Chapter 22
Sampath was sitting in a café trying to work out the words to break the news of Marcus’s infidelity when Kalpana called him.
‘Please can you change my flight date so that I can go home sooner?’
Anxiety stabbed at him. ‘Has something happened?’ His first thought was that there was a family emergency.
‘I’m not getting married. Marcus,’ she paused and swallowed before carrying on, ‘he’s been cheating on me. I want to go home. As soon as possible.’
His mind whirred. His first feeling was relief.
She had found out without him needing to tell her.
She wasn’t going to marry Marcus! That didn’t mean anything was going to happen with him, though.
He was still her wedding planner. He had seen bigger drama than this before a wedding.
Couples often got back together within days.
‘Are you sure you want to do that? Do you want to see how you feel when you’ve both calmed down?’
Kalpana said, ‘No. It won’t make a difference. I won’t change my mind. Can you get Lal to take me back to Colombo, please?’
‘Of course,’ he said. His boss would be furious, but it was better than letting Kalpana marry someone who didn’t deserve her. ‘Let me call him. Um … Kalpana, you know I have to talk to Marcus, right?’
She sighed. ‘Yes. I know. He’s the one paying for everything.’
‘He is, but you’re both my clients. I need to make sure you’re both okay,’ he said, even though he didn’t give a hoot how Marcus was right now. ‘Also, it’s quite short notice, so I may not be able to get you a flight back tonight or tomorrow.’
‘So long as I’m not on the same flight home as him,’ she said. ‘I just want to be as far away from him as I can.’
‘Leave it with me,’ he said.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘And Sampath?’
‘Yes?’
‘I’m glad I have you.’
‘Me too.’ He hung up and stared straight ahead, not seeing anything.
Well, that made things interesting. He waited for his heart to stop doing jubilant somersaults.
Yes, Kalpana was free of Marcus now, but that didn’t mean she would be interested in him.
Even if she was, she was still his client and he absolutely could not say anything to her about his feelings.
He may no longer be planning her wedding, but he was still working for her and Marcus.
Grant was going to go bananas when he heard this. Sampath was probably out of a job. Well, he wasn’t fired yet. Until then, he would do his job. It was the best way to look after Kalpana.
The first thing he did was call Lal and relay instructions to bring Kalpana back to Colombo.
‘Where to exactly?’
Oh, that’s right. He hadn’t sorted out any accommodation for her. ‘Can I call you when you’re en route and update you? There’s about a dozen calls I need to make right now.’
He texted Kalpana to say that Lal was on his way and would meet her in the foyer.
Next, he called Marcus.
‘I guess you heard,’ said Marcus. ‘Kalpana was very sure you’d take care of her.’
Sampath heard the sting in his voice. He forced himself not to respond to it. This, too, was something that happened when couples fought.
‘You’re both my clients,’ he said, smoothly. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to reconcile—’
‘No,’ said Marcus. ‘Kalpana’s been acting up the whole time we’ve been here. I thought she was chill, you know. But turns out, she’s just the same as all the other women. She just took longer to show how demanding she could be.’
The idea of Kalpana ‘acting up’ when all Marcus had done was undermine her, ignore her and cheat on her was rich! Sampath pinched his own arm to stop himself from snapping.
‘She asked me to change her flight, if I can. I thought you should know.’
‘Yes. Do that.’
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘What about you?’
‘I’m going to stay and finish my damn holiday,’ said Marcus.
‘If I need to book Kalpana a room in Colombo for tonight …?’
‘She can pay for it herself. I’m already sending her back in the van I hired, she should be grateful.’
‘Don’t be petty, dude.’
‘Don’t you tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m paying you to sort things out for this holiday. Do your job.’
The client was always right. Kalpana was his client too, though, so he said, ‘There will be some fees for changing the flight and a few other expenses. I will, of course, stop looking for wedding venues and things, but—’
‘Look, who’s paying you? Me or her? Huh?’ Marcus snapped. ‘It’s her fault the wedding is off. She can pay for any of the—’
The nerve of the guy. ‘The wedding is off because you cheated on her.’
‘Watch yourself. I will speak to your supervisor about this.’
That was a threat with teeth, but Sampath was too angry to care. He took refuge in protocol. He had to stop talking to Marcus and make more calls. But first he had to help her get away. ‘In the event of you, the client, changing your mind, the contract—’
‘Yes, yes. I know what the contract says. Fine. I’ll pay any fees and for a taxi to take her to the airport. Just add it to the damn bill.’
‘Okay.’
