‘I still think it’s weird, inviting a random person with you on holiday,’ she said, not even bothering to say hello. ‘What if you realise after a few days you don’t like her? What if shesmells?’
Edie switched her mobile from one ear to the other and smiled. She could always rely on Maisie to lower the tone.
‘She doesn’t smell,’ she replied. ‘I see her almost every day at work, remember? I wouldn’t have agreed to her coming if she was whiffy.’
‘You might find she does terrible farts. She wouldn’t do them at school but maybe she stores them all up and lets them out when she’s on holiday.’
‘She’s not the kind of person to fart in public. She’s far too proper.’
‘She sounds really boring,’ Maisie replied with a sniff. ‘I hope I don’t ever have to meet her.’
There was a loud bang in the background and the sound of a sweary male voice.
‘What’s happened?’ Edie asked, alarmed.
‘It’s only Sam,’ came the nonchalant reply. ‘He’s cooking supper – spaghetti Bolognese. He’s just dropped the saucepan and there’s boiling water all over the floor.’
‘Oh dear. It’s very late to be doing supper. Do you need to give him a hand?’
‘Nah. He has to learn.’
‘Learn what?’
‘How not to drop saucepans, of course.’
‘Oh, I see.’
Ralph replaced his toothbrush in the holder and rinsed his mouth with water before padding over to the bed and lying on top of the cool white sheet beside Edie.
It was terribly distracting, but as Maisie rarely answered calls or rang herself, Edie didn’t want to hurry her along; she might not hear from her again for a week.
Maisie was just over a year into her first job on a graduate banking scheme, and was working and playing hard. She shared a flat in Hackney with three former university friends but seemed to spend more time in Sam’s one-bed apartment in trendy Kentish Town, bought for him by Daddy.
‘I hope you’ve stocked up on nice bikinis?’ she asked her mother next.
‘Not really. I think my bikini days are almost over, I’m afraid.’
‘Nonsense,’ Maisie retorted. ‘You’ve got a great figure, Mum. None of my friends can believe you’re in your fifties. They all think you look much younger.’
Edie laughed. ‘Well, that’s nice. Don’t disillusion them!’
Maisie decided to switch subjects.
‘How’s Ollie?’ she wanted to know. ‘I haven’t heard from him for ages. He never replies to my texts.’
‘Nor mine.’ Edie sipped from her glass of water, which had been sitting on the bedside table. ‘I did manage to speak to him briefly before we left, but he was in a rush as usual. He sounds fine. I’m not sure how much work he’s doing, though.’
‘No one does any work in their first year,’ Maisie said confidently. ‘I didn’t do much till the third year and I still got a 2:1.’
Edie shuddered. ‘Don’t tell him that, whatever you do.’
When they finally hung up, she replaced her glass, put her phone face down in her beside drawer and firmly closed it. As Ralph was engrossed in his book, she decided she wouldn’t disturb him yet and allowed her mind to wander freely.
Soon, she found herself reflecting on Hannah’s delighted reaction to the news Jessica would be coming to Crete, too.
‘I know Mac thinks she’ll change the atmosphere, but maybe that’s a good thing,’ Hannah had said to Edie on the phone after work. ‘He can say what he likes with you and Ralph because he’s so comfortable with you. He might behave better when she’s around.’
Hannah had laughed, as if it were a joke, but Edie’s mind had clouded over.
