Chapter 42
42
F leur opened the door to the balcony and felt the gorgeous tropical air hit her. Picking up a jug of iced tea that had just been delivered, she placed it on the table, and sat down. Tapping on her phone, she connected with her mum, who was sitting at the airport in LA. Valerie did not look her best; she appeared tired, stressed, grumpy, overwhelmed and was nervously twirling her hair. The look on her face would have made anyone wary. Fleur knew it only too well.
Fleur gulped and plastered a smile on her face. ‘Hey, Mum, how are you?’
Valerie sighed. ‘I’m fine, actually, I’m not fine. I’m quite stressed, to be honest, Fleur. I could have done without this.’
Fleur ignored the last bit of the comment and smiled. ‘So, what’s happened with Marvin?’
Valerie ran a hand over her face. ‘He just gets very stressed about the van.’
‘I don’t understand, Mum. How is he upset about the van when, really, it’s not even his? You were the one who bought it and you have the money to fix it when stuff goes wrong. I can’t see what the problem is. Am I missing something?’
‘Yes, but it’s ours now.’ Valerie stressed the word “ours” heavily and sighed. ‘He’s very invested in that van. He wanted to stay there to make sure it’s fixed.’
‘I don’t get why he’d be happy to let you travel on your own. He said he wanted to stay with the van, did he?’
Valerie flapped her hand and twirled her hair. ‘Yes, yes, that’s what he said. He was very stressed. I don’t care what he does.’
‘So he’s going to come in a couple of days?’ Fleur clarified.
‘Yep.’
‘What about the wedding?’
Valerie sighed. ‘I don’t know, darling. It was important for me to be there for the wedding. Obviously, not so much for him.’
‘It’s not too much to ask though, really, is it?’
‘Well, I suppose not.’
Fleur smelt a rat; Valerie was being elusive. ‘What have you done about his flight?’
Valerie flapped her hands again. ‘Well, he looked at the cancellation terms and it was easy. The code we booked meant we had to pay a small fee to cancel it and that’s it. So he’s going to rebook.’
‘What he’s just going to book one at the last minute once the van is fixed? Really?’
‘Yes, from Istanbul to LA. The same as me. It’s quite simple.’ Valerie twirled her hair with her right forefinger.
‘Right. Well, I hope you’re okay and Marvin gets the van sorted.’ It killed Fleur to say that but she was trying to be nice to her mum.
Valerie made a funny dismissive wiggling movement with her hand and pursed her lips. ‘Darling, thank you, it’s just such a long way and you sprung it on us so quickly. Really, Fleur. I’m not being funny but some consideration would have been good. I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t go gallivanting all over the show hither and yon.’
Fleur was dumbstruck. This coming from a woman who’d sold her home and taken off to Europe in a van. The same woman who’d told Fleur to lighten up and be more impulsive. Fleur ignored her mum’s words. ‘So, Wendy and I will be at the airport to meet you and take it from there. All you have to do is get on the plane there. Don’t worry about anything and we’ll see you soon.’
‘Yes, okay, darling, thanks. I’ll message you when I’m on the plane and just before take-off. You will make sure you’re there, please. Don’t be late.’
‘No, we won’t. See you soon.’
Fleur put the phone down and sighed. Something about the issue with Marvin and the van didn’t quite sit right as far as she was concerned, but she couldn’t work out what. Why was Marvin being so dramatic about the van? At the end of the day, it was just a van, and he hadn’t even been the one to pay for it. It had been Valerie who had bought the van. For somebody who was apparently such a globetrotter and loved to wanderlust, it seemed strange that a trip to America and Hawaii wasn’t as important as getting a starter motor on a ten-year-old van fixed. The more and more Fleur thought about it, the less and less it didn’t add up. Valerie too; weird, elusive and just odd. As if she was trying to make out the trip was too much for her to avoid speaking about the real reason Marvin was delaying.
She was pouring another glass of iced tea when the doorbell went. Getting up to answer, Wendy was standing in the corridor in swimmers with an oversized white shirt over the top, white-framed sunglasses on her head, white flip-flops, and a very large wicker beach bag, Wendy smiled and took in the fact that Fleur was still in her robe, and stepped inside.
‘Morning, how are you?’
‘I’m just having iced tea on the balcony. Patrick’s gone for a swim with Lucy. Would you like one?’
‘That sounds nice. Ours went straight into the fridge.’
‘It’s delicious.’ Fleur followed Wendy through to the balcony. ‘I’ve just come off WhatsApp with Mum.’
