One of the Girls(54)
She lowered herself onto the cushions, then undid the top button of her shorts. Ah, better! A fitted waistband and saganaki were never a good mix.
She heard the opening and closing of cupboards from within the villa as Ana made the drinks. Juliana, she corrected herself.
She thought back to the soured atmosphere at home when Ed was twenty-one and, instead of going to the pub for their usual Christmas Eve meal, Ed and their father were drawing up contracts in the study. She remembered catching a smug comment from Ed and didn’t need to have studied law to understand the gist of what was happening: they were paying the girl off.
‘Here you go,’ Ana said, returning. ‘I went with espresso martini.’
She even made delicious drinks.
They clinked glasses and Eleanor took a small swallow. Only this morning she had been thinking how much Sam would have liked Ana. There was a lack of artifice – like earlier in the bar when she’d refused to apologise to Bella for helping choose Lexi’s wedding dress. Why should that be a secret?
And yet, she’d been keeping her own much bigger secret this entire time.
Ed had specifically instructed Eleanor to say nothing, and he was right: better for Lexi to hear the truth from him. She didn’t want to blow everything apart, not out here.
The problem was, Eleanor thought, taking another swallow of her drink, that sometimes she didn’t have a filter. People said that about her, as if it were a bad thing, but Sam had always liked it: ‘You say what you think, EJ. More people should try it.’ Right now, she was trying very, very hard to filter, to not say every single thought that came into her head.
Ana, you’re lying to me.
You and Ed have a child.
He is my nephew.
I would’ve liked to have had a chance to be an auntie.
Why did you hunt out Lexi?
What do you want from her?
What are you really doing here, Juliana?
See? She was doing well with all the filtering. All she needed to do was keep up the good work for another twenty-four hours, and then they’d return home and Ed could sort out this mess. Meanwhile, she’d be watching Ana closely.
Ana took a sip of her drink, then tipped her face towards the stars. She looked peaceful, relaxed, like she hadn’t a care in the world.
Eleanor had no idea what her game was, but she planned to find out.
But then, she thought darkly, I suppose we’ve all got a game.
Eleanor finished the second espresso martini. She was just about drunk enough to sleep – although the caffeine probably wasn’t her most brilliant idea. As she stood, she felt the ground move with her.
‘Think I’m done, too,’ Ana said, picking up their empty glasses and following Eleanor through to the kitchen. She set the glasses in the sink, then opened the fridge. ‘Shall we apologise to our liver with these?’ She held out two bottles of water.
‘I make my apologies with carbs.’
Ana smiled warmly. ‘It’s been really good meeting you on this hen weekend.’
See? Friends. We could’ve been good friends. Why did Ana have to go and ruin it?
‘I’m looking forward to meeting Ed, too,’ she said.
No. That was enough. She didn’t take bare-faced lies. ‘You’ve already met Ed.’
A tiny line of confusion nestled between Ana’s brows. ‘Sorry? I’m not sure what you’re talking about.’
‘I cannot stomach liars. So I’ll ask you a question, and I hope you’re not going to piss me off by lying.’
Ana smoothed down the sides of her dress, then clasped her hands together.
‘Is Ed Luca’s father?’
Her eyes widened, then blinked. She said nothing.
‘Well?’
Ana turned on the spot, moving towards the exit of the villa.
‘Where are you—’
‘We can’t have this conversation here,’ she said in a low, calm voice, reaching the front door. She held it open, indicating that Eleanor should follow.
‘I’ve a feeling,’ Eleanor said, folding her arms, ‘that this isn’t a conversation that works well anywhere.’
The real problems began when we discovered we were being lied to. No one likes to be made a fool of.
That sort of thing, well, it couldn’t go unpunished, could it?
46
Bella
Bella couldn’t sleep.
She loved the heat. Really, she bowed to the sun in all its life-giving glory, but at night, she’d have loved the heat to piss off. Fen preferred not to use the air conditioning on environmental grounds and, as Bella was trying very, very hard to be nice, she was not going to switch it on. Instead, the fan wafted warm air around the room, while Bella lay naked on top of the covers, sweating.
Maybe she’d sweat out the alcohol and wouldn’t be hung-over tomorrow. Silver linings and everything.
She didn’t sleep very well these days. Hadn’t done in almost a year. The problem with night was that all the things you avoided thinking about during the day gave you a knowing wink – See you tonight, then! – and there they were, as soon as you closed your eyes. Except at night it was even worse, because by then you were too tired to think rationally and everything became magnified, distorted.
The nights she slept alone were the hardest. There was a comfort when Fen stayed over and she could sleep with a hand on her chest, feeling the firm, strong rhythm of her heartbeat beneath her palm. Tonight, Fen had rolled onto her side, bunching the sheet around her waist.