“Thanks.” I hurry out before the woman can ask anything else.
Brandon is reading some poster in the window of the bookshop. “Got what you need?”
“Yes.”
I need a bathroom too but that might have to wait. I’m not going to ask the pharmacist to use her facilities. “Where to next?”
We fall into step down the alley-that-calls-itself-a-high-street.
He points towards the bottom. “That’s the village square. We can try Les Etoiles, it’s the Guest House where I stayed before, and they have a café attached. I think they’ll be open for breakfast. We can get coffee and find a phone to call George Du Montfort.”
“Coffee would be good.” If they have a café, then they probably also have a bathroom.
Had things been different, I might have enjoyed the walk. The stream is pretty with a paved bank and long blue-green grasses on the other side. The morning is still fresh. Even the alley-that-calls-itself-a-high-street is rather charming in a chocolate box kind of way.
Les Etoiles Guest House looks like a three-story villa with French windows and a terrace. And they do indeed have a café.
Brandon suggests a table by the window. “Shall I order pastries?”
My eyes are busy searching for a ladies’ room. “Yes, that’s fine.” I’m distracted because I’ve just spotted a sign for the ladies’.
“I’ll just be a minute.” I make myself walk, not run, to the bathroom.
Once inside, with the door closed and locked, I open my bag.
One test should have been enough, but I want to make doubly, doubly sure. The instruction leaflet said to wait three to five minutes to let the test develop.
3 minutes is 180 seconds, 5 minutes is 300 seconds.
I close the toilet lid, sit down, and count in my head.
One green bottle.
Two green bottles.
Three green bottles.
God please. God, let it be negative.
Thirty-one green bottles, thirty-two…
I mean, I’ve had enough thrown at me lately. This I could really do without.
Seventy-nine green bottles…
Clive. How will I tell Clive?
One hundred and five green bottles.
This is the worst timing of all. The press will shred us both.
Two hundred and one green bottles.
If the test comes out negative, I’m going to be so grateful, I’ll donate half my life to charity.
Two hundred and four green bottles.
Sod it!
