Chapter Seven
Diana
Diana fiddled with the gold watch around her wrist. How has it only been fifteen minutes?
Blinking under the white spotlight in Marco Marcos’ office, it felt like weeks had passed.
The small room carried the scent of mango and ginger, perhaps remnants of the empty smoothie resting on the bald man’s desk.
She scanned the motivational poster behind him.
“Thoughts are not facts.” Perhaps not, but it didn’t change the fact that Diana thought this was a waste of her time.
She wasn’t the one who needed counselling. She had a successful career and a best-selling book, for Christ’s sake. Molly needed some direction, not her. She just wanted to catch up on her work—but evidently, the guidance sessions were non-optional.
Marco Marcos steepled his fingers, each knuckle thick with dark hair. “So, Diana, tell me more about your reason for attending Sandy Springs.”
She folded her hands in her lap. “For my daughter. I wanted her to try something new and find what she wants to do.”
He peered down the bridge of his nose, square glasses tilting with the movement. “And you?”
“I thought it would be a good opportunity to spend time together.”
He nodded, scribbling something in his notepad. “Do you do that often?”
The clock ticked loudly on the wall, marking her misery. She hoped he wouldn’t notice the hesitation. “Not so much nowadays.”
“Would you like to expand on that?”
Not particularly. But judging by the intense dark eyes on her from across the room, she didn’t have much choice in the matter.
“Molly and I haven’t always seen eye to eye.
Since I left my ex-husband, it’s been a slow decline.
It doesn’t help that I know what sort of nonsense he fills her ears with.
” She shook her head instinctively as Jason’s voice swirled around her.
“You’ve abandoned me, and you’ve abandoned your daughter.”
Diana loved being a mother. But that was all Jason wanted her to be. The idea that she could be successful in other areas of her life—or, heaven forbid, more successful than Jason—was taken as an insult. A threat. His ideologies were still stuck in the Stone Age.
Diana had imagined marriage to be a partnership. Two people working together to better themselves and create a life together. But when she progressed and was offered a grant to study her master’s, she went from inspiring to selfish overnight. Jason’s tide turned, and she realised she was all alone.
Yes, she had colleagues, and Leanne, her agent, but when her phone quietened, loneliness festered. Not that she’d admit that to Marco Marcos, who seemed all too eager to scribble down her life’s failures. He frowned and vigorously erased something he’d written, wobbling his chair in the process.
My phone.
Faye still had it. Diana realised last night when she went to check her emails. She needed to find her after this.
The woman’s face flashed before her eyelids.
The way those striking turquoise eyes lit up as she spoke about the different species on the island.
Her long brown hair cascading over her shoulders.
The unique Faye essence that flowed from her.
There was something special there, something unique she didn’t quite understand.
Diana had wanted to continue their conversation from the hike, to understand what Faye meant by regretting the way things had ended at the bar. But she’d become distracted by Faye and how she viewed the world. The delicacy in how she treated living things.
“So your relationship with your husband didn’t end amicably?” Marcos asked, pulling her from her thoughts.
She repressed the urge to scoff. She wouldn’t call coming home to find her belongings waiting for her on the drive exactly “amicable”. Her fingers found the strap of her watch again, tracing the cool metal. She didn’t want to get sucked down that rabbit hole.
“Alright.” He eyed her and tapped his pencil on the pad. “I see we have work to do.”
* * *
Diana exhaled, turning her neck left and right to release some of the tension in her muscles.
Her head throbbed at the temples, a consequence of fighting the repressed memories trying to surface in response to Marco Marcos’s questions.
She’d been na?ve, perhaps arrogant, to think she’d get off lightly on the mind-probing.
With the storm disrupting them, Molly’s unfavourable reception, and Faye’s surprise kiss, her time here so far had been unpredictable.
Not exactly the relaxing mother/daughter holiday she’d imagined.
She’d barely had time to consider her proposal for Leanne.
The afternoon sun hung high in the sky, coating her skin with warmth. Molly had requested she give her some space today, so she figured she should get her laptop and start drumming up some ideas.
Remembering Faye had her phone, she decided to find her first. Except she didn’t know where Faye was staying. Diana assumed they’d all be in a similar area, but she couldn’t say for sure.
