The eighteen-year-old boy she remembered had spent their summer days together in shorts and t-shirt and with his hair left long and adorably scruffy across his forehead. The man he’d grown into clearly took a lot of pride in his appearance, and yet the essence of the boy he’d been was still there. As he walkedback to their table, her mind switched between images of him as a sun-kissed, floppy-haired teenager and the handsome and well-groomed man he’d grown into.
It amazed her how clear and fresh those old images were in her mind and how she could remember eighteen-year-old Peter as if she’d only seen him yesterday. And yet she hadn’t thought of him in years, because she’d had no reason to.
She was glad the memories were still so fresh. It would’ve been a shame to lose them in the mists of time.
Peter reached their table and set a glass of white wine down in front of her. Settling into the chair across from her, he lifted the bottle of beer he’d got for himself.
“To the old days,” he said with a smile, tilting the beer towards her wine glass.
“To the old days,” she replied. “Although let’s have a bit less of the ‘old’ if you don’t mind.”
He grinned. “Fair enough. But that isn’t something you need to worry about. You look fantastic.”
Her eyes widened and she felt her cheeks colour at the compliment.
“What I mean is, you hardly look a year older than you did back then,” he said hurriedly. “Well, obviously you look older. Ah, I mean you lookbetter. Much better. Not that you didn’t look great back then because you did. But now you’re more, er, mature. God, I’ll shut up now.”
Gaby laughed. “I don’t remember you being awkward and tongue-tied when we were young.”
“Yeah, well, I was a clueless eighteen-year-old who didn’t know what the hell he was doing, so I had blind confidence on my side.”
“For what it’s worth, you look better and more mature too, Peter,” she said, giving him an amused wink because she wanted to keep this light and easy and that wouldn’t happen if they gotstuck swapping clumsy compliments for half the night. “Anyway, before we came in here you were telling me about your nieces and nephews and promised to show me some photos.”
He looked relieved at the chance to move on and pulled out his phone. They spent a few minutes scrolling through photographs showing an assortment of gorgeous kids all smiling and laughing, posing for the camera and playing the fool, blowing out candles on birthday cakes and running around in sunny back gardens. There were some selfies of Peter with the kids and the unfettered joy on his face as he grinned alongside his nieces and nephews made Gaby’s heart melt.
“They’re beautiful children,” Gaby said when Peter finished showing her the photos and telling her their names and ages and which of his siblings each of the kids belonged to. “And they obviously love you very much.”
“I buy their affection with contraband sweets and chocolates.”
Gaby laughed. “It’s hard to imagine you as an uncle. No wait, I take that back. That’s not what I mean at all. I’m sure you’re a complete natural at it. What’s hard is realising that because so much time has passed since I last saw you, your brothers and sisters have got married to wonderful people and had lots of kids.”
“They all started young, but yeah, you’re right. Sometimes I look at my oldest nephew and wonder how on earth he can be ten years old already.”
“Time flies.”
“It really does.” He slid his phone into the pocket of his jacket which he’d hung over the back of his chair. “So, tell me about your job Gaby. I remember how you used to talk about wanting to travel the world and from the few seconds we got to chat yesterday it sounds like that’s exactly what you’ve done. I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
“I’ve been lucky. I’ve had the chance to work in amazing hotels in incredible places and because I choose to work short term contracts to plug staffing gaps it means I get to move around a lot. Spain and Italy are my favourite countries to work in. I learned some Spanish at school and enjoyed it, and took Spanish and Italian classes at university to give me a language advantage in the hospitality jobs market. I’ve spent time in Australia and Canada and the States and New Zealand too, which was all fantastic, and other European countries as well.”
“That’s seriously impressive, Gaby.”
“The work is usually tough with long hours and there’s a lot of responsibility to learn fast when you’re a short-term contract worker. But the benefits are amazing because of all the wonderful places I get to see around the world.”
“It sounds like a great life. I think you said you’d been in Madrid before you came here?”
She nodded. “I love Madrid and I’ve worked there a few times. I was supposed to go to Seville to start a new hotel contract but it fell through at the last minute. Usually I would’ve simply contacted the employment agencies I’m registered with and asked them to find something else, but the timing turned out to be perfect because it meant I could come back here and spend more time with my Aunt Jill after her operation.”
“Are you sorry you missed the chance to work in Seville?”
“Sorry and not sorry. I’m sorry to miss visiting another city I love and one I haven’t seen for a few years. But I’m also not sorry because it means I get to see Jill and stay here for longer than I would’ve been able to otherwise. And there was another upside too because the Seville job falling through meant I was able to accept a contract working on a cruise liner that would’ve been out of the question otherwise because of the start date.”
Peter’s eyes widened. “A cruise liner? That sounds exciting. Where will you be sailing off to?”
“I join the ship in Southampton for some Mediterranean departures and then we sail to the Caribbean where I’ll work for a couple of months on the Christmas cruise packages and the January winter sun holidays, before sailing back across the Atlantic to end my contract.”
Peter blew out a breath. “It really sounds brutal.”
His amused expression made her laugh. “I know, I know, I’m very lucky. But don’t forget it’s different being staff on board a cruise compared to being a passenger. They look after the staff, obviously, but the cabin conditions will be cramped and I’ll have some adjustments to make for sure. It’ll feel different to how it was when I last worked on board a cruise in my early twenties. But it will also be a huge adventure and I’ve never visited the Caribbean before. I can’t wait to see the islands and experience new places.”
