Chapter 15
15
CARINA
‘God, if these walls could talk…’ Carina said, her hands automatically going to the shiny granite tiles that now lined the walls that ran up each side of the staircase.
‘Is it crazy that I feel really excited to be here, yet I don’t know why?’ Stevie asked, keeping in step next to her, with Moira bringing up the rear. Carina had noticed the new steel lift to the left of the door downstairs, but ignored it, because it was only one flight of stairs. She hadn’t made it to the gym yet again this morning, and she usually never went more than two days without playing tennis or going to her thrice weekly yoga class, so she was glad of the exercise.
Moira, however, didn’t seem to feel the same. ‘You know, there’s a reason that lifts were invented, Carina,’ she was muttering behind her. ‘It’s to stop fit specimens like you feeling smug.’
Carina ignored her, but couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement. It was bizarre how natural and normal this felt. They’d just slipped right back into their old routine of love, affection, support and sarcasm. If she wasn’t going through an existential crisis, facing the potential end of her marriage, and feeling nauseated at the very thought of that, and if poor Lisa had made it here as she’d planned, then Carina had no doubt that they’d be having the time of their lives.
In a twisted way, Lisa’s passing had almost reinforced her need and desire to be here because it felt like they were paying tribute to her and doing the only thing they could do right now to honour her memory – they were taking care of Stevie. And the fact that it was keeping her mind off her own worries was a ‘head in the sand’, classic avoidance tactic, sanity-saving bonus. Of course, there was part of her that wanted to know how Spencer was reacting. Was he frantically trying to find her because he’d realised he’d made a mistake and he was desperate to fix it? Or was this a pattern and he’d cheated on her before? Had he made a choice between the two women and she wasn’t it? Was he already moving Arabella in and ordering his lawyers to start divorce proceedings? She might find out the answer to those questions if she checked her voicemail and texts, but that would give him the power to encroach on her day and right now she wasn’t prepared to give him another second of her life, especially because she was toying with the crunch question – did she care? She knew she absolutely should, yet the whole thing still made her feel numb. There was nothing. No pain. No panic. No devastation. Just numbness. And as long as it stayed that way, she was going to get up in the morning and spend the day with her friends – yes, Stevie already counted as a friend – find glimpses of joy in the moment, enjoy the memories of their past lives and ignore the rest.
That’s why, when they got to the top of the stairs, Carina glanced around hoping for something, anything, that looked familiar. There was nothing. Where there used to be threadbare, sticky carpet, there was now marble floor. Where there used to be tacky mirrors on the walls, there were now cool wood accents on what looked like Venetian plaster. The old tatty spotlight tracks had been replaced by gorgeous brass and crystal downlighters. And the sight of Nate, behind the reception desk, had been replaced by a water feature, because the desk was now double the size and on the opposite wall, right where, if Carina wasn’t mistaken, Moira’s room used to be.
‘Your room is now a coffee area,’ Moira whispered. ‘And look, this whole floor has been extended back there now.’
Carina could see she was right. A long thin corridor that used to have bedrooms on both sides, had now been opened up and become an open plan bar and lobby area, with signs directing guests to rooms, gym, spa, and roof terrace. Whoever owned this place now must have bought one of the adjacent buildings and knocked them both together. Quite an upgrade since 1990, yet Carina felt a pang of regret. She’d love to have seen the old place one more time.
‘Shall we have a drink at the bar?’ she suggested, suddenly thirsty. She’d forgotten how much the humidity parched the throat.
‘Good idea,’ Moira agreed. ‘But just let me have a wee word with one of the receptionists.’
Carina and Stevie followed her as she made a beeline for one of the staff members standing behind the long black onyx desk.
‘Excuse me, this might be the craziest question you’ll get today…’
‘I like a challenge,’ said the smart, smiling man in accented English. If Carina had to guess, she’d say he was in his early thirties, and the dual-language badge on his jacket informed them that he was the duty manager.