‘Whatever you do, make sure she isn’t going home on the same plane as me,’ Marcus said. ‘Send her via America if you have to.’
‘I’ll see what I can do.’ He hung up and blew out his cheeks. This was a mess. He pulled up his notes and found the airline contact details. This was going to be a complicated and expensive task.
In the end, he managed to get her a flight that left at 5 a.m. the following morning. Did he need to book Kalpana a room somewhere? She would need to leave for the airport that night. But she’d need a shower, food and possibly a nap. He needed to discuss a budget with Kalpana.
His phone rang. It was Lal.
‘Listen,’ Lal said quickly when he answered the phone. In quiet Sinhala, he said, ‘Sir called and told me that after dropping the lady off, I should go to another address and pick someone up and bring them back to here.’
‘He’s the one hiring the vehicle, so do it,’ Sampath replied, also in Sinhala. He assumed Kalpana was in the van, being driven back.
‘I’m guessing here,’ said Lal. ‘But is this some other woman that he’s got?’
‘I expect it is.’
There was a pause. ‘That bastard. Poor madam.’
‘How is she?’
‘Crying,’ Lal said.
Sampath’s heart broke a little. ‘I’ve just sorted out her …’ he paused to find a word that wasn’t the English word ‘flight’, ‘… journey. I’ll make sure she gets to it all right. In fact, I’ll call her now and tell her.’
‘Okay.’
He hung up and scrolled through some hotel options, then, on the off chance, called Mrs Peiris to see if she had a room free in the B&B for one night.
Thankfully, she did. The place was basic, but clean and it was near the beach.
It cost a fraction of the price of the hotel.
If Kalpana needed a place to regroup, it would do and he would be close at hand if she needed him.
Once he’d booked her in for the night, he called her and told her.
‘I’ve booked you a room in the guest house I’m staying in. It’s not fancy, but it’s clean and—’
‘Oh, thank you so much,’ she said. ‘That sounds great. I’ve had enough of fancy hotels. Somewhere homely would be a nice change. Cheap is helpful too.’
‘How are you feeling?’
She gave a little sniff. ‘I don’t even know. Angry, I suppose.’
He wasn’t surprised she was angry. He would be too. ‘I can understand that.’ Should he tell her about what Lal had told him? No, he decided. Why add to her troubles? ‘I wish there was something I could say that would help.’
She sniffed again and his heart twisted.
‘Thank you for being there for me,’ she said. ‘You’re a real friend.’
‘I’ll see you in a bit,’ he said, forcing himself to smile, so that he sounded cheerful. Once he hung up, he put his head in his hands. Friend. Right.
***
Kalpana was shown a small room in the neat little B&B.
It was only just big enough to hold the bed, with its mosquito net, a desk and a wardrobe.
The shower and toilet were a shared facility on the landing.
Through the window, she had a view of coconut trees.
The sounds of people on the street filtered in.
It was very different to the hotels she’d been staying in.
The landlady, Mrs Pieris, had been very kind.
When she realised that Kalpana hadn’t eaten since breakfast, she had insisted that Kalpana and Sampath both have dinner early.
It was the best meal Kalpana had eaten all holiday.
It was clear that Sampath had told Mrs Peiris about what had happened to Kalpana because she kept giving her pitying looks and piling more food onto her plate.
Somehow it wasn’t annoying. The sheer amount of motherly bustle was comforting.
After dinner, Sampath suggested a little walk.
‘I’m sorry,’ Sampath said. ‘I told Mrs Pieris. I hope you don’t mind. I had to explain why you were turning up in a hurry and … it seemed best to tell the truth.’
‘I don’t mind at all,’ she said. ‘It’s nice to be looked after.’ She looked up and sighed, blinking back the tears that reappeared. ‘She’s been kinder than my mother would have been. Mum would have been giving me a lecture about what I did wrong by now.’
‘You didn’t do anything wrong,’ he said. ‘You just fell out of love.’
***
Sampath suggested they went down to the beach and back. The beach around here wasn’t as clean and well-tended as the beach owned by the hotel, but it was still the ocean. It was Kalpana’s last day in Sri Lanka. The walk seemed to cheer her up.
They returned to the house and went round to the garden at the back.
It was a small area of grass surrounded by flowers.
There was a stone bench, where Sampath had sat earlier that morning.
Kalpana sat down. Sampath sat at the other end of the bench, about a foot away from her.
He had to keep his distance, because every minute was a battle against the impulse to gather her up in his arms and tell her that he would keep her safe.