Chapter 43
43
F leur stepped onto soft, warm sand, and slipped her sandals off as the last of the day’s heat settled around her. The sun dipped low on the horizon and cast long, golden streaks across the sky, and turned the ocean into a shifting sheet of amber. Talk about glorious. A breeze drifted through palms, wide, glossy leaves rustled and lanterns strung up between wooden posts and low-hanging branches flickered along the beach. Everything felt as if someone somewhere had specifically designed things with one aim and one aim only; to relax. Fleur, it had to be said, was making the most of it.
‘This place is so gorgeous.’ Cassy turned in a circle to take it all in. ‘Absolutely gorgeous. I mean, look at it. The lanterns, the little tables on the sand, the paths through the trees, the sunbeds. The fact that I can literally hear the waves as I order a cocktail? What’s not to like?’
Fleur smiled. ‘I know. I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and find out we’re actually sitting in some dodgy hotel restaurant back home, drinking overpriced cocktails with a sticky menu talking about how bad the attendees at the event were that day.’
Cassy shuddered. ‘Please, don’t even joke about that. I don’t want to be reminded about going back to work. It feels as if we are a million miles away. I do miss the boys, though.’
Patrick, who was walking slightly ahead with Cassy’s husband and his brother, turned back. ‘Are you two planning to stand there admiring the place all evening, or do you actually want to sit down and get a drink?’
‘We’re taking it in.’
He led the way towards a row of tables beneath a wooden pergola, draped in white fabric that fluttered in the evening breeze. A few other guests were sitting along the edge of a rattan beach bar, chatting, candlelight flickered and the air was full with a sticky tropical humidity. The faint strum of a guitar weaved into the sound of the waves rolling onto the shore. As they settled at a table, a waiter appeared, beaming at them as he put down a small lantern in the centre of their table. ‘Welcome! Would you like to start with something to drink?’
Cassy nodded. ‘Yes, please. A cold, tropical cocktail that will make me fuzzy around the edges.’
Fleur giggled. ‘Make that two.’
Patrick eye rolled. ‘You two are on a roll by the looks of it.’
Cassy waved one of her hands dismissively. ‘We are on an island for a wedding. If we can’t have ridiculous cocktails now, when can we?’
Fleur sighed and let her eyes flick between the sky and the candles on the surrounding tables. ‘It is pretty perfect here, isn’t it? Every part of the hotel is just so nice and well-designed. When they claim it’s six-stars, it really is.’
Patrick reached for her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. ‘I’m so pleased it’s worked out well.’
Ten or so minutes later, the waiter put down a tray with an assortment of fancy boutique cocktails. There was not a cocktail umbrella or dodgy plastic stirring stick with a fake pineapple in sight.
Cassy sighed. ‘Oh my gosh, look at these beauties. Fleur, we’ve made it in life. This is so me. I don’t want to go home. If it wasn’t for the boys, I wouldn’t...’
Fleur picked up a tall glass with passion fruit floating on top and took a sip. She raised her glass. ‘A toast.’
‘To what, exactly?’
Fleur gestured around her. ‘To being here, in this beautiful place, to the fact that we’ve actually pulled this off, and to I don’t know, just all the good stuff.’
Cassy clinked her glass against Fleur’s. ‘To all of that.’
Cassy’s husband laughed. ‘To swimming in the bay…’
‘Yes, and to that.’
Cassy put her drink down. ‘So, do you feel ready? Girlfriend’s getting married!’
Fleur hesitated. ‘You know what? I actually do.’
Cassy raised her glass again. ‘One more toast, then.’ Cassy smiled. ‘To your last few days as an unmarried woman. To the next few days being absolutely perfect and to the fact that you, my dear friend, my gorgeous Champo, are finally getting your happily ever after.’
Fleur’s heart felt as if it was going to explode. ‘I’ll raise my glass to that.’
