He reaches across to the bedside table to retrieve his phone. Having unlocked it and launched the app, he hands it to me. There are just two messages:
Robert
I’m sorry. For everything.
Fliss
How’s Jamaica, dickhead?
‘She’s still quite angry, isn’t she?’ I observe gently as I hand the phone back.
‘She is, but at least she replied. It’s a start.’
Something occurs to me and I laugh softly.
‘What?’ he asks.
‘When I first met you, I thought you were the most objectionable human being I’d ever come across?—’
‘Gee, thanks!’
‘You know it’s true. But it turns out that there’s a good man lurking under the gruff exterior. We just need to find a way to remind Fliss of that fact.’
‘I’ve got some ideas. Right, do you want to jump in the shower first? I’ve got to shave and stuff, so I’ll probably take a while.’
‘That would be lovely, thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’
As the hot water cascades over me, I can’t help but be amazed by the change in Robert. He’s twenty times the man Stuart is. If there’s anything I can do to help Fliss see that, I decide, then I’ll do it.
16
This is more like it, I think as I spread my towel over one of the sun loungers on the beach. Although it’s only just gone nine o’clock, it’s already pleasantly warm and there are a number of people in the sea, which I have to admit looks very inviting. I’ll join them in a while, once I’ve polished off a few chapters of my book. It’s difficult not to sigh with pleasure as I settle myself and pick up my Kindle.
‘There you are,’ a furious voice says a few minutes later, when I’m just getting immersed in the story. I look up to see Stuart standing over me with an expression like thunder. ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’
‘Hello, Stuart,’ I say flatly. ‘Is there something I can do for you?’
‘I think you’ve already done quite enough, don’t you?’
‘I’m sorry?’
‘“Ask him where he was on New Year’s Eve”. What the bloody hell were you thinking, Tori?’
I put down my book and take off my sunglasses so he can hopefully register the anger in my eyes. ‘Listen, arsehole,’ Ibegin. ‘Have you ever heard the expression “you reap what you sow”?’
‘Don’t try to be clever. You were bang out of order. You could have ruined everything. What happened to our agreement to pretend it never happened?’
‘I don’t remember us making an agreement. I remember you threatening to tell her a load of bollocks about me practically tying you to the bed and begging you to have sex with me because I’m so needy and pathetic, to try to make sure I kept my mouth shut. But here’s the thing, Stewie, you’ve told her that anyway, haven’t you. So what’s in it for me, eh? Why shouldn’t I tell my side of the story?’
‘Because, you evil, manipulative little bi?—’
‘I’d stop right there, if I were you,’ I interrupt him. ‘Quite apart from the fact that I will slap you so hard they’ll be looking for your head on the next island if you ever,ever, call me the name that was on the tip of your tongue just then, if anyone here is being evil and manipulative, it’s you. You created this situation and, although I am deeply, deeply ashamed of having allowed myself to be taken in by you, I’m not the guilty party here.’
‘You were a pretty willing participant at the time,’ he snarls. ‘I’d say that makes you just as guilty as me.’
‘Are you for real? Which part of “I’m shagging someone else behind my girlfriend’s back” being utterly morally bankrupt don’t you understand? Unlike you, I was a completely free agent and, as I think I’ve made clear already, I wouldn’t have come within a mile of you if I’d known that you weren’t. It’s none of my business what lies you’ve told Amy, but that’s a lie you told me, and I’ll hold you to account for it all day long if I need to.’
