16. Sixteen

Alex and I ping guiltily apart as if one of us is on fire. It’s probably me, judging by how hot my cheeks are.

“Never mind that,” says my best friend, grinning widely. “Who’s this?”

She bats her Bambi eyelashes at Alex, who gets to his feet and puts the cap back onto the sun lotion, before handing it to me wordlessly.

“Um, thanks,” I mutter, staring down at it as if it holds the answer to all of my problems; two of which are currently standing in front of me, both looking equally beautiful, and equally pissed off.

I was just imagining I was the kind of woman Alex might go for earlier, but Chloe actually is. I’m still ‘growing into myself,’ as per the diary, but she’s completely in his league. They look like the perfect couple, in fact, standing there with their natural looking sun-tans and their very white teeth.

I have no idea why this thought bothers me so much.

“Good grief,” says Chloe, rolling her eyes dramatically. “What a welcome.”

“Sorry,” I say, jumping up and hugging her. “I’m just so surprised to see you here!”

And just a little horrified, if we’re being honest. Which we most definitely are not.

“Well, that was the general idea, Summer,” Chloe replies, looking put out. “It wouldn’t be a surprise visit otherwise, would it?”

“No. No. Of course not. It’s just… well, it’s a long way to come for a surprise,” I say carefully. “How did you even know where I was staying?”

“You tagged the hotel on Instagram, stupid,” Chloe replies, sitting down on the lounger I’ve just vacated and leaving me standing there in the sun with nowhere to go. “So I didn’t exactly have to call in Hercules to track you down, did I?”

“Hercule,” I say automatically. “It’s Hercule Poirot.”

“Whatever.” Chloe waves a hand dismissively. “Who cares about him, anyway? It’s what’s going on here that ”

She looks from me to Alex, then back again. She’s dressed for travel, but Chloe’s one of those people who looks effortlessly glamorous even in a tracksuit, and I can’t help but feel sunburnt and greasy standing next to her with my hair scraped back from my face and a thick coat of SPF50 all over my pale blue skin.

“Nothing’s going on,” I tell her. “Alex was just helping me, that’s all.”

“I bet he was. Alex, is it?” purrs Chloe, somehow managing to make his name sound absolutely filthy. “Very pleased to meet you, Alex. I’m Chloe.”

She holds out a hand, and I watch jealously as he shakes it.

“Well,” says Alex stiffly, turning to me. “I’ll be going, then.”

“Right. Sure,” I reply, eyes on the ground in front of me. I haven’t been able to bring myself to look at him since he stood up, because even though I told Chloe the truth about there being nothing going on between us, it somehow feels like a lie. It feels like something has changed between us in the ten minutes or so between him picking up that bottle of sunscreen and putting it back down again.

And I have a weird hunch that he thinks so, too.

Alex turns and goes back to his seat opposite. Chloe lies there, blatantly lusting over him as he gathers his stuff, not bothering to speak to me until he disappears from sight.

“Okay,” she says, her eyes wide with excitement as she turns to face me. “Tell me everything. But mostly about him. Wait; we’re going to need cocktails first.”

She looks meaningfully in the direction of the pool bar, which I guess is my cue to go and get her a drink.

“Don’t you want to go and get changed first?” I ask, hopefully. “You must be tired after your flight. And you still haven’t told me what made you come out here?”

“Stop trying to change the subject, says Chloe, who knows me too well. “Out with it, Summer. Who’s the hottie and what’s going on between you two? The truth this time, please.”

“He’s not a hottie, he’s just Alex,” I say defensively. “And nothing’s going on. Like I told you, he was just helping me do my back. You know how easily I burn in the sun.”

“Summer, he had his hands all over you,” Chloe says. “And you had your eyes closed, and that expression on your face you get when you see Theo James in something. Come to think of it, your man Alex does have the look of Theo James, doesn’t he? Only, like, hotter. If that’s possible.”

“It’s not,” I say shortly. “Anyway, Alex isn’t that hot. He’s not even particularly nice, if you want to know the truth. He’s a bit arrogant and up himself, really. I don’t even like him.”

“Excuse me.”

There’s an agonizing silence as Alex brushes past me and picks something up from the ground next to the sun-lounger I was using.

“Must have dropped this earlier.”

He holds up his key card, then turns on his heel and walks off before I can stop him.

“Oh, my God!” Chloe puts her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide with horrified laughter. “Did you see his face? That told him! Don’t worry, Sum; if you don’t want him, I’ll have him. I’ll soon put the smile back on his face, don’t you worry.”

She winks at me cheekily, but I can’t bring myself to reply. I’m so mortified that I want to crawl under the sun lounger and quietly die.

“Do you think he heard that?” I croak.

“Oh, he heard it all right,” says Chloe, giggling. “Looked like he’d been kicked in the goolies. But enough about him; I want to hear about you, and what you’ve been getting up to since you abandoned me at New Year.”

