‘Unfortunately not.’
‘But wereallycan’t share.’
Jonas sighs again. ‘Would you like me to phone around and see if I can find a room in another hotel for one of you?’
‘That would be great, thank you.’
‘How utterly farcical,’ Dominic comments when the call ends.
And then we both just stand there and stare out of the windows.
‘Great view,’ I venture after a bit of awkward silence has passed.
‘Amazing,’ Dominic agrees.
And then we just stick to the awkward silence. Which isreallyawkward. I think it’s rare for two adults who do know each other but are not very close to stand for a long time saying absolutely nothing. I’m very conscious the entire time of the not-talking and being next to Dominic but also very distant from him. It’s weird.
I crack after a really, really long time, definitely several minutes, and say, ‘The combination of mountains and ocean is stunning.’
Dominic nods. ‘It’s a fantastic location.’
And then we’re back to the awkward silence.
Fortunately, Jonas is back on the phone within only about ten minutes (although that is a long,longtime to be awkwardly silent; thank goodness we have a truly outstanding view to look at is all I can say).
We both move towards the phone but I get there first. It is, after all,myroom.
‘In a nutshell,’ Jonas begins, and then tells me at great length that the only remotely nice (in his opinion) hotels with two vacant rooms are right on the outskirts of the city. Apparently (and unsurprisingly), Cape Town is popular at New Year, and today is the twenty-ninth of December. ‘I understand from when the booking was made that you do know each other, so in my opinion you should just share the suite, with one of you sleeping in the sitting room on the sofa bed.’ He pauses, pregnantly. ‘Unless there’s aparticularreason that you cannot share with Mr Rock?’
I sigh. Jonas is going to win. I cannot imply that I have any kind ofbadproblem with Dominic, like he’s ever said or done something inappropriate.
And I can’t actually say out loud that we once had sex a very, very long time ago and then I got together with my newly-ex-husband basically because he reminded me of Dominic who I thought I’d fallen in love with at essentially first sight and then I met Dominic again very recently and discovered that we have absolutely nothing in common and I just don’t really want to spend a lot of time with him basically.
So I tell Jonas that, no, of course there is noparticularreason, and we’ll call him back in a minute. I put the phone down, summarise everything Jonas said for Dominic and bow to the seemingly inevitable, concluding with, ‘I think we have no option but to stay here.’
‘Right,’ Dominic says when I’ve finished. ‘Well… fine. We’re grown-ups. I will of course take the sofa bed.’
I incline my head. ‘Thank you. I’ll tell Jonas. He says he’ll send someone asap to make it up with bedding.’
Dominic’s large frame is almost entirely filling my vision, and a very unwelcome thought occurs to me. I go into the sitting room. The sofa bed does not look that big. I’m not sure that I ought to agree to him sleeping in it.
As I’m standing there sizing it up, a man holding a large pile of linen knocks on the door, and shortly afterwards, more quickly than I could have believed possible, the bed is folded out and fully made up with beautifully smooth and gleaming white linen.
It looks lovely and also very welcoming, but itisfairly small. Dominic is a lot taller than me and must also be a lot heavier. I don’t want to have to walk past him (as he lies inmylovely big bed) when I go to and from the bathroom in my pyjamas, but I can’t accept his offer to sleep in a bed that’s far too small for him when I would clearly be fine in it.
‘Obviously I’m going to take the sofa bed,’ I say once the bed-making-ninja man has gone. (He was amazing: I want someone like him to live with me and make my bed every single day.) ‘It’s the wrong size for you.’ I’mreallynot sure why I can’t bring myself to say the wordsyou’re too big. I mean, am I teenager? Clearly Dominic would know I wasn’t referring tothatkind of bigness. And,no. Why am I even thinking about his…
Oh. My. Goodness. My eyes just went to his crotch. They did. And hesaw. He’s smirking.
‘Yep,’ I say briskly. ‘So I’ll take this and you take the… bigger one.’
Why? Why did I leave a pause before the wordbigger? There was literally no need whatsoever for me to do that. I am beyond ridiculous. This weird proximity is obviously getting to me.
Dominic continues to smirk as he says, ‘Don’t be silly.’
‘I mean it.’
‘And so do I.’ Dominic steps around me and sits himself plonk down on the middle of the sofa bed, which definitely sags a little when he does it.
