AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘It’s not that I don’t want you to meet him. The problem is, he isn’t in Cambridge at the moment. He skipped town.’
‘Huh?’
‘He left me a note to say he’s gone away for a few days. Something about a guest house and wanting to return to somewhere called Suffolk, for old times’ sake.’ Tarek had a thought. ‘Do you think it’s got something to do with—’
‘Did you just say a guest house in Suffolk?’
Tarek nodded. ‘The Guest House at Shingle Cove.’
Freya stared at him. ‘Run that by me again.’
Tarek put the spoon down and reached inside his coat pocket. ‘Look, this is the note.’ He slid it across the table.
Freya didn’t know why he was showing her the note. She couldn’t speak Arabic, let alone read it, although it was something she’d very much love to learn.
Tarek caught her expression. ‘It’s in English.’
‘What is it?’ he asked, seeing the look of surprise on her face when she’d read it.
Freya bit her bottom lip, an idea forming in her mind. ‘How would you like to go on a road trip? See a different county in England?’
He looked at her quizzically. ‘Are you talking about goingthere?’ His finger stabbed the piece of paper in front of her.
She nodded.
‘You can’t wait to meet him – can you?’
Freya pursed her lips. Wasn’t this the perfect excuse to get away and visit that guest house? Of all the places – what a coincidence! What was really on Freya’s mind was finding that woman called Wendy. She gave Tarek a sideways glance. Of course, it had nothing to do with also finding an excuse to spend more time with Tarek.
Chapter 30
‘You know you’re going to have to lie to your boyfriend, don’t you?’
Freya frowned at Jolene. ‘What do you mean?’
‘You can’t very well turn round and say,by the way, I’m going to stay in a guest house on the Suffolk Coast with Tarek.’
Freya and Tarek had returned from their lunch break – late. But Freya hadn’t cared about that. She couldn’t wait to tell Jolene what she’d discovered at lunch – that Tarek’s father was staying in the very guest house from where the woman called Wendy had phoned her dad – and that she was going there with Tarek to meet his father. She knew very well she could wait until Tarek’s father returned to Cambridge to meet him, but it was a perfect excuse to go there and find out about Wendy.
‘Too perfect,’ commented Jolene after she’d told her all this. ‘What if Theo finds out?’
‘How can he? I’m going to tell him I’m going with you.’
Jolene scratched her head. ‘What if he sees me in Cambridge?’
Freya cocked her head to one side. ‘Last time I checked, Theo doesn’t visit any museums, and certainly doesn’t frequent gay bars.’
Jolene grinned. ‘I should hope not. He’s the last person I’d want to see on a night out.’
Freya bit her lip.
Jolene offered her a sly grin. ‘I bet he’d say the same thing about me.’
Freya looked sheepish. It was so true. Her best friend and her boyfriend had nothing in common. They barely tolerated one another. It made Freya wonder what she had in common with Theo herself, apart from the fact that they’d met at a wedding and had fancied each other, and had then moved in together. Was that a solid basis for a long-term relationship? Why was she even wondering that? It had never crossed her mind before.Not until I met Tarek, she thought.
Her parents came to mind, and the woman called Wendy with whom her father might, or might not, have had an affair. It made her wonder about relationships. She’d heard it said that there was someone out there for everyone, that each person has a soulmate. But that didn’t mean your soulmate would be the person you ended up marrying. What if you didn’t even realise the person you were with wasn’tthe oneuntil that person came along?
Jolene eyed her friend. ‘What are you thinking about?’ She caught Freya casting a furtive glance in Tarek’s direction. Jolene rolled her eyes. ‘Okay, I guess I should say,whoare you thinking about?’
