Chapter 5
FAYE
Faye hadn’t been as enthusiastic as usual when she’d logged on this morning. For the past three weeks her most hardy book club attendees, Howard and Margot, hadn’t turned up. She hoped they hadn’t left for good. But the way her luck was going these days anything was possible.
She’d chosen to do this book club session in a quiet café well away from her apartment and the town’s main drag, away from the water-sports business, away from anyone who knew her and away from the salon, because even that had started to become uncomfortable.
She’d thought she could manage, hold her head up high until the gossip died down, but she couldn’t do it any more.
She’d cancelled her clients for the next month, told the salon she’d be on long-term leave.
It was all too much. Aside from the scandal and the fact that she was still furious with her sister for bringing this drama to their family, she also needed time to adjust to life now she wasn’t getting married.
She’d gone between being devastated about losing Brad, to angry at how he’d ended things, then she’d gone all the way back to being upset.
She’d texted him; he hadn’t replied. She’d called; he hadn’t answered.
She wanted to ask how he could throw away the last two years of them being together and the plans they’d made.
But perhaps given he’d done it so easily and now wasn’t contactable, she’d had a lucky escape.
She shivered as the temperature appeared to drop and a familiar scent hung in the air.
It was going to rain – she was sure of it – and her hopes were fading that the book club was going to happen this week.
The only consolation was that nobody here in the café was looking at her.
People would think she was just another freelancer making the most of a day working from home, her laptop in front of her, sipping on a coffee as she got things done.
Within thirty seconds of her thinking it, a few drops pre-empted proper rainfall.
It had been sunny when she’d arrived but now she watched each drop hit the ground and rebound off, creating a little dancing pattern all the way along the street.
It wasn’t even wet season yet, not in August, that would come between December and February when the humidity would hit too.
She pulled her table a little bit away from the edge so she was definitely fully under cover. The screeching sound of the legs on the ground announced to everyone what she was doing.
A waitress nearby rushed over to help her. ‘You don’t want your laptop to get wet.’ She looked at the near-empty cup. ‘More coffee?’
‘Yes, please. Soy latte?’
If the waitress recognised her, she was kind enough not to say. That or the waitress had decided it was none of her business, which Faye wished everyone else could understand.
The rain upped its tempo in a way that suggested the Queensland weather gods liked to remind residents that they weren’t in charge.
Faye listened to the downpour and took out her copy of Maeve Binchy’s Circle of Friends, the book Winston had chosen last week when it was just Faye, Winston, and Joel at the session.
Apparently Maeve Binchy was his mother’s favourite author.
He’d read Light a Penny Candle and loved it.
She wasn’t sure why his admission had been a little sheepish – men were after all allowed to enjoy whatever sort of fiction they liked, just as women were.
At least she had a good book to lose herself in while she waited to see whether anyone else turned up to this week’s book club.
Winston and Joel had already sent their apologies, and Sarah had said two weeks ago that this week she wouldn’t be able to make it.
So now it was just Howard and Margot who would possibly sign in but so far, neither of them were here.
She opened up the book as her second coffee arrived.
Novels set in Ireland had a magic all of their own and the setting reminded her of her time in England.
She remembered the flip of the seasons, clearly delineated from one another.
Right now they’d be in summer with the long days they didn’t get here in Queensland no matter the time of year, the bright colours of flowers and sunshine that the middle of the year brought with it, the coming alive of a country that had felt dormant over winter.
She missed the seasons and she missed her dad and with the scandal going on and losing Brad as well as another clash with her sister, she felt so alone.
She wanted to hide herself away until the vultures backed off.
She breathed in the smell of rain as she sipped her coffee, mesmerised by the weather.
Petrichor, wasn’t that the word for the smell that came with rain?
It had been in a book they’d chosen for book club a couple of months back.
She’d never realised rain officially had a smell.
She’d thought it was her, imagining the earthy aroma, the scent she often detected even before the rain came, like she had some kind of superpower.