‘Yes, she messaged me.’ Wendy shook her head. ‘There’s something weird there. Like, I don’t know, but don’t you think it’s strange that all of a sudden, Marvin isn’t coming yet? I thought they were thick as thieves. She told me in Greece that she would never travel without him again. She kept avoiding my questions…’
‘I thought the same.’
‘He’s saying that he’s staying there just because of a starter motor. I don’t know, it just seems really odd to me.’ Wendy wrinkled her nose.
‘I just assumed it’s because he was attached to the van.’
Wendy shrugged. ‘Well, some people are like that but, nah, it’s not right. She’s not telling us something. Elusive is the word.’
‘Yes! It’s not his van at the end of the day, either.’
‘Well, he thinks it is.’
‘You’re right. There’s something else. I can just feel it. You don’t not go to what’s pretty much the other side of the world when you’re not paying, with the person that you’ve just spent every day of your life with. It just doesn’t make sense.’
‘When you say it like that it’s even more dodgy. Yeah, she’s up to something,’ Wendy agreed. ‘There’s something going on here that we don’t know about.’
Fleur sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘The next drama with Mum. Spare us.’
Wendy tutted. ‘I thought we’d seen enough with the infected finger.’
‘Tell me about it. There was the Big Announcement, too. Really, why are we surprised? She was always going to make this all about her.’ Fleur swirled the ice in her glass. ‘Honestly, I don’t know what to make of it. It just doesn’t sit right. If Marvin is such a globetrotter, he’d be on the next flight, wouldn’t he? Stuff the starter motor.’
Wendy crossed her legs and tucked her sunglasses into her beach bag. ‘Exactly. But instead, he’s staying behind for what? A starter motor? I mean, Fleur, come on. That’s ridiculous. He’s acting like the van is some sort of lifeline.’
‘Right? He is supposedly this free spirit, world-traveller type. A man of adventure, all about the experience. So why is he clinging to that van like it’s the only thing keeping him grounded?’
‘Maybe because it is?’
Fleur frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
Wendy leaned forward. ‘I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think their relationship is as picture-perfect as mum makes out.’
Fleur snorted. ‘I could’ve told you that.’
‘Think about it. She’s spent the last couple of years acting like she’s found this amazing new lease on life like they’re this bohemian, carefree couple roaming around Europe without a care in the world. But I think it’s more complicated than that.’
Fleur narrowed her eyes. ‘You think it’s all an act?’
‘Not completely. I’m sure she’s happy in some ways, but maybe it’s not all it’s cracked up to be this van life malarkey. Her life before was very stable with Dad. Maybe Marvin’s not as keen on this whole travelling, loved-up-in-a-van lifestyle as she wants us to believe, either. Maybe he’s clinging to that van because it’s his safety net. Maybe, deep down, he knows that if they weren’t doing this whole travelling thing, they wouldn’t have much holding them together. Which is why he’s started to try to get his hands on her money. Plus, she’s not getting any younger…’
Fleur blinked, letting Wendy’s words settle. ‘You think the van is their relationship?’
‘Yes, and if that’s the case, why would he want to leave it behind?’
Fleur leant back in her chair. ‘God, that actually makes sense. Like, if he really wanted to come here, he’d have figured it out, wouldn’t he?’
‘Exactly. Mum’s not telling the truth. I know that look she does and when she keeps touching her hair, I bet she was doing that when you spoke to her. She’s trying to keep up appearances, pretending it’s all fine when deep down, she must be fuming or they’ve had a fight and she doesn’t want to admit it.’
Fleur thought back to the video call. Valerie had looked tired, not just from travelling, but from something else. Defeated, almost. Wendy was right, she had been doing the twirling her hair thing. ‘You might be onto something. I don’t know. I hate the thought of her being taken for a ride.’
‘Me too, but let’s be real, Mum’s not an idiot. If she’s ignoring the signs, it’s because she doesn’t want to face them.’
Fleur sighed, rubbing her temples. ‘So, what do we do?’
Wendy shrugged. ‘Nothing. Yet. We just watch and wait. If Marvin shows up in a few days, fine. But if he doesn’t? Then maybe it’s time to ask some questions or just drink cocktails and let her get on with it.’
Fleur exhaled slowly. ‘I just don’t want to see her hurt.’
‘I know. But sometimes, people have to realise things on their own.’
Fleur nodded, though the uneasy feeling in her stomach didn’t disappear. Whatever was going on, she had a feeling they hadn’t heard the last of it. Typical that it was happening when she was getting married and it was meant to be all about her. In the Champion family, some things never changed.