After a wander up the path provided no answers, she returned to the courtyard and sat beside the fountain, admiring the trickling water show.
Occasionally, people walked past and greeted her.
She recognised Louis and Charles from their course, an older couple who were using the retreat as their honeymoon.
Personally, a self-work course wouldn’t have been on Diana’s list, but who was she to comment?
It wasn’t as if she’d ever had a honeymoon with Jason.
After years had passed and it started to feel more like a nag than a celebration, she accepted it was never going to happen.
She frowned, hating that Jason had popped into her headspace again. That man had occupied enough of her life already. She pushed herself to her feet and walked towards the stone wall, breathing in the fresh sea breeze. People milled about on the sand below. Once again, envy nipped at her.
She wished she could let go like they could. Not calculate and overthink every decision. Not let her emotions get the better of her, turning happy memories into something negative. For a brief moment, she wondered if Molly did something similar with her.
I hope not.
A sudden wave of guilt swept over her. Was that what she’d let her mother’s memory become? The feeling weaved between her vital organs, pulling tight and pushing bile up her throat. Her mother didn’t deserve that.
She took the path down to the cliffs, passing the spot where she’d watched the waves a few days ago, and kept walking. The windy gravel path became steps spotted with sand. When the steps disappeared onto the open beach, she stopped, her pulse hammering in her neck.
This is stupid. It’s just a beach.
It was just a beach, but it felt so much more than that. The weight kept Diana in place.
You have a doctorate in socioeconomics. You can do this.
Glancing up, she caught eyes with one of the sunbathers shaking sand from their towel. She probably looked like a peeper, standing there at the edge of the beach. She imagined Selena’s face lighting up at that news. Former Harvard Lecturer Arrested.
So she stepped onto the sand, her sandals sinking. Grains slipped between her toes, and she scrunched her nose as they scratched her skin. She kept her gaze on the ocean waves, counting as they rolled towards the shore, her hands solid fists at her sides.
She scanned the beach, looking for Faye, forcing her feet forward. Unable to spot her in any of the groups, disappointment curled in her belly. Was that just because of her phone?
Of course, it was.
With nothing else to do, Diana continued walking, following the curve of the shoreline.
The soft whoosh of the waves teased her memories, but she pushed forward, focusing on the itchy feeling between her toes instead.
She followed a flock of birds as they soared over the waves and landed on the cliffs.
I bet Faye knows what type of birds they are.
She bit her lip. Stop thinking about her!
She needed to focus on her relationship with Molly, on clearing her writer’s block, on getting back to the top of her game so she could deal with anything Selena threw at her next. Not whatever this curiosity was with Faye.
But then she noticed someone with long brown hair crouched beside the cliffs. Her heart did a stupid little flutter, and she bit harder on her lip. It’d been so long since Diana had had any sort of time to consider a romantic interest that her body had gone completely overboard.
Never mind that Faye was the first woman to kiss her in a year—and she was at least ten years older than her.
She laughed to herself. Leanne would think she’d lost her marbles.
I just need my phone. That’s all.
She smoothed out her blue dress and then started over towards Faye, her tummy squirming with nerves. No—Diana didn’t get nervous. She was just curious.
Faye wore black denim shorts and an oversized lilac T-shirt, hair hanging straight over her shoulders. She looked up from her binoculars and her face broke into a smile, making Diana’s heart do a funny little flip.
“Come here,” she whispered. “Quick.” She handed Diana the warm binoculars and pointed towards the sea, guiding her arm until she faced the right direction.
Diana’s breath hitched as Faye’s vanilla scent filled her senses. “What am I looking at?”
“See those birds in the water?”
She blinked. All she could see were the deep blue waves bobbing up and down.
“You might need to adjust the focus.” Faye’s soft fingers touched Diana’s, and she gasped, heat sparking at the contact. “There.”
Diana blew out a breath and adjusted the dials until the image focused. Three brown, ordinary birds bobbed along the waves. “I see them. What are they?”
“They’re Balearic shearwaters. Endangered. Quite rare to spot. It’s breeding season, so I was hoping to see them nesting in the cliffs or caves down there. Spotting a group is a good sign, though.”