Did the rain smell different in England? In Dorset?
She was almost too preoccupied to notice she wasn’t on her own in her Zoom session any more because here was Margot, wearing beautiful navy silk pyjamas with a thin white stripe around the collar.
‘Margot! It’s wonderful to see you!’
Margot beamed. ‘You too! I’ve missed you. Where is everyone else?’
She explained about Joel, Winston, and Sarah. ‘And Howard hasn’t been here for three weeks,’ she added lastly.
‘Three weeks? That’s not like him.’
Margot had sent her apologies each time she couldn’t make it but Howard hadn’t. ‘He hasn’t emailed me at all,’ she shared with Margot.
‘Have you sent him a message?’
‘I sent him one last week and the week before. He didn’t reply.’
Margot paused. ‘You don’t think…’
‘Don’t think what?’
‘Well, he was being hassled by the developer. At first he sounded like he was taking their little drop-in visits in his stride, but the last time he mentioned it he sounded like it might be getting to him.’
‘I thought so too.’ And Faye hated thinking his life was being impacted by someone bothering him. She knew what that was like after all. ‘But I’m sure he’s fine.’
‘Hopefully we’ll hear from him soon,’ said Margot.
‘I’ll send him another email later on. Perhaps he’s just busy. The bookshop sounds popular.’
‘It does, and do let me know if he replies, won’t you?’
‘Of course.’
Margot frowned. ‘What on earth is that noise?’
‘It’s a different sort of ambience, isn’t it?’ Faye turned the laptop briefly to show the downpour, which looked all the more impressive as it hit the canopy and ran straight off.
‘That sound is rain? It’s so loud!’
‘Tropical rain.’ Faye turned the laptop back so that she was on camera. ‘And in the summer it’s often way heavier than this.’
‘I love the rain.’
She could remember a similar feeling when she was a little girl, dancing in and out of puddles with her sister, their wellington boots on, when rain was fun rather than a nuisance.
When her twin was a little girl just like her and didn’t come with all the drama she liked to surround herself with now.
‘When I lived in England the rain always made me want to cosy up,’ she told Margot. ‘You can’t do that here when it gets hot and sticky. You just have to shelter.’
‘Well, it looks like you’ve picked a good spot to do that.’ But then she frowned. ‘It’s odd with just the two of us. I don’t think this has happened before, has it?’
‘No, not that I can remember. I don’t think it happened to Auntie Clare either. She built the book club for insomniacs like her and from memory she said there were usually a few of them attending each week.’
‘Your auntie sounds like a real character.’
‘She was, and I really wanted to continue the book club for her.’
‘She’d be proud of you.’
‘Not for how many members show up she wouldn’t.’
Margot gasped. ‘Please tell me you’re not going to put a stop to the club?’
That was what she’d been thinking as members fell away and even her hardiest members hadn’t shown for the last three weeks but seeing Margot’s reaction, and remembering what the club had meant to Auntie Clare, how could she?
‘Don’t panic. I intend to keep it going and who knows, maybe next week there’ll be a whole load of us. ’
The rain upped its tempo and Faye had to speak a bit louder as they got to talking about their book choice Circle of Friends.
‘I raced through the book,’ said Margot. ‘Beautiful Ireland, fantastic characters: it was brilliant.’
As they settled into chatting, Faye went to her happy place, a place that was far removed from her sad reality.
When it was time to say goodbye, Margot was first to notice that the sunshine was back for Faye.
Faye smiled. ‘Queensland is a bit like that. Heavy rains one minute and the next? Well, you wouldn’t even know it had happened.’
‘Not like here. When the rain comes, it lingers. But I love it though, it’s always peaceful sitting inside and watching it pelt against the windows.’
Faye bet Margot had a beautiful home. Whatever room she was in was bigger than Faye’s whole apartment, by the looks of things, and had a fully equipped gym in the background.