which is ironic, because she has bigger balls than the rest of them put together.
’ He laughs again and I find myself wondering how a woman like Simone, a clearly intelligent, independent woman, could end up with a misogynistic, brash dinosaur like Felix.
‘I might go and find Dom.’ I give Felix a wide berth and scuttle out of the kitchen, emerging onto the wide terrace where we ate last night.
Below, the infinity pool glitters in the sun.
On the far side of the terrace near the shallow end are a couple of smart cream parasols and a row of teak sunloungers.
Beyond them is one of those fancy cabana beds you sometimes see on Instagram, its curtains drawn.
Dom’s deck shoes are lined up neatly on the limestone flagstones beside it.
I drift towards the daybed, a secret smile playing on my lips at the prospect of a stolen kiss behind the gauzy drapes.
But a peal of girlish laughter stops me in my tracks.
Someone else is in the daybed with Dom. I creep closer, holding my breath.
Someone in a plunging black swimsuit that leaves little to the imagination. Her blood-red toenails give her away.
It’s Simone.