“I didn’t abandon you, Chloe,” I point out, my mind still fixed on Alex, and the hurt look I’m sure I saw in his eyes before he walked off for the second time. “You didn’t even notice I was gone. You were too busy with Prince Charming.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call him that,” she says, grinning. “He was no gentleman, let’s put it that way. But Summer! I couldn’t believe it when I got your message. You! Flying to Spain on your own? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you leave Margate on your own, never mind leaving the country.”

“That’s not true,” I protest weakly. “You’re just exaggerating for dramatic effect. I do plenty of things on my own.”

“Well, okay,” she concedes. “You do. But not like this, Summer. This is huge. For you, I mean. For most people, it’s just a package trip to Tenerife, obviously. But for someone like you, it’s huge. Which is why I had to come out here to support you.”

I look at her suspiciously. Unless we count her occasional offers to do my hair for me, Chloe’s never ‘supported’ me with anything in her life. That’s not how it works with us. I’m the one who does the supporting; because I’m the one in the supporting role. Chloe is the main character; which I’m guessing is the real reason she’s here now. No show without the big star, right?

“So, you said you figured out where I was staying from Instagram?”

“Yeah. That was easy,” she says dismissively. “Like I said, you’d tagged the hotel and everything.”

I nod slowly. I clearly have a lot to learn about this whole ‘leaving your life behind’ thing. I didn’t realize my life might try to follow me.

“So I click on the location in your post, right?” says Chloe, looking longingly at the pool bar. “And it takes me to a page with all these other photos that have been taken in the same place.”

“Uh huh.”

I’m only half-listening to her, because my mind still insists on replaying that horrible moment with Alex on an endless loop, so I can feel terrible about it all over again.

I have to find him and apologize. I have to tell him I didn’t mean what I said.

“Well, you’ll never guess what I found?” Chloe goes on, looking pleased with herself. “Or who I found, rather?”

My entire body goes cold, despite the heat of the day.

“Only Jamie Reynolds!” she says triumphantly. “And guess what? He’s working out here now! He has a bar quite close to here, apparently. Can you believe it, Summer?”

She looks at me innocently enough, but I’ve known her since we were teenagers, and I know perfectly well that she doesn’t need an answer to this. Because she knows. She knows that I already knew about Jamie and his bar. She might think Hercule Poirot and Hercules are one and the same, but Chloe isn’t stupid. I can tell she’s put two and two together, and figured out exactly what brought me here. She just isn’t saying it because she wants to see if I’ll come clean first.

“Er, yeah,” I admit. “I know. I bumped into him yesterday, actually.”

I fiddle with the bottle of sunscreen I’m still holding, thanking my stars that I didn’t tell Jamie the real reason I happened to ‘bump into him’.

“Get out!” says Chloe, not sounding the slightest bit surprised at this. “How funny! Imagine you two just happening to meet, all the way out here!”

Her eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. I feel almost as if we’re having an argument, even though anyone watching us would think we sounded perfectly normal.

“Summer,” she says, her voice suddenly softer. “You’re not thinking about Jamie again, are you? Like, you didn’t come out here to try to see him?”

“Of course not,” I reply instantly. “It’s just a coincidence, him being here too. That’s all.”

I shrug nonchalantly, but I can tell she doesn’t believe me.

“Well, good,” she says at last. “I just wouldn’t want you getting hurt again, like the last time. Remember what happened at the leaver’s ball, when you—”

“I remember, thanks,” I say, cutting her off. “I don’t need you to remind me. And I’m fine, really. That was a long time ago. I’m totally over it.”

Chloe looks unconvinced as she stands up, producing a pair of sunglasses which make her look exactly like a film star.

“Right,” she says. “I need to find my room so I can have a quick shower and slip into something less comfortable before dinner. Where are we going, by the way?”

“I normally just eat in the hotel,” I tell her, helping her wheel her suitcase out of the pool area and back towards the hotel. “It’s all-inclusive. It’s quite good, actually. Only they have this thing where you’re supposed to sit at the same table every night, and they’ve sat me next to that Alex guy, which is—”

I pause, searching for the right word to describe what having dinner with Alex Fox is like, but I don’t even know where to start.

“Right.” Chloe looks at me curiously. “Well, I didn’t come all this way to eat on my own, so let’s just go out somewhere instead. What d’you say?”

I’m not sure what to say to that; mostly because I have a horrible feeling about what she’s about to suggest, and, sure enough…

“I know!” says Chloe, as if she’s only just thought of it. “Why don’t we go to Jamie’s bar? It looks like it serves food as well as booze. And you’re definitely not still hung up on Jamie any more, so that’d be fine with you, wouldn’t it?”

She smiles innocently. She’s testing me, I know. She wants me to say I don’t want to go to The Rowdy Squirrel with her because I am, in fact, ‘still hung up on Jamie,’ as she puts it. Which, of course, isn’t true.

Well, I don’t think so, anyway.

I still don’t want to go there, though. My first encounter with Jamie was awkward enough to make me not want to repeat it. But Chloe is watching me as if she’s about to catch me out in a lie, and I know she’ll never let me hear the end of it if I tell her the real reason I don’t want to see Jamie right now, so I just smile sweetly back at her as if I haven’t got a care in the world.

“Sounds great,” I say casually. “What time do you want to leave?”