Page 25 of An Island in the Sun

So that was who he was talking to earlier.

‘It’s just I need to work.’ Tabitha felt she should explain. ‘Even though I travel around, it doesn’t mean I can have this much, um, downtime…’

‘I get it, I do. I’ll clear up and be out of your way.’

That had been surprisingly easy, yet, as she watched Raff retreat to the kitchen with their breakfast plates, she acknowledged the pang of disappointment that their time together would soon be over.

11

It was nearly the middle of the week and already much later in the morning than Tabitha had intended to start working. Leaving Raff to wash up the breakfast things, she took her guitar and laptop onto the shaded terrace at the side of the pool. Being in a new place, it was easy to lose track of time, the days rolling into one with no distinction between the weekend or weekdays, but today she had a Zoom call scheduled with her producer at the record company and the lyrics to finish for the track she’d been working on. As she’d explained to Julie, sometimes she just had to write even if her creativity felt stifled.

Tabitha was so focused on the melody she was listening to that she didn’t notice Raff until he placed a hand on her shoulder. Startled, she looked up.

‘Hey,’ he said as she paused the track on the laptop and took out her AirPods. ‘I didn’t mean to disturb you, but I’m off.’

Tabitha stood, a wave of disappointment inching through her at the idea of saying goodbye.

‘Thank you for being so understanding and letting me crash for a couple of nights.’

Tabitha stuffed her hands into the deep pockets of her cargo trousers and met his blue eyes. ‘No problem. It’s been, um, really good to meet you.’

‘Yeah, you too.’

They looked at each other for a moment, uncertainty sweeping through Tabitha as she weighed up whether she should sever their link completely or stay connected – because there was a connection.

‘Hey,’ she said softly, reaching out and touching his arm. ‘Do you want to swap numbers?’

‘Yeah, of course.’ He rattled off his number and she plumbed it into her phone before calling him.

‘There you go, now you have mine too.’ She pressed end call and tucked the phone into her pocket. ‘You’re meeting a friend?’

‘Yeah, he doesn’t live too far away – I’ve not seen him for a while. One of my few friends on the island. I’m going to meet him after he finishes work.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I’d best let you get on.’

He went in for a hug and Tabitha reciprocated. They held each other for a moment, their arms wrapped tight, her body pressed against his, thoughts drifting to the night before and kissing him in the hallway… not really wanting to let him go.

Raff pulled away first and dipped his head in a goodbye. ‘I’ll see you around.’ He swung his rucksack on his back and walked away, disappearing around the side of the house.

Tabitha stood on the sun-filled terrace, with the pool glistening and only the birds and dogs for company; Misty too, wherever she was. The front gate click closed and she sighed. Raff was gone and she was finally on her own. Wasn’t that what she wanted more than anything? They’d swapped numbers, but the chances were, she wouldn’t see him again. He’d stolen into her life, shaken it up and was off just as quick. Perhaps there was some material within that for a song.

Fudge and Bailey were the best companions. She took them for a short walk and then they kept her company wherever she chose to work, which ended up being a mix of the pool terrace and the dining table looking out over the garden. It was easy and stress-free and she definitely needed to catch up with work after too many days enjoying the Madeira lifestyle, yet her thoughts kept drifting to Raff, wondering where he was and what he was doing. She considered messaging him, then thought better of it. What would she even say? And for what reason did she want to contact him? Beyond his good looks, he was still a bit of a mystery, yet that was at the heart of why she found him so intriguing.

After a long afternoon on a Zoom call bouncing around ideas with her producer, then trying to focus her mind on polishing and recording the lyrics that she would send in the morning, she called it a day when the dogs started badgering her for food. On autopilot, she fed them and Misty.

The pool had been enticing her all day and with the early evening still blissfully warm and sunny, Tabitha changed into a bikini and dived straight in. The cool hit of water was refreshing and took her right back to the night before when she and Raff had ended up in the pool together.

Thinking about Raff focused her mind onto one of the reasons she’d taken the Madeira house sit. Ollie. Being here was her chance to contact him and put the past behind them; to rid herself of the upset he’d caused that had eaten away at her for years. She floated on her back, gently paddling while gazing up at the sky streaked with wispy clouds like they’d been brushed onto the blue. She couldn’t avoid him forever. She didn’t want to, despite feeling it was too hard to see him again. She had been conflicted for a long time; she hoped Madeira would be the instigating factor in coming to terms with it.

Refreshed from her swim, Tabitha emerged from the pool, showered and pulled on skinny joggers and a vest top, made a salad for dinner and sat on the sofa.

While eating, she clicked on Ollie’s Instagram page. Ollie Pereira, with an official blue tick next to his name, had 28.7 million followers. Tabitha’s own Instagram account had a modest 26K followers and many of those had been gained over the last twelve months when she’d posted about her travels as much as the music side of her life.

There was no intro needed to Ollie’s page beyond his name and website. The photos spoke for themselves: the poster image for his upcoming US tour, Ollie singing at gigs, on photo shoots, in the studio, interspersed with a good dose of him shirtless. His looks, his abs and his voice had managed to get him noticed worldwide and a legion of fans. He was the complete package and Tabitha had known it since they’d first met in Cardiff at the age of eighteen.

She remembered the day they’d set up their Instagram accounts together and posted their first pictures: Ollie singing at a gig in Brighton and her sitting cross-legged on a sofa with her guitar. She couldn’t remember if Ollie had taken that photo or if had been one of their housemates. Either way, they’d been following each other for years, although since their fallout, Tabitha only occasionally looked at his Instagram feed and never liked any of his pictures. Not because she didn’t like them, she just didn’t want to risk her name popping up. Not that she’d noticed him liking anything she’d posted either, but she did wonder if he ever looked.

She clicked into the private messages and faltered. She was reaching out, that was all. No expectation. All she wanted was to confront him and move on. Patching up their friendship would be a bonus. As Elspeth had said, they were friends. They’d once been best friends. There had been many a time over the last few years when she could have done with his friendship, yet she’d stopped herself from contacting him because she was too angry to do so.

As she thumbed a message, deleting and rewriting it several times before finding the nerve to press send, she acknowledged that it was long overdue to make peace with the past.

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