‘Sure. I mean… I’ll bring her back here to Duncan later. It’ll give me a reason to check in on him, you know? Rather than looking like I’m checking up on him.’
‘Yeah. Yeah, sounds good.’
‘You really don’t want to tell me why you need to go so urgently?’ Lorna said as Bex strode towards Lorna’s car, without so much as another word. Bex shook her head.
‘No. I don’t. But we need to make a quick stop first.’
‘Sure. Where?’
‘Moira’s.’
34
‘Oh, Becky Boo, why don’t we come with you?’ Bex could’ve already guessed what her mother’s first response was going to be. ‘We haven’t booked our flights. It makes sense. That way we can drive the rental car back, and you won’t have to worry about getting a taxi.’
No, you can’t, Bex thought.Not unless you want an enormous excess bill when you take it back to the rental place.Obviously, she didn’t say as much aloud.
‘It’s fine, Mum, Lorna’s going to drive me. Besides, you don’t want to leave already, you’ve only just got here.’
‘Well, it’s not a long flight. We can come back, when the weather’s better.’
God damn it her mother was stubborn, though this was a battle Bex wasn’t going to let herself lose. She couldn’t.
‘It’s a very sweet thought, but I don’t think you’ll even be able to get on the same flight as me. I’m pretty sure there was only one seat left when I booked.’
It was an outright lie; she’d booked the flight the moment she’d got into Lorna’s car, but she had no idea how many tickets were left at all. She just had to hope her mother didn’t check herself.
‘How long are you going to be gone for?’ her mother continued. ‘Are you coming back?’
‘Yes, yes. I think,’ Bex said.
‘You think?’
‘Yes, I’m coming back.’
After she’d sorted out this mess with the office, they were going to owe her one hell of a big apology, which she was going to take in holiday time. Though how long it would take to sort was another question entirely. ‘I’m not sure how long it’ll take. A day or two.’
Was that accurate? She really had no idea.
‘Well, okay then, darling. I’d better get back to the class; turns out your dad’s got a bit of a talent for this scarf-weaving thing. Just stay safe and ring us when you land, okay?’
‘I will, Mum. I promise.’
‘You need to go back to the White Hart or straight to the airport?’ Lorna asked Bex as she got back into the car.
‘Straight to the airport. We’re going to be cutting it fine as it is.’
For the first ten minutes of the journey they sat in near silence. Bex’s knee bounced in the footwell as she constantly checked her phone to make sure there weren’t any changes to the flight. Or any updates from Nigel.
As they reached their first main road of the trip, Lorna finally spoke. ‘Whatever this is, whatever’s stressing you out… I’m sure we can help. But it might help to talk about it?’
‘Thank you,’ Bex said. ‘But it’s fine. I just need to get to London.’
Silence followed. Tense silence.
‘And what about Duncan?’ Lorna asked after a pause. ‘Are you going to tell him you’ve left? He needs to know.’
‘I know, but he obviously wants to be on his own right now. He’s got his own stuff to sort out.’
