Well. She couldn’t think about that now. She couldn’t. All she could think about was him. She steeled herself – and knocked.
There was no answer. Nothing. The entire building really did feel empty, as if there had been a fire alarm; she was sure she could sense nobody there. She turned the handle of the door and found it swinging open.
With a guilty sense of trespassing, she walked in. The window faced over the town; you could just see a snow-topped Arthur’s Seat. The snowfall outside was thickening by the minute.
But in the room itself there was nothing. A whiteboard left with a beautifully intricate sketch of some deep roots on it. Blu-Tack on the walls where perhaps pictures had been.
No computer; an empty desk, a lamp, an office chair and a sitting chair, with several other stacked chairs for seminars. Nothing else. A long bookshelf, with nothing but a thin line of dust on it. No books.
Carmen swallowed, a mounting dread growing in her. No. It wasn’t possible. He hadn’t gone. He was staying. He’d told her. That he … that he might stay.
She heard footsteps and turned round, panicked, looking back up the corridor.
The figure advanced slowly, carrying a large paper box and as it gradually revealed itself, Carmen felt her heart pound.
‘Skylar,’ she said.
Skylar stared at her.
‘Oh. You. Are you looking for Oke?’
Carmen felt a tiny prick of hope.
‘Yes … ’
‘He’s gone.’
‘Gone where?’
‘Gone home. He decided not to extend. Why did you want to see him?’
Carmen couldn’t answer that.
‘Have you spoken to Sofia?’ she said instead.
Skylar let out a hollow laugh.
‘Oh yes. Don’t worry about me. I don’t need to work with those damaged kids for a second longer.’
‘They’re great kids!’
Skylar shrugged.
‘None of you are in the least bit spiritual. None of you. It’s so damaging.’
‘No,’ said Carmen, finding it in herself to smile. ‘Well. Maybe not.’
She frowned.
‘Where will you go?’
‘Oh, don’t worry about me,’ said Skylar. ‘I’m going to London for Christmas with Blair. Oh sorry, is that a sore spot?’
Carmen looked at her.
‘Nope,’ she said.
In fact, Blair had not invited Skylar at all and was making increasingly strenuous excuses to stop her coming, but Skylar had a gleam of persistence about her and couldn’t bear to go back to her parents’ new-build tiny little house on an executive estate just outside Slough where they called her by her birth name – Janet – and lived off Iceland lasagne which they ate in front of Come Dine With Me while talking about the Neighbourhood Watch scheme. A fate worse than death. She’d take her chances with Blair, even if he was spending a lot of time asking her to leave the hotel as he had work to do.
‘But I did want to see Oke.’
‘Well, you’re too late,’ said Skylar gleefully. ‘He’s flying out. I saw him at … ’
She realised her mistake and stopped.
‘At what?’
‘Uh, at your party,’ she said quickly.
‘But you said he wasn’t there,’ said Carmen, tears springing to her eyes.