Charlotte attempted a smile.
‘Very retro.’
‘I don’t care. I like it.’
‘OK, you stay there. I’ll get them.’
‘What are you drinking?
‘Brandy.’
‘Okaaay.’
As Charlotte got up, Sofia caught a whiff of neat alcohol on her breath. It was worse than she’d thought. Thea and Theo had told them to help themselves at the bar if the couple had already gone to bed. And it looked like Charlotte had taken them at her word. They were supposed to make a note of what they took in a little book. She’d better check later that her friend had fessed up.
Charlotte’s phone was lying on the table. And it was ringing. On mute, but Sofia could see it was DCB again, calling rather than texting this time. She wasn’t spying; it was there for anyone to look at.
When Charlotte came back with the drinks and put them down on the table a little too forcefully, a bit of the Cointreau slipped over the side and onto the wood.
‘Have you got a hankie, Char? That stuff’s like sugary glue. God knows what it’s doing to my stomach.’
Charlotte pulled out a tissue from her bag and did some ineffectual mopping up. The phone was still ringing on silent.
‘Give the hankie here.’
Sofia got a small glass of water from the bar and cleaned up the mess. She indicated down at the phone.
‘Everything alright? Whoever it is, is very persistent.’
Charlotte was all too aware of who it was: her scumbag of a husband.
She was saved from answering by the arrival of Maddie coming through the door and the sound of a motorbike roaring off into the distance. Their friend’s hair was all over the place, but she had a radiant glow that Sofia recognised immediately. She looked nothing like the woman who’d gone out earlier that evening.
Both of them put down their drinks and rushed to her side.
As soon as they reached her, Maddie burst into tears and the three of them ended up in a group hug. It only lasted a few moments before she pulled away.
‘Don’t worry about me, honestly, I’m fine. These are happy tears. I’ve had a wonderful evening, strange but wonderful.’
Questioning Maddie would have to wait until a later date. She was obviously safe and well. Charlotte was much more of an issue. Sofia put her arm around her recently returned friend.
‘Come and sit down over here with us. Would you like a nightcap?’
Maddie shook her head.
‘I’m pretty bushed to be honest. I’d really like to go straight to bed, if you don’t mind.’
Sofia urgently mimed drinking and crying at Maddie whenCharlotte turned her back for a second. She didn’t know if Charlotte actually had been crying, but she needed Maddie to understand something was seriously up. Luckily, she caught on fast.
‘On the other hand, why not? Let’s all sit and have a drink together.’
‘A Cointreau for old times’ sake?’
‘Yeah, lovely. Char, Sof and I will bring these over, you go and sit down.’
Charlotte nodded and weaved through the chairs, knocking against two or three on her path to their table by the window.
‘See what I mean.’
