Page 94 of Swept Away

It takes at least three minutes for the world around Mae to come into focus. Penny, who pulls me in tightly and tells me she loves me. Marissa, her tears clouding her glasses as she swoops down on me for a hug. Ryan, Penny’s boyfriend, who to my surprise is crying, too. And Alyssa from the flat next door, a person I genuinely haven’t thought of once in the last two weeks, but am delighted to see, because she is so normal and so real.

Then the rest of reality starts to seep in slowly as I grip Mae’s hand. The press with their flashing cameras, and the crowds behind the makeshift railings constructed by the lovely people of Gilmouth marina, many of whom have come to hug me, too—I get the sense that they feel our houseboat’s adventure was theirs.

I take a deep breath. The air tastes so different. I can still feel the sea on my tongue, but there’s the flat taste of car fumes, too, and the dull warmth of a crowded place. The world is vivid and noisy: everyone is in color, their sunglasses and their phone screens shining in the morning sunlight.

“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through,” Penny says, still crying, pulling away from what must be our tenth hug of the last two minutes. “My beautiful, wonderful Lexi. I can’t believe you…”

I draw back to look at her. Her face has gone pale.

I’m still so poised for disaster that I feel my whole body stiffen in readiness for whatever it is she’s seen over my shoulder.

I spin. It’s Zeke, emerging smiling and ringleted from the crowd of his family. Rocking his life jacket, of course—he could’ve stepped off a fashion week runway. He catches my eye, and I can’t believe I ever worried about a single thing changing. The moment we’re looking at each other, it’s back to the two of us again, and right nowI cannotwaitto feel him slink an arm around my waist as we step into real life together.

“That’sEzekiel?” Penny says in a whisper.

I look back at her. My eyes widen.

“Penny? Are you OK?”

She’s reaching for Mae.

“What’s going on?” asks Marissa.

“Penny,” I begin, but she’s pulling me back, away from the water, away from Zeke. “Penny, what are youdoing?”

“Lexi, justmove,” she snarls, then she grabs at someone in a high-vis jacket. “We need to get through,” she says. “Lexi needs to get to the ambulance.”

“What? I’m fine,” I say, looking back over my shoulder. “I don’t want to get in the ambulance.”

I catch sight of Zeke once more before he’s whirled away in another hug, and then Penny is shoving me through an opening in the crowd, and someone is yelling at me,Did he kidnap you? Were you kidnapped? Smile, Lexi! Over here!And we’re running along the pavement to the pub, Penny scooping a confused Mae up into her arms.

She doesn’t stop until the door of The Anchor swings shut behind us.

“Mae,” she says, putting her down. “Marissa is going to take you upstairs so you can watch all the police cars out of the big window!”

Marissa kicks into gear, slightly breathless from the run here. “Come on, sweetheart,” she says, a hand on Mae’s shoulder. “I’ve still got your elves and dragons coloring book up there, too.”

“I want to stay with Lexi,” Mae begins, but Penny shakes her head.

“We just need five minutes, sweetie,” she says. “Then Lexi’s all yours again!”

Penny strides to the bar as Marissa pulls a reluctant Mae to theflat upstairs. The Anchor is always strange when it’s like this, silent and still. It’s not a place built for solitude, and the quietness makes it shabbier: you see all the chips on the wooden tables, the old beer stains on the carpet. It is unspeakably odd to be here. The ground feels like it’s slipping underneath my feet.

“What the fuck?” I ask, with force.

Penny pours herself a large tumbler of whisky, even though it’s barely eight in the morning. Her hands are shaking. She looks way too thin, and my stomach lurches as I realize that the lankness of her blond-streaked hair and the new hollows beneath her cheekbones are probably from worrying about me. She’s wearing a gray tracksuit that I’m pretty sure is mine, though living together for so long has meant that my and Penny’s wardrobes have mostly merged into one collection of similar sweatshirts.

I have a horrible, twisting sensation in my stomach. For a second, I contemplate just walking out and leaving Penny there with her whisky, secrets unspoken, but I know I won’t. I always want the truth.

“What’s going on, Penny?”

“That’sEzekiel?” she says, voice trembling. “That man on the dock, that is the man you’ve been at sea with? That’s the man you met here?”

“Yeah. That’s Zeke, yeah. Why?”

She takes a shaky breath and knocks back the rest of the tumbler, reaching for the bottle again.

“Whoa, easy, Pen.”

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