A few hours later, Patrick had gone for a stroll with his parents, Lucy, Cassy and her husband had gone back to their rooms and Fleur sat at the beach bar on a stool next to Wendy in balmy evening air she couldn’t quite get enough of. Wendy looked relaxed, happy and pretty in a floral maxi dress and frangipani in her hair.
Fleur sipped her cocktail. ‘So, what do you think about Mum?’
Wendy shook her head. ‘Can’t work it out. How do you think she looks?’
‘I don’t know. When we picked her up at the airport, she seemed happy enough, didn’t she?’
‘I know. Almost as if she’s too happy. Something’s up with her, no doubt about it.’
‘Oh well, we’ll soon find out. She’d totally changed her tune from when I spoke to her. Maybe she’s actually just trying to think that this is about me…’ Fleur rolled her eyes.
Wendy smirked and took a sip of her cocktail. ‘You know what it’s like when Mum’s around—there’ll be drama, for sure. I reckon she thrives on it these days. I never really saw it before but I suppose that was because we were young and I guess Dad protected us from it.’
Fleur shook her head. ‘I’m not going to worry about it.’
‘No, don’t,’ Wendy agreed and turned her wrist over to look at her watch. ‘She should be here any minute. She said she was going to have a shower and freshen up before joining us.’
‘I’m sure we’ll find out what she’s up to. It won’t take long. She won’t be able to contain herself. You know what she’s like.’
Right on cue, Valerie came strolling across the bar in a royal blue dress, one-shoulder bare, very high-strappy sandals with ankle ties, a deep tan, and looking exponentially pleased with herself. She was full of the joys of spring, with large, dangling earrings swaying as she walked, a stack of bangles jingling on her arm and a huge faux tropical flower in her hair. All of the tiredness and irritability that she’d shown at the airport was long gone. She clapped her hands together as she reached the bar and swished around. ‘Hi, darlings! Oh, this is fabulous! I’m having a wonderful time already. You see, I’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii! But Maui, yes wow! I could live here!’
Fleur had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Wasn’t this the same woman who had declared that Hawaii was too much for her? That she could have done without it? Now, here she was, back in full wanderlust bohemian mode, as if she had been desperate to arrive all along. ‘Yes, it’s really nice here. Glad you like the hotel.’
Wendy took a cocktail menu from the bar, turned it around to Valerie, and then grabbed another one of the wicker stools, pulling it so that there was a triangle of seating. She pointed to the one next to the bar she’d been sitting on and indicated for Valerie to take a pew. ‘Here, Mum, you sit there, and I’ll sit on this one. You can lean on the bar then.’
Valerie smiled, adjusted the stool a little, scooped up her blue dress, pulled it up to show off a tanned knee and sat down. She tugged at the fabric of her dress, letting it slide down a little over her shoulder and smoothed the skirt over on her lap. ‘Well, girls, isn’t this lovely? We’re finally here. I have been so looking forward to this and now here I am!’
‘Yes, it’s such a gorgeous place.’
Valerie picked up the cocktail menu, glanced down at it, then back up again with a slight frown. ‘I think I’ll have this one with pineapple, tequila, lime juice. Sounds good to me. I wonder if they do doubles.’
‘I don’t think you want a double cocktail, Mum. They’re pretty strong anyway.’ Wendy frowned and held up her glass. ‘Mine is quite potent.’
‘Oh well, you only live once is what I say,’ Valerie replied with a funny hooting laugh.
Wendy gave Fleur a look. ‘So, what’s happened with Marvin?’
Valerie made a strange, dismissive gesture with her hands and automatically reached to twirl her hair. Another exchanged look passed between Fleur and Wendy. ‘Oh, to be frank with you two, I don’t know what’s happening with Marvin, darlings. He, well, oh you know how it is. I’ve left him to it. I can’t be doing with it all.’
‘You can’t be doing with it all?’ Wendy repeated. ‘What does that mean?’