‘Excellent. I just wondered if there is anyone still employed here who might have been working here thirty years ago? You see, my friend and I…’ she pointed to Carina. ‘While we don’t look a day over forty, actually lived here back in 1990, when we were in our twenties.’
Carina struggled to keep a straight face. This was what Moira did – charmed anyone she set her mind to. Warmth oozed out of her, and she viewed every interaction as an opportunity to make someone smile, laugh or chat. Why was she only realising now how much she’d missed that?
The gent behind the desk was shaking his head. ‘I’m afraid not. We only opened in this location in 2005.’
‘And what about the company that owned the building before that?’ Moira pressed on.
‘I really have no idea. As far as I know, it changed hands a couple of times in the years before that. It was fairly run down when we took it over.’
Moira nodded. ‘Yep, it was fairly run down when we lived here. We considered that part of its charm. Okay, well, thank you.’
‘You’re very welcome. Sorry I couldn’t help.’
Moira tried and failed to hide her disappointment by becoming nonchalant and breezy. ‘Oh well, I suppose any other outcome would have been too good to be true. There was really no chance that Nate would still be here after all these years. He’s probably back on the Gold Coast, on his fifth wife, and working three jobs to pay alimony to the other four.’
A very undignified snort of laughter was out before Carina could stop it. ‘Your mind really does work in strange ways, Moira Chiles. Come on, I think this calls for a beverage.’
They settled down in a cluster of four vintage leather tub chairs around a smoked glass table, and ordered three waters and three coffees from a very efficient waitress.
‘It’s so strange to think that my mum was here. I still can’t get my head around it. She climbed those stairs. Walked on this floor…’
‘Actually, where we’re sitting is roughly where her room was,’ Carina realised, as she calculated the floor plan.
‘I’d love to have seen that. Was she meticulously tidy and a bit OCD back then too?’
As usual, Moira struggled to contain her reaction. ‘Do you want the diplomatic answer or the truth?’
‘Truth. I think.’
Moira nodded solemnly, fishing the lemon out of the glass of water the waitress had just put in front of her. ‘Well, her room permanently looked like a tornado had blown through it, she had an ashtray the size of a small pyramid and her wardrobe looked like Top Shop had vomited the clothes into it. She was the untidiest woman I’ve ever met in my life.’
‘Hers was the party room. If Jack Daniels ever ran out of bottles, they could have bought her stash of empties,’ Carina added hesitantly, taking Stevie at her word that she wanted to hear the facts.
‘I mean this with love because I’m so grateful to you both for letting me gatecrash your holiday,’ Stevie began, ‘but I’m beginning to think you’re both pranking me. Or that maybe your Lisa and my Lisa were two different women.’
‘It makes sense though,’ Carina tried to soften the shock. ‘Time passes. Moira and I are pretty different from the two youngsters that lived here too.’
They were interrupted by the waitress, who’d come back with their coffees, and then they steered on to more neutral territory as they shared a few less controversial tales about living here.
After yet another story that involved Nate, Stevie’s curiosity was piqued.
‘So this Nate guy,’ Stevie asked, ‘did my mum ever date him?’
Carina shook her head. ‘No, he was actually Moira’s boyfriend.’
‘A serious boyfriend?’ Stevie asked.
Moira shrugged. ‘First love of my life. Actually, there haven’t been too many since then. If you rule out Robbie Williams and Gerard Butler, I’m still down in single digits.’
‘Oh hon,’ Carina sighed. If Moira was using humour to brush over something sad, it meant that she’d taken a dagger to the heart. ‘Is being here bringing up feelings?’
Delaying her reply, Moira gestured to the waitress for the bill, then pulled out the ‘kitty purse’ to pay it. They’d all chipped in HK$1,000 each this morning, about ￡100, deciding that it would be easier to use that for food and drinks throughout the day, than all messing around with splitting bills and credit cards.
