Page 52 of Seashells at The Summer Hotel Lovely Bay
Going up the steep stairs to the attic floor, she tried to put fertility out of her mind as she made the bed, tidied up her bedside table, opened the windows to air the room, and plumped up the dress cushions on her bed. However, the same things swirled around and around her brain on repeat. Baby, bliss, pregnant, sweet, newborn, happy, mummy. Ahhhhhhh.
Deciding she had too much time on her hands and needed to get back to work and quickly, she walked into the bathroomand plumped for a nice long shower and washing her hair. Hair washing did wonders, didn’t it? She stepped in and let hot water rinse over her head, poured a generous portion of very expensive shampoo into the palm of her hand, plopped it on her head, and started to scrub. As she scrubbed and lathered, it was as if her brain switched – she immediately felt better and nodded. She wasn’t going down again to the place she’d been when she’d lost Andrew. No way. Not on your Nelly. She needed to get back to work, stop doom-scrolling babies on Instagram, pull on her big girl knickers, and quit the poor old me rubbish. No time for that. Onwards and upwards.
She chuckled to herself at how much washing her hair had made her feel better and spoke to the tiles. ‘The life-changing magic of washing your hair. Available in a bathroom near you now.’
After rinsing the shampoo, she applied a fancy conditioner and closed her eyes. She wouldnotallow herself to go downhill. Stepping out of the shower, she grabbed a white towel and wrapped it turban-style, gently squeezing out the excess water. About an hour or so later, she was dressed, albeit in a cosy tracksuit, and sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea, checking her emails and making arrangements to start back to work the following week.
As she was sending an email, her phone buzzed with a text message from Ella, the estate agent.
Ella:Hi Neens. Just confirming the viewing. Are u still around?
Nina:I am, yes.
Ella:I wasn’t sure if you’d be up for it or not??? How r u feeling?
Nina:Funnily enough, I’m just arranging to go back to work.
Ella:Better?
Nina:More or less. Still very tired, but it is what it is.
Ella:I’ll come and pick u up.
Nina:Yep, sounds good. I need to get out of the house, lol.
Ella:I bet.
Ella:Okay, great. I'll swing by at 1:30, then.
Nina:Perfect, thanks. See u then.
Ella:No problem. Looking forward to catching up properly!
Nina:Me too. It'll be nice to get back into the swing of things.
Ella:Definitely. Tomorrow will be good. They seemed interested in a second look so we’ll see how it goes.
Nina:That's promising. Fingers crossed, then.
Ella:Get some rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.
Nina:Will do. Thanks, Ella. See you tomorrow.
32
Nina felt good to be in proper clothes. Since she’d arrived back from Bangkok, she’d forced herself to take time off and Robby had been insistent that she didn’t go back to work too soon. Now, although the exhaustion was still making itself known, she was more than ready to get back into the land of the living again. She grabbed her bag and locked the back door behind her after hearing Ella toot from the back of the house. A few minutes later, she was sitting next to Ella in the front seat of Ella’s car and they were on their way to The Summer Hotel.
‘So, Thailand didn’t turn out as you wanted,’ Ella said with a sad voice.
Nina laughed. ‘Nope, not quite. It wasn’t too bad, but I suppose these things come to try us, don’t they? What a turn-up for the books. I didn’t see it coming!’
‘Most definitely. After all that planning and everything, it’s such a long way for it to go wrong. It must have been a nightmare.’
‘I know, I didn’t really care about that, though. At the time, I felt that bad. Honestly, I’ve never felt anything like it.’
‘Can’t believe you ended up in hospital.’
‘I know, it’s awful, isn’t it?’