Fleur’s thoughts raced. After all the times she’d had to listen to Valerie going on and on about how perfect Marvin was, how he had opened up her world, now here she was suddenly saying she couldn’t be doing with him. Valerie had changed her tune completely. Even her body language was different. Fleur was having difficulty getting her head around it and wondered if the cocktails were a lot stronger than she’d first thought.
‘What I mean, girls, is that sometimes in life you have to do what you want to do, and that’s why I’m here,’ Valerie said breezily. ‘Marvin was fussing about the van and all sorts, so I left him to it. I can’t wait around for him to lose his, well, his you know what, about vans and suchlike. As you girls know, I don’t need that sort of thing in my life. Lived with it for too long you see.’
Fleur ignored the dig about Bill and frowned. ‘So, hang on, he’s not coming at all?’
Valerie wiggled her hands. ‘I don’t know, you know. Don’t fuss and complicate things. You always were such a fusser Fleur. Fuss, fuss, fuss. Honestly, you didn’t get that from me.’
‘I’m not fussing and complicating things, Mum. He’s your partner, and he’s currently in Istanbul, and you’re over here, and you’re meant to be going on holiday with him after this. Are you saying he’s not coming? Have you, well, sort of, broken up with him? Is that it?’
Valerie batted her hand in the air, her bracelets jangled like crazy, and she waved her fingers near her face as if she was swatting away a fly. ‘No, no, no. It’s fine. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. No need for anyone else to get involved. If he makes it, he makes it; if he doesn’t so be it. Girls, if I’ve told you once; in our family we don’t wait around for people, am I right?’
Wendy looked startled. ‘What? I thought you paid for his ticket! When’s he going to come?’
‘No idea,’ Valerie replied as if it was completely normal that the person she’d spent the best part of the last few years with, in a van, travelling across Europe, wasn’t coming to Maui with her.
‘What about your holiday in California?’ Fleur wrinkled her nose.
Valerie twirled her hair. ‘No idea. Details, Fleur, darling. I’ll just maybe change my flights and come back home for a bit. It’s just a quick ride in a plane after all.’
Fleur stilled at that thought. Valerie being closer wasn’t really something she’d factored in or particularly wanted back at home. She felt awful for even thinking it. She actually preferred Valerie in a van in Europe now she’d got used to it. ‘Oh. Okay.’
Wendy raised her eyebrows and tapped the side of Valerie’s arm. ‘Is he not coming at all? I can’t believe it! Mum!’
Valerie held her hand up and shook it so that the bangles clattered together at her elbow. ‘Everything runs its course, girls. I did try to bring you up like that. Never rely on anyone.’
‘So, what about the van and everything?’
There was another dismissive flick of Wendy’s hand and absent twirl of her hair. ‘Oh, he can have it for all I care. I mean, what’s it to me? A stupid piece of metal with a bed inside. To be frank, it wasn’t even that comfy…’
‘Mum, what the hell? What do you mean what’s it to you? I can’t believe this!’ Wendy exclaimed. ‘You’ve just left him there? You’re not going back to the van? Are you saying that? I’m confused. What are you saying?’
Valerie wiggled her phone in the air, her rings catching the light. ‘It’s the digital age, girls. I don’t need anything. I don’t need a van. I have my money invested, and I can do everything from my phone right here, right now.’
Fleur pressed her lips together, biting back a comment. She vividly remembered when Valerie had had an infected finger, how she’d acted as if it was the end of the world, unable to do anything for herself. Valerie wasn’t anywhere near as independent as she liked to think she was.
Valerie tutted. ‘Marvin is more worried about whether or not he’s connected to the internet, always looking at his phone, always on that thing Chirp or whatever it’s called now and to be honest with you, girls, I’m just over it all. You know, I’m a wanderlust, a bohemian traveller, a globetrotter. I don’t need to be stuck in a van with, you know, someone who looks at his phone all the time.’
Fleur didn’t know what to say. She shook her head and kept quiet. Valerie had flipped from one thing to the next. When she’d been at the airport, she’d told Fleur she wasn’t getting any younger, now she was back to the bohemian traveller spiel.