‘Och, maybe I just thought that it would have been good to see him again. I’ve always wondered what happened to him. How his life turned out. Anyway, there’s no point moping.’ Shaking off her melancholy, Moira put some notes down on the leather bill holder the waitress had just delivered, and morphed back into her standard cheery self. ‘Shall we make a move?’
They gathered up their bags, and headed back to the stairs, saying goodbye to a different chap who was behind the reception desk now. At the bottom of the stairs, Stevie opened the door and the three of them flinched as the heat outside slammed into them like a solid wall.
‘This is why I’ve never liked a sauna,’ Moira muttered, as Carina pulled on her sun hat and shades. They’d only taken a couple of steps outside when they heard a shout behind them.
‘Excuse me! Hello?’
Carina turned around to see the duty manager they’d spoken to on the way in. ‘You asked about people that used to work here?’
Carina almost staggered to the side because Moira nudged her so hard in the ribs, as she exclaimed, ‘Yes!’
‘Well, I was on my break, and I had a quick look on google… There was a newspaper article… the corporation that owns this hotel now, bought it from a property company with an office over in Causeway Bay. I don’t know if that helps or not, but I hope so. I wrote the address down here.’
Carina wasn’t sure it helped either, but she appreciated the gesture and took the Post-it, then automatically slipped a note from the pile of hundred HK dollar bills she kept in her pocket for tips and handed one over.
‘No, no,’ the gent put his hands up. ‘No need. I’m just happy to help. I hope you find the person you’re looking for.’
‘Thank you,’ Carina said, as he retreated back inside.
‘What does it say?’ Moira asked. ‘I mean, I know it’ll be pointless, because Nate will be long gone and even if we contact them, they won’t have a clue who he is. He was only working here to get enough money to travel on to somewhere else. I’m sure he would have left not long after me.’
Stepping back under the canopy of the door to get shelter from the sun, the three of them huddled together, all looking at the company address on the note. ‘Means nothing to me,’ Carina said.
‘Nor me,’ Moira agreed. ‘Oh well, let’s go back on the ferry and get the wind in our hair and maybe stop for a cocktail somewhere to get us out of the heat again. It’s only our first day of sightseeing. We need to pace ourselves.’
Beside Carina, Stevie had other plans. ‘Hang on a second,’ she said, and they watched as she typed something into her phone. ‘Okay, it’s a company called Crocodile Realty that’s at that address.’ She clicked away a few more times. ‘Managing director…’
Moira was now holding Carina’s hand and squeezing it a bit too tightly.
‘Nate Wilde.’
Silence. And a long pause. Until Stevie, misreading the shock for disappointment said, ‘Wrong Nate? Is that not him?’
‘That. Is. Him,’ Moira said, her words dripping with incredulity. ‘Oh, holy crap, it’s him.’ She was fanning her face again. ‘It’s Nate. And how on earth did he go from working on reception to being the managing director of the company that used to own the building?’
Carina had no answers, but despite being wildly disappointed in love, romance and the male species this week, she felt her heart soar with joy for her friend. Moira deserved something to be happy about, especially since the trip she’d been so excited about had been shrouded in sadness from the start.
‘Only one way to find out,’ Carina suggested, feeling beads of sweat pop out under her linen shirt. They really needed to get moving or to go back inside or they’d melt. ‘Shall we go to their office now? It’s in Causeway Bay, so we could detour on the way back.’
Moira was already shaking her head as she fished in her bag, then pulled out her phone.
‘No, there’s a number there. I’m going to call first. Who knows if he’s even still there? I’m not getting my hopes up,’ she added, sounding very much like someone who was definitely getting her hopes up. She pulled on her specs, then read the number on the piece of paper aloud, while punching it into her phone with trembling thumbs.
Someone at the other end must have answered, because the next words out of her mouth were, ‘Hello? Yes, can I speak to Nate Wilde please?’