Chapter 8
EIGHT
Though Ellen knew nothing about cars, even she could tell that Joe’s sports car must be top of the range.
Robert travelled up front with Joe while Lucy sat with her in the back on the soft cream leather seats.
With the roof down, and the sun shining on them like a blessing, they felt like celebrities as Joe took them on a whistle stop tour past the major attractions of Malaga: the cathedral with its missing tower, the bullring, the Roman theatre and Alcazaba, the hilltop fortress.
All the while, he called back over his shoulder with an encyclopaedic knowledge of each of these places.
‘Alcazaba is known as Little Alhambra because it has a very similar artistic and architectural style. They were both built in the Nasrid period.’
Ellen didn’t like to admit that she didn’t know where or what Alhambra was, much less the existence of a Nasrid period. It almost made her laugh to see Robert nodding along as if he had a clue.
Lucy leaned in. ‘You’ll notice, all of Joe’s commentary is about the outsides of buildings. He can’t help himself. Is there anywhere you’d like to stop and actually, you know, see inside?’
This spark of the old Lucy – funny, acerbic, dry – made Ellen smile. ‘Actually, I wouldn’t mind going to the Picasso Museum.’
‘It’s in the central part of the town and you’d have to queue for hours, it’s always packed.’ Joe called back from the front. ‘It’s nice enough, but they don’t have any of the major works. Are you a big fan?’
In truth, Ellen could probably count on one hand the Picassos she could name. ‘Not especially. If there’s likely to be a long queue, I’ll leave it.’
The restaurant Joe chose for lunch was on a steep incline on the way down from the Castillo de Gibralfaro.
Set back from the road, its white painted columns gave it the look of a castle itself.
The table cloths were thick and white, the cutlery and glasses heavy and expensive.
A waiter greeted Joe at the door like an old friend and showed them to a table at the front where the tall glass windows looked out onto an aquamarine sea.
Joe filled their glasses with water from a cobalt-blue carafe as they read through the heavy leather-bound menus.
Everything was, of course, in Spanish, but even Ellen could guess-translate enough of the words – pescado, salmon, sardinas – to see that there was an awful lot of fish: a food of which she wasn’t particularly fond.
She scanned through anxiously for something she both recognised and wanted to eat.
Joe lounged back in his seat with the easy air of a man who was at home in places like this. ‘It’s incredible that your daughter is at the same university – in the same halls – as our Emily, isn’t it?’
In one way, it was a big coincidence. ‘Yes. Although, we all went there, so I guess that narrows the coincidence down slightly.’
Joe had an intense way of looking at the person he was speaking to as if they were the most fascinating person on the planet. It was charming, but also a little intimidating: Ellen really didn’t have anything that interesting to say.
‘I told you that.’ Lucy shook her head at him. ‘You know that we were friends back then. Really good friends.’
There was something in her tone which Ellen couldn’t detect. Really good friends. Joe shone his beam around to his wife and lay his arm lazily across the back of her chair. ‘Of course, my darling. Back when you were young and almost as beautiful as you are now.’
Lucy rolled her eyes at him, but she clearly enjoyed his words. And who wouldn’t? Ellen couldn’t remember the last time that Robert had spoken to – or looked at – her like that.
Robert clearly had the same thought. ‘Come on, mate. You’re showing me up with all this romance.’
Joe laughed. ‘Let me order some wine. White okay for everyone? Do you have a preference?’
Once the sommelier had been consulted and a bottle carefully selected and ordered, he turned his gaze back to Ellen. ‘So, how come you all lost touch?’
For a few moments, no one spoke. Possibly because, like Ellen, neither Robert nor Lucy knew quite what had happened between them all.
They’d been really good friends. In their last year, when they were working hard and partying harder, it’d always been Robert and Ellen, Lucy and Ian.
Ian and Robert were on the same course and – in the beginning – he’d seemed like a good guy.
He and Lucy weren’t exactly a great influence on one another.
Often, they would be out until the small hours when they had an assessment the next day.
Joe was looking at her, waiting for an answer. She had to say something. ‘Well, we got married and had Grace and I suppose we were just doing different things.’
It hadn’t been quite like that, though. From the moment she’d told Lucy that she was pregnant, things had shifted between them. For a start, Lucy had been incredulous that she was actually going to go through with the pregnancy.
‘But you’re only twenty. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Why are you going to have a baby?’
She’d understood the question. It had been a pretty shattering shock to her, too. But once she and Robert had talked it over – late into the night over mint tea in his halls – they’d both felt pretty good about it. ‘I think we can do this. I think it’s going to work out okay.’
‘But you’re going to miss out on so much. What about getting a job? Travelling? Being young?’
She was being thrown into adulthood pretty fast, but she wasn’t too bothered about the travelling and she’d definitely gone off the idea of partying.
‘I am disappointed I can’t look for a job straight away, but once the baby is here I’ll be able to start my career.
Robert will support us until then. And our parents are helping out. ’
Lucy had been angry then. ‘You’re going to regret it. You and Robert will be tied together forever, whatever happens between you. If you have a baby, that’s it. Connected for life.’
It had been a very odd thing to say. Especially as the prospect of being connected to Robert for life was exactly what she’d wanted.
Lucy looked at her now with an expression that was difficult to read. If she didn’t know better, Ellen would have called it dislike. ‘The two of you just disappeared out of circulation.’
‘Well, we did have a baby. And you were travelling, don’t forget.’
