Page 3 of You Lied First
‘Mar, please stop worrying. Everything will be fine. You saw how excited Flynn was when Liv agreed to come. And, yes, I did bring a shirt. Two, actually. And shoes.’
Margot turns away. She’s used to being the only woman in her son’s life – the sun around which his love orbits – and adjusting to Liv’s encroachment is not easy.
‘Let’s try to remember it’s supposed to be a family holiday,’ she says. ‘Happy families – okay?’ She gives Guy a bright smile then turns away but his fingers land on her sinewy shoulders, massaging them from behind. She stills under his touch.
‘I’m actually looking forward to getting to know the mother of our son’s girlfriend,’ Guy says. ‘Liv is lovely so I’m sure Sara will be as well. Also, as I said when we discussed thisad infinitum, I thought it would be nice for you to have the extra female company – to not be outnumbered by men as usual. It’s going to be fine. No – it’s going to be better than that – it’s going to befantastic!’
They both turn as Flynn thuds into the room, shadowed by Liv. ‘Mum! I saw it! Our old villa. It looks just the same!’
‘Glad to hear it hasn’t been sucked into a third dimension,’ Guy says. ‘Especially given we’re right next door.’
‘Where are we sleeping? My old room?’ Flynn nods his head towards the room Sara’s in. He hooks his fingers over the door frame, showing off the full extent of his six-foot height as he stretches his shoulders revealing a couple of inches of taut, muscled abs. When the Forrests had left five years ago, he’d not been able to reach the frame at all.
‘Liv’s mum’s in there, so either of the front bedrooms,’ Margot says.
Liv is standing shyly behind Flynn. ‘Thank you,’ she says. ‘And thank you for inviting us. It’s very kind of you, Mr and Mrs Forrest.’
Margot smiles benignly. ‘You’re welcome, Olivia. It’s a pleasure to have you here.’ She searches to find it in herself to ask the girl to call her by her first name, but she can’t, not yet.
‘So what’s the plan?’ Flynn asks. ‘Swimming? Food? Both?’
‘Do you ever stop eating?’ Margot says. ‘We ate practically the entire way over here.’
‘I don’t know about you, but I could do with a nap,’ Guy says.
‘How were the beds on the plane?’ Liv asks, her eyes alight.
There’d been much excitement about the Forrests being in business class on the Birmingham to Dubai leg of the trip; a lot of oohing and aahing over the lie-flat beds, the privacy and the comfort of the A380 aircraft. Guy had asked Margot if they should upgrade Liv and Sara to join them, but Margot had sunk that idea as quickly as it had surfaced – and she hadn’t felt guilty even when she’d seen how tired and crumpled Sara had looked in Dubai airport this morning.
‘Flynn’s father was far too busy propping up the bar to sleep,’ Margot says.
‘Free-flowing champagne!’ Guy smiles with a wink that makes Liv giggle. ‘I mean, what kind of human being would waste their time sleeping?’
One who wasn’t busy flirting with the cabin crew, that’s who, Margot thinks.
3
SARA
The sun is setting and I’m adding the finishing touches to the dining table in the garden when Guy appears at the sliding door looking rested. He’s changed into a polo shirt, linen shorts and leather flip-flops, and his hair’s damp from the shower. He rubs his hands together, every inch the successful businessman enjoying the holiday he’s earned.
‘Hey, hey! This looks incredible!’ he says, surveying the fruits of my labour.
I’ve used the villa’s crockery, cutlery and glassware but added candles and cheerful paper napkins, along with a couple of strings of fairy lights, which I’ve tangled around a centrepiece of bougainvillea and threaded among the glasses. The garden already has a great set of string lights that fans out like splayed fingers from the house to the fence at the rear of the garden. Underwater LEDs light up the pool, making it look even more inviting in the evening than it did during the day. The effect, even though the sun is yet to set fully, is enchanting.
‘It’s nothing,’ I lie.
If Guy knew the amount of thought and planning I’ve put into this he wouldn’t believe it. I’d even brought the paper napkins from home. He and Margot appear to be the type ofpeople for whom things just fall into place. But when the idea for us to join the Forrests on this holiday had first been born, Guy had absolutely refused to let me pay for our stay in the villa. It would cost them the same whether or not Liv and I came, he said, so I’d decided the least I could do, to make a contribution, was to make myself a useful house guest. The table setting is the first of my surprises. The second is dinner.
‘Did you manage to sleep?’ I ask.
‘Like the dead.’
‘And Margot?’
‘She’ll be down in a minute. How about you? Did you get some sleep?’
I nod, although I hadn’t slept a wink. I was both too tired and too wired. My head had started pounding, the blood whooshing at my temples, so I’d got up and gone for a short walk around the area to get my bearings. Although I’d spotted various hypermarkets on our way through Muscat, it seems we’re in a residential area that has no shops within easy walking distance. Guy’s said several times that I’m insured to drive the Land Cruiser but I’ve never driven a left-hand drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. The last thing I want is to get into an incident in a country where I don’t understand the language.