Wendy’s chin dropped. ‘Mum! Are you telling us you’ve just walked away from this relationship and you’re not going back?’
Valerie dipped into her handbag, waved her passport above her head and beamed. ‘I have my passport and my phone, and that’s all that’s needed.’ She jerked her thumb in the direction of the rest of the hotel. ‘I packed everything I might need with me. I have anything of value in my possession. As I said, I am a wanderlust at heart. Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home.’
‘Blimey. I’m actually gobsmacked.’ Wendy stated solemnly, tipped her glass back and drained her cocktail.
Valerie wriggled on her stool to get comfortable, reached for her cocktail and took a slow sip, her bracelets jingling as she placed it back on the bar. ‘Look, girls, I know I’ve talked and talked about van life, but let me tell you—it is not all it’s cracked up to be.’
Fleur shook her head, not sure what to say but it didn't matter because Valerie was on a roll.
‘I mean, people romanticise it, don’t they? Oh, the freedom! The open road! Waking up to a new view every day! But what they don’t tell you is the reality of it. Cold nights, dodgy Wi-Fi, breaking down in the middle of nowhere, and don’t even get me started on the sheer amount of damp you have to deal with.’
‘Damp?’ Wendy raised an eyebrow.
‘You wouldn’t believe it and the constant need to be connected to some sort of power source. I mean, Marvin was obsessed with it. He’d park up and spend the first hour working out where to plug in or how to get the best internet connection. And it’s a story for another day, the queues for the showers at some of those campsites. Grim. When I say grim, I mean gutter-level.’ Valerie held her right hand out in front of her and indicated in the direction of the floor. ‘Absolute gutter. The debacle of trying to dye your hair in a van, too. That is something else. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen, girls.’
Fleur pressed her lips together, trying not to laugh at the idea of her mother who as far as she knew had always liked fluffy bathrobes, proper towels, bathrooms with mood lighting and marble countertops, roughing it in a queue for a communal shower block. ‘It’s never been my cup of tea.’
‘Honestly, I know I made it sound like the best thing ever, but I think I was just trying to convince myself. At first, it was exciting, but after a while… I just felt a bit—’ Valerie twirled her wrist in the air, searching for the right word— ‘untethered.’
Fleur frowned. ‘Untethered?’
‘Yes. Rootless. You know I’ve always been a bit of a free spirit, but even I started feeling like I needed something more solid. A proper base. A home. So, I’ve been thinking…’
‘Here we go,’ Wendy muttered, lifting her drink to her lips, realising she’d drained it and placing it back on the bar.
Valerie straightened, a glint in her eye. ‘I need to start making smart decisions with my money. The money from the sale of the house has mostly just been sitting there, and I think it’s time I did something with it. More investments, girls. That’s what I need to focus on now.’
Fleur placed her cocktail carefully back onto the bar. ‘Investments.’
‘Yes! You know, I’ve always been interested in property. Maybe a little place in Italy, or something by the coast in Spain, Sicily is meant to be a great place for expat retirees. Or something closer to home.’
Fleur’s stomach tightened. Closer to home. She flicked a quick glance at Wendy, who raised an eyebrow but said nothing. ‘Right,’ Fleur said slowly. ‘And by closer to home, where do you mean?’
‘I’m not sure yet.’
‘So, you’re seriously thinking about moving back?’ Fleur asked.
Valerie lifted a manicured hand, wiggling it slightly. ‘Not necessarily moving back permanently, but you know having something there. A base, as it were. A place to go when I want to. Just so I don’t feel like I’m floating around all the time.’
‘I thought that was what you were after. Well, this is all very, umm, interesting.’
Valerie smiled, clearly pleased with herself, and picked up her cocktail. ‘Isn’t it just?’
‘Hmm.’
‘So, you two girls have the pleasure of me all to yourselves.’
Fleur swallowed and closed her eyes for a second. She wasn’t quite sure what to think about that.