‘Looks like the early birds got a second wind,’ Eleanor noted, a touch unhelpfully, she had to admit.
Bella pursed her lips. ‘I’m going to bed.’
Eleanor almost felt guilty as she watched Bella limp into the villa, shoulders rounding.
‘Nightcap?’ Ana asked.
It had become their evening ritual on the hen weekend, a final drink shared on the terrace while the air was still cool and the volume of the other hens had been lowered. She fancied one more drink to ease her towards sleep, make sure she drifted off. Yet she could hardly sit out here with Ana after learning Ed was the father of her child. ‘No, thank you,’ she said primly.
‘Thought you never slept before one o’clock?’
It was true. Eleanor was dooming herself to lying on the mattress, locked in a cycle of dark thoughts. No, she didn’t fancy that one little bit. Maybe she would have one more drink. Anyway, she needed to work out what Ana was up to. ‘Go on, then.’
Ana smiled, a wide genuine smile, and Eleanor thought, It’s such a shame you’re lying to us all, because I liked you. Eleanor had let herself imagine a friendship with Ana that stretched beyond the hen weekend. She’d pictured the two of them sharing a pew at the wedding. Ana would have squeezed her hand in silent acknowledgement that the wedding would be hard because of Sam, and Eleanor would’ve smiled stoically. So many fantasies, so quickly built, and so quickly lost.
She lowered herself onto the cushions, then undid the top button of her shorts. Ah, better! A fitted waistband and saganaki were never a good mix.
She heard the opening and closing of cupboards from within the villa as Ana made the drinks. Juliana, she corrected herself.
She thought back to the soured atmosphere at home when Ed was twenty-one and, instead of going to the pub for their usual Christmas Eve meal, Ed and their father were drawing up contracts in the study. She remembered catching a smug comment from Ed and didn’t need to have studied law to understand the gist of what was happening: they were paying the girl off.
‘Here you go,’ Ana said, returning. ‘I went with espresso martini.’
She even made delicious drinks.
They clinked glasses and Eleanor took a small swallow. Only this morning she had been thinking how much Sam would have liked Ana. There was a lack of artifice – like earlier in the bar when she’d refused to apologise to Bella for helping choose Lexi’s wedding dress. Why should that be a secret?
And yet, she’d been keeping her own much bigger secret this entire time.
Ed had specifically instructed Eleanor to say nothing, and he was right: better for Lexi to hear the truth from him. She didn’t want to blow everything apart, not out here.
The problem was, Eleanor thought, taking another swallow of her drink, that sometimes she didn’t have a filter. People said that about her, as if it were a bad thing, but Sam had always liked it: ‘You say what you think, EJ. More people should try it.’ Right now, she was trying very, very hard to filter, to not say every single thought that came into her head.
Ana, you’re lying to me.
You and Ed have a child.
He is my nephew.
I would’ve liked to have had a chance to be an auntie.
Why did you hunt out Lexi?
What do you want from her?
What are you really doing here, Juliana?
See? She was doing well with all the filtering. All she needed to do was keep up the good work for another twenty-four hours, and then they’d return home and Ed could sort out this mess. Meanwhile, she’d be watching Ana closely.
Ana took a sip of her drink, then tipped her face towards the stars. She looked peaceful, relaxed, like she hadn’t a care in the world.
Eleanor had no idea what her game was, but she planned to find out.
But then, she thought darkly, I suppose we’ve all got a game.
Eleanor finished the second espresso martini. She was just about drunk enough to sleep – although the caffeine probably wasn’t her most brilliant idea. As she stood, she felt the ground move with her.
‘Think I’m done, too,’ Ana said, picking up their empty glasses and following Eleanor through to the kitchen. She set the glasses in the sink, then opened the fridge. ‘Shall we apologise to our liver with these?’ She held out two bottles of water.
‘I make my apologies with carbs.’
Ana smiled warmly. ‘It’s been really good meeting you on this hen weekend.’
See? Friends. We could’ve been good friends. Why did Ana have to go and ruin it?
‘I’m looking forward to meeting Ed, too,’ she said.