Chapter Fourteen
Sunday, 11 th June
S tacy ran up the stairs to David’s flat on Sunday, three carrier bags in one hand and her key in the other. It was fun to be back in Manchester, with the chance to put things straight with David tonight. They’d had a very constructive phone call yesterday. David had apologised for cancelling at such short notice, but of course that was ridiculous – the accident wasn’t his fault and she completely got it that he’d had to stay on. Experiencing a situation like that was how young doctors learned, and David was all about learning and becoming the best doctor he could. He’d be on until late afternoon today, too, so she hadn’t seen anything of him yet, but they’d have a lovely romantic evening together now.
The flat was deserted, so the others must be either working or away doing something else. Stacy shook out the blue silk top she’d bought in a summer sale. This could do with an iron, and she’d just have time before David arrived.
She was pulling a still-warm top over her head when bangs in the hallway announced David’s arrival.
‘Hi, Stace! Good afternoon? You know Barry and Phil, and this is Lucy.’ He gave her a quick hug .
Barry and Phil were medical students too, and Lucy was a leggy blonde with the kind of eyelashes Stacy had always wanted but would never achieve, even after half an hour wielding a mascara brush in front of the bathroom mirror. Some people had all the luck.
She smiled at the other girl. ‘Hello. Are you a doc too?’
‘I certainly am. Working towards trauma medicine, like Dave. I hear you’re a nurse.’
Stacy hesitated. Was she imagining the patronising tone? It was hard to know how to reply, anyway. And – Dave? It was more than her life was worth to call him that. And what was going on with their evening out together to plan their wedding?
Stacy glanced across the room at David, but he only winked at her.
Stacy turned back to Lucy. ‘Yes. I’ve been helping out in the family business, but I’ll be back in Manchester in a few weeks.’
‘Prosecco, ladies?’
David was opening a blue bottle, and Stacy smothered a sigh. Their romantic date wasn’t going to happen, she could see that already. She accepted a glass, then followed him into the kitchen.
‘What’s going on?’
‘We’re all going to Mamma Mia’s for pizza, to celebrate being doctors at long last. This is the last weekend some of the guys are in Manchester – we couldn’t miss the opportunity, could we?’
Stacy swallowed her disappointment. David and the others would only qualify as doctors once, and this was it. They deserved the celebrations after all the hard work and sacrifice .
She managed to speak warmly. ‘Lovely.’
He pulled another bottle from the fridge, and patted her shoulder. ‘Next weekend, huh? I’ll be off for two straight days.’
That sounded more hopeful. They would manage a talk in two straight days. She squeezed his arm. ‘Brilliant – come to mine.’ With him in Elton Abbey, she could make sure their talk would happen.
She emptied a packet of nuts into a bowl, and returned to the living room to find that another five ex-medical students, two nurses and a physio had arrived. David was kept busy refilling glasses, so Stacy went round with the nuts, introducing herself to everyone she didn’t know. Several of the people here were couples, she saw, and that would be because medical people were the only ones likely to tolerate the schedule of their other halves. Emily had often said that most people she knew would have given up on a relationship that was as erratic as Stacy and David’s. Stacy gazed over to where David was talking to Lucy and Phil, and smiled quietly. In spite of everything, they’d made it. Not that this was the end of the erratic journey for David, but still.
Phil was telling the other two some joke, and David and Lucy both laughed uproariously. A sudden chill zipped through Stacy as she stood there watching David laugh, his head flung back and his shoulders shaking with laughter. When had they last laughed like that together?
The party continued, and yikes – some of these guys weren’t half getting through the prosecco. Stacy nearly fell over the crate of empty blue bottles in the kitchen when she went for more nuts, and by the time they were ready to leave for the restaurant, the students – doctors – were as merry as she’d ever seen them. Students in general were pretty good at parties, and medical students in particular were experts. They had a lot to cope with over the course of their training, of course; partying was a kind of safety valve. Bring on this pizza to mop it all up, though, or there’d be some sore heads around tomorrow morning. Stacy finished her second glass, shaking her head when David arrived offering a refill. She wasn’t being a killjoy, but she had work tomorrow. This lot could all sleep it off in the morning.
Seven o’clock saw them sitting at a long table in Mamma Mia, and Stacy listened as David exchanged banter with the wine waitress. The staff evidently knew the students well, though he’d never brought her here. Maybe this was normally a lunchtime retreat, or an after-shift pizza place for David and the gang.
She was sitting between David and Barry, with Lucy opposite David, and irritation flushed through Stacy – Lucy didn’t half have a nerve, hanging on David’s every word like that. The eyelashes were batting away doing double duty, and flattery was being laid on with a knife. Didn’t Lucy know that David was engaged? There wasn’t much Stacy could do, though, as Barry and his girlfriend kept her busy talking about her parents’ shop and then her holiday in Switzerland, so she wasn’t always able to join in the banter Lucy and David were flipping back and forth across the table.
The waitress cleared away the pizza plates and came back with the dessert menu, and Stacy grabbed the opportunity to warn David when Lucy went off to the loo. She leaned in close to murmur in his ear.
‘You’d better be careful with Lucy. She’s coming on a bit strong. I guess she’s had too many Proseccos.’
He turned a startled face to her, then laughed and whispered back, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Luce and I are old mates, that’s all. You’re being a dinosaur. Order tiramisu for me, huh?’
He vanished off towards the loo as well, and Stacy was left sitting. Dinosaur? Heck… Perhaps she did need to loosen up a bit; Emily sometimes laughed at her for being ultra-sensible too. It was something to think about; ‘sensible dinosaur’ wasn’t the image she was aiming for.
She was halfway through her cassata before David and Lucy returned together. Stacy smiled at the other girl, who was having the same thing.
