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‘We are here. Madam? Madam, we are here.’
Holly could hear the voice, yet it took her a moment to realise it was talking to her. Even when she opened her eyes and saw the taxi driver staring straight at her did it take her a moment to recall what had happened.
‘Where are we?’ She sat up and wiped the side of her mouth in case a stray spool of dribble had escaped while she was sleeping. ‘This isn’t the marina.’
The effects of the sleep were clouding her thoughts, and as she looked out of the window at the white-brick building, all her brain could process was that she wasn’t at the marina with Giles where she needed to be. A second later, and she realised where she was.
‘The villa? Why are we at the villa? We should be at the marina.’ Her pulse soared.
The driver frowned. ‘You didn’t ask to go to the marina.’
‘I didn’t?’ Holly tried to remember what she had said to him before she’d fallen asleep, only to realise she hadn’t said anything at all.
‘This is where I came before, yes? With the suitcase?’
‘It is. Only…’
‘Only?’
She buried her head in her hands.
‘It’s fine. Here is fine. I can walk from here.’ Even as she said the words, she wasn’t 100 per cent sure they were true given that she had been on the Vespa the previous time she’d made the journey. But it couldn’t be that hard. It was just a case of following the coast.
‘It will take you a very long time,’ the driver insisted. ‘I will take you.’
‘It’s fine. It’s not like I have anywhere else to be.’
With her body feeling like a dead weight, she stepped out of the taxi.
‘Madam, here.’ He handed her a card with his number on. ‘I will finish around ten. If you would like to get a drink, maybe? I know some good places?’
‘Really?’ Holly laughed, then looked at the card again. ‘Maybe I’ll call you,’ she said.
Holly’s body experienced a strange sense of disassociation as she stood in front of the large doors of the villa, watching the taxi drive off. At some point, she would have to ring home, though she wasn’t sure who she wanted to call to tell of her disaster. Jamie would get Fin involved, who would try to contact Evan, and that was the last thing she wanted. And she could hardly explain to her mum that she had gone off chasing a man her mother had never met. It would fall to Caroline again; what was a best friend for, after all?
With one more look at the double doors, she let out a sigh and turned back to the driveway.
‘Excuse me, can I help you?’ Holly spun around in shock, only to find that the door to the house was still closed. ‘Holly?’
She looked up. Evan was standing there on the balcony, a towelling dressing gown draped over his swim shorts.
‘Evan?’
‘What are you doing here? You had a plane to catch.’
‘What areyoudoing here? They said you’d got a helicopter. I went to Monaco.’
‘You went to Monaco? Why?’
She was shouting up to him, not sure if he was questioning her because he didn’t understand or because he simply couldn’t hear her.
‘I went to Monaco to find you.’
‘You did? But I thought…’
Holly was looking up at the balcony as she spoke, squinting against the bright sun that gleamed behind him. Her heart throbbed.
‘Actually, do you mind if I come up? Or you come down? It’s pretty hard to talk this like this.’
