Page 66 of Obsession Under the Southern Stars

“Nothing.” I take a bite of toast, smiling.

He gives me a wry look and sits back down. “You still want to go out today, just the two of us?”

“Yeah, that sounds fun.”

“Cool. You don’t feel as if you’re coming down with the group’s cold?”

“No. You?”

“No. And how are you feeling after yesterday?”

“I feel fine, Joel, honest.”

“All right. Well, one more day’s rest before you dive again won’t hurt.”

There’s a knock at the door then, and Joel goes over and answers it. A member of the hotel staff is carrying a large hamper, and he brings it in and puts it just inside the door before wishing us a great day.

Joel closes the door, then opens the hamper and says, “Oh yeah. Now you’re talking.”

Intrigued, I go over and look at the contents. The hamper is a cutely concealed chilly bin that’s keeping the contents cool. “How long are we going for?”

“I know. I said it was just for two.”

There’s a variety of cold meats and cheeses, olives, hummus, crackers, dried fruit and nuts, bread that’s obviously been freshly baked, judging by the warm smell, a selection of pies and frittatas, strawberries and grapes, a box containing some gorgeous mini desserts like tiny cheesecakes and pavlovas, sparkling and still water, one bottle of white wine, and one bottle of red.

“We’ll have to stay out there for a week to get through all this,” I say, plucking a grape and eating it.

“I can think of worse things to do.” He smiles at me as we both straighten. Then he reaches out a hand, cups my face, and brushes a thumb under my eye, making me wonder if there are dark shadows there. “Are you okay, after last night?”

He means the dream. He said,It was everything you’ve been feeling over the past few days rising to the surface, that’s all, and he was right. It was, of course, mainly the dive that triggered it, but it was also the news about Mum and Dad breaking up, and her moving to Australia and taking Olivia and Rory with her.

I turn my head and kiss his hand. “I’m okay.”

He lowers it, and we walk back to the kitchen.

“I had a message from Olivia last night,” I admit. “She says Rory had been upset all day. I don’t think that helped.”

“It’s really shaken you up, hasn’t it?”

I sit back at the breakfast bar and continue eating my toast. “Yeah.”

“There were no signs of it happening? You said they’d been arguing a lot lately.”

“Yeah… they always have done, though, and they’ve been together twenty-five years. I just assumed they always would be. Mum’s fifty-one this year. Dad’s fifty-four. It must be so hard to start all over again at that age. Is it really easier to get divorced?”

“There’s no point in staying with someone if you’re not happy.”

“I get that.” I pick at my toast morosely. “When Dad was out of the room, I said to Mum, ‘You’ve invested all that time in each other, isn’t it a waste to end it now?’ And she said, ‘I don’t love him anymore, Zo.’ I said that after twenty-five years you can’t expect to feel the same way about someone that you felt inthe beginning. And she said, ‘I don’t want to live the rest of my life without being loved.’”

“That’s fair enough,” he says gently.

“So if it’s all going to go downhill anyway, why even start a relationship?” I’m conscious that I sound bitter, but I can’t help myself. “Isn’t it easier to save yourself all that heartache?”

“It doesn’t have to end like that. My parents are still in love, even after thirty years of marriage. Anyway, fear of failure isn’t enough of a reason not to do something.”

I poke my tongue out at him. He gives a short laugh.

“I’m going to have a shower,” I say, and finish off my coffee.

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