‘I could ask the same of you.’ I fold my arms across my chest, eyes narrowing.
She opens her mouth. Closes it again. ‘I was looking for a phone charger,’ she says finally. ‘I can’t find mine.’
‘Your dad or Simone didn’t have one you could’ve borrowed?’
‘Nope.’ She makes as if to move past me but I hold my hand up.
‘Wait. Where is everyone?’
‘Gone to Thalassia for brunch.’
‘You’ve seen them this morning?’
‘Nah, I’ve only just got up. The Wicked Stepmother left a note. Why, didn’t they ask you?’
A flush creeps up my neck. ‘I…I slept in. Dominic probably didn’t want to wake me.’
‘Right.’ Willow looks me up and down and raises an eyebrow. ‘If you say so.’
My gaze drifts down to my dirty dress and bloodied feet. I look like something the cat dragged in. My cheeks burn.
‘If that’s all, I have some business to attend to,’ she says. ‘So if you don’t mind?’ She nods at the door and I step back to let her pass.
‘Willow, wait. Is your dad OK? After, you know.’ I touch my jaw. ‘Only there was a tea towel with blood on it in the living room.’
‘I used it to mop him up. Dominic knocked out one of his teeth.’
‘Oh my God, I didn’t realise!’
‘He’ll live.’ She sighs. ‘Look, I know he was wrong to hit on you, but he’s basically harmless. He just doesn’t know when to stop.’ Her expression softens. ‘Why don’t you go back to bed. You look knackered.’
I nod gratefully and trail along the hallway to our room, where I shower in record time and sink into bed. In seconds I’ve fallen into a dreamless sleep.
When I wake, it is to the sound of voices outside. I check my phone. It’s almost four in the afternoon and I’ve been asleep half the day. Rubbing my eyes, I shuffle over to the window and look down. Dom, Simone, Barney and Victoria are on the terrace, making inroads into a bottle of rosé. I brush my hair, pull on shorts and a T-shirt and go down to join them.
Dom jumps out of his chair. ‘There you are, sleepyhead. Willow said you went up for a nap.’
I look at him blankly. He’s acting as if last night’s argument never happened. As if I didn’t storm off into the dark and stay out till this morning. I want to ask him why he’s being like this, but I can’t, not in front of the others. It’ll have to wait. Instead, I ask, a little petulantly, ‘Where have you been?’
‘We caught the first sea taxi over to Thalassia and had brunch in a taverna on the quayside. Simone’s idea.’ He smiles at her and my heart twists painfully as I remember his blunt warning.Don’t ask me to choose.
‘Dom said not to wake you. Said you needed your beauty sleep.’ Simone tosses her perfect bob and holds out an empty glass. By rights, she should be looking as rough as me, but she’s as fresh as a daisy. How does she manage it? ‘Are you joining us?’ she asks, indicating the bottle.
The thought of more alcohol makes the contents of my stomach curdle. I sit, pour myself a tumbler of water from the jug on the table instead, and let the conversation drift over me.
Simone, Dominic and Victoria are reminiscing about the time they caught the ferry to Dublin to celebrate the end of their finals and Dominic had to rescue Simone from an amorous local who was determined to give her a taste of good old Irish craic.
‘That’scraic, spelt C-R-A-I-C,’ Simone says to me, as if the only crack I’m likely to have come across is the cocaine variety.
Barney barely says a word, even when Victoria, whose eyes are hidden behind her huge sunglasses, makes the occasional dig at him.
Finally, he downs his wine and addresses me. ‘Where’s Felix?’
I feel a flicker of disquiet. ‘He didn’t go with you?’
‘He did not. Is he in his study?’ he says, pushing back his chair. He has the air of a man tasked with solving world peace before teatime.
‘I…I don’t think so. I haven’t seen him at all today.’
