Did everyone do that?
An image popped into her thoughts: her mother flying through the house, nails manicured, wearing a mask of freshly applied make-up, emptying the overflowing bin, removing all traces of herself before Lexi’s father arrived home.
She glanced sideways at Bella. ‘What do you think of him?’
‘Who?’
‘Ed.’
There was a pause. ‘He’s nice.’
‘Damned by faint praise.’
‘Remember, I’m the sort of horrible, brittle-souled person who never thinks her friends’ boyfriends are good enough, as Robyn’s pointed out.’
‘You and Robyn were talking about Ed?’
‘Only in passing,’ she said quickly. ‘Ed’s a lawyer, so he obviously gets the Robyn-seal-of-approval.’
Lexi tried to keep her tone casual as she asked, ‘What would award him the Bella-seal-of-approval?’
‘No idea. It’s never been handed out.’
Lexi realised how much she needed Bella to say, You know what, I adore him. He’s hilarious! He’s the best! I can’t wait for us to hang out more. You’ve made a great choice. You’re going to be so happy!
‘I want the two of you to get on. It’s important to me.’
Bella looked straight at her. Nodded. ‘Okay, I’ll try harder.’
Lexi sensed Bella was holding something back. ‘What is it? What aren’t you telling me?’
‘Nothing.’
It was the quickness of the reply that caused the flicker of doubt to flame. Lexi reached forward and pushed Bella’s sunglasses onto the top of her head. ‘Bella?’ she said, looking her right in the eye. ‘What is it?’ As Lexi waited, she felt her heart rate speeding up, as if – all along – she’d been expecting, waiting, to find a problem.
‘It’s no big deal. It’s nothing.’
‘What isn’t?’
Bella sighed. ‘Just that Cynthia – you know my friend who was a lap-dancer? – well, she mentioned that Ed used to come into the club a lot. He was a regular. That’s all.’ Bella broke eye contact, her gaze slipping to her lap.
‘Oh. That,’ Lexi said with relief. ‘Ed works in the city. They’ve all got too much money and don’t know what to spend it on. He’s told me about it – but he doesn’t go anymore.’ She was surprised Ed’s history of visiting lap-dancing clubs would trouble Bella. ‘That’s all, is it? That was your reservation about Ed?’
Bella resettled her sunglasses. ‘All cleared up.’
Neither of them said anything further.
Lexi lay back on her towel, the deck hard beneath her spine as she stared up at the cloudless sky.
32
Fen
Fen swam towards the yacht, heart light. She held onto the ladder as she removed her dive fins.
‘We made it!’ Robyn beamed, reaching her side. She trod water as she peeled off her snorkel mask, red indents bracketing her temples.
‘The wanderers return!’ Bella emerged at the stern, bikini straps pushed down, dark glasses on. The Greek flag billowed above her as she leaned over, saying, ‘Pass up your fins.’
Fen handed them to her, then climbed the ladder to where the others lounged in their swimwear with drinks.
‘How was the swimming hole?’ Lexi asked.
‘Absolutely beautiful,’ Fen said, rubbing salt water from her shorn hair.
‘It really was,’ Robyn said, breathless as she clambered on deck, dripping. ‘It’s this perfect azure pool right in the middle of rocks. God, it was amazing! But colder – definitely colder than the sea.’ Robyn fished a towel from her beach bag and made a turban of her wet hair.
‘You’ve been gone ages,’ Bella said. She stood on her tiptoes, kissing Fen on the mouth, her sun-baked body pressing briefly against Fen’s damp skin. Fen felt herself pulling back.
‘Was there somewhere you could dive from?’ Eleanor asked, a book shading the sun from her eyes.
Robyn answered, ‘One of the rocks juts forward like a natural dive platform. It felt so high. I can’t believe I did it. It was such a rush!’
‘You little thrill-seeker, you!’ Bella said.
Fen knew that if Bella had been there, they’d all have had permission to enthuse about the adventure – but since she wasn’t, Bella wouldn’t want to hear about it.
Yannis called from below, ‘Lunch coming in five minutes, okay?’
Everyone murmured their approval. ‘Whatever he’s preparing smells incredible,’ Lexi said.