‘Best cassata ever! Can’t believe I’ve never been to this place.’
Lucy spooned up a chunk of ice cream. ‘Mm. Just the thing when you’re feeling hot, huh?’ She closed her eyes and spooned again.
David gave a little snigger but said nothing, and Stacy gave up. It would definitely be headaches all round in the morning, and serve them right, too.
At half past ten they’d finished coffee, and someone ordered more wine for the table. Stacy leaned across to murmur in David’s left ear. He wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.
‘I need to go, David. I’m working in the morning and I’ll be dead tomorrow if I don’t catch the next train.’
To her surprise he rose immediately, ‘Sure. Time for Cinders to go home, guys.’
Stacy replied to the chorus of goodbyes and see-you-sometimes, and followed David outside.
He slung an arm across her shoulders. ‘I’ll put you in a taxi to the station, if that’s okay. This meal was my idea and I don’t want to be a party-pooper.’
A cruising taxi approached, and David waved it down. Three minutes later Stacy was heading for Piccadilly station, David’s fiver for the fare in one hand and feeling more than a bit let down. But on the other hand, this could be her being needy again. It was the last time he’d be celebrating with all his student friends together.
Tears welled up, and she blinked hard. How many times had she thought ‘but on the other hand’ in connection with David recently? Now he had abandoned her in the middle of Manchester and gone back to his friends. Including leggy Lucy and the eyelashes. He could at least have seen her to the train, and she was – she was so bloody tired of making excuses for him all the time. But she loved him, didn’t she? Soberly, Stacy paid the driver and found her train, the chill in her soul spreading as she walked past a group of definitely drunk teenagers, who all whistled and jeered at her. Next weekend’s talk had better be a good one.
***
Ralph had already left the flat when Rico emerged from his room on Monday morning. He wandered out to the balcony to see if his father was down at the jetty, but Lakeside Lady was bobbing up and down all alone. The ferry to Friedrichshafen was chugging across the lake, its opposite number coming in the other direction just visible in the morning haze. It was going to be another scorcher of a day. Rico drummed his fingers on the railing. They had the weather, the scenery, they had the infrastructure – all that was missing was the guests. A full hotel would have made a fortune these past few weeks. As things were, they’d be lucky if they managed to break even this year, and unfortunately the summer guest numbers seemed as stable as the weather forecast. And it was way too late to do much in the way of advertising. People going on long holidays would have booked them long ago.
Karen was at the reception desk when Rico went downstairs. ‘Morning, Rico. Grande called, and your dad’s been holed up in the conference room for the past twenty minutes. I can’t imagine what they’re talking about all this time.’
Rico chewed his lower lip. Blimey, Grande didn’t hang about, did they? Dad had only sent the email yesterday, and a long call this morning didn’t sound like the answer was ‘no, definitely not’. He turned back to Karen. ‘He hasn’t been on the phone all the time, has he?’
Karen tilted her head to the side. ‘Listen.’
Rico stood still. The small conference room was diagonally opposite the reception desk, and yes, he could hear the murmur of Ralph’s voice. And a pause. Then Ralph again. Rico’s plan to have a breakfast croissant with a second coffee suddenly became a whole lot less appealing.
‘Well. If they’ve been talking all that time, Grande must be interested, I guess.’ He trailed through to the bar, where Alan was polishing glasses and whistling. Envy stabbed through Rico, but he managed to grin at the other man.
‘I’d never guess you’re off on a long weekend soon! Um, anything else planned for your trip? Any good concerts on while you’re there?’ He knew Alan was a keen concert and festivalgoer, but what he really wanted to know, of course, was if the other man would see Emily. And Stacy…
Alan went pink. ‘No concerts, but I’m going for dinner with Emily on Thursday. Cross your fingers for me, huh?’
Rico’s heart thumped. ‘Sure. Um – say hello to them both from me, will you?’
‘Will do.’ And on he whistled.
Rico gave him a salute and continued across the terrace and down to the mooring place, where he sat on the edge of the jetty with his feet dangling over Lakeside Lady . The thought of Alan seeing Stacy soon was almost as heavy in his heart as the thought of losing the hotel. And hell… it wasn’t only the hotel he’d lose. He’d be losing the only home he’d ever known, and everything that came with it. Losing Lakeside Lady . How many times had he been out in the cruiser with Mum and Dad over the years, thrilled to have a boat in the family, loving his life on the border? Too many to count. The days of taking boat trips on this lake in Lakeside Lady could soon be over. Dad would either leave the boat with the hotel, or take her to Lugano. Rico gave the cabin cruiser a little pat with his foot, setting her bobbing in the still water at the jetty. Imagine going out in her, knowing it would be the last time. That would happen all too soon now. Change was hard when you didn’t want it.
A few minutes later a shadow fell across Rico, and he looked up to see Ralph with a wry expression on his weather-beaten face.
‘The deed’s done, Rico. Grande are sending a couple of people to see the place on Friday. They asked a lot of questions – I reckon they’re genuinely interested.’ He lowered himself down beside Rico, and nodded at the boat. ‘I’m going to take her with me to the Ticino, if I can find a mooring place on Lake Lugano.’
A tiny flicker of comfort warmed Rico’s soul. ‘Good idea. I’m sure Guido and his boatyard would help there. You could always keep her out of the water between trips until you find a harbour place. I’d love her to stay in the family.’
Ralph clapped his shoulder. ‘Then that’s what we’ll do. I know this is hard for you, Rico – it is for me too. But I can’t see any other way forward. ’
He rose with an ‘Uff!’ and turned back to the hotel.
Rico stared across the water, where a little herd of sailing boats was zigzagging along. The lake police boat was chugging towards Rorschach, and a family of ducks had come to investigate the mooring place. And by the sound of things, Lakeside Lady would soon belong to a different lake.