“Hey,” says Noah, making her jump.
She looks at him over her sunglasses, but can’t bring herself to say anything, her vivid imagination rendering her speechless.
“You okay?” he asks, pulling out the chair opposite hers.
“Fine,” she says tersely.
“Look,” he says, leaning his elbows on the table to get closer. “I think we need to talk.”
“There’s nothing to say.”
Noah sighs heavily. “I’m really very sorry about last night,” he says.
Rachel looks around the terrace self-consciously.
“I’m sorry for what I did,” he says. “It really wasn’t helpful under the circumstances.”
“Have you said anything?” she asks.
His eyes narrow. “To who?”
“Jack,” says Rachel, unable to believe she needs to spell it out. “Or Paige.”
She’s relieved to see him look at her as if she’s crazy. “Of course not,” he says. “I can’t believe you even need to ask.”
“Not even at the time?” she adds. “You didn’t ever insinuate or allude to what had gone on?”
“No,” he says. “More’s the pity.”
“And what’s that supposed to mean?”
“If I had,” he says, “it might have saved us all the trouble.”
She goes to speak, but the weight of his words sits heavily on her shoulders.
“And nothing was mentioned last night,” she asks, her paranoia getting the better of her, “when Paige came up to bed?”
Noah shakes his head. “I was asleep by then.”
“Jack didn’t come up until some ungodly hour this morning, either. What if she’s told them?”
“Who?” asks Noah.
“Ali!” she exclaims.
“Well, if she’s told them she saw me trying to kiss you, then I’ll hold my hands up and blame it on water on the brain.” He laughs, but Rachel remains stony-faced at his attempt at a joke. Nothing about this is funny, she thinks.
“And what if she heard us?” she asks. “Heard us talking about…” She can’t bring herself to say it. “What are we going to do then?”
“She wouldn’t have heard anything,” says Noah. “She was too far away.”
His attempt to assuage Rachel’s darkest fear is silently appreciated, though she doesn’t like to admit that he was too drunk to be able to judge distances, or his behavior.
“And if Paige had any inkling of what went on, I can assure you, we’d both know about it by now.”
Rachel feels momentarily satisfied. He’s right—Paige had seemed completely normal just now.
“She might have told Jack, then,” she says, her mind in overdrive. “After Paige had gone to bed.” Though, even as she’s saying it, she knows that talking is the last thing they’d be doing if they’d unexpectedly found themselves on their own. The thought makes her feel sick.
“Well, have you seen him this morning?” asks Noah.
“He went out about twenty minutes ago,” she says, though she doesn’t admit that she’d pretended to be asleep when he left.
“Well, there you go then,” says Noah, smiling. “I think it’s safe to say we’re in the clear.”
“This isn’t a game,” she says, unable to believe his cavalier attitude.
“I’m not treating it as such,” says Noah, turning to look out across the ocean. “I’m sorry for trying to kiss you, but I don’t regret it.”
“You don’t regret it?” says Rachel in a shrill voice. “We’re both married, and in case it’s escaped your attention, our partners are here with us. They could have seen. They could have heard.”
Noah looks at her. “But they didn’t.”
Rachel tsks. “I would ask that you stay away from me today,” she says. “I don’t want Ali to see us together.”
Noah nods. “So, when are we going to talk about—？”
“Speaking of the devil,” says Rachel, cutting him off. “I’d better go and check on her, as we don’t want the bride oversleeping, do we?”
“We need to talk,” says Noah after her, but she pretends not to hear.
She can feel his eyes watching her as she disappears down the stairs that lead to Will and Ali’s room. He’s no doubt dismayed at how she can switch off her emotions so easily. She doesn’t want him to see that she can’t.