She’d assumed that Lucy had gone travelling with Ian but now she wondered if that was the case. And she didn’t want to be the one to bring his name into the conversation. If Lucy and Joe had met soon after graduation, she wasn’t sure where Ian would fit into Lucy’s history.
‘Ah yes—’ Joe leaned towards Lucy ‘—the famous world travels. I’m quite jealous that I didn’t get to know you during that time. I think we would’ve had a blast.’
He leaned towards her and she met his kiss.
The chemistry between them was palpable.
How wonderful it must be to have someone so attentive, so obviously in love with you.
How long had it been since she and Robert were like that?
In fact, had they ever been like that? Having met so young, they’d almost grown up together.
But even so, they’d allowed themselves to get stuck in a rut.
Joe turned back to them both with a smile. ‘So, what stories can you tell me about my wife back in her student days?’
Lucy held up a hand. ‘Don’t you dare!’
They all laughed and then the waiter arrived to take their order. Lucy amazed Ellen by ordering in fluent Spanish. Of course, she lived here part of the year, it made sense that she’d learned the language. Somehow, her accent made her sound – and look – even sexier than she had before.
Robert clearly thought so, too. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
When Ellen stumbled over her own pronunciation of her order – she’d only chosen vegetarian paella, for goodness’ sake – she felt even more foolish.
Her face burned with the embarrassment of being corrected by the waiter like a child. She looked such a fool.
Compounding her embarrassment, her phone chose that moment to ring in her bag and she fumbled to grab it and stop it from echoing around the restaurant. It was Grace. Not more problems with Max. But she couldn’t ignore her daughter, could she? ‘Sorry, I just need to take this.’
She could hear Robert apologising for her as she left the table.
The air outside was thick and warm after the air conditioning in the restaurant.
Grace started speaking as soon as she picked up.
‘Mum? I just saw your message. Sorry if I worried you. I was upset because I’d booked a hotel for me and Max last night and he didn’t turn up.
I got myself in a state thinking he might be with another girl, and then he text me just after I spoke to Dad to say he’d had to take a friend home who wasn’t well and…
well, anyway it doesn’t matter now. He actually sent me a huge bouquet of flowers just now to say sorry. ’
Ellen knew that she was supposed to be impressed by this, that the main reason for this call was that Grace didn’t want her to think badly of her boyfriend. ‘So he just left you in the hotel all night on your own worrying about him? A bunch of flowers doesn’t make up for bad behaviour, Grace.’
Immediately, Grace’s tone changed. ‘I know that, Mum. But it was just a misunderstanding. He was looking after his friend.’
In isolation, that might have been forgivable, but this wasn’t the first ‘misunderstanding’ that Grace had swept under the carpet. ‘You need to make it clear that you can’t be treated like that. You need to know what you’re worth, Grace.’
‘I do know what I’m worth. You just don’t like Max. If you got to know him better, you’d see how lovely he is to me. He does love me.’
This wasn’t the time to get into this. ‘I need to go back into the restaurant. I’m glad you’re okay.’
After ending the call, Ellen sank down onto a low wall for a moment.
This was how it had always been. From the first day that Grace had been peeled from her to start school as a tiny little girl, Ellen had been on the rollercoaster that was her emotional life.
She would listen to her problems – bad grades, bad friends, bad boyfriends – and absorb every nuance of pain.
Then, when Grace’s mood had flipped back and she was on her merry way, Ellen would be left to haul herself out of the pit of despond.
From her seated position, she could see back into the restaurant through the window. Lucy was telling a story and Robert was laughing in a way she hadn’t seen in a long time. He’d been so different since they’d arrived. And where was Joe?
The door opened and Joe appeared with a vape in his hand. He winced at her. ‘Don’t judge me. I know what I look like with this thing, but I’ve promised Charlotte I’ll give up smoking and this is step one.’
She held up her hands. ‘No judgement. Are they rehashing old times in there? Did you want to escape?’
He sucked on the sleek silver pen and blew out a sweet-smelling vapour. ‘I don’t mind the stories. I’m sure that Lucy is enjoying talking to people who don’t want to discuss square footage and the cost of roof tiles.’
So, he was loyal as well as loving. ‘Lucy said you had to work away a lot? Properties in lots of places. That must be difficult.’
His gaze was no less concentrated when there were only two of them. The look on his face went down to her toes. ‘Lucy is a very good wife. I am very lucky. We have an understanding. Come on, let’s go back inside and see what story they’re up to in there.’
Ellen felt decidedly unsettled by his words.
An understanding? What did that mean? Lucy had said that Joe was away a lot with his work.
Was he implying something else too? Did he have permission to see other women?
If that was true, it cast his over-attentiveness in a new light and, suddenly, she didn’t feel as envious of Lucy as she had minutes before.
She looked back through the window at Robert and Lucy and shuddered at the expressions on their faces. Did this ‘understanding’ stretch to Lucy’s behaviour, too? Was her flirting with Robert more serious than Ellen had assumed?
Maybe it was time to take the advice she’d just given to Grace and know her own worth too.
For the last twenty-four hours, she’d felt like the least interesting person in the room.
That had to stop. At dinner tonight, that was going to change.
She was going to get dressed up and show Robert that she could look just as good as Lucy.
Whether it was intentional or not, all of Lucy’s anecdotes had centred on memories that didn’t include Ellen. Well, Ellen had some anecdotes of her own that she could recount for them all. Tonight, she was going to remind Robert of the woman he fell in love with on that night